Houston, Texas, the energy capital of the world, and home to more than 5,000 energy related firms, is where SURGE was born. Over the last 90 days, SURGE companies have focused on solving the world’s energy problems by using software to disrupt the energy business.

Alas, these energy startups were ready to present their companies this week to a dynamic crowd assembled at the House of Blues in downtown Houston. And the Space Cowboys from the Rackspace Startup Program were there to witness SURGE Demo Day.

“Some of these companies will change the energy technology landscape as we know it. We’re not sure which ones, but many of them are destined to be game changers,” said Blair Garrou of DFJ Mercury and a SURGE co-founder in his opening remarks. Kirk Coburn, co-founder of SURGE, followed with “radically disruptive ideas are why we launched SURGE. Entrepreneurs are the innovators and energy is our greatest challenge and our biggest opportunity.”

Here are the companies that were born out of the inaugural class at SURGE Accelerator in Houston, Texas:

ActualSun: Business information for the solar industry

Established: Houston, Texas/Portugal

A web-based, intelligent software platform where owners of multiple solar power plants can independently manage, compare and market their entire portfolio of assets, allowing for reduced operating costs, increased asset performance and improved decision making.

Advanced Seismic: The App Store for geophysical technology and cloud computing

Established: Houston, Texas

Connects people to geophysical technology, data and the cloud through its APP marketplace and OASIS Desktop platform. Customers can search, sample and evaluate technologies and only pay for the output results. Scientists can build Apps and get paid every time a company uses the technology.

drillMap: Google Maps for energy intelligence

Established: Austin, Texas

Offers online access to multiple datasets specific to the petroleum industry using a revolutionary visualization and report building application. drillMap allows customers to visualize all data, no matter the source, in seconds rather days; on any device; anywhere.

FuelMiner: Makes trucks intelligent

Established: Minneapolis, Minnesota

A turnkey hardware and cloud-based software solution for real-time optimization of vehicle fleets. Using FuelMiner, fleets can save up to $15,000 per truck per year in fuel costs and double their profits.

Lowfoot: Mint.com for your electricity bill

Established: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Providing a free web-based analytics platform that allows consumers and small businesses to be rewarded for conserving energy through monitoring of smart meter data on a social media platform.

Molecule: Quickbooks for energy trading

Established: Houston, Texas

An easy-to-use, cloud-based trading system that includes deal capture, risk analytics and more. Molecule helps users, producers and marketers of energy commodities understand and manage their risk without the pain and expense of implementing a traditional ETRM system.

Pinnacle: RedHat for the SmartGrid

Established: The Woodlands, Texas/Boston, Massachusetts

This system allows utilities to maximize their investments in the SmartGrid. Pinnacle integrates back office applications with the new communications networks, data sources, business transactions and capabilities of new generation of SmartGrid devices without costly upgrades or customization.

Revokom: An opinionated communication platform for asset intensive industries

Established: Denver, Colorado/Chile

Puts the asset at the center of the discussion. Users don´t talk about the asset, they talk to the asset. Developed for asset intensive industries such as oil and gas and mining, Revokom allows relevant team members and service providers to share asset activity information in near real-time in a secure fashion.

Snugg Home: Salesforce.com meets Lending Tree for energy efficiency contractors

Established: Boulder, Colorado

Providing intuitive, easy to use SaaS tools that allow residential contractors to offer homeowners energy efficiency upgrades. Homeowners can enjoy increased comfort and 20 percent to 75 percent energy savings.

Tune Energy: Concierge service for retail electricity

Established: Palo Alto, California

Offers homeowners a subscription concierge service that bundles wholesale-priced electricity.

Congratulations to the SURGE inaugural class of 2012! These companies are now part of the prestigious TechStars family and ready to take on the energy vertical. And the Rackspace Startup Program was there to help the companies build their businesses on a world-class cloud computing platform. Drop the Space Cowboys a note and let us know if you need any help facilitating the dream of your startup from ideation to implementation!

PAST

In six years, we have grown with our customers and learned a lot. Like any other new and innovative product in the market, Cloud Sites had its growth challenges. We want to thank all of our customers for not only sticking with us, but also for helping us evolve the product into what it is today. Currently more than 400,000 sites that handle more than 500 billion web requests per year reside on Cloud Sites. Altogether, this makes Cloud Sites one of the largest web properties in the world! Take a look at the numbers in the Cloud Sites infographic.

