Articles about Rackspace
Rackspace punts piscatorial Power platform at service providers
Freshly acquired hosting slinger Rackspace has built a custom-developed server based on IBM’s Power chips and the Open Compute Project (OCP) specifications.
The company hopes to flog it to service providers and enterprise customers looking for an alternative to x86 systems for high performance computing.
Known as Barreleye …
Is VMware starting to mean 'legacy'? Down and out in Las Vegas
VMworld
I love VMworld, as I do VMware. In the last few years VMworld has been “the IT show” if the infrastructure space is your thing. However, it is clear that something is changing and it is changing very quickly.
Dell-EMC deal
First of all, we are still in the middle of the Dell/EMC acquisition. This obviously doesn’t help; it …
Rackspace finds its $4.3bn sugar daddy
Cloud management provider Rackspace says that it will be going private in a deal that will pay shareholders $4.3bn.
Investment house Apollo Global Management says it will be paying $32 per share to buy out stakeholders and run Rackspace as a private company. Rackspace stock closed yesterday (prior to the announcement) at $30. …
HPE StoreVirtual gets low-cost ARM-powered variant
HPE has lowered prices for its SMB storage array customers by building an ARM-powered StoreVirtual array, eschewing X86 CPUs, and by bundling some previously optional components into an MSA 2042 product version.
The StoreVirtual 3200, which has a starting price of just over $6,000, has two active:active controllers with …
Rackspace CEO: Yes, Brexit has hit us, yes we sold our Cloud Sites biz
Rackspace execs confirmed the sale of its Cloud Sites hosting sub to Liquid Web but ignored the white elephant in the room that Apollo Global is reportedly in talks to slurp the entire organisation.
The private equity house might well end up taking Rackspace private again in a deal valued at up to $4bn, buying the company time …
ExaFlash: Cheap, dense, energy-sipper will 'empower humankind'
+Comment
Nimbus Data has announced its scale-out ExaFlash all-flash array at the Flash Memory Summit, with four models ranging up to 4.5PB raw capacity in 4U. The claims are pretty big and prompt the question: "Is this for real?"
Nimbus' overall claims for ExaFlash start from scale and rackspace density and ultimately encompass " …
Rackspace sale imminent?
Financial press are reporting that Rackspace is close to announcing a sale of some sort, probably to private equity outfits.
Rackspace floated the idea of allowing itself to be acquired in 2014, but decided against doing so after its new strategy to offer managed cloud services mostly worked.
Once a name to mention alongside …
What's Niu? No longer profitable, revenues down... but we're hiring!
Once-profitable managed services business Niu Solutions is now burning cash and CEO Shaun Ledgerwood reckons the company will take three years to get back in the black.
Based in Surrey, Niu Solutions flogs services to the retail and financial sectors, collecting monthly fees on contracts ranging from one to five years. …
Spectra Logic sits in the Cyberducking stool
Spectra has entered the Cyberduck universe; data stored in Spectra Logic's disk, tape and public cloud repositories can be transferred to/from other on-premises storage and public clouds with a BlackPearl Cyberduck plug-in.
Cyberduck is an open source software tool that provides a near-universal file/object transfer facility …
Over Ireland? Bothered by Brexit? Find that new home for your cloud
As we all know, the cloud isn't an amorphous, non-geographical blob of computing. Which is a good thing, because there are plenty of legal implications around where your data lives and where it moves both to and from.
The point is, of course, that as the cloud isn't just a cloud, your choice of provider is largely dependent on …
SolidFire's thin flash density eats more racks than HPE. What gives?
Analysis
NetApp's SolidFire arrays needs four times more rack space than HPE and EMC for equivalent amounts of flash storage. It has 1U hardware boxes and these appear to be limited in what capacity SSDs can be supported.
With SolidFire arrays being scale-out nodes, then low flash density per rack unit means you need more nodes to …
Rackspace email taps Scality
Rackspace has selected Scality's object storage for its email platform, which is powered by OX's IMAP server software Dovecot Pro.
Dovecot Pro is used on two-thirds of IMAP servers worldwide, we're told. It has an object storage plugin which connects with Scality's RING system. Rackspace becomes Scality's 100th customer.
