Liam Eagle: LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

We didn’t set out to address a specific theme with our October 2008 issue, but in setting out to address what we considered to be several of the big issues of the moment, our thinking gathered around a distinct theme.

Those issues included, first, how the growing interest of outside investment is affecting attitudes and objectives within the hosting business, and second, how trading publicly has affected the appearance of Rackspace, to investors and to others in the hosting business.

That distinct theme is the idea that whatever enabled the hosting businesses’ prevailing attitude to remain so entrepreneurial for so long has receded in recent years.

Major injections of capital, via private investment, outright acquisition or IPO, are the current reality in the hosting business, and understandably, hosting providers are approaching that reality as an opportunity.

In a feature on outside investment in hosting, Dennis McCafferty examines how that investment, real and potential, is affecting policy making among hosting executives – including those at the companies acquired, and those at companies starting to operate their businesses with an eye to being acquired.

In a feature on Rackspace’s IPO, I examine how Rackspace’s new face as publicly traded hosting company has created a transition for the company from a kind of theoretical ambassador of the hosting business to one of just a few direct representatives of hosting to the investment community.

While it wasn’t necessarily the original objective, it has certainly become my hope that in assembling this issue we’ve developed an interesting cross-section of the hosting community, examining broadly the impact of investor interest.