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Tag: rackspace

  • Rackspace DevOps automation service broadly available

    Rackspace DevOps automation service broadly available

    Rackspace is the #1 player in managed cloud. While they recently announced they would be withdrawing from the pure IaaS market, they have now double-downed their bet on managed cloud with the general availability of the Rackspace DevOps automation service around managed cloud.

    Rackspace had previously announced their DevOps automation service a few months back, but that was a limited release. Now DevOps automation is one of the two choices Rackspace customers will have in setting up a managed cloud service.

    With this general release Rackspace is offering DevOps automation on both Linux based clouds utilizing Chef among other tools and on Windows using native Windows tools. In addition Rackspace offers enhanced environment stack support. According to the release:

    Rackspace now supports the following environment stacks, which can be deployed in hours on the Rackspace Hybrid Cloud: Chef, Rails, Node.js, PHP, Tomcat and Python. Customers can use recommended stack architectures and will receive updates, security patches and the latest versions of environment stacks, which are constantly maintained and tested by Rackspace DevOps engineers.

    These stacks are not containers per say a la’ Docker, but are self-contained packages that Rackspace can automate installation of and get customers up and running even faster.

    I spoke to Prashanth Chandrasekar, GM of Rackspace’s DevOps Business Segment about this announcement today. Prashanth and his team have been offering DevOps automation to customers since last year.  Today’s announcement represents DevOps going mainstream as one of the two preferred methods of deployment for Rackspace customers. I also spoke to Chris Jackson, the CTO of the DevOps team at Rackspace. Chris wrote a nice blog on the SysOp approach versus the DevOps approach.  It explains much of the thought process behind the Rackspace offering.

    There is also a good, if long Youtube from Rackspace on their DevOps automation service.

    Managed cloud DevOps automation was not the only thing Rackspace announced today. Just automating your cloud infrastructure by using a DevOps managed cloud service does not mean you are a DevOps organization.  Frankly that is just tools being used by a 3rd party. How do you instill a DevOps culture, mindset in your organization? How do you get your enterprise to actually become a DevOps organization?

    Rackspace is offering a full blown professional services offering called “DevOps Advisory Services”. They will come in and evaluate and analyze your needs and present organization. Based upon this they will make recommendations to help you. These include:

    • DevOps Workshops: Rackspace is working with customers to perform a range of services including application assessment, transformation planning and knowledge transfer, plus enablement around key areas like Configuration Management Tools, Provisioning and Deployments, Continuous Integration, Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) and Monitoring.
    • DevOps Strategy Planning: Rackspace DevOps specialists work with customers to understand their requirements and help create a custom project plan for their business needs and timeline.
    • DevOps Professional Services: Rackspace provides access to DevOps professional services from writing infrastructure code to designing structure and building migration plans for applications. This helps customers automate, deploy and test their infrastructure for their main applications, or a set of proof of concepts that the customer helps build.

    With today’s news Rackspace continues to demonstrate how important DevOps is to the go forward planning. Some may question how a managed services model would embrace DevOps, but Rackspace is showing the way. Branching out to DevOps pro services will allow them to compete head to head with IBM/SoftLayer offering cloud hosted and managed services wrapped with pro services.

    What I always find most compelling about Rackspace’s DevOps services though is that they eat their own dog food. Their DevOps services were born from their own internal use before they brought them to customers. It takes a DevOps organization to offer DevOps services.

  • Around the DevOps Blogs and News Scene

    Around the DevOps Blogs and News Scene

    It was another busy week in the DevOps media world; not just here on devopsy.kinsta.cloud either. We had almost 30 new original features and blogs published this week. You should take some time and read them before running off and reading any of the articles and blogs I mention here. But then again I am biased, so take it from where it comes.

    Besides the devopsy.kinsta.cloud articles, I wanted to call out to two different articles over on Information Week. One is a guest post from Rackspace CTO, John Engates. It is called DevOps: ITs only chance of keeping up. In it the Engates calls out that breaking down barriers between development and operations, as well as other barriers in IT is the only hope for IT departments to keep up with the pace of business.  I spoke about this with one of my friends and he thought of it as a chicken and egg question.  Does DevOps make business go faster or does business going faster make us do DevOps?  Of course the answer is probably “C”, all of the above.  Anyway it is a great article by John and after you read enough here on this site, you should head over and take a read.

