Rackspace Unveils VMware vCloud-Based Cloud Service

Rackspace (RAX) is clearly becoming more than an OpenStack company. The public and private cloud services provider has been expanding to include services based around Microsoft (MSFT) and Google (GOOG) clouds. It has now launched a private cloud service based on VMware (VMW)’s vCenter.

A V3.co.uk article noted the launch of Rackspace Dedicated VMware vCloud, which seems to follow the typical model that Rackspace has become famous for. It’s a fully managed and hosted private cloud offering. Aimed at the enterprise market, the private cloud offering is, of course, backed by Rackspace Fanatical Support.

Designed as a single-tenant, hosted private cloud, Dedicated VMware vCloud also comes with a 100 percent uptime guarantee, as well as a one-hour hardware replacement guarantee. Basically, Rackspace is providing customers with their own dedicated hardware infrastructure for a private cloud — something a little different from what VMware is offering with its own cloud services, such as vCloud Air.

According to Arrian Mehis, general manager of Rackspace’s VMware practice (who was quoted in the V3.co.uk article), Dedicated vCloud enables enterprise IT departments to free up time and resources to focus on other projects, allowing Rackspace to manage their private cloud.

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And with the single-tenant infrastructure, Rackspace is also looking to eliminate the “noisy neighbor” problem.

Considering Rackspace’s long history in cloud around OpenStack, its recent explorations of cloud and managed services around its competitors’ technologies are interesting. Some may wonder what Rackspace is up to and if it’s looking to move further away from OpenStack, but the company has strong cloud services around OpenStack. These new services around other cloud technologies are complementary to its OpenStack-based clouds, but they also open Rackspace up to new customer segments — particularly those interested in managed clouds but not in OpenStack.