The leader of hybrid clouding, RackSpace, has formed yet another collaboration. On 1 July 2013, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, CERN, announced that they would be collaborating with Rackspace to create a new architecture in clouding. By combining their technology, a more seamless way of communication between public clouds and private clouds will be developed.
CERN Openlab already implemented OpenStack for internal IT use and RackSpace is an important contributor to OpenStack. It is therefore no surprise that the two companies decided to join forces. By collaborating, RackSpace becomes part of CERN Openlab, joining other ICT companies such as Huawei, HP, Oracle and Intel. The impact of the collaboration for RackSpace will be that it is deployed into servers used for physics research. Jim Curry, Senior Vice President of RackSpace Private described the new beneficial relationship.
Through ongoing collaboration with CERN Openlab, we will broaden the global reach of our hybrid cloud solutions, while simultaneously helping to set the pace of innovation within the field of particle physics.
In the same interview, Tim Bell, infrastructure manager in the CERN information technology department, explained how the collaboration would help with accelerating their innovations. The benefit for CERN is the additional space that will be available to accommodate the excess workloads of the company.
We definitely see great value in open source technologies like OpenStack. They foster continuous technological improvements through community contributions, while also giving us the ability to quickly address challenges, such as massive scaling, by leveraging the work of others
It all began with a simple idea
RackSpace first started operating in 1998 and is now the host of more than 205 000 companies worldwide. Then they changed the history of cloud computing by creating the first hybrid cloud, powered by OpenStack. The hybrid cloud is a combination of public cloud, private cloud and dedicated bare metal computing that offers many advantages to companies. The hybrid cloud provides in the customer’s needs by being adjustable to fit their applications, instead of making your application fit to the cloud. Performance is optimized, security is increased and your cloud is more reliable. Along with the flexibility of the OpenStack platform, the ultimate end result is a reduction in costs. What motivated RackSpace to create the hybrid cloud?
The world needed this new kind of cloud. We needed it for our customers. So we created the world’s first hybrid cloud powered by OpenStack-which we founded-to go beyond the limits of one-size-fits-all public clouds, allowing anyone to build the precise infrastructure to meet their applications’ unique needs.
Collaboration with Cloudant
CERN is not the first collaboration in which RackSpace endeavored. In December 2012 the database service, Cloudant, joined forces with RackSpace. By joining the Cloud Tools program, developers using RackSpace can now use Cloudant as an application data layer through an interface that is scalable and easily managed. Directly after announcing the new Cloudant Data Layer, Cloudant announced that their NoSQL database as a server (DBaaS) will be available immediately across the RackSpace open cloud as a web and mobile application. These collections of database clusters are now low-latency and easy accessible dynamic data distribution. What do the customers think of the new collaboration? Chris Sharkey, Chief Technical Officer of Bislr, says the following:
As a Rackspace open cloud customer, Cloudant’s relationship with Rackspace brings us the best of both worlds: an infinitely flexible and scalable application data layer deployed on top of a cloud platform we already trust
Bislr works with web marketers of social websites and develops their creativity and productivity. When the developers work to their full potential, the web creation and management becomes modernised and more attractive to the end user. When numbers increase, revenue increases and the new business venture of RackSpace and Cloudant gave Bislr an application infrastructure that is flexible to grow as the company grows.
Pentaho joins the venture
By now RackStack is going from strength to strength. Companies are realizing the value of combining their product or service with a product that is in demand. Business intelligence and analytical provider, Pentaho, also decided to utilize the opportunity of combining intelligence, skills and services with the hybrid cloud masters. As the news breaks about RackSpace and CERN collaborating forces in July 2013, RackSpace also announces their collaboration with Pentaho. This collaboration is called RackSpace Big Data and is a Hadoop as a Service. This service will be for enterprises that have a need for cloud based data capabilities. Pentaho will use this venture to move their ETL capabilities, which is extraction, transformation and loading, to public and private cloud environments with dedicated managed servers.
With fewer barriers on RackSpace, Hadoop Integration and Analytics is more accessible to customers. They can adopt and deploy faster and provide a faster return on Investment. It comes down to the age old recipe for profit: less input in terms of labor and time and a bigger turnover due to faster output. For Pentaho it can only be a profitable venture and RackSpace gains even more exposure, the best marketing tool. Sean Anderson, Product Marketing Manager for cloud and big data services at RackSpace, is positive about the collaboration.
Pentaho Data Integration is all about easing adoption and enhancing utilization of Rackspace big data platforms, with native, easy-to-use data integration
Customers of Pentaho will now be able to bridge their analytical needs over the cloud with the benefit of the “pay as you consume” option. It offers the one big feature for which RackSpace is popular: growth possibilities, and combines it into an easy accessible platform.
Not the end of the road yet
RackSpace is not stopping at Pentaho. They are partnering with other companies in the Hadoop market. In 2012 the value of this market was $1.5 billion and will likely be worth over $13 billion by the year 2017. RackSpace combined their cloud platform with Hortonworks and Karmasphere. Hortonworks Data Platform will deliver open source Hadoop distribution and Karmasphere will be in delivering Hadoop based analytics.
RackSpace has become a force to be reckoned with and seems that if you do not get with the program, you will be left behind.
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