Industry Innovation Isn’t Limited to the Server Room

As members of the Internet Infrastructure Industry, we are often focused on the technical aspects of the business like hosting, servers, database centers, connectivity, server applications, etc. While those elements are vital and the main focus of our industry, innovation is not solely limited to the server room.

i2Coalition member Rackspace shows this sentiment in a recent New York Times article about how the Texas-based web hosting company is making a real impact in its local community. The piece discusses Rackspace Chairman and Co-founder Graham Weston’s vision to revitalize an abandoned shopping mall into the company’s new corporate headquarters. Congratulations to Rackspace on its ongoing commitment to innovative thinking.

Revitalizing a Dead Mall (Don’t Expect Shoppers)
 
Where others saw an abandoned shopping mall with weeds growing in the parking lot, graffiti on the walls and homeless men camping out in what was once the food court, Graham Weston, chairman and co-founder of Rackspace, a Web hosting company here, envisioned a corporate headquarters.

“I thought, This is going to be awesome!” the infectiously enthusiastic Mr. Weston said of his idea five years ago to move Rackspace’s operations to the defunct Windsor Park Mall in northeast San Antonio. “But everybody else pretty much thought I was crazy.”