    The other article on Information Week is by my Facebook friend Lorna Garey.  Lorna was a participant in a recent DevOps State of the Union event I attended in Boston some weeks back.  We both heard firsthand from some companies where DevOps allows IT to perform at a high level. Lorna writes that DevOps is creating a digital divide. It is creating a class of haves and have nots. Much like those with fiber internet and those with sub-5mbps DSL.  This is going to create inherent advantages to those who have DevOps over those who do not.  For me there is an easy answer, everyone should do DevOps if they want to.

    everyone-has-a-voice-that-deserves-to-be-heard_designAnother topic that has been active here on devopsy.kinsta.cloud and on other DevOps discussions is whether or not DevOps is a title and real job. I don’t care what you call it, there are certainly people doing it for a living, but that is just IMHO.  According to this article in ITproportal, the number of DevOps engineer jobs in the UK has tripled over the last two years. In another report based on the same Rackspace data, Computer Weekly declares that “It is official, DevOps is a real job“. So I guess that ends that discussion, said no one ever.

    Finally I have been having a good time monitoring the Twitterverse as the @devopsdotcom stream grows over these past weeks. I would say overall the reaction has been pretty positive. The DevOps community has embraced what we are trying to do with open arms and have been more than eager to help out and even be involved. But you can’t please everyone. One person in particular  thought we have come “late to the conversation” with “little credibility  beyond buying devopsy.kinsta.cloud”.  Hey there will always be some of that. But for the record we didn’t buy the domain and as I said in my first post three weeks ago, we aim to post a big tent here at devopsy.kinsta.cloud.  There is plenty of room for old DevOps folks and even more room for all of the new DevOps folks to come. We all don’t have to agree, but this site is here to give everyone a platform to add their voice to the discussion.  I don’t think you need a union card or have to pass any literacy test to particiapte.

    Have a good weekend!

  • Google Starts Cloud World War I, DevOps Wins

    Google Starts Cloud World War I, DevOps Wins

    No matter the outcome, a cloud pricing war will leave DevOps the winner

    By now you probably saw the news and all of the buzz about how Google dropped its drawers eh, pricing on its cloud hosting. This is of course a direct shot at Amazon’s AWS. It’s about time someone with big enough stones (and a big enough data center) took on Bezos and his band of merry cloud makers.  But the real winner in all of this may in fact turn out to be DevOps.

    Of course this is just the first salvo in what promises to go down in history as Cloud War I. Amazon is not going to stand still.  They are perfectly willing to compete on price and in fact part of the AWS mystique is that it is the most cost effective solution (cheapest) out there.

    This will not be just a tit-for-tat move though. In announcing the price cuts Urs Hölzle, VP of TI at Google said, “”We think cloud pricing should track Moore’s Law, so we’re simplifying and reducing prices for our various on-demand, pay-as-you-go services by 30 to 85 percent.”  That means we are going to see cloud prices drop as the speed and power of chips goes up. That is good news! You can see Hölzle’s complete presentation including a cameo by SnapChat’s Bobby Murphy below (be warned this is about 1 hour and 20 minutes long).

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qokEYBNWA_0]

    Of course this begs the question, what about the other cloud providers.  How long can Rackspace sit up on its OpenStack perch before diving into this fray? What about Microsoft’s Azure? Redmond wants its piece of the cloud pie, does new CEO Satya Nadella have the stomach for this fight? Can they afford not to? The fact is that Microsoft has the girth and arsenal to compete here. Maybe Google starting this war is the opening they need to climb out of the tech cellar and be relevant again. Cisco just announced a billion dollar initiative to become a cloud powerhouse as well.  As big as a billion is though, that is penny stakes in this game I am afraid.

