LONDON, 18 December 2012 - Using open source cloud technology boosts innovation according a new report by Rackspace, the open cloud company. Almost three quarters (74 per cent) of those organisations using open source cloud technology stated that it makes their business more innovative. 

Cost efficiency, vendor neutrality and scalability were stated as the main benefits that help to drive this innovation by 65 per cent, 52 per cent and 37 per cent respectively.

Rackspace CTO John Engates commented: “Open source platforms, such as OpenStack have a long history of powering collaboration and development on technology platforms including PC’s and mobile devices.  Extending this open source community to the cloud is vital to driving innovation around cloud services and applications. By choosing the open cloud, businesses are not locked into a single vendor’s pace of innovation. Instead they can work with a rich, vendor neutral community of nearly 7,000 developers and experts in 87 countries to create a new generation of cloud powered services that will help them grow their businesses.”

UK Businesses Embrace Open Cloud
The independent study conducted by Vanson Bourne, which surveyed IT managers from 250 UK enterprise and public sector organisations that currently outsource IT services also found that the benefits associated with open source technology are encouraging greater adoption. 

Well over half (56 per cent) of those using open source cloud says their usage is increasing. This was particularly marked in the retail and financial services sectors (70 per cent) and (69 per cent) both noting a significant increase in open source cloud adoption.

Among the main open cloud benefits stated by all sectors was lower total cost of ownership, no vendor lock in, the ability to move applications between different clouds and being able to run internal and external clouds on the same, open standards.

Businesses need to prioritise collaboration between cloud ecosystems
The research also highlighted the fact that we are moving towards a future where organisations use multiple clouds, with over 50 per cent of respondents already admitting to working with two or more cloud providers. 

However, almost a third (28 per cent) of these respondents either cannot or don't know if they can host their information and applications on multiple clouds. 


Engates concludes: “As the cloud continues to grow in importance, multiple clouds will become increasingly commonplace. It is therefore vital that applications deployed in different clouds can ‘talk’ to each other and those of partners and customers. Open source platforms provide the easiest way of enabling this collaboration in addition to enabling businesses to avoid vendor lock. By choosing an open cloud solution, businesses avoid being locked-in to one technology and gain the freedom to move their data and applications between, public, private and hybrid cloud models as required.”

ENDS

Notes to editors
The research was carried out by research company Vanson Bourne, in September 2012, and surveyed 250 IT managers from 250 UK organisations which currently outsource IT services. Read the report here.

About Us

Rackspace® Hosting (NYSE: RAX) is the open cloud company, delivering open technologies and powering more than 190,000 customers worldwide. Rackspace provides its renowned Fanatical Support® across a broad portfolio of IT products, including Public Cloud, Private Cloud, Hybrid Hosting and Dedicated Hosting. The company offers choice, flexibility and freedom from vendor lock in. Rackspace has been recognised by Bloomberg BusinessWeek as a Top 100 Performing Technology Company and is featured on Sunday Times list of 100 Best Companies to Work For. Rackspace was positioned in the Leaders Quadrant by Gartner Inc. in the “2011 Magic Quadrant for Managed Hosting.”

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 Hosting 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 expected development, performance or market acceptance associated with the Rackspace open cloud platform and the products and services offered on that platform; anticipated operational and financial benefits from the Rackspace open cloud platform and the products and services offered on that platform; any statements of expectation or belief; and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include including the possibility that expected benefits from the Rackspace open cloud platform and the products and services offered on that platform may not materialize because the product is not generally accepted in the marketplace, which could occur due to certain factors including (i) a failure to market the product cost effectively, differentiate the platform, products and services from competitive platforms, products and services or communicate differentiations effectively, (ii) the reliability, quality or compatibility associated with the platform, products or services, (iii) changes in technology which adversely affect the benefits of the product, (iv) slowdowns in the general economy or technology industry that impact consumer spending habits, (v) internal strategy decisions that impact the platform, products and services, and (vi) and other risks that are described in Rackspace Hosting’s Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2012, filed with the SEC on November 7, 2012. 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.