Rackspace Rolls Out Managed Database Service for AWS

Rackspace is introducing a new service designed to make it easier for customers to take advantage of Amazon Web Services’ suite of cloud-based data services, including its Aurora relational database and Redshift data warehouse offerings.

Rackspace this week unveiled Managed Database Services for AWS, part of the company’s larger strategy of helping enterprises in their ongoing digital initiatives, including managing the massive amounts of data that are being generated and need to be collected, stored, processed and analyzed. The strategy includes making it easier for them to adopt public cloud services, according to Ven Shanmugam, general manager of Rackspace Managed Services for AWS.

Rackspace’s Ven Shanmugam

“We’ve seen really strong growth in our Managed Public Cloud business and a considerable amount of this is from growth in customers using AWS data and database platforms,” Shanmugam told Channel Futures. “It’s not surprising, as we know Aurora is one of the fastest growing products in AWS history. Our goal is to provide customers more expertise and management in the areas where there is complexity — and data, managing that data, and operating these intricate services is essential for our customers’ success.”

Rackspace’s new service will give businesses access to the company’s expertise in AWS’ various data and database services, he said. Many organizations have the desire to leverage cloud services from AWS and others, but lack the in-house resources and skills.

The rise of cloud computing, ongoing proliferation of smart, connected devices, increasing mobility and the emergence of such technologies as analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning are fueling the massive growth of data. Cisco predicts that annual global IP traffic will grow from 1.5 zettabytes in 2017 to 4.8 ZB in 2022, growing at an annual rate of 26 percent. Being able to collect and analyze the data in almost real time will help enterprises make better business decision, improve operations and save money.

Public cloud providers like AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and IBM Cloud offer a broad array of database and data-management services. Microsoft and IBM historically have had strong and deep relationships with enterprises and have carried those over into the cloud; however, most organizations migrating to the cloud are using more than one provider and, according to Shanmugam, Rackspace is seeing a growing number of enterprises leveraging AWS services.

“We have thousands of AWS accounts that we manage at Rackspace,” he said. “Over the course of the past 18 months, we’ve seen a strong uptick in enterprise customers coming to us for help, not just managing a workload, but providing next-generation services.”

Rackspace is an AWS Partner Network Premier Consulting Partner, but has similar relationships with other cloud providers, such as Microsoft and Google.

Through the new database service for AWS, Rackspace is offering such capabilities as …

… full life-cycle management to help customers migrate, manage and optimize data through AWS. Enhanced analytics support AWS data and business -ntelligence management services while supporting the analytics in the AWS cloud. Through modular pricing, Rackspace customers can choose to use only the services they need and can create customized solutions as they use AWS data services.

Along with Aurora and Redshift, Rackspace says its database offering will make it easier for customers to adopt AWS Glue, a managed ETL (extract, transform and load) service that helps companies prepare and load their data for analytics; and Amazon Athena, a serverless query services for analyzing data in Amazon S3 using standard SQL.

Organizations have multiple needs they’re trying to address as they migrate workloads and data to the cloud, from management and analytics to security, Shanmugam said.

“With a lot of customers, they’re migrating to AWS and using it for the first time, so getting their application ready and working with a managed database service like Aurora is a new challenge,” he said. “With this new service, we’ll be able to extend our management all the way to the database itself, so if there are problems with how the database is structured or queries are written, we can help customers there, too.”