The pending death of Rackspace has been greatly exaggerated. Early last year, there were rumors that Rackspace would someday be overwhelmed by the coming of the Cloud giants. The big three, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google, perceived to have pretty much cornered the market, have pushed smaller Cloud providers out of business. Well, some have stopped providing services, while others, like Rackspace, have instead re-envisioned and reinvented themselves.
Rackspace is becoming a leader in the Managed Private Cloud, powered by the Microsoft Cloud Platform. Once an OpenStack loyalist, Rackspace is now fully immersing itself into the Microsoft partner waters and is emerging as a leader in giving companies solid alternatives to providers only offering Public Cloud options.
Yesterday, Rackspace announced that it is adding SQL Server 2014 to its lineup. This brings fully managed SQL Server 2014 capabilities to the Cloud, including OLTP and AlwaysOn.
John Engates, CTO with Rackspace had this to say…
"Adding support for Microsoft SQL Server 2014 to Rackspace DBA Services enables customers to increase performance and make more efficient use of IT resources. Customers will be able to leverage our DBA experts to assist with routine database management and monitoring 24×7, which will allow their internal IT teams to work regular schedules and focus on innovating their core business."
Additionally, Microsoft seems pleased with Rackspace's direction. Tiffany Wissner, senior director of data platform marketing at Microsoft, delivered a notably vanilla, blanket statement. But, that's for of what you expect from a marketing person.
"As a long standing and key partner for Microsoft, we are pleased to see Rackspace embrace SQL Server 2014 to provide breakthrough performance and availability to a broader number of customers through their services."
Pricing has not yet been disclosed.
