Rackspace extends on-premise VMware environments

Rackspace Hosting® has announced a new offering for its Rackspace® Managed Virtualization service, Dedicated VMware vCenter Server, that will provide managed support for single-tenant VMware vCenter Servers. With Dedicated VMware vCenter Server, enterprise customers can migrate existing VMware workloads out of their on-premise data centre into a Rackspace data centre, while leveraging existing tools to maintain the control and agility they require. The new service helps accelerate customers’ journey to hybrid cloud computing, leveraging the reliability of Rackspace, all backed by Fanatical Support.

The Rackspace hosted VMware environment will look and feel like an extension of the customer’s own data centre by leveraging the same vCenter APIs utilised by their existing tools. Specifically, customers maintain control and management capabilities through the use of dedicated vCenter Servers, vCenter APIs, compatible third-party tools, and their existing service catalogues, orchestration platforms and portals. Customers can utilise their familiar orchestration tools to conveniently provision virtual machines (VMs) in minutes, while providing visibility into costs and usage whether on or off premise through a single user interface.

Rackspace hosts one of the largest VMware environments and operates the largest OpenStack-based cloud. With Rackspace’s significant expertise in cloud and managed hosting, a 100 percent network uptime guarantee, and Fanatical Support, enterprise customers can trust their hybrid cloud infrastructure, backed by an extensive service level agreement.

“This new service has been designed to enable customers to migrate workloads out of their data centre and into a Rackspace data centre. This allows Rackspace to do what we do best, which is providing a fully managed hybrid cloud hosting service backed by Fanatical Support with maximum uptime,” said John Engates, CTO at Rackspace. “Utilising Rackspace’s hybrid cloud portfolio gives customers the choice to find the best fit for their applications and workloads, all while offloading data centre management so that they can focus on their core business.”

Rackspace provides a full portfolio of hybrid hosting services including bare-metal Dedicated Servers, servers virtualised by VMware, and both Public and Private Cloud services powered by OpenStack. This gives customers the flexibility and choice to optimise their application portfolio, by providing a best-fit infrastructure approach to each application.

“Rackspace has taken another step toward addressing a diverse array of customer needs by expanding its service portfolio with Dedicated VMware vCenter Server. This new offering adds depth to the current managed virtualisation lineup, enabling customers to augment their on-site VMware deployments with Rackspace-managed private VMware environments in Rackspace data centres," said Melanie Posey, Research VP at IDC. “Rackspace runs one of the largest VMware environments, in addition to operating the largest OpenStack-based cloud, giving the infrastructure support expertise to help its customers on their journey to the hybrid cloud."