Dan …
OpenStack's no science project, but does 'need to be glued together'
Interview
A year on from when Gartner asserted that OpenStack was a “science project”, The Register talked to the National Computing Infrastructure's Andrew Howard to see where one of Australia's biggest OpenStack deployments is at.
With 30 Petabytes of spinning rust in a 900 square metre data centre, participation in NECTAR, and …
Rackspace hit by outage
Rackspace's Hosted Exchange 2007 platform has been hit by an outage.
The problem began at 5am UK time and was flagged as a "system disruption" at the time of writing. One customer got in touch to report that no ETA of service resumption had yet been given. ®
Putting text-reading robots to work. Arthur_Caranta, CC BY-SA
Rackspace invites itself into your data centre
Rackspace will bring its cloud to you: the company has revealed a new offering whereby it will pour OpenStack into a box and run it from its own data centres, a third party's bit barn or your own premises.
On-premises clouds are all the rage at present: Microsoft's AzureStack is in preview and is winning support from the likes …
Power9: Google gives Intel a chip-flip migraine, IBM tries to lures big biz
OpenPower Summit
IBM's Power9 processor, due to arrive in the second half of next year, will have 24 cores, double that of today's Power8 chips, it emerged today.
Meanwhile, Google has gone public with its Power work – confirming it has ported many of its big-name web services to the architecture, and that rebuilding its stack for non-Intel …
Google in Power9 push
Google is building scale-out servers using IBM's Power9 microprocessors. It has ported a bunch of its software to Power, and its toolchain can build for the architecture by changing a flag.
Speaking at the OpenPower Summit in San Jose, California, today, Google engineering manager Maire Mahony said: "Compute technology …
Google, Rackspace to together unfurl DIY Power9 server designs
OpenPower Summit
Google and Rackspace are working together on blueprints for servers that use IBM’s Power9 processors. The designs will be shared publicly via the Open Compute Project, it is hoped.
The pair are due to announce their collaboration this week. The hardware will fit the 48V Open Compute racks Google is designing with Facebook. We’ …
One pane of glass to rule them all? Vanity – thy name is cloud management
Is it possible to achieve a single view of the cloud? The more cloud services that a company uses, the more complex it would seem to get. Maybe you use a bit of AWS here, some Azure there, and some Rackspace somewhere else. That might be complex enough, but add in your own on-premise cloud solutions and it gets even muddier. …
Pure Storage to punt out supersized FlashArray system
Pure Storage’s Accelerate event in San Francisco earlier this month previewed a coming high-end FlashArray//m system with more than three times the usable capacity of the current range-topping m70.
The new system will arrive later this year and give Pure a five box line-up, unless one of the current//m products is dropped.
A …
Good-on-paper FlashBlade: We've seen the hardware, we've touched the blades
Backstory
It's not vapourware, this scale-up Ethernet cluster-in-a-box that Pure calls FlashBlade, but it's sure not hurrying to market. Announced yesterday, March 14, it's expected to be generally available by the fourth quarter, although we understand Pure engineers could take until the end of the year to finally clear it for GA.
The …
Ever heard of 'multi-cloud'? Get with cool kids – it's the New Big Thing™
Comment
Hybrid cloud is so yesterday – multi-cloud is where it’s at. Spreading your cloud apps between different providers is now becoming a trend.
Four in five firms were using multi-cloud services last year, according to cloud firm RightScale.
Six in 10 UK companies used more than one provider, said Adapt a year earlier.
There are …
Newbie startup Tarmin shines up trendy secondary storage grid
Backgrounder
Startup Tarmin has developed an object storage system with a data management system layered on top to provide single and all-embracing access to an enterprise's secondary data.
The software is called GridBank and it stores data and derived matadata either in an on-premises grid of systems (X86 servers + DAS) and/or in the …
Like those independent DevOps vendors? They might not be for long...
Enjoy those scrappy IOT and DevOps startups while you can, as many will not be able to resist the siren call of cash rich traditional vendors or the stock market this year, 451 Research has predicted.
The analyst firm’s Tech M&A Outlook report has predicted “billions in investment” in a number of hotspot technology areas. This …
Ransomware scum add Joomla to their list
The Internet Storm Center (ISC) has spotted 'admedia attacks' breaking out of their original WordPress vectors.
