With the Rackspace Cloud Visual Studio 2010 Plug-In, developers are fully aware of everything that is going on with their cloud server instances when they are developing or deploying an application, thus reducing overall complexity and errors by providing a layer of automation not possible without integration. The toolkit provides a new level of abstraction, making it easier and faster than ever for .NET developers to create and deploy applications to Cloud Servers for Windows. Additional application programming interface (API) features of the Rackspace Cloud Visual Studio 2010 Plug-In include the ability to:
http://tools.rackspacecloud.com/applications/rackspace-cloud-visual-studio-2010-plug-in
ZDNET Post:
Cloud hosting provider Rackspace rolled out on September 8 a new toolkit for customers who want to develop and deploy to its Cloud Servers for Windows service. The new tookit, known as the Rackspace Cloud Plug-In for Visual Studio 2010, was developed by Microsoft Gold partner Neudesic. Rackspace is touting the toolkit as reducing deployment and provisioning time for its hosted Windows servers, as well as providing users of those Windows servers with a single cloud-management portal.
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/rackspace-fills-out-its-windows-cloud-story/7318
www.cloudave.com Posting:
Today, Rackspace announced the release of Windows based Cloud Servers to compete with Amazon EC2 Windows instances and Windows Azure. According to Rackspace, the new service delivers a highly scalable environment ideal for Windows-based hosting, testing and developing applications and supporting the high levels of traffic required for launching online gaming platforms or the next social networking phenomenon. This was expected for a long time because they needed to have Windows based offerings in order to effectively compete with Amazon.
http://www.cloudave.com/61/rackspace-offers-windows-cloud-servers