This is a wonderful opportunity for the area, however I am a tad bit resentful about the remark that it is a bad side of town. The decline in businesses in the area are due to the growth of Universal City, Schertz, and Selma, the Forum area, not because of crime. Walmart closed because it opened a new location on Austin Hwy, I would assume their reasoning for the closure was not to have two Walmarts so close together. Target closed because of the one that opened at the Forum. The "decline" in the area was due to the great boom in the housing market that enticed people (who couldn't afford the houses) to move to the north central areas of town (Stone Oak, 281, Sonterra areas). Unfortunately, it opened the doorway for low cost housing, which the county is not allowing anymore. I do hope for the best when your company is settled in, it is a great opportunity for yourselves and for the area that has been in "decline for the last fifteen years." It is great to see the mall being put to good use, it holds so many childhood memories. As one who grew up on this side of town, it makes me proud to be from the North East side. Many blessings to the Rackspace Family.

wow Im so happy wow Im so happy 0 0

These companies have a deep insight into what possible future holds for them if they take risks in such type of investments. As seen by Rackspace's example, high risk = high ROI

I am very familiar with this area. I was a counselor at Roosevelt H.S. right next to Windsor Park Mall ( Rack Space) from 91-95. It was a fabulous area that unfortunately went through some growing pains. I am currently a realtor at King Realtors, and I can tell you the homes in that area may be dated, but are solid with a lot of space and potential. It use to be filled with quite a bit of military, and Roosevelt was one of the top schools in North East. The school had now aquired the status of a tech school which I think is pretty awesome being next door to you. Remember that at one time Windsor Park was the cream of the cream area in SA, and personally I feel it can (will) be again due to Rack Space moving into the area. Thank you Rack Space for giving a new breath to the area. Sincerely, Kathy Ripps

Thanks for the great videos, however could you please either provide a download link or move to a decent host. It is simply unbearable trying to watch your videos while they stop and start every 5 seconds.

The comment that this project is in a bad part of San Antonio is false. I am from San Antonio. It is an area that was depressed but if you spend the time to look at the crime statistics you will find that the area has less crime than most other parts of San Antonio. The crime it has is minor. The stats speak for itself. This area had a stigma because of a few isolated public incidents but the perception is not reality. The City of Windcrest is a great little community. People take pride in their homes and property and the police force is the best. They do not put up with anything and they patrol constantly around the clock. Better not speed. Now that the mall property and the surrounding property that I believe will be developed fairly soon is in Windcrest you will see an even safer and friendlier area than most of San Antonio. It will also be a lot less expensive and eventually nicer and safer than areas such as even Alamo Heights which is overrated. Crime happens just as much in Alamo Heights you just do not hear about it. See for yourself. I will be the first to buy a home/condo or investment property in Windcrest next to the mall as it will do nothing but increase in value. Growth potential and upside for this area is far greater than any others. In fact go look in the Windcrest neighborhoods as homeowners are already renovating and updating their older homes and taking pride in beautifying the area. It has already started. If you are a Rackspace employee, Windcrest would be your best investment because that investment will do nothing but go up unlike other areas of the city that have reached its peak.

Thank you Rackspace for being such a pioneer!

yo, your videos dont play in linux flash-- should host elsewhere

great interview, The funniest section was when they showed all three of you guys standing there wearing hard hats and dirk is sporting open toe sandals.

I quite enjoyed a lot of what was talked about in this, especially the discussion of leadership (convincing 1,400 people) at 33:00.

I have a suggestion, though. I wanted to share that section beginning at 33:00 with a friend who would have no interest in the rest of the interview, but in sending him the link, he essentially has to wait for the whole video to load before he can watch that closing clip (and he doesn't have blazing fast speeds). Would it be feasible to either break your interviews up into themed or timed segments, or to use a loading scheme such as Google Video in that you can drag the progress bar anywhere along the timeline and it will start loading from that point on?

I see this as being beneficial in a few ways.
1) you're using less bandwidth if someone is just loading it for a particular discussion that is pertinent to them
2) you're making it easier for people to share what you're creating here -- great, relevant content
3) while I recognize that you have a target demographic and my friend doesn't fall into that, by allowing segments of the content to be easily shared, you're increasing the visibility of FastCompany.tv and the conversation around it, and that friend of mine will think about passing the content on to people that might actually be in your target audience.

Cheers!

Wow - very cool report - coverting a mall into a data center - crazy :-)

Great video, Robert!

Just was wondering - are you sure these are the correct tags for this video/post?

The download of this video reminds me of 28.8K modem days. If you are going for big video files get a host that can bring the data to me without this 100's irritating stops.

I'd like to know the actual deal between RackSpace and the city. Such a huge building/space for such a business : should be some win/win there.

Thanks for the Vid. I also appreciated the look into the RackSpace people. They really seem like good people.

Great video, nice to see a company with a forward thinking leader, recycling, lowering energy requirements, etc. Awesome video quality, it looks great at full screen. However, this might be one of the slowest downloads I've experienced in the past few years. It looks like twistage.com is the CDN used for the video and Data Return is the hosting company. Perhaps fastcompany.tv needs to move its hosting to Rackspace?

Absolutely Amazing! My time as a racker are some of the best memories I have. Amazing company and amazing people. I am so proud to have been a part of it all.

Great interview. Been a RackSpace customer for years and I absolutely love their people and their business. It's great to know there are companies with strong leaders that want to revitalize communities as well as grow their business. Great job all around.

more. more. more.

Nice Tour. It would be cool for you to go back in a year or so and show the transition. Now get a camera inside Google's Datacenter for us to see. :)

T-30 days until I move my desk right under that big skylight. Rack On! Very good, objective interview, Robert.

Interesting video. Wayyyy to long - You need to chapter I would have watched more.