Monster cloud provider and MSP Rackspace, with some $1 billion in revenue, is expanding its cloud network and hoping to see this capacity used as services for partners to resell.
Part of Rackspace’s expansion is connecting the company’s existing network with its partners, creating a huge interoperable cloud.
This way, partners can either enhance their cloud offerings, or if the partner has no cloud services, launch them with the help of Rackspace.
IDC was briefed on the plan and sees it gaining partner traction. “Rackspace is developing its OpenStack based cloud technology that it uses in its own cloud into a commercially supported, packaged offering,” said Gary Chen, research manager for IDC's Cloud and Virtualization System Software. “Not every provider wants to or should build a cloud from scratch, and Rackspace's experience with cloud computing and this turnkey packaged cloud solution should be of interest to other providers.”
“IDC believes that a global federated service provider cloud network that allows creation of hybrid clouds with resources from multiple public providers could be a compelling solution for customers,” he added.
Rackspace can help partners launch services with:
- It’s OpenStack-based cloud software and hardware infrastructure.
- Marketing help
- Offering cloud services with more reach based on partner network interconnections. And by tapping into the partner networks, providers can achieve more efficient resource utilization.
- Infrastructure operations, such as monitoring, tuning and patching.
Rackspace’s new program is reportedly a response to partner requests.
“We have had interest from service providers on nearly every continent to extend Rackspace’s proven OpenStack powered public cloud solutions and expertise to their customers. It is important to broaden the adoption of open-source technologies through partners around the world,” said Lanham Napier, CEO for Rackspace. “The creation of this network allows for different providers, in different regions, with different service characteristics to link together to better serve the cloud users around the world with a fully interoperable global ‘cloud of clouds’. Rackspace is passionate about leading this charge and helping service providers capitalize on the expanded network to better serve their customers.”
Gartner Says...
Gartner recently released a report on managed hosting providers, and Rackspace made it into the coveted magic quadrant along with Savvis, Verizon, Terremark, and AT&T.
“Rackspace is the market share leader in pure-play managed hosting, and historically has grown significantly above the market average,” Gartner said.
Another strength? “Rackspace has a strong cultural focus on providing superior, high-touch customer service. It is typically an exceptionally responsive provider in both the sales process and day-to-day operations.”
Gartner also believes Rackspace makes economic sense, with prices lower that its competitors.
On the downside, “Rackspace does not have data center infrastructure further west in the U.S. than Texas. Customers looking to build Web applications should consider latency to West Coast users before deploying.”
Edited by
Braden Becker
