The headline “Amazon, Rackspace Are Top Cloud Hosts” dates to August 3, 2009, but the surviving evidence does not establish that either company led the cloud-hosting market. The publisher’s archive places the story seventh among its ten most-read articles for August, a ranking by page views—not a ranking of cloud providers.
What the headline refers to
Data Center Knowledge published the story on August 3, 2009, according to its September 2009 archive roundup. That roundup lists ten August stories ranked by total page views and places “Amazon, Rackspace Are Top Cloud Hosts” seventh. It does not provide the individual page-view totals.
What “top” means—and does not mean
In the available archive, “top” describes the headline’s wording; the documented ranking describes readership of Data Center Knowledge articles. Seventh place in that list is not evidence that Amazon or Rackspace ranked seventh—or first—by cloud market share, performance, revenue, uptime, or another provider measure. The roundup supplies no comparative dataset or criteria for such a conclusion.
What the contemporary comment adds
A BitMason blog post from August 3, 2009 links to the Data Center Knowledge story and says, “Rackspace doing well against Amazin. Google AppEngine hasn’t gotten much traction.” This is the blog author’s informal commentary, not a measured comparison or a statement of the original article’s methodology. It gives no figures that would verify the relative standing of Amazon, Rackspace, or Google App Engine. Read the contemporaneous BitMason post.
Free tools Windows power users keep installed
One-click scans. No signup required.
#1 Best Overall
What can be concluded today
The available record supports a narrow historical conclusion: Data Center Knowledge ran the headline in 2009, and the story attracted enough readership to rank seventh in the site’s August page-view roundup. The original article and its underlying comparison are not available in the surviving sources cited here. Consequently, this headline cannot support a present-day provider recommendation or a current cloud-hosting league table.
Quick Recap
Rank #3
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.