PRESENT

Even after six years we know there is so much more to achieve. We are laser-focused on customer feedback and very excited about the future of Cloud Sites. Here’s a recap of some of the things that we have done over the last few months:

• We retired our first data center and migrated to a state-of-the-art facility with an improved infrastructure, resulting in better throughput, uptime and performance for customers’ websites. And we did this while continually delivering 99.9 percent uptime. This boost helps Cloud Sites customers, such as gdgt.com, when they expect a traffic onslaught.
• PHP 5.3 was launched in early April and .NET 4.0 was made available through the control panel.
• We improved DNS management in the control panel, including support for TXT, SRV and AAAA records.
• MySQL administration tools were updated.
• We made reliability improvements in the provisioning process
• All newly provisioned MySQL databases in Cloud Sites are now MySQL 5.1. You can utilize the latest benefits and security updates.
• MS SQL 2012 databases have also been released on Cloud Sites. Customers can enjoy the newest capabilities and benefits from MS SQL. Users can continue to deploy MS SQL 2008 until August 30th.

FUTURE

Cloud Sites has evolved over time, fueled by customer needs, technologies and market trends. And that evolution will continue.

You will see regular releases of features and updates that will add value to your hosting experience. We are excited to share some of the many upcoming features and changes that will be coming soon. Here’s a peek into things that you can expect in the near future:

• Cloud Databases will be an optional feature that Cloud Sites customers who require a high-performance and more configurable database hosting technology can consume. This feature is expected to launch in Q3 2012 and will be handled on the Rackspace ServiceNet network.
• MySQL 5.0 Migration – Customers can choose to self-migrate to 5.1 today. After August 31, users who have not migrated will be automatically migrated during a scheduled maintenance window.

Reference the MySQL migration document for more information.

• PHP 5.2 will be removed as a technology option in June, and all sites will be migrated to PHP 5.3 beginning on July 31.  Please ensure that your application or CMS solution is running the latest PHP 5.3 compatible version to avoid issues in this migration. Customers can seamlessly self-migrate to PHP 5.3 by selecting the PHP 5.3 technology option from the Features page of the control panel. We highly encourage users to do this before automated migrations begin in August.
• PHP 5.4 is expected to be available in Q3.
• .NET4.5 is expected to be available in Q4.
• The Control Panel will continually be updated to make the site creation and management process more seamless.

We see an even brighter future for the Cloud Sites product. Thank you for your dedication to Cloud Sites and for all of your feedback. Please continue to let us know what more you would like to see in the product through our product feedback forum.

We are very excited for the future of Cloud Sites. Keep an eye out for even more changes to come!

Want to read more about Cloud Sites and how it came to be? Check out our Cloud Founders series, where we interview Rackspace cloud founders Jonathan Bryce and Todd Morey about Cloud Sites’ beginnings.

“The Anatomy Of An Attack really walks you through some of the methods attackers use. What it tries to highlight is that an attacker goes through several processes of discovery,” said Tam Vu, senior solutions architect with Alert Logic, a cloud Security-as-a-Service and managed security provider and Rackspace partner. Alert Logic sponsored the Anatomy Of An Attack infographic.

According to Tam, the attack methods showcased may seem benign on the surface, but if one is exploited, the affects could be damaging. The question then becomes: how do you protect yourself and be better aware of what’s going on?

Tam said it’s imperative to protect your environment. Through tools, technology and awareness, organizations become proactive about security, instead of reactive, meaning they can know about and thwart a potential security issue before any damage is done.

Rackspace currently uses Alert Logic Threat Manager and offers it to customers as part of its enterprise security portfolio. Threat Manger is a cloud-powered vulnerability assessment and intrusion detection offering delivered via SaaS. It gives users the ability to defend and protect systems against internal and external threats.

Tam said security issues can have in impact regardless of company size – from the largest enterprise to the smallest SMB. And getting a security plan in place early on is key to avoiding an incident.

“Security tends to be an afterthought,” he said, “and it doesn’t get a focus until an incident has happened. And by then it’s too late.”

The fallout from an attack – data loss, negative PR and other pitfalls – are incredibly damaging to a company and its reputation.

“The correct philosophy should be to take a proactive approach,” Tam said. “And we’re taking complex security challenges and delivering it in a model where it’s easy for customers to reap the benefits.”

Rackspace is Alert Logic’s oldest service provider partner, and with Alert Logic Threat Manager, Rackspace offers customers intrusion detection and vulnerability assessments that allow customers to find vulnerabilities in their environment while also taking advantage of a patented seven-factor threat modeling scenario that monitors traffic to identify attacks.

On top of that managed service, Alert Logic offers its 24×7 security operations center staffed by certified analysts that look at every security incident adding expert validation and ruling out false positives.

Our new SharePoint Tuesday events are virtual open forums that give you access to amazing thought leaders in the Microsoft SharePoint arena. SharePoint Tuesday isn’t a typical webinar series. There are no set topics of discussion. Instead, each week we give you an hour to jump online and ask your specific questions to a team of experts. No SharePoint questions are refused!

In Episode No. 2 (May 22) Microsoft MVPs Shane Young and Todd Klindt answer questions from participants on a host different SharePoint subjects including:

• How Office 365 will affect administration work
• 404 pages in a SharePoint farm
• Resources for SharePoint 2010 and SSRS and more.

