Rackspace increases cloud datacentre space

Rackspace Hosting is expanding its datacentre space to help manage its growing cloud computing business.

Instead of building new datacentres it is leasing wholesale datacentre space through partner Digital Realty. Rackspace said the extra capacity will improve its business continuity and disaster recovery offering.

"We hired an additional 300 UK staff in 2012 and increased our total server count by more than 10,000 over the same period," said Taylor Rhodes, Rackspace international managing director. "Our customers are aligning their IT functions to take advantage of the cloud and I am pleased to be able to move forward with an expanded datacentre."

Rackspace has signed up to support the building of up to 10-megawatts of extra leased UK datacenter space, with a strategic construction plan designed to bring a total of five "data halls" online in stages.

Rackspace has worked to similar wholesale leasing arrangements in Virginia, Chicago and Dallas in the US and Sydney.

At the turn of the year Rackspace announced new capabilities for database hosting and management.