Rackspace Comes to Australia...and Brings Our OpenStack Solution Too!

This week, Rackspace opened our latest data center in Australia.  You might think this marks our entry into the country, but we have actually been there for some time.  Throughout our history we have had a large number of Australian companies serving their customers and markets from our other data centers, and in particular in our Hong Kong facility.  In 2009, we setup a permanent team of Rackers in Australia to serve those customers lead by the awesome Mark Randall (@racker_randall).  With this investment, and the rollout of our cloud portfolio, the demand from the market for us to have a local data center rapidly grew; hence opening the new data center this week.

So what about Rackspace’s OpenStack offerings?

We support customers' OpenStack private clouds in any data center they want, not just in Rackspace facilities.  That means any facility, in any country, anywhere in the world.  When we launched our offer in late 2011, we immediately saw strong interest from companies and institutions in the Australian market.  Earlier this year we started helping Australian companies and institutions with OpenStack private clouds, and delivered our OpenStack training program to Aussies eager to get up to speed on the project.  The market response isn’t surprising given the strong presence of OpenStack in the market already.   Companies like Aptira and projects like NeCTAR have led the way.  We are now excited to up our presence in the country as well.

For Australians interested in having Rackspace support their OpenStack private cloud efforts, they now have several options:

1.     Download the Rackspace Private Cloud Software powered by OpenStack and deploy a real and fully open cloud within an hour.  It’s 100 percent open source, 100 percent based on community OpenStack and 100 percent free.  There is nothing to lock you into Rackspace or the software.  Use it on your own, or call us and add support.

2.     Deploy your Rackspace Private Cloud in our new Sydney data center later this year, and have us manage your entire infrastructure – your hardware, network, etc., in addition to your OpenStack cloud.  Learn what Fanatical Support is all about!

3.     Build a hybrid infrastructure – run in your DC and our DC.  And let Rackspace help you with all of it.

4.     Call us about private training on OpenStack, or look for public courses in Australia in the coming months.

I am thrilled to be making this commitment to the Australian market, and look forward to getting know the community there even better in the coming years.

Jim Curry

@jimcurry

Stand Up And Run A Rackspace Private Cloud In Less Than An Hour…For Free

Deploying a private cloud shouldn’t be so complex and expensive, or require a cloud expert to make it happen. In the two years since we founded OpenStack^®, one of our missions has been to create fast and easy ways for our customers to deploy a free OpenStack-based cloud wherever they choose.  And to do so not using a proprietary installer or version of OpenStack, but instead using the community bits themselves. In other words, we think it’s critical that the OpenStack community version be usable.

And today, with the launch of Rackspace Private Cloud Software powered by OpenStack (code-named “Alamo”), we’ve done just that. We’ve made it quick and easy to deploy an OpenStack-powered cloud anywhere with packaged and tested software that customers can download and install, that lets them run an OpenStack-based private cloud in minutes. The cloud is fully configured and ready to use either in your data center or in ours on gear hosted by us. And the best part: the software is free; you can rapidly spin up and use an OpenStack-based Rackspace Private Cloud – a cloud that runs the same software that Rackspace uses to power our public and private clouds — at no cost.

Alamo gives our customers what they’ve been asking for; a simple way to start using OpenStack today, without the added headache of having to worry about dozens of different configurations. They don’t need to be OpenStack or cloud experts. We’re giving them an open cloud environment that marries the speed and scalability of our OpenStack-based public cloud with the control and reliability of a private, dedicated cloud environment. It delivers on our promise to offer our customers the ability to deploy a cloud anywhere. It’s not a separate distribution so you don’t have to worry about a branching dead-end.

The Alamo software allows companies of any size to use our open cloud technology to leverage cloud computing in whatever environment they want. It rounds out the Rackspace open cloud portfolio: we now offer truly open public and private cloud solutions powered by OpenStack. Because it’s open, customers have choice and control without the risk of technology and vendor lock-in that comes with proprietary clouds and hefty software licenses.  It’s the easiest way to start using OpenStack.

And on top of Alamo we’re offering customers our award winning Fanatical Support, whether the cloud is in our data center or yours. Companies running the software have free access to support forums and can purchase Escalation Support, which includes 24×7 ticket and phone support, from Rackspace.

The configuration includes the Ubuntu 12.04 LTS host operating system, a KVM hypervisor and the 100 percent open source Essex release of OpenStack, which includes features such as Compute, Images, Authentication and Dashboard. To streamline the deployment, we have designed the installer for private clouds of up to 20 nodes. Our software provides a platform to begin using OpenStack quickly and then scale out resources to support a larger private cloud environment. This is a great opportunity to leverage Rackspace for cloud management best practices.

And this is just the beginning. In coming months you can expect tighter interoperability with our public cloud and more options for Fanatical Support in your private cloud environments. Future versions of the software will also tie into other OpenStack projects and deliver functionality, including better Management and Monitoring, Volume and Block Storage, Software Defined Networking, High Availability and integration with the new Rackspace Cloud Control Panel.

So download the software and get started with Alamo, Rackspace’s Private Cloud Software. We’re here to answer any questions you may have.