According to a post late last week, the ISC (courtesy of author Brad Duncan) posted that “the group behind the WordPress 'admedia' campaign” is now attacking Joomla-hosted sites.
The other evolution in the campaign …
Israeli military techies cook up security alerts software
Lessons from building the threat intelligence platform for the Israeli Defence Force form the technical foundations of a new security startup called Siemplify.
Siemplify’s tech is designed to contextualise threat alerts from the disparate array of security technologies on enterprise networks (anti-malware, intrusion detection …
Growth comes with costs for cloud-support flinger Rackspace
Rackspace saw growth across most lines during its fourth quarter and year – alas, that also included costs, it has said.
Management also warned Rackspace watchers over an impending re-organisation in sales that would allow disrupt its current, first-quarter sales.
Worrying, too, is a slow-down in Rackspace’s native OpenStack …
You can leave your hat on, warbles Rackspace to OpenStack users
Rackspace has announced private-cloud-as-a-service running Red Hat's cut of OpenStack.
Rackspace's definition of “private cloud” is a little different. Most of the rest of the industry imagines the concept as pooling one's on-premises servers so that they behave more like a public cloud, complete with “give me a VM and give it …
SwiftStack's multi-modal 'we're so much better than you' FUD play
Comment
If you want a Swift-compliant object storage system, then SwiftStack is the best you you can get. So says, er, Swiftstack itself.
The Swift-compliant object storage startup told The Register this when it briefed us on how its open source software was different from, and better than, competing object storage products. …
EMC creates a Star Trek holodeck ... and uses it to simulate a data center
EMC can now simulate the interactions going on inside a data center using virtual servers.
A data center is one of the most complicated structures on the planet. However, this is not because it necessarily has more physical components than any other complex piece of infrastructure, like a petrochemical refinery for example. …
Walmart takes its DevOps platform and piles it high on GitHub
Walmart has delivered on low-price promise and taken a swipe at soon to be arch enemy – by serving its OneOps platform onto Github.
The massive grocer – which owns Asda in the UK – promised last year that it would open source the platform, which it is pitching as a way to avoid cloud vendor lock in. It duly announced yesterday …
dotCloud dotGone: Ex-Docker PaaS passes away amid bankruptcy
Platform-as-a-service upstart dotCloud will shut down next month after its parent Cloud Control filed for bankruptcy.
Just a few hours ago, an email was sent to dotCloud users warning them that the service will end on February 29, along with a link to instructions on how to migrate their data.
For those wondering if the …
OpenStack abandons AWS challenge dreams, makes eyes at telcos
OpenStack, once seen as the open alternative to Amazon’s AWS, is positioning itself as virtualized telecoms middleware.
The open-source project has rolled out a white paper championing Network Function Virtualisation (NFV) with backing from the big dogs of telecoms.
The report calls on developers to get involved with and help …
Kaminario salesmen will now be told why they're earning their dosh
Kaminario’s sales reps will now be able to know how and why they are being paid because a manual system to work out their compensation has been junked.
The reps sell a highly-automated K2 all-flash array to deliver blindingly fast data access to applications needing data.
Yet, when they filed their sales reports, there was a …
You want to migrate how much data?
Sooner or later, you’re going to have to move some of your data. Perhaps you’re moving to a hybrid cloud model, and need to move some offsite. Maybe it’s already out there in a third-party’s infrastructure, and the contract isn’t working out as you’d planned. Or perchance you’re being smart and replicating between two …
Tiering up: Our man struggles to make sense of the storage landscape
Comment
All is confusion. The old certainties are gone. New certainties just don’t exist. The shifting shapes, players, products and technologies in the storage landscape are seen through fog. How the heck does everything fit together?
After four days in Silicon Valley meeting startups the bewilderment ratio is even higher. It’s like …
Nuclear exploit kit seen chucking CryptoWall 4.0 at late patchers
The Nuclear exploit kit has been spotted throwing ransomware CryptoWall 4.0 at innocent netizens' machines, according to a security researcher Brad Duncan, who stated it is the first time he's noticed that particular nasty being distributed by an exploit kit.