    Here is another one to watch, IBM’s SoftLayer. Fresh off of a 2b+ acquisition and pledging another billion in cloud dollars, IBM via SoftLayer has the profile to be a winner in this war as well.  They also have IBM’s minions out pushing the solutions. In fact Microsoft and SoftLayer/IBM may have the channels to win this thing in the long run (OK maybe not).

    So where does this leave DevOps? Think Switzerland.  From a DevOps perspective it really doesn’t make a difference which cloud provider emerges dominant. The cheaper and more attractive cloud becomes the more it will drive better DevOps tools, DevOps culture and philosophy.

    Of course there are those that say that if PaaS becomes the dominant cloud platform (and I think it will), that could spell trouble for DevOps.  As if somehow PaaS doesn’t need DevOps.  I say poppycock to that too. Maybe you won’t configure servers in a PaaS environment (and I am not conceding that either), but there will be plenty of places along path that will call for automation, continuous delivery, continuous monitoring and continuous management.  PaaS does not obliviate DevOps.

    That is not to say that applications are not king.  Applications are driving the cloud, DevOps and everything else tech today. A large reason why Google is so goo-goo over Cloud is because it drives more Android apps.  I think we will see more DevOps tools and practice around application development, configuration, management and monitoring. New Relic is already on it.  Anything related to Docker stands to do as well as munition and tank manufacturers did during WW II.

    So buckle in as it may get rough out there as these tech giants battle for cloud supremacy, there an will be winners and there will be losers.  It won’t be just the cloud providers either.  Wars create opportunity and those willing to take the chance will gain the most.

    But for DevOps it is all good. It is like we have a stash of chocolate and gold while we make watches here in Geneva. The war rages on around us but we need at the end of the day no matter what we win.

  • VictorOps Joins Rackspace Marketplace; Offers Collaborative Alert Management Platform for DevOps

    Significantly Decreases Time To Resolution for Incidents to Reduce Costs For Customers

     BOULDER, Colo., March 19, 2014 /PRNewswire/ — VictorOps, a collaboration and incident management platform designed for DevOps teams, today announced that it has joined the Marketplace for Rackspace® Hosting, RAX +0.03% , the open cloud company. As part of the Marketplace, VictorOps will offer a solution for Rackspace customers that gives them constant situational awareness of their application performance allowing for smarter, real-time collaboration around problems.

    The VictorOps platform allows DevOps to define on-call schedules that notify team members of infrastructure and service delivery platform problems as they occur according to company, team and personal escalation policies. Team members are alerted via VictorOps’ native Android and iOS applications or by SMS, email or phone call.

    “As long-term Rackspace customers, and as a DevOps driven organization, we’re excited to see tools like VictorOps in the Rackspace Marketplace,” said Nick Stielau, Director of Operations for Pantheon. Stielau is focused on architecting and selecting solutions that support his DevOps team members. “Without innovative, team-centric tools like VictorOps, creating an aligned development organization is an uphill battle,” he continued.

    Team members can post ideas and trouble shoot problems in real-time while having unprecedented access to the data they need to solve the problem regardless of physical location or time-of-day. Teams that can share situational data easily, inject thoughts and comments, and leverage team members who are not physically present is key to reducing the time-to-resolution for the company and a better lifestyle for the team as a whole.

    “The power of a collaborative solution for real-time problem solving is in its ability to leverage the entire team’s knowledge in a scalable way through all phases of the incident lifecycle,” said Todd Vernon, CEO and co-founder, VictorOps. “Bringing our collaboration platform to the Marketplace enables Rackspace customers to purchase a solution with new ways to solve problems in a smarter way, which can help solve the same or similar problems faster the next time they occur. This reduces overall costs for a business.”

    “As early adopters of DevOps, we see VictorOps as a natural fit for the Marketplace,” said John Engates, chief technology officer, Rackspace. “We share their desire to enable DevOps teams to do their jobs more effectively and believe that the addition of VictorOps will add great value to the Marketplace.”

    For additional information about VictorOps and Rackspace Marketplace, visit: try.victorops.com/rackspace.

