American Idol Online Votes Tallied By Rackspace

AKQA is one of the world’s leading suppliers of interactive marketing and digital solutions and have built a name for themselves by focusing on providing uniquely tailored experiences to all of their clients.

The company is well aware that all good marketing campaigns have the ability to either make an impact and get a brand noticed, or sink into anonymity. What differentiates these is the careful, well planned delivery of the campaign.

AKQA realised this nearly five years ago, and when they did, they began to look for just the right hosting partner.

Up until that point, they had a small team within the company, who took care of their hosting.

UK Technical Director for AKQA, Ben Jones, said that is was at this time when they realised they needed a hosting partner who could monitor the rapidly expanding hosting requirements 24/7, with a framework already established to support it.

Jones said that AKQA had never had any intention on focusing on hosting, or being a hosting specialist, but rather to devote themselves to the creation and implementation of digital solutions.

They did this for companies like Xbox, Microsoft, Nokia, Nike, Orange, Unilever, Sky, and Sainsbury’s.

Jones said that during this time AKQA investigated the hosting market, looking for a potential partner who could last a long time, and they found Rackspace.

AKQA and Rackspace have been teamed up for the past four years and both companies are reportedly happy with the collaboration.

Jones puts the success of the partnership down to there overriding philosophy, which has always been their connection to Fanatical Support (r).

AKQA has come to view Rackspace not as a provider or supplier, but rather an integral business partner and team member. Jones likened the partnership to that of Microsoft(r), Sun and Oracle(r).

Jones spoke of the results of the solid foundation the two companies have built. Rackspace now provide AKQA with custom content, from specifications and servers to firewalls and load balancing.

Rackspace works with some huge names in the industry, like 19 Entertainment, by recommending solutions appropriate to each company’s specific needs.

19 Entertainment is recognised world wide as one of the most ingenious and creative entertainment companies.

Founded 23 years ago by Simon Fuller, 19 Entertainment is responsible for the world’s largest T.V. franchise, the Pop Idol programmes, and careers of some of the biggest names in the industry, like David and Victoria Beckham.

Ben Jones spoke about the challenges presented when working with programmes such as American Idol Songwriter.

Creating a site that needed to stand up to a possible 2.5 million hits, concurrently, and keep accurate and timely tally of online votes wasn’t enough to shake Rackspace though, who implemented a burstable bandwidth for mass online traffic.

Rackspace are setting a new standard, with agreements which include a guarantee of 100% network uptime and faulty hardware replacement within 1-hour, and are fast becoming the most desired hosting partner for digital agencies in the U.K. and the U.S.

Jones said that Rackspace played a large part in AKQA attaining the number one spot in world digital agencies, because their service to AKQA was what AKQA’s client’s required of them.

Jones recommended Rackspace’s hosting services as the best choice for digital specialists.

Rackspace MD, Doug Loewe, spoke about the partnership with AKQA, saying that the company was more than happy to be partnered with the digital agency.

Loewe said that the four year strong collaboration was merely and indication of the quality of Rackspace’s service.

Tags: AKQA, rackspace

Category: Webhosting News