Rackspace and Dell EMC Partner to Make Private Cloud Easier to Use

Rackspace is working with Dell EMC to offer a private cloud-as-a-service solution, according to an announcement on Monday at the OpenStack Summit in Boston. Rackspace said that it is the first step in an expanded relationship with Dell EMC where the partners will work to help make it easier to set up private clouds.

Customers will be able to combine Rackspace OpenStack Private Cloud with Dell EMC compute and storage solutions, according to the companies. Support for VMAX Hybrid, VMAX All Flash and Dell Servers will be provided initially, with support for Dell EMC ScaleIO forthcoming.

Even as some industry experts and researchers note that private cloud is losing steam as enterprises opt for workloads in the public cloud, the offering with Dell EMC will allow Rackspace to provide more options to its enterprise customers looking for a multi-cloud approach and tap demand for OpenStack. 

“Dell EMC is committed to providing customers with best in class solutions to simplify their OpenStack deployments while taking advantage of new innovations,”  Jay Snyder, SVP, Global Alliances, Industries and Service Providers at Dell EMC said in a statement. “One example of this commitment to OpenStack is our latest offering with Rackspace, one of a handful of our global Titanium partners which has unmatched experience in operating OpenStack clouds at scale. The ability to consume Rackspace® OpenStack Private Cloud as-a-Service coupled with Dell EMC compute and storage solutions brings enhanced best-in-class capabilities for customers looking to take advantage of the opportunities offered by private cloud.”

The news comes as Rackspace has announced that its CEO, Taylor Rhodes, will be leaving and Rackspace president Jeff Cotten will be stepping in as interim CEO. Last month, Rackspace launched Global Solutions and Services (GSS) to provide enterprises and mid-market firms with professional services.​

According to the announcement, the partners intend to lower the barrier to entry for private cloud, and provide the same elasticity of public cloud with security and performance benefits.

Rackspace’s private cloud can be deployed in a Rackspace data center, customer data center or third-party location.

“Rackspace has a unique track record of enabling customer success with private clouds by delivering OpenStack as-a-service and leveraging our operational expertise gained from more than one billion server hours managing OpenStack,” Scott Crenshaw, SVP and GM of OpenStack Private Cloud at Rackspace said. “This is why 451 Research has said that ‘Rackspace is the world’s leading OpenStack service provider.'”

“As a co-founder of OpenStack, Rackspace is committed to innovating OpenStack in a way that makes it easier for customers to consume and benefit from,” Crenshaw continued. “Our collaboration with Dell EMC will do just this, combining the best of Rackspace expertise and Dell EMC technologies to allow customers to consume an OpenStack private cloud in a way that is more flexible and removes barriers to entry. Our organizations look forward to sharing more updates later this year.”