While not as vicious a beast as Angler, the Nuclear kit remains …
Uncle Sam's IT bods find 2,000 data centers they FORGOT about
US government agencies are being called out by Congress after it was revealed that they are falling woefully short in data center consolidation efforts.
Earlier this month, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported that the number of data centers the American administration runs has gone up, in part because an …
Rackspace beats The Street with strong Q3
Rackspace topped analyst expectations for Q3, pulling in $509m revenue, up 10.7 on same time last year and net income of $37m or 26c a share.
Consensus analyst forecasts were 20c a share. Net margin was 7.2 per cent, up from 5.6 per cent in Q3, 2014. Shares climbed 8.3 per cent in after hours trading.
For the full year …
Quantum packs new StorNext hardware in a software glove
Quantum has given its StorNext file and data management product a hardware makeover, with faster Xcellis hardware taking up less rackspace than existing components.
StorNext provides access to a virtualised single repository with four tiers. It serves primary data from its drive array to users' workstations and applications …
Of OpenStack and Cloud Orchestrator
Tomorrow’s computing systems will extend from legacy hardware and applications inside the company, through to virtualized, API-friendly applications still on-premise in the data centre, and further out to cloud-based systems off-premise. These in turn will divide down still further into dedicated, single-tenant cloud-based …
Rackspace turns into a fanatical AWS cloud-flinger
Managed cloud computing company Rackspace will now sell and support Amazon’s mighty AWS, echoing a similar partnership with Microsoft.
The company Tuesday unveiled Fanatical Support for AWS, initially for US customers with support for those outside the US in beta mode. Rackspace will also now sell and consult on Jeff Bezos' …
Rackspace: Amazon? Sure, you can buy their cloud ... from us
Rackspace has reportedly formed a partnership with Amazon Web Services to help customers move their data centers to the online retail giant's public cloud.
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, an American financial newspaper, the two companies plan to announce their new relationship at Amazon's AWS:reinvent …
Eight things people forget when buying infrastructure
IT people start on their journeys through infrastructure provision lacking one fundamental thing: experience. You emerge from school, college or university knowing something about technology (unless of course you did one of those nancy IT degrees that doesn't teach you anything about proper IT, in which case your usefulness to …
'Boring' Amazon computational rival scoops $8m VC backing
A self-confessed “boring” computational startup challenging Amazon has piqued the interest of VCs, who’ve awarded it an $8m windfall.
Iron.io, founded in 2010, was given the lump sum as part of an A-round of cash – following on from two seed rounds totaling $5.4m.
The venture crew included Baseline Ventures, Bain Capital …
ODMs getting fatter in Brit server space as big boys fight over scraps
Taiwanese ODMs are making some headway – albeit from a relatively small base – in the battle for the hearts and wallets of Brit server buyers, official sales statistics show.
The whitebox community, which already custom builds boxes for the world’s largest service providers from Google to Facebook in North America, grew UK …
Roll up, roll up: Microsoft, those Irish emails and angry Feds
An appeals court in New York will hold an oral hearing in the Feds vs Microsoft battle today. The so-called Microsoft warrant case has dragged on for nearly two years as Redmond resists efforts to make it hand over customer emails stored in Ireland.
The American Justice Department wants the emails as part of a drug-trafficking …
Channel surfers and the irresistible rise of Content Delivery Networks
Fastly, a four-year-old content delivery network start-up, this month landed $75m in venture funding.
It was the firm’s fifth intake of cash, the second in less than a year. What’s remarkable is that inventors are backing a firm that is going up against some big names – among them the massive Amazon juggernaut.
Clearly, …
Rackspace looks to have bypassed vCloud Director upgrade
Rackspace has decided to manage its VMware cloud with software from upstart AirVM.
The decision is great news for AirVM and almost certainly unwelcome for VMware, which has of late been beta testing a new version of vCloud Director, the code it offers service providers to manage and operate their VMware-based clouds.
VMware …
Open sourcerer Mirantis taps up Intel for $100m worth of funding
Chipzilla Intel has led a funding injection of $100m (£64m) into open source cloudy operating system Mirantis, part of its move into the world of OpenStack.
The deal is apparently part of Intel’s recent announcement intended to create "tens of thousands of new clouds".
Mirantis has so far raised $220m, having previously …