    About VictorOps  VictorOps is the world’s first collaborative alert management platform designed for DevOps teams that combines the power of people and data to solve IT problems in real-time. The VictorOps platform seamlessly orchestrates team situational awareness, incident creation, escalation, notification, and remediation with team members regardless of physical location or time of day. Privately held, VictorOps is backed by Costanoa Venture Capital and Foundry Group. For more information, visithttp://www.victorops.com  and follow the company on Twitter @GoVictorOps.

    SOURCE VictorOps

    Copyright (C) 2014 PR Newswire. All rights reserved

  • Ops is dead, long live DevOps

    Ops is dead, long live DevOps

    Yes, that’s a bold statement, but if the vibe at the recent AWS re:Invent conference was any indication there are a number of methodologies, technologies, and companies working to make that a reality. This article isn’t focused on whether this is a good or bad thing (my personal belief is that ops will always be a critical part of the IT delivery process). Regardless, it is critical for IT operations personnel to understand the implications of this tectonic shift. As Marc Andreessen, founder of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, has said, “software is eating the world.” As a result, ops professionals must have the ability to automate tasks that used to be managed manually. Whether or not you think that is the death of ops as we know it I will leave to you, but it does mean we will live in a world where DevOps will offer distinct advantages.

    Before we dive into what this change means to ops personnel, let’s review the underlying assumptions. The fundamental driver at the a high level has been the DevOps movement. Yes, DevOps is quickly becoming the buzzword dejour, but the underlying principles are lasting and changing IT to its core. DevOps is about integrating the various functions that it takes to release software or applications: software development, quality assurance, operations, and security among many others and rapid iteration. The process of integrating these tasks is accomplished through new processes and automation. Different functional areas such as development and operations are brought into the process earlier, and their processes are automated to the extent that they can be. This results in fast cycle times, increased quality, and hopefully increased innovation for the business. All of this is accomplished through software – at each functional level.

    Some technologies that have enabled this massive shift include Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), automated configuration management, server management tools, virtualization, and software defined networking. IaaS and PaaS offerings are eliminating the need for organizations to procure, provision, and deploy servers. Further, this class of technology is also dramatically reducing the need to deal with the network layer. This allows organizations to concentrate on their applications and development, and focus less on their infrastructure. The amount of time and effort spent on server and network configuration is minimized. Configuration management solutions are enabling the automation of server setup. An organization’s technology stack can be pushed, pulled, cloned and copied versus manual configuration thereby saving time and adding consistency. Top performing organizations employing DevOps go a step further and automate the scaling of capacity based on utilization. To reduce day-to-day operational activities and costs, organizations are also automating the management of servers, including users access, patches, security, and other areas through both traditional written code and SaaS solutions. Another area changing the game for ops personnel is software defined networking (SDN), which is effectively morphing data center and hardware functions into software programs.

    In short, DevOps and associated innovative new technologies are driving a paradigm shift in the way operations is done. No longer are ops personnel required to manually provision, configure, and manage the network, servers, and application stack. Combining technologies from organizations such as AWS, Rackspace, and SoftLayer along with configuration tools such as Chef and Puppet drives the provisioning and configuration of applications through software automation rather than manual effort. Once applications are deployed, the underlying infrastructure can be managed with tools such as my own company, New Relic, this author’s own JumpCloud, and others. Ops personnel have more companies than ever focusing on helping them automate the tasks that they need to deliver applications for their organizations.

    The result from all of this effort is that ops as we know it won’t exist in the future. The network operations wizard that could manually troubleshoot routing and switching issues, provision servers quickly, and tweak configurations will be tasked with automating those tasks through software. Some of that automation will be through code that ops person writes herself, some delivered by third party providers, and other portions delivered by open source or SaaS-based solutions. But, don’t shed tears for the forced obsolescence of the IT ops people. They will still exist and perhaps be more important and powerful than ever. In fact, because of DevOps ops personnel will in essence be set free from mundane, repetitive “busy work” to perform higher value tasks as well as managing over the software and systems at work. The black magic of enabling different layers of the stack to function together will be less about art and more about science, or rather good software. Solutions will be engineered to work together and be tied together through code. Caveat: yes, service providers and some large enterprises will  still run their own data centers and networks, but the same reasons that DevOps works in IaaS or PaaS will apply to private data centers or private clouds as well.

