RightScale, Rackspace Expand Cloud Partnership

Expanding their strategic relationship, RightScale and Rackspace announced that RightScale cloud management is now integrated with the Rackspace Open Cloud powered by OpenStack and RightScale's cloud management platform will support Rackspace Open Cloud products.

The two cloud companies have been working together for quite a while, but this move deepens their partnership. RightScale has been working with Rackspace since the cloud management platform first went multi-cloud in 2008. The announcement today is also a big win for OpenStack in general. RightScale support for Rackspace Open Cloud will provide integration with a suite of Rackspace Public Cloud services - including Cloud Servers, Cloud Databases, Cloud Block Storage Cloud Networks – as well as Rackspace Private Cloud.

There are two key points about the news: RightScale is supporting Rackspace’s next generation cloud, and RightScale is backing a reference configuration of OpenStack for private clouds. That second point is bigger than you would imagine. “The interest level has been unprecedented,” said Josh Fraser, Senior Vice President of Sales and Business Development for RightScale. “The challenge OpenStack customers have found is that there’s been no clear reference configuration that has been consistent. This brings consistency."

"This is the reference configuration that makes sense. We expect quite a bit of acceleration,” added Scott Sanchez, Director of Strategy, Rackspace Private Cloud.

One of the challenges with OpenStack customers is that there are still a lot of question marks as to how they should deploy. "RightScale cloud management provides a key solution to customers who need simplicity in running hybrid cloud environments," said Jim Curry, general manager of Rackspace’s Private Cloud Business. "With RightScale's cloud management and Rackspace's Fanatical Support customers can focus more on managing their business while we manage their cloud. With so many ways to build and deploy OpenStack-powered clouds we are excited that RightScale has selected Rackspace as their recommended choice."

“With this strategic partnership, now both the public and private based cloud offering is on same technology, and it’s managed the same way,” said Fraser. The strategic partnership means having full support from RightScale for both of those platforms, which means enterprises can manage through a single pane of glass, allowing a purpose-built cloud.

“Enterprises aren’t thinking ‘public cloud’- It’s never been about just one cloud," Fraser added. RightScale says it sees 87 percent of compute under management come from multi-cloud usage.

The two companies say that the joint solution is an ideal fit for start-ups innovating on new technologies, independent software vendors looking for a reliable solution on which to build their software as a service offerings, and enterprise IT organizations looking for agility and efficiency, among other use cases. In other words, it’s ideal for a major chunk of the market, but notably, it’s an OpenStack play for the enterprise.

“Enterprise interest in OpenStack continues to increase," said Michael Crandell, CEO at RightScale. "This agreement ensures that RightScale customers have an open cloud alternative that aligns with the OpenStack trunk code base and minimizes proprietary extensions. Rackspace has been very forward thinking with their open cloud initiatives and we applaud that. RightScale focuses on offering our customers the ability to easily and more successfully deploy on the cloud, and so does Rackspace with their world-renowned 'Fanatical Support' – critical elements for the adoption and growth of cloud.”