Download the SharePoint Tuesday episode No. 2 mp3 or watch the flash video from May 22, 2012 and we hope you can join us for the next SharePoint Tuesday session on June 5 from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. CST.

StreamyCloud is the first 100 percent cloud-based platform with a fully integrated suite of software capable of capturing video and audio from any webcam, fire wire, TV tuner or USB connected device. Using proprietary MPRO software encoding technology to deliver live video streams to the many formats and data rates required to distribute live video over the internet via HTTP, StreamyCloud delivers to any screen, any device or any platform. It’s the next generation in distributed architecture with vastly increased storage capabilities, which enables just about anyone to capture and record to the cloud, broadcast live from the cloud and store on-demand content in the cloud.

Founded in Houston, Molabtvx (TVX), parent company of StreamyCloud, began research and development in 2009, creating the MPRO alpha prototype. “We began marketing the StreamyCloud turn-key cloud-based service to broadcasters in 2010 and are currently conducting proof of concept trails with service providers, operators and device manufacturers,” explains Nat Pham, COO of StreamyCloud. “We’re in the process of securing Series A round funding, which will allow us to launch strategic implementation that will give rise to a formidable media conglomerate. The ultimate result of the (TVX) vision will yield the first true and only cloud-base end-to-end platform and service destination for entertainment serving and viewing audiences.”

StreamyCloud’s hybrid broadcast architecture and proprietary software enables rapid, large scale digitalization implementation across devices, platforms and applications. Distribution of streaming data without the need for large amounts of network resources and specialized hardware is enabled through a seamless integration to Rackspace Cloud Files supported by Akamai-enabled infrastructure. Rather than deploying your multimedia files on a streaming server, you simply host your multimedia files in cloud file storage. The StreamyCloud content delivery method can be used for both live and on-demand multimedia content.

“By the summer of 2012 the StreamyCloud platform launch and deployment goes live with a world class service that empowers trusted TV and media broadcast network partners to operate StreamyCloud’s hybrid broadcast media cloud-system integration for on-premise or managed private cloud deployment,” concludes Pham. “Local, national and global viewers and broadcasters will be able to access the worldwide market of digital content to create and distribute live and on-demand broadcasts served from the cloud through a dynamic HTTP link accessible across any devices across mobile, game console, desktop and connected TV platforms.”

Are you an entrepreneur involved in a startup venture? Would you like to focus solely on creating value for your users and customers, and not spend a lot of time worrying about the hosting platform behind the scenes? Want to know more about how the Rackspace Startup Program can help you launch your business and let Rackspace manage your cloud? Contact the Space Cowboys today.

Digital organizer: Inside the email interface, you’ll find a place to access the company directory and your individual contacts; view and update your calendar; and manage tasks. These functions work hand in hand with email to create calendar entries from email invites, create group email messages from your contacts list and automatically turn an email to an item on your task list. Other features like Scheduling Assistant, resource sharing and social network integration help to further centralize and streamline common business activities.

Anywhere access: Your level of responsiveness can be the difference between gaining or missing out on new business. Being able to instantly receive and act on an email message gives you an edge. Exchange empowers instant access so that when an email is sent to you, it’s immediately pushed to your desktop, laptop, tablet or other mobile phone. Layer BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) or Active Sync service to automatically sync messages, plus your calendar, contacts and more to iPhone, Android or BlackBerry platforms.

Admin control: Hosted Exchange gives admins an intuitive management interface to launch tasks that can take days in an onsite environment. For example, you can add multiple Hosted Exchange users in minutes. An onsite deployment may require buying more licenses, adding hardware and installing security software. In addition, permissions, security, storage and mobile access are all point-and-click jobs in the control panel instead of nightmares troubleshooting directories, mobile server integration and access control.

Only at Rackspace: Hosted Exchange customers at Rackspace get a free 250MB SharePoint site. Integrate SharePoint with Exchange and Office programs to create workspaces to foster collaboration, manage large team projects and store and share company documentation. It’s a free opportunity to test out how SharePoint works for your business and enables company-wide communication.

Watch this short video for more ways Hosted Exchange goes beyond email to support business users’ needs. Learn more about Hosted Exchange at Rackspace and sign up for a free trial to explore it for yourself.

SharePoint As An Enterprise Search Engine
According to research, organizations are wasting 10 percent of their time just searching for files. Today users are accustomed to looking for information in Google or Bing so the idea of using a search engine to find content in SharePoint is very familiar. When a user enters a search term, SharePoint’s search engine will look for the most relevant content based on that term and present those results back to the user. And SharePoint search isn’t just limited to SharePoint content. Users can search content inside or outside of SharePoint. Out of the box, SharePoint search provides a ton of value for organizations just by helping users find the content they are seeking with only minor configuration required. For companies with more specific needs, custom search solutions can be built to fit your specific business needs.