    If all of this trends toward being true as we see it happening today, what are the opportunities for ops personnel to be at the forefront of this shift? Beyond embracing DevOps – which many operations personnel are doing already – learning to code is the most critical step that ops professionals can take. Many ops professionals already know how to script which is absolutely a minimum, but many will need to go further. Embrace the DevOps movement and push further towards the development side by learning how to code. There are any number of amazing services to teach us how to code or code better. Take the step. It may be the difference between a vestige of the old school versus driving the new world in your organization. The second significant step you can take is to automate your job. Leverage the very best automation tools to code your network, server, and application infrastructure. Not only will you spend less time on these tasks manually, but you will increase availability, reliability, and performance. In most organizations, that’s more than a gold star. Finally, make the mental shift that operations in the future will be less art and more science. DevOps is driving action through data, and the technology stack is responding to this demand with more telemetry than ever. Problems are now solved through understanding performance, availability, and other metrics. And code.

    DevOps is the future. Automation is key. Code is the answer. Developers and ops are in it together for the good of their organizations. Ops pros that embrace this will win! Ops is Dead, Long Live DevOps!

  • Rackspace Hosting Reports Fourth Quarter 2013 Results

    Rackspace announced it is extending its Fanatical Support® to help customers automate their cloud infrastructure with a new managed support service for DevOps tools. The new DevOps Automation Service will help developers automate the process of deploying and scaling hybrid cloud infrastructure for fast-growing applications, while advancing the adoption of the DevOps methodology among software and IT teams.

    SAN ANTONIO–()–Rackspace® Hosting, Inc. (NYSE: RAX), the open cloud company, announced financial results for the quarter ended December 31, 2013.

    Net revenue for the fourth quarter of 2013 was $408 million, up 5.0% from the previous quarter and up 16% from the fourth quarter of 2012. Net revenue for the fourth quarter of 2013 was positively impacted by currency exchange rates when compared to the previous quarter by $4.2 million and positively impacted when compared to the fourth quarter of 2012 by $0.8 million.

    Total server count increased to 103,886, up from 101,967 servers at the end of the previous quarter.

    Adjusted EBITDA(1) for the quarter was $132 million, a 5.2% increase compared to the third quarter of 2013 and a 2% increase compared to the fourth quarter of 2012. The Adjusted EBITDA margin for the quarter was 32.4% compared to 32.3% in the previous quarter and 36.8% in the fourth quarter of 2012.

    Consistent with prior periods, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin were negatively impacted by a non-cash charge relating to data center operating leases. During the fourth quarter of 2013, the non-cash data center lease charge was $2.3 million, compared to $3.8 million in the previous quarter and $2.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2012.

    Net income was $21 million for the quarter, up 27.5% from the previous quarter and down 30% from the fourth quarter of 2012. Net income margin for the quarter was 5.1% compared to 4.2% for the previous quarter and 8.5% in the fourth quarter of 2012.

    Cash flow from operating activities was $110 million for the fourth quarter of 2013. Capital expenditures were $116 million, including $65 million for purchases of customer gear, $23 million for data center build outs, $8 million for office build outs and $20 million for capitalized software and other projects.

    Adjusted Free Cash Flow(1) for the quarter was $15 million. Return on Capital(1) was 9.6%, compared to 8.0% in the prior quarter and 16.9% in the fourth quarter of 2012. Average monthly revenue per server was $1,322, compared to $1,290 in the prior quarter and $1,310 in the fourth quarter of 2012.

    At the end of the fourth quarter of 2013, cash and cash equivalents were $260 million, and debt including capital lease obligations totaled $58 million.

    On a worldwide basis, Rackspace employed 5,651 Rackers as of December 31, 2013, up from 5,450 in the previous quarter.

