Ensuring the uptime of over 13,000 Cisco network devices spread across its extensive customer base, Rackspace Hosting recognized that it had outgrown its network management tools. The company required a new network monitoring solution that had deeper out-ofthe-box functionality, could meet its extreme scalability requirements and could be easily configured to address Rackspace’s unique environment.

In summer 2007, the company began to evaluate a number of network monitoring solutions. “Because network monitoring is so critical to our business, we took the time to assess the different solutions in great detail,” said Marty Meyers, global network operations manager at Rackspace. “What we discovered was that the proprietary solutions lacked the flexibility we required; we couldn’t get them to fit our unique environment.”