Rackspace Looks to Boost OpenStack Adoption
OpenStack pioneer Rackspace has moved to boost enterprise adoption of the cloud operating system with this week's release of a managed private cloud service that can be installed in a variety of datacenter settings.
Also this week, the cloud provider along with OpenStack developers announced new servers, server specifications and the latest release of OpenStack deployment software.
Rackspace (NYSE: RAX) said Thursday (April 7) the managed private cloud service integrates software, hardware and services for private clouds hosted in a customer's datacenter, a third-party facility or a Rackspace datacenter. The managed service also includes computing, networking and storage.
The goal is to allow more enterprises to run OpenStack private clouds in their datacenters without the operational hassles. The offering addresses complaints that OpenStack has so far proven difficult to implement.
Rackspace CTO John Engates noted that the new service "extends OpenStack and our managed services capabilities on the private cloud side beyond the walls of a Rackspace datacenter into…customer-premises facilities."
The cloud provider said it initially developed the OpenStack managed service capability for an early customer and, based on growing demand for help in deploying OpenStack deployment, decided to extend the capability as a managed service package. "There is a talent gap in the industry in terms of the barriers to adoption of OpenStack," according to Rackspace engineering director Ryan Yard. "They need a partner to help them."
The company also asserts that deploying OpenStack as a managed service in any datacenter will help cut IT operations costs through reduced software licensing and the freeing up of other resources.
The managed service allows customers to deploy a production-ready OpenStack private cloud designed by Rackspace in the datacenter of their choice. Rackspace manages the full deployment of an integrated modular rack of hardware, software and OpenStack services such as networking.
The cloud provider said its OpenStack private cloud service is available now for installation in customers' datacenters or co-located facilities.
Separately this week, OpenStack developers released the latest version of its Mitaka open source software used to deploy and scale cloud platforms. As with other OpenStack tools, developers stressed that Mitaka would help ease cloud management via upgrades like simplified configuration of computing services.
Meanwhile, Rackspace and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG, GOOGL) announced this week they are collaborating on the new server spec based on OpenStack along with the Open Power Foundation and Open Compute Project (OCP) form factor. The server architecture based on Power9 chips will be submitted as candidate specification to OCP.
Rackspace also said its "Barreleye" server has been readied for datacenter deployment. The company said availability of the new server should ramp up throughout this year, with the initial application expected to be on the Rackspace public cloud running on OpenStack. The OCP accepted the Barreleye spec in February.
