Rackspace Hosting®, the service leader in cloud computing, today announced that Suaad Sait has been named Chief Marketing Officer. In the newly created role, Sait will oversee global marketing.

Suaad Sait, Chief Marketing Officer (Photo: Business Wire)

Suaad Sait, Chief Marketing Officer (Photo: Business Wire)

"Having worked in the technology industry for more than 20 years, I am honored to be a member of the leadership team at a market leading company like Rackspace," Sait said. "Cloud computing is the future, and Rackspace has the advantage of being on bleeding edge. I look forward to strengthening our presence in the marketplace, based on our longstanding commitment to Fanatical Support."

"Suaad brings years of marketing expertise to our team and is a great addition to the talent we already have," said Lew Moorman, Rackspace president. "Having worked with technology companies large and small, Suaad truly knows our current and prospective customers which will be crucial to helping us craft compelling offers to meet their ever changing needs. Suaad's marketing agenda will help us clearly articulate the power of Fanatical Support in the Cloud."

Prior to joining Rackspace, Sait, 44, was founder and CEO of Reachforce, a venture-backed b2b marketing-data services startup, which he continues to serve as chairman of the board. Before his time at Reachforce, Sait held leadership roles in a variety of companies, from startups to larger, public companies. His positions included:

-- Vice president and general manger of products and marketing at Pervasive (NASDAQ: PVSW)

-- Founding vice president of marketing at Ventix Systems, later acquired by Motive Communications (MOTV)

-- CMO for Liaison Technology, which was later sold to Forest Express

-- Head of internet product marketing for DAZEL which was acquired by Hewlett Packard

Sait earned his BS in electrical and computer engineering from State University of New York at Buffalo, and his MS in Business Administration from the University of Rochester.

About Rackspace

Rackspace Hosting (NYSE: RAX) is the service leader in cloud computing, and a founder of OpenStack?, an open source cloud operating system. The San Antonio-based company provides Fanatical Support® to its customers and partners, across a portfolio of IT services, including Managed Hosting and Cloud Computing. Rackspace has been recognized by Bloomberg BusinessWeek as a Top 100 Performing Technology Company and was featured on Fortune's list of 100 Best Companies to Work For. The company was also positioned in the Leaders Quadrant by Gartner Inc. in the "2010 Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure as a Service and Web Hosting." For more information, visit www.rackspace.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If such risks or uncertainties materialize or such assumptions prove incorrect, the results of Rackspace could differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including any statements concerning anticipated operational and financial benefits from Rackspace strategies related to additions or changes in leadership, the success of leadership transition, company growth or success of new operational initiatives, any statements of expectation or belief; and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include the integration and effectiveness of new leadership into the Rackspace culture and business operations, instability or downturns in the economy, the effectiveness of managing company growth, infrastructure failures and other risks that are described in Rackspace Hosting's Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2011, filed with the SEC on November 9, 2011. Except as required by law, Rackspace Hosting assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements publicly, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=50130499&lang=en

Rackspace Hosting
Natalie Silva, 210-312-1673
Natalie.silva@rackspace.com