Rackspace has thrown all of its chips on multi-cloud – and has taken the opportunity of strategic change to modify its name.

Now Rackspace Technology, the company has undergone a shift under the stewardship of CEO Kevin Jones, and is now positioning itself as a provider of ‘comprehensive solutions across the entire technology transformation lifecycle.’

The multi-cloud offerings aim to help customers in four areas; cloud optimisation, cloud security, enabling cloud-native environments, and data modernisation. The former has been an area which Rackspace has long explored, with this publication reporting on a 2018 study which found organisations were hitting cost barriers with their cloud migration plans.

“Our technical acumen with the world’s leading cloud technologies – across apps, data and security – empowers our customers to build new revenue streams, increase efficiency, and create incredible experiences,” said Jones in a statement. “Our new name, mission and multi-cloud solutions better represent the full value we bring to market.

“Our mission is simple. Embrace technology. Empower customers. Deliver the future,” Jones added.

This represents the latest change in Rackspace’s philosophy, and a history which has had its ups and downs, from being sold to Apollo Global Management for $4.3 billion in 2016 and going private, to installing three CEOs in two years. Taylor Rhodes was CEO at the time of the Apollo sale, before Joe Eazor took over in May 2017. Jones has been incumbent since April last year.

Under Eazor’s stewardship in particular, Rackspace made a concerted push towards managed services, with the acquisitions of TriCore Solutions and, most notably, MSP Datapipe, playing into that.

The move to managed services was a strategic gear change in itself with Rackspace fighting a losing battle on the cloud infrastructure front with the emergence of Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform. Gartner’s 2013 Magic Quadrant for cloud IaaS, for instance, placed Rackspace among a string of contenders, such as CSC – later to become DXC Technology after merging with HP Enterprise Services – and Verizon Terremark to challenge for leadership with Amazon Web Services well in front.

If managed cloud services was a route into helping customers run on other clouds, then multi-cloud can be seen as a progression of this. The name change, from Rackspace to Rackspace Technology, is subtle, but at the same time effective, representing a distinction of providing technology services rather than overarching cloud solutions.

These days, the Gartner Magic Quadrant which piques Rackspace Technology’s interest is for public cloud infrastructure professional and managed services. The company is one of 10, including big name consultants Accenture, Capgemini and Deloitte, placed as a leader.

Picture credit: Rackspace Technology

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