Why Open Compute Is a Win For Rackspace

1sockchuck writes "Cloud provider Rackspace is looking to the emerging open source hardware ecosystem to transform its data centers. The cloud provider spends $200 million a year on servers and storage, and sees the Open Compute Project as the key to reducing its costs on hardware design and operations. Rackspace is keen on the potential of the new Open Rack program, and its buying power is motivating HP and Dell to develop for the new standard — partly because Rackspace has also been talking with original design manufacturers like Quantra and Wistron. It's an early look at how open source hardware could have a virtuous impact on the server economy. 'I think the OEMs were not very interested (in Open Compute) initially,' said Rackspace COO Mark Roenigk. 'But in the last six months they have become really focused.'"

Comments

Re:Open source software makes sense.

[CohibaVancouver]

Good luck supporting it like HP, Dell or Cisco does.

This.

A number of years ago I was involved in supporting some hardware in a ski resort a few hours outside of Denver. One snowy night a piece of gear failed and the service contract said 'replace it in three hours.' Sure enough, 2.5 hours later headlights appeared on the snowy road as the tech showed up with the replacement part, which he installed.