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Rackspace to resell and support Microsoft's Azure

OpenStack? Didn't we have something to do with that once?

Rackspace has announced it's now a reseller and support source for Microsoft's Azure cloud.

In years past Rackpace argued vigorously that an open cloud is the best way to do cloud. That stance made the company a big influence on and contributor to OpenStack. These days it's all about managed cloud, with the company's pledged very high levels of enthusiasm for support thrown behind whatever platform customers want and/or it thinks will allow it to turn a quid.

That plan's included cloudy Windows for a while, because if you wanted to run Redmondware on your Rackspace servers the company's been happy to help. So happy it has a few hundred staff versed in the operations of Microsoft's finest enterprise code. Those folks have spent 12 to 18 months preparing to ensure their skills are also applicable to Azure, hence today's gun-firing and grip-and-grinning among senior execs.

Rackspace will offer 24x7x365 Azure support by from Microsoft certified professionals. Before you get to that point, you might find the company's architectural guidance services useful to Azurify your apps.

Hybrid cloud is another offering: you'll be able to run up Windows in Rackspace and do the bursting elastic thing - in a good, cloudy, way – between Rackspace and Azure. SQL server support will also be in the mix.

Customers will be able to buy Azure and support, or just Azure.

Rackspace's Australian supremo Angus Dorney told The Reg the new blue-tinged services were developed in response to customer demand, represent a continuation of the company's ambition to become top dog in managed cloud services and reflect the fact that cloud pricing wars mean services are far more profitable than renting servers. Rackspace knows it didn't make it to the scale achieved by Microsoftt, AWS and Google so is building other businesses, with Azure the latest off the rank. ®

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