How Channel Partners Can Help Customers Take Advantage Of the Open Cloud

By Chris Rajiah, VP of worldwide partner sales, Rackspace

Cloud’s promise of revolutionizing the way companies do business is already a stunning reality, with business users and developers already able to deploy, configure and adapt IT faster.  But recent developments in open-source technology mean channel partners face a whole new competitive landscape.

Bye-bye, vendor lock-in
The availability of open cloud means customers have the freedom to change their cloud providers, or opt for a mix-and-match approach that simply wasn’t possible before. They have become empowered to choose features, services, price,s and locations purely based on the needs of their business rather than being restricted to what’s available on the proprietary technology platform that came with their cloud vendor. 

For example, Rackspace recently announced its Private Cloud Software - code name “Alamo” - powered by OpenStack, which makes it simple and easy for companies to install, test, and run a multi-node OpenStack-based private cloud environment.  Partners’ end users can now combine the capabilities of public cloud with the customization, reliability, and control of a dedicated environment without having to commit to a single vendor, because the software is based on open code, avoiding vendor lock-in. They now have a simple way to install an OpenStack-based private cloud in their own datacenter or with any other provider, and it can be deployed in minutes.