Articles about Rackspace
Rackspace posts double-digit jump in sales and profits
Cloud purveyor Rackspace clocked up sales of $1.79bn (£1.16bn) for its full-year 2014, a 17 per cent increase on 2013, while net income rose 28 per cent to $110m (£73.1m).
Fourth-quarter net income at the cloudy firm was particularly strong, increasing 80 per cent to $37m (£24m) on revenue up 16 per cent to $472m (£306m).
But …
Rackspace restored after DDOS takes out DNS
Rackspace says it has recovered from a nasty distributed denial of service attack that it says may have seen “a portion of legitimate traffic to our DNS infrastructure … inadvertently blocked.”
The trouble started just before lunchtime on Monday, US central time, and persisted until 11 hours later.
Over on the company's Google …
Rackspace joins Microsoft's Windows Azure Pack partner army
Cloud-flinger Rackspace has joined Microsoft’s new army of cloud service providers.
Rackspace is now running Microsoft’s Cloud Platform at all of its US data centres.
That platform is a marketing wrapper that contains Hyper-V, System Center and Windows Server with the more recent Azure Pack to spin up and run VM-based clouds. …
New Xen vuln triggers Amazon, Rackspace reboot panic redux
Newly discovered vulnerabilities in the open source Xen virtualization hypervisor have once again sent major public cloud companies scurrying to patch and reboot their systems before attackers can pull off a massive exploit.
Amazon and Rackspace have both announced that they will need to reboot some of their servers to address …
Rackspace launches big red rack eater
Rackspace has flicked the switch on the third version of its RackConnect hybrid cloud-maker.
RackConnect is the company's tool to marry dedicated hosting and the public cloud. The idea is that you might have some of your own kit in a data centre or dedicated boxen in a public cloud, plus some public cloud instances running in a …
CenturyLink said to have pondered Rackspace buy
US telco CenturyLink is said to be considering an attempt to acquire Rackspace, according to Bloomberg.
The newswire's report is sparse: nobody is saying anything concrete and folks familiar with the situation are the source.
Let's try to guess what's afoot here. CenturyLink already operates a 57-strong global bit barn network …
Xen sticks pin in bug behind Rackspace GLOBAL CLOUD REBOOT
Details of the mysterious Xen vulnerability, which prompted the Amazon AWS/Rackspace cloud reboots late last week, have been revealed, with patches already available.
The CVE-2014-7188 vulnerability creates a way to trick the hypervisor into reading unallocated memory.
"A buggy or malicious HVM [hardware virtual machine] guest …
Troll hunter Rackspace turns Rotatable's bizarro patent to stone
Cloud hosting firm Rackspace has claimed victory over another patent troll, this time not merely by successfully challenging a patent suit, but by actually having the patent in question invalidated.
"Rotatable Technologies is now an ex-patent troll," Rackspace VP of intellectual property Van Lindberg wrote in a blog post on …
NO SALE! Rackspace snubs all buyout offers, appoints new CEO
Rackspace says it has given up on plans to either sell itself or merge with another company, and to prove it the cloud hosting provider has named a new CEO to lead its next phase of independent operation.
Rackspace had been considering "inbound strategic proposals" – meaning buyout offers – since May, when it brought in …
Rackspace CEO Rhodes: Just months on the job and look at our swollen digits
Taylor Rhodes, the latest man to grab the CEO chair at Rackspace, must have, er, racked up the celebratory drinks last night as the hoster-come-cloud-flogger reported a comparatively decent set of Q3 fiscal ’15 financials.
The Texan-based biz reported revenues of $460m, up 4.2 per on last quarter and 18.3 per cent higher than …
Rackspace to hit GLOBAL CLOUD REBOOT button to flush out Xen security nasty
Rackspace has warned its customers that it plans to reboot all of its servers across the globe to nix a security bug that was first spotted in the Xen virtualisation platform earlier this week.
The managed cloud outfit told its customers about the "maintenance work" in an email, seen by The Register, that was sent out early on …
'Fangless' activist investor chomps up chunk of Rackspace
A so-called "fangless" activist investor has increased its grip on OpenStack cloud cheerleader Rackspace, with a view to a possible sale.
Blue Harbour Group has revealed it now holds a 6.4 per cent stake in the aspiring cloud provider, or 9.1 million shares.
The company is reported to have started gobbling up Rackspace shares …
Rackspace touts cloudy, single-tenant OnMetal servers to world+dog
Underdog cloud provider Rackspace has announced pricing for its new OnMetal servers, which it has made generally available on Friday following a limited trial phase.
The new offerings, details of which were first unveiled in June, are dedicated, single-tenant, bare-metal machines that allow customers to run applications without …
Rackspace: Record revenue shows managed cloud strategy 'working'
Despite record revenue growth in the second quarter and good expectations for this quarter, profit at Rackspace Inc was flat, disappointing shareholders.
The former hosting firm said it had added thousands of new customers as it tries to transition itself into a cloud company in the midst of serious price competition from the …
OpenStack kingpin Rackspace hires bankers to help it mull 'inbound strategic proposals'
Updated
Rackspace has retained Morgan Stanley to help it evaluate "inbound strategic proposals".
In other words, a partnership or acquisition is something that may lie in Rackspace's future, according to Bloomberg, which broke the news on Thursday.
"Our board decided to hire Morgan Stanley to evaluate the inbound strategic proposals, …
Rackspace chases the channel with hands-on 'managed cloud'
Rackspace has decided that cloud users want more than self-service and has launched a “managed” cloud service that will see it feed and groom its customers' cloudy servers.
The company's post about the new service says “We’re targeting businesses and developers who want to tap the power of the cloud without the pain of running …
Rackspace refuses to enlist in cloud's latest price cutting war
+Analysis
Cloud provider Rackspace will stand on the sidelines as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft slash prices in an attempt to destroy each other's profit margins.
The web hoster's chief technology officer, John Engates, told El Reg's cloud bureau by email that "Rackspace is not a commodity cloud provider," when we asked if it would match …
Rackspace patches Windows Updater vuln
Rackspace has patched an arbitrary code execution bug in its Windows environment, following an advisory from CloudPassage.
CloudPassage discovered that the Rackspace Windows Agent and Updater allowed unauthenticated users to upload a modified version of the agent binary to Rackspace Cloud Server instances. The modified code …
IoT silos bad for business: Rackspace
Today's Internet of Things (IoT) devices have to break out of their vendor silos if they're to be taken seriously in the corporate environment, according to Rackspace Asia's CTO Alan Perkins.
Speaking to Vulture South at its CeBIT stand to launch an upgrade to its Australian service (more on this below), Perkins said the future …
Yee-haw! Rackspace shares soar on – gasp – healthy results
When Rackspace's chief executive Lanham Napier shocked analysts with his resignation last quarter, things looked bad for the company. But its latest financial results indicate that the company has weathered the transition.
Napier's outgoing comments that the company's numbers looked "pretty darn formidable" have been borne out …
Rackspace gives world the servers Google and Amazon keep secret
Troubled hosting company Rackspace has brewed up a life-saving potion based around the secret technologies developed by some of the web's giants.
That project, "OnMetal Servers", gives customers the option of renting dedicated hardware from Rackspace based on designs similar to the secret servers operated by Google and Amazon, …
Rackspace shares pummelled by CEO retirement shock
Hosting provider Rackspace delivered good results on Monday along with the shock news that its chief executive Lanham Napier would be stepping down.
The Texan hoster-turned-cloud-seller reported a solid set of results for its fourth quarter of 2013 with net revenue of $408m, up 16 per cent from the fourth quarter of 2012 and …
Rackspace roadmap preps new cloud tools to take on big-bucks giants
Rackspace has a raft of upgrades planned that could make life easier for sysadmins who work with the company's public cloud and hosted managed servers, we're told.
This is according to roadmap slides, shown to The Register by a source, that were presented during Rackspace's webcast with customers earlier today.
To confront the …
Rackspace catches up to Amazon... four years later: Say hi again to auto-scale
Rackspace has announced the general availability of "Auto Scaling" technology for its public cloud, catching up with Amazon which implemented the tech in 2009.
Auto Scaling is a crucial component of any cloud, as it allows new resources to be allocated to live virtualized servers in real-time in response to demand, and without …
Rackspace seals new UK data center in frosty air-cooled TOMB
Cloud and hosting provider Rackspace will put the chilly air of England to work cooling servers in a new facility – though its approach differs from other energy-saving techniques used by Google and Facebook.
