Cloud Hosting

Rackspace today introduced its next generation of cloud servers, powered by the open source OpenStack software it co-founded.

Logo courtesy of Rackspace.

In addition to offering compute, storage and networking cloud services, Rackspaces Next Generation Cloud Servers also support the OpenStack API.

Karthik Ram, director of engineering at the cloud-based server automation firm ScaleXtreme, said: Were impressed with the speed and performance of Rackspace Next Generation Cloud Servers. The API is remarkably reliable and we can be comfortable with its stability thanks to its OpenStack heritage, Ram said. This may be one of the first Infrastructure-as-a-Service offerings to take full advantage of the power of open standards and were excited to be using it.

The open era of the cloud is a reality, Lanham Napier, CEO of Rackspace, said in a statement. Were drawing a line in the sand against proprietary cloud providers.

Rackspaces Vice President of Product, Mark Interrante, said today in a blog post the company had helped develop the software with input from users via a beta program.

Interrante also touted the open model. Openness is key to the Rackspace Cloud and we give customers the power to choose our public cloud, or leverage it in their own data centers, he said.

Rackspace CTO John Engates talks about the new OpenStack-based Rackspace Cloud in this video:

Rackspace says there is currently limited availability for the OpenStack cloud.

Have your say: With IBM, RedHat and others all supporting OpenStack, has the open clouds day come? What do you make of Rackspace joining the party? Is its Fanatical Support and managed-service levels a big deal for your cloud plans?

Follow this link:
Rackspace Rolls Out OpenStack Cloud Servers