Item: Rackspace Managed Hosting
Rating: 8
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Rackspace for their OpenStack hosting. This allows us to run our automation in the cloud and on-prem the same. The benefit is tremendous as we don't have to write two sets of deployment logic and automation.

Pros and Cons

OpenStack
Support
DNS
AutoSaving

Lack of features compared to other clouds
More support for tools that expose the API to end users like ansible and terraform
The workflow can sometimes be buggy.

Most Important Features

OpenStack hosting
Great support
Low costs

Return on Investment

Lowered costs compared to other cloud providers
Had an unexpected knowledge gap cost
Had an unexpected DRY payoff with hybrid cloud infrastructure

Alternatives Considered

AWS Auto Scaling, Azure DNS, Azure Virtual Machines, Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) and Mirantis OpenStack for Kubernetes

RackSpace is in its own category. It's not really a direct competitor with the above. It seems to be hitting the gap between costs and effectiveness. They allow exposure to APIs in the same typical methods as other major providers and support most major tooling, albeit in a less effective way.

Key Insights

Do you think Rackspace Managed Hosting delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Rackspace Managed Hosting's feature set?

Yes

Did Rackspace Managed Hosting live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Rackspace Managed Hosting go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Rackspace Managed Hosting again?

Yes

Likelihood to Recommend

RackSpace is terrific for the budget-conscious enterprise-level cloud experience. If you're willing to put the effort in the payoff is tremendous especially if using a hybrid cloud model. That being said the experience and knowledge are rarely transferrable to other jobs. If you're looking for hosted OpenStack look no further.

Usability

The company does not put as much focus on usability as other cloud competitors and it is kind of clear. It would be good to take a quarter and gather intense feedback, and then another quarter and focus purely on UI enhancements and backend interoperability.

Usability Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Feel confident using	Do not like to use Requires technical support Inconsistent Slow to learn Cumbersome Lots to learn

Rackspace hits the sweet spot between price, reliability, and usability.

Overall Satisfaction with Rackspace Managed Hosting