The company announced on Wednesday that it had broken ground on a new data center site in Crawley, West Sussex, with …
Rackspace to fire up VMware hybrid cloud
VMware's world has just become a little more complicated, after Rackspace announced it now offers “Dedicated VMware vCenter Servers”.
Rackspace's new service will allow VMware users to “migrate existing VMware workloads out of their on-premise data center into a Rackspace data center” in an arrangement that “will look and feel …
Rackspace cracks wallet on cloud 'developer discount'
Rackspace has is seasoning new developer accounts with cloud credits as the Texan company tries to lure punters into its bit barns.
The "Developer Discount" program was announced by the company on Tuesday, and will see it give developers new to the service $50 of account credit per month.
"Developers, hackers, devops people and …
Go East! Rackspace expands public cloud to Asia
Rackspace Hosting announced the launch of its first public cloud service in Asia in Hong Kong today, allowing businesses in the region to tap the firm’s Hybrid Cloud offering for a more flexible mix-and-match approach to IT infrastructure.
Rackspace Hybrid Cloud gives customers the option to choose any combination of public and …
Rackspace shares crater in drab results aftermath
Rackspace's shares have fallen off a cliff after the Texas cloud company reported less than glowing revenues.
In a sign of the fractious affections of the financial market, the company's shares were down almost 25 per cent in trading on Thursday, following Wednesday's lackluster results.
Though Rackspace grew revenue 20.2 per …
Rackspace fluffs .NET cloud support
Rackspace is making overtures to Microsoft users by broadening .NET support for its cloud and managed hosting, though these devs may be increasingly swayed by Azure.
The company announced a Cloud SDK for Microsoft.NET, and a PowerShell-based API client "PowerClient" for Rackspace public cloud services on Wednesday. The two tools …
Cloud to kill off legacy apps, says Rackspace CEO Taylor Rhodes
Interview
Rackspace president and CEO Taylor Rhodes ascended to the latter role just last month, so when our Sydney bureau was offered the chance for a chat, we jumped at it. Here's what Rhodes had to say about Rackspace's decision to stand alone, what it's like watching AWS and Google fight giants fight and more.
The Register: Rackspace …
HDS and Verizon pair up to take on Rackspace, Amazon in the clouds
Verizon’s public cloud, which we've already heard is to use Oracle's Database, is going to offer a storage service based on HDS’s Content Platform.
The two suppliers have announced an agreement to develop a software-defined storage solution using HCP and HCP Anywhere.
Verizon is huge, with, for example, 100 million retail …
FLASH, AH-AAAH! Saviour of the universe Rackspace cloud?
The "fanatical service" acolytes of Rackspace have added a hefty flash-backed range of servers to their cloud as part of a strategic revamp.
The upgrade of the company's cloud platform was announced on Tuesday and sees the Texan data wrangler press some high-memory "performance cloud servers" into duty for its battle with Amazon …
Rackspace hurries out 'Solum', a half-formed platform cloud project
Second-tier cloud operator Rackspace has launched yet another OpenStack project, this time seeking to tear up the nascent platform-as-a-service market.
"Project Solum" was announced by Rackspace architect Adrian Otto on Wednesday and sees his company - along with partners eBay, RedHat, Ubuntu, dotCloud, and Cloudsoft and …
Rackspace does tech support for popular languages on its cloud
Rackspace Hosting has spent the past six months putting together a set of officially sanctioned software development kits and runtime environments for popular programming languages to run on its eponymous infrastructure cloud, and now it is ready to offer tech support for those SDKs when companies deploy applications on the …
Rackspace gobbles Exceptional Cloud Services for Redis smarts
Just a month after chowing down on MongoDB provider ObjectRocket Rackspace is announcing plans to devour another company, this time gobbling up a Redis hoster Exceptional Cloud Services.
The folks at the Texan cloud company just can't get enough NoSQL, and Thursday's acquisition sees them absorb a team familiar with both Redis …
Rackspace claws fistful of bucks from Amazon-ruled cutthroat cloud bearpit
Rackspace is making less money than before on higher revenues as a vicious cloud market takes a cleaver to what was previously a steady business.
The Texan web-hoster-turned-cloud-provider reported a net income of $16m on revenues of $389m on Monday for its third quarter of 2013, missing analyst expectations on profit but just …
Rackspace won't match Amazon on prices
Amazon's relentless campaign of price cutting has forced a response from one of its rivals, with Rackspace arguing that price is not the sole factor that should matter when choosing a dedicated cloud instance.
