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0 pointsjdubs9y ago0 comments

They're targeting different segments on different business requirements. Their numbers will never be comparable.

0 comments

RAX's strategy has shifted to "different segments" directly as a result of competition from AWS [0]. Now, AMZN has considerable supplier power over RAX:

  "The deal would have been unthinkable just two years ago, 
  when Rackspace and AWS were fierce rivals. But in early 2014, 
  Rackspace, facing ever slimmer margins amid a cloud-computing price war, 
  withdrew from head-to-head competition with Amazon. Since then, 
  it has focused on offering higher-margin services."

[0] http://www.wsj.com/articles/rackspace-teams-up-with-amazon-1...

crack-the-code9y ago

Yes but even prior to this, Rackspace had been a managed cloud provider, meaning they offer services on top of the infrastructure. This is different than AWS.

caminante9y ago

RAX has its roots in managed cloud, but they moved away from that. They got into IaaS, but have retrenched. Here's RAX's mapping of AWS to RAX P&S for IaaS [0]. That's a lot. RAX has decided to return to its roots (managed cloud) and seek differentiation because it can't compete on IaaS.[1] That'll be tough.

RAX's going private to shift its P&S mix and turn things around.

edit: I'll also point to jsode's great comment above.

[0] https://support.rackspace.com/how-to/mapping-of-amazon-web-s...

[1] http://www.networkworld.com/article/2461361/iaas/rackspace-b...

1 more reply

bluedino9y ago

Isn't 'managed cloud' kind of contradictory?

Shouldn't your cloud based application manage itself? That's kind of the point, not having to 'manage' it?

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

caminante9y ago

RAX's strategy has shifted to "different segments" directly as a result of competition from AWS [0]. Now, AMZN has considerable supplier power over RAX:

  "The deal would have been unthinkable just two years ago, 
  when Rackspace and AWS were fierce rivals. But in early 2014, 
  Rackspace, facing ever slimmer margins amid a cloud-computing price war, 
  withdrew from head-to-head competition with Amazon. Since then, 
  it has focused on offering higher-margin services."

[0] http://www.wsj.com/articles/rackspace-teams-up-with-amazon-1...

crack-the-code9y ago

Yes but even prior to this, Rackspace had been a managed cloud provider, meaning they offer services on top of the infrastructure. This is different than AWS.

caminante9y ago

RAX's going private to shift its P&S mix and turn things around.

edit: I'll also point to jsode's great comment above.

[0] https://support.rackspace.com/how-to/mapping-of-amazon-web-s...

[1] http://www.networkworld.com/article/2461361/iaas/rackspace-b...

1 more reply

bluedino9y ago

Isn't 'managed cloud' kind of contradictory?

Shouldn't your cloud based application manage itself? That's kind of the point, not having to 'manage' it?

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse