SAN ANTONIO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Enterprise IT departments can now realize the benefits of Rackspace(r) Cloud in their own datacenters with Rackspace Cloud: Private Edition, an OpenStack-powered cloud backed by Rackspace (NYSE: RAX) managed services and operational support. Rackspace will help enterprises run private clouds in production, relying on a unique knowledge of OpenStack(tm) and experience operating one of the world's largest clouds. This experience also drove the Rackspace Cloud: Private Edition reference architecture, which the company is publishing today in a continued commitment to openness and to help ensure compatibility and interoperability in the industry.
"Rackspace’s success is based on providing Fanatical Support to its customers, and Rackspace Cloud: Private Edition will extend this support model to our customer's datacenters,” said Jim Curry, General Manager of Rackspace Cloud Builders. “The customer maintains more control, with no software license fees or technology lock-in, and they can now rely on one company for public, private, and hybrid cloud management regardless of location."
Rackspace Cloud: Private Edition is a new open approach for enterprise IT departments looking to build production clouds with OpenStack, by leveraging open source software, published reference architectures, certified deployment partners and ongoing help running the cloud from Rackspace. More than just basic server virtualization, Rackspace Cloud: Private Edition offers compelling features that are generally available on the public cloud, such as instant provisioning through a self-service portal for employees, API access for developers and admin control panels to set quotas and manage usage, which can all be available in a qualified datacenter of the customer's choosing.
"We chose OpenStack as the infrastructure to power our commerce platform because it is flexible, scalable and best meets the needs of our broad application developer community," said Neal Sample, CTO X.commerce. "Working with Rackspace to build X.commerce on OpenStack was an easy decision, because our open source philosophies are well-aligned, they are core contributors to the OpenStack project and have a depth of knowledge in hosting and cloud computing."
A growing network of certified deployment partners, including Cloud Technology Partners (cloudTP), MomentumSI, and TeamSun, can build the clouds using the reference architecture in the customer’s datacenter of choice, including key Equinix International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data centers worldwide. The initial design is based on proven OpenStack software configurations and hardware from Cisco and Dell, and is expected to be expanded in 2012 to include additional technology options. Additionally, an ecosystem of Technology Partners are announcing support today including Opscode and RightScale.
"OpenStack is quickly gaining interest from our customers and its benefits will continue to be realized as more private clouds come online that are compatible with OpenStack-powered public clouds," said Lew Tucker, CTO, Cloud Computing, Cisco. "We are pleased to see Rackspace include Cisco in its reference architecture for an OpenStack cloud and believe this will continue to drive the industry forward."
By adopting OpenStack, enterprises gain a powerful and flexible cloud orchestration layer, access to future upgrades, and compatibility with OpenStack public clouds everywhere. As part of Rackspace Cloud: Private Edition, Rackspace will support the OpenStack cloud orchestration layer 24x7x365, with these Managed Services for OpenStack:
- OpenStack updates and version upgrades performed by Rackspace
- Performance tuning to run your cloud optimally
- Analyze system issues and develop fixes for OpenStack bugs
- Apply security patches and hot fixes
- Escalation support for cloud operations or engineering questions (to engineers or developers depending on the issue)
- OpenStack training for developers and system administrators
To learn more about the Rackspace Cloud: Private Edition visit: http://rackspace.com/cloud/private-edition.
Supporting Quotes:
"Cloud Technology Partners is delighted to have been invited to join the Rackspace Cloud: Private Edition™ Ecosystem," said Chris Greendale, Co-Founder and CEO, Cloud Technology Partners™ (cloudTP™). "Our experience tells us the market will embrace this solution as OpenStack is rapidly becoming a de facto standard. The private cloud integration and support components from Rackspace and cloudTP create a trusted, compelling alternative to existing proprietary solutions."
“Rackspace Cloud: Private Edition is an example of a pattern that we believe will dominate enterprise cloud transformations: Private cloud as the entry point to a hybrid cloud strategy that eventually spans both public and private options,” said Jeff Schneider, CEO of MomentumSI. “We’re pleased to support this Rackspace initiative with our delivery expertise, which we believe is a prerequisite to a successful cloud transformation.”
“Teamsun Technology is looking forward to partnering with Rackspace to provide one of the most promising Cloud Computing solutions to our customers,” said Yi Deng, Senior Vice President of Teamsun Technology. “As China's leading integrated IT service provider and top player in Cloud computing, we will also strive to make invaluable contributions to the Rackspace Cloud: Private Edition ecosystem.”
“The launch of the Rackspace Cloud: Private Edition is another important indicator of the rising demand for cloud computing among businesses of all sizes,” said Jesse Robbins, Cofounder and Chief Community Officer at Opscode. “This partnership with Rackspace underscores the critical role that Opscode’s Chef serves to quickly and easily deploy and operate large-scale cloud infrastructure.”
“We welcome this news from Rackspace which creates a comprehensive cloud computing solution for customers and brings their trademark ‘Fanatical Support’ and expertise to the private cloud space. RightScale has been a long-time Rackspace partner and we're eager to support our joint customers by bringing them the RightScale 'single pane of glass' cloud management for their Rackspace public and private clouds,” said Michael Crandell, CEO of RightScale.
“Equinix is pleased to be a data center provider of choice for Rackspace Cloud: Private Edition. Customers deploying private clouds will be able to leverage our global reach and highly optimized network environments to deliver superior performance and flexibility to end users from all Equinix markets,” said Vince DiMemmo, general manager, global cloud and IT services for Equinix.
“Enterprise IT departments now have another great choice in private cloud with the new Rackspace Cloud: Private Edition,” said Mark Linebaugh, VP Next Generation Compute Solutions at Dell. “As one of the first cloud solution providers to join the OpenStack community, we’re excited to be a part of it. Rackspace pushed us for the lowest total cost of ownership and the PowerEdge C6105 server, our most power-efficient server for cloud workloads, provides the right mix of performance and efficiency so they can keep costs down.”
About Rackspace Hosting
Rackspace Hosting is the service leader in cloud computing, and a founder of OpenStack, an open source cloud operating system. The San Antonio-based company provides Fanatical Support® to its customers, across a portfolio of IT services, including Managed Hosting and Cloud Computing. Rackspace has been recognized by Bloomberg BusinessWeek as a Top 100 Performing Technology Company and was featured on Fortune’s list of 100 Best Companies to Work For. The company was also positioned in the Leaders Quadrant by Gartner Inc. in the “2010 Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure as a Service and Web Hosting.” For more information, visit www.rackspace.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If such risks or uncertainties materialize or such assumptions prove incorrect, the results of Rackspace Hosting could differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including any statements concerning expected development, performance or market acceptance associated with Rackspace services and products, including Rackspace Cloud: Private Edition; anticipated operational and financial benefits from Rackspace services and products, including Rackspace Cloud: Private Edition; any statements of expectation or belief; and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions including the possibility that expected benefits from Rackspace Cloud: Private Edition may not materialize because this product is not generally accepted in the marketplace, which could occur due to certain factors including (i) a failure to market the product cost effectively, differentiate the product from competitive products or communicate differentiations effectively, (ii) the reliability, security, quality or compatibility associated with the product, (iii) changes in technology which adversely affect the product's benefit, (iv) slowdowns in the general economy or technology industry that impact consumer spending habits, (v) internal strategy decisions that impact the product, (vi) the failure of our partners to adequately provide services supporting the Rackspace Cloud: Private Edition and (vii) other risks that are described in Rackspace Hosting's Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2011, filed with the SEC on August 8, 2011. Except as required by law, Rackspace Hosting assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements publicly, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.