According to Rackspace CTO John Engates, the dedicated VMware VCenter Servers will allow customers to migrate VMware workloads from their data centers to Rackspace facilities.
Rackspace on Tuesday rolled out plans to add VMware vCenter Servers to its managed virtualization services. The move, which will allow Rackspace to support single-tenant VMware vCenter Servers, Rackspace adds a key building block for its hybrid cloud push.
The company is aiming to be in position to be the leading hybrid cloud provider. Hybrid clouds are a mix of hosted, public and private flavors in enterprise infrastructure. The reality is most businesses will mix and match cloud varieties.
According to Rackspace CTO John Engates, the dedicated VMware VCenter Servers will allow customers to migrate VMware workloads from their data centers to Rackspace facilities. Tools such as VMware's console will be available with the exception of vCloud Director.
"Previously we could use VMware to create virtual servers, but couldn't expose the VMware environment and console directly," explained Engates. "This will be one of the key pillars for the hybrid cloud."
The VMware news comes a few weeks after Rackspace said it would offer free migration services to the company's hybrid cloud. Rackspace's hosted VMware environment will mirror a customer's data centers and use the same vCenter APIs and tools. Rackspace's portfolio of hybrid cloud services include hosting, dedicated VMware servers and OpenStack cloud services.
Rackspace executives outlined the traction for the hybrid cloud on its second quarter earnings conference call.
Engates said that Rackspace will be focused on connecting its various hybrid cloud services together with more integration and automation via its RackConnect. "We will be bringing these all together, but we have more work to do," said Engates.