In a blog post published on Tuesday, Rackspace's chief technology officer John Engates indulged in a few paragraphs of …
Rackspace cosies up to mobile developers
Texan cloud prospector Rackspace hopes to strike gold by partnering up with mobile-focused companies to mine a rich vein of developer services.
The company announced on Tuesday a scheme that sees it offer free "mobile cloud stacks" service to developers, while partnering with mobile-specialist companies for additional services …
Google joins Amazon, HP, Rackspace in easing HDD data importing
Google has followed in the footsteps of Amazon by making it easier for businesses to load in masses of data to the company's cloud platform.
On Tuesday Google announced it is letting companies ship their encrypted data in on HDDs, which Google will then load into Google Cloud Storage on their behalf. Other cloud providers that …
Rackspace, CERN partner on OpenStack projects
Sure, hyperscale data center operators may cope with hellacious big data problems as they spy on everything we do on the intertubes, but what about the poor men and women who have to drink from the data firehose that CERN's Large Hadron Collider spews as it works to rip apart the fabric of space and time? Well, thankfully, they' …
2013 data centre rental: Rackspace? Microsoft? No. Twitter nom-nommed through most megawatts
Twitter leased the single largest data centre of any tech, cloud or media company during 2013, beating the usual suspects in the size-really-does-matter race.
The micro-blogging site topped a tech league table of the industy’s largest hitters, according to a survey of who rented and built what during 2013.
One single data …
Amazon's cloud cash pile dwarfs Microsoft and Rackspace's best efforts
Amazon reported record revenues from the "other" category of its earnings on Thursday, showing strong growth in its cloud division and highlighting the stranglehold it has on the virtualized compute and storage market.
The $1.011bn in cash that flowed through "other" in the third quarter of 2013 towers above the previous quarter …
Rackspace plugs event monitoring into its servers
Rackspace has broadened the capabilities of its cloud monitoring technology by letting admins put an agent on their servers to get a clearer idea of how apps are using hardware resources.
The upgrades to Cloud Monitoring include server monitoring, a graphing feature for viewing old data, PagerDuty integration, and multi-data …
Rackspace: OpenStack is the 'Rebel Alliance' in fight for future of cloud
OpenStack Summit 2014
In Atlanta, where the drinks are syrupy and the air hangs over you like a wet, warm blanket, four and a half thousand people have assembled to work on a crazy idea.
The idea? That a band of companies with different allegiances and areas of focus can come together to build some freely available tools that will let you, me, and …
Cloud Foundry laps up attention in EMC, IBM, HP, Rackspace, SAP, VMware love-in
The Cloud Foundry open-source project looks set to become a standard piece of technology in the thriving distributed systems ecosystem: its main backer, Pivotal, has persuaded IBM, HP, SAP and Rackspace to join a new foundation dedicated to the tech.
Today's announcement of the launch of a formal open governance model and …
Rackspace goes to Israel, picks up slick new weapon for cloud wars
Analysis
Cloud operator Rackspace has hopped over to Israel and returned with a secret weapon that could give it capabilities hard to find in Amazon and Microsoft clouds.
The weapon? ZeroVM, an open-source lightweight hypervisor that presents a single-threaded environment and can be spun up in as little as 5 milliseconds. It is based on …
AppFog PaaS drops Rackspace IaaS
Platform-as-a-service provider AppFog is evaporating its cloudy bridge to Rackspace due to poor customer demand, in yet another case of the fluffy industry coming to terms with hard business realities.
AppFog provides an application infrastructure automation service – otherwise known as a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) – that lets …
Rackspace spends big bucks to peddle its cloud vision
Rackspace Hosting may be growing its cloud business much faster than its overall business, but the company's rate of sales growth is declining and its profits are also getting pinched.
It is tough not to root for Rackspace, one of the founders of the OpenStack cloud controller project and a big hoster that is transforming itself …
Price cuts, OpenStack transition make Rackspace miss in Q1
Rackspace Hosting did not turn in the kind of first quarter it wanted for the period ending in March, so expect knee-jerk reactions and hyperventilating from investors who think it can't stay in the cloud game against the likes of Amazon, Google, and Microsoft.
Its results did not meet Wall Street's expectations, with only 20.2 …
