Rackspace Hosting (f/k/a RAX)

[ciciagt]

Cloud Computing with Lanham Napier of Rackspace Hosting
http://www.pbs.org/nbr/site/onair/transcripts/cloud_computing_110331/

excerpt:
HUDSON: Over the past few years I want to show Rackspace net income growth. You guys have put up these kind of growth numbers, double digits 50 percent last year. Will this kind of growth continue?

NAPIER: I think what you are seeing in the industry right now is that the cloud computing movement is literally in the early stages. Today was opening day of baseball season. We got a long season ahead of us. The same way with cloud computing. These are early adopter days, so yes, we expect the shift to continue for years.

HUDSON: Even better than a 50 percent net income growth we saw last year?

NAPIER: Well, we will certainly try our best.

HUDSON: OK. Electricity, a big cost for you though because you got to power all of that, all of the cloud, right. What are you finding for power prices?

NAPIER: Well, I think any time we are in an environment where commodity prices are rise, our expectation would be based on the fuel sources for the areas in which we operate. Those commodity prices would be reflected in power prices as well.

HUDSON: So are you finding cheap power out there? Where are you? Where are you looking to expand?

NAPIER: We're looking regionally in the U.S. on the east coast as well as the Pacific northwest.

HUDSON: And jobs come along with that expansion, I imagine.

NAPIER: That's correct. When we open a new facility we open jobs to run the facility.

HUDSON: I want to end with your stock price. It is just below an all- time high. It was at an all-time yesterday, up 128 percent in a year. Is that too fast do you think? Can you keep up with that?

NAPIER: I think what is happening in the marketplace right now is the investor community is starting to understand the magnitude of the cloud computing opportunity and the value of the company to truly create the service leader in the cloud. If you look at our company's performance, we have posted some good numbers and I just think the investor community is coming around to that.