SharePoint As A Social Platform
Social has become so intertwined with all aspects of business. SharePoint’s social features make it possible for you to collaborate in many different ways.  There are many common social features that users would expect like blogs, wikis and discussion lists. But that’s just scratching the surface. Users can also do things like rate a document or add tags to a document to help users discover the most valuable content.

Being able to use SharePoint’s search engine is extremely powerful, but what if you aren’t sure what exactly you are looking for? Most people will ask a friend or colleague and SharePoint’s social capabilities make it easy for you to find and contact the right people to help you with whatever your problem might be. The best part is that SharePoint’s social capabilities are so integrated with the rest of the product’s competencies it is possible to build powerful custom solutions that can take collaboration to an entirely new level.

SharePoint As A Public-Facing Website
SharePoint is well known as an enterprise collaboration tool, but it’s also gaining popularity as a platform for a growing number of public-facing websites. Just about any design you can dream up can be implemented in SharePoint. There are tons of great examples of beautiful websites out on the Internet that are running on SharePoint – and the number is increasing every day! Although SharePoint brings much more to the table than just being able to deliver a pretty site – it is also an enterprise web content management (WCM) platform that enables users to take control of their content and publish it to their users in a controlled way making it easier to manage their site.

Not exactly what you’d think of SharePoint for, right? That’s part of why we’re so passionate about SharePoint. There are so many possible use cases for SharePoint and we’re excited to help you find and deploy the right mix of features and functionality to get the most out of your SharePoint investment. The SharePoint team at Rackspace knows the ins and outs of SharePoint and has helped thousands of customers stand up and tailor SharePoint for very broad use cases and for highly complex, customized solutions.

Join us on LinkedIn to ask questions and learn about some cool ways to get involved like SharePoint Tuesday.

Click here to watch my video on Google+ discussing the principals of backing up WordPress. 

To make sure that your backups are current, I suggest you install a plugin. Having a backup plugin will make sure that you perform your backups on a regular, automatic basis instead of relying on yourself to remember to do manual backups. There are a few plugins that do this really well.

BackWPup is a free backup plugin that will backup both your files and database content, or you could opt for the premium plugin called Backup Buddy to backup both components. Both Backup Buddy and BackWPup can send your backups off to Rackspace Cloud Files for storage in case you need to retrieve them in the future. Another plugin that has become very popular is called VaultPress, which is run by Automattic, the same guys who run WordPress.com.

If your site is compromised or your server fails, it is important to have a backup. By installing a backup plugin, you can have peace of mind that you have a record of your site that you can restore from.

For the next several weeks, Matt will be providing tips and tricks for WordPress. Last week, Matt talked about how you can integrate a Content Delivery Network (CDN) with your WordPress site. Be sure to check back next week when he explains the importance of updating your WordPress site.

Feature set: Because most free email services cater to casual users for personal use, the feature set isn’t made to support business users. For example, some free email services lack tools like a calendar or a task manager, which are essential features for business users. Without these functions in email, business may have to tap other systems to fill the gap. With more systems, come more passwords to remember and more wasted time moving from one program to the next.

Distracting interface: Free email services need a revenue source to keep the lights on, thus they are notoriously full of ads and distractions meant to pull the user away from the inbox to shopping or other offers. Some services even use your browsing activity to send you emails that they’ve determined you’d be interested in. When used for business purposes, the time lost on these distractions – clicking and deleting spam or browsing one of those irresistible ads – can add up to lost dollars. True business email keeps the focus on business without distractions or “selected offers” popping up on the screen or in the inbox.

No support: Free email providers aren’t bound by service level agreements or financial penalties. They are under no obligation to provide support or be available when you have a problem. That could leave you and your team without your most important means of communication for hours or days, not only affecting productivity, but also the trust of your customers and your business’ reputation. Business email providers understand the importance of email to business and include guarantees with financial consequences for downtime plus multiple  options.

Find out about more ways email impacts productivity in the following video then download the whitepaper The Real Cost of “Free” Email Services or get tools to help you make the right choice about email.

Qloudstat, a Rackspace Cloud Tools partner, is changing the way users look at web analytics by making the service simple to enable and effortless to consume. Qloudstat has taken Rackspace’s basic and massive CDN logs and turned them into easy to understand graphics and customizable charts. Qloudstat has even made all of the data exportable to common formats and applications.

These are my personal favorites…

See where your end users are coming from:

See peak performance times:

Pricing for Qloudstat is easy: it’s a flat, per-month fee based on your usage, with five tiers to choose from. There is even a free tier! Prices are quoted in Euro, but U.S. customers can leverage the latest conversion rates.

For more information on Qloudstat and how to get started, just visit Qloudstat.com, or feel free to ask your questions here. Let us know what you think!