Rackspace Hosting And Akamai Partner To Optimize The Cloud

Rackspace Hosting has inked a strategic partnership with Akamai Technologies, potentially optimizing and accelerating cloud hosted services. On the backend, Akamai’s code will enable Rackspace to both secure and speed up their Cloud Files storage tool. And for customers and partners, Rackspace will be reselling Akamai’s site and application acceleration products.

According to the official press release, the integration of Akamai into Rackspace’s cloud offerings are to address four key needs for enterprises and cloud service providers: latency, availability, scalability and security. Essentially, the concept behind the Akamai solution hinges on routing application and web requests to the closest of their 77,000 servers, reducing lag and improving overall performance while cushioning the server from attack and high usage alike.

As for the Rackspace Cloud Files enhancements: Akamai’s feature set enables for CNAMEs, SSL connections, and CDN delivery. And all of the customers who buy Akamai acceleration and optimization services from Rackspace are backed up by the latter’s trademark Fanatical Support.

This is the second major new offering-enhancing technology to hit Rackspace Hosting in as many weeks, though their CloudKick functionality was obtained by acquisition, not partnership.

Needless to say, Rackspace Hosting is a major cloud player in the IT world and we’ll be keeping tabs on them through 2011.

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