    “With the leadership team and strategy we have in place, and the powerful position that we’ve established in the marketplace, I’m confident that we can make 2014 one of the best years in Rackspace history. In 2014, we will take the next step to carve out our differentiated position and help the next adoption wave of customers reach a hybrid cloud world. We will continue to invest in our portfolio of services and reinforce our differentiation in the market. We will win as we always have — one delighted customer at a time,” said Graham Weston, Chairman and CEO.

    Rackspace Developments and Business Highlights

    • Rackspace announced that Taylor Rhodes, the company’s Chief Customer Officer (CCO), has been appointed President, effective immediately. Mr. Rhodes joined Rackspace in 2007 and has served in a variety of leadership positions within the company. Prior to his role as CCO, Mr. Rhodes served as Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Rackspace International. In his various roles, Mr. Rhodes has guided the company towards its mission of bringing the power of Rackspace’s hybrid cloud portfolio, backed by Fanatical Support®, to global markets. Additionally, he has played an integral role in evolving Fanatical Support for the benefit of customers worldwide, which has enabled Rackspace to advance its position as the service leader in the industry.
    • Rackspace announced it has been ranked 29 on the 2014 FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For® list. FORTUNE has named Rackspace as one of America’s top workplaces in six of the past seven years. Rackspace was selected among hundreds of companies vying for a place on the list this year. Great Place to Work® chose Rackspace using its unique methodology based on five dimensions: credibility, respect, fairness, pride and camaraderie.
    • Rackspace announced it is extending its Fanatical Support® to help customers automate their cloud infrastructure with a new managed support service for DevOps tools. The new DevOps Automation Service will help developers automate the process of deploying and scaling hybrid cloud infrastructure for fast-growing applications, while advancing the adoption of the DevOps methodology among software and IT teams.
    • Rackspace announced it has given nearly £250,000 worth of cloud hosting services and support for free to 300 members of the Rackspace Startup Programme since it started in the UK six months ago. This is in addition to many other benefits members have received, such as mentoring, expert technical advice and access to networking events. All of these benefits are helping power new UK businesses to succeed and are provided by Rackspace through over 50 partners, including premier incubators, accelerators, associations and investors. The high profile partners involved in the Rackspace Startup Programme include Techstars, Dreamstake, Wayra, Seedcamp, Oxygen Accelerator and Accelerator Academy. Partners located outside of London – ensuring program access for startups throughout the UK – include ignite100 in Newcastle, dotForge in Sheffield and four organizations in Ireland: Wayra, NDRC, Propeller Venture Accelerator and Ustart.

    Conference Call and Webcast

    Management will host a conference call to discuss the results starting today at 4:30 p.m. ET.

    To access the conference call, please dial 800-946-0712 from the United States and Canada or dial 719-325-2328 from abroad and reference pass code 2801570. A live webcast and a replay of the conference call will be available on Rackspace’s website, located at http://ir.rackspace.com.

    About Rackspace

    Rackspace (NYSE: RAX) is the global leader in hybrid cloud and founder of OpenStack®, the open-source operating system for the cloud. Hundreds of thousands of customers look to Rackspace to deliver the best-fit infrastructure for their IT needs, leveraging a product portfolio that allows workloads to run where they perform best—whether on the public cloud, private cloud, dedicated servers, or a combination of platforms. The company’s award-winning Fanatical Support helps customers successfully architect, deploy and run their most critical applications. Headquartered in San Antonio, TX, Rackspace operates data centers on four continents. Rackspace is featured on Fortune’s list of 100 Best Companies to Work For. For more information, visit www.rackspace.com.

    Forward-Looking Statements

    This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If such risks or uncertainties materialize or such assumptions prove incorrect, the results of Rackspace could differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including any statements concerning anticipated operational and financial benefits from Rackspace strategies related to additions or changes in leadership, the success of leadership transition, company growth or success of new operational initiatives, any statements of expectation or belief; and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include the integration and effectiveness of new leadership into the Rackspace culture and business operations, instability or downturns in the economy, the effectiveness of managing company growth, infrastructure failures and other risks that are described in Rackspace Hosting’s Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2013, filed with the SEC on November 12, 2013. Except as required by law, Rackspace Hosting assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements publicly, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.