The power of the Hybrid CloudA cautionary tale for IT folks and innovators

This is about BOLDnew things and the people who make them happen.

This is about innovation.And the stuff that makes it possible.

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People in companies have always had ideas.

But those ideas haven’t always made it to market.

One of the reasons that good ideas fizzle out and die is because they cost too much and take too long even to find out if they’re any good or not.

Old-school, data center technology is one of the reasons.

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(Think: servers, storage, networks, operating systems, maintenance, security, support, space, cooling, people, patches, backups… all this before anyone even whispers the words ‘App’ or ‘User’ or, god forbid, ‘Customer’.)

Then, a few years ago, something exciting and disruptive (in a good way) came along.

It was called the Public Cloud.And it looked like it would completely blow away

the old way of delivering apps and IT to businesses.(And helping innovators get their ideas to market.)

IT people loved the Public Cloud.Because it’s pay-as-you-go, infinitely scalable, has no up-front costs and takes all that over-heated kit out of the data center.

Innovators loved the Public Cloud.Because it means more ideas get to market faster and at lower cost. So you can find out what works without betting the company on it.

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But some of the early adopters have discovered a shadow cast across the lining of the Public Cloud…

They’ve discovered that they simply traded one locked-in model for another.

The Public Cloud that many people started with turns out to be an all-or-nothing proposition.It forces you to choose between a 100% traditional model or a 100% Cloud model. No matter what your specific need.

It’s built on a proprietary platform that one, big company owns. So they can name their own terms and change the platform at will. One size does not fit all.

And it’s a take-it-or-leave-it offer. With no support, little communication and no help if your app starts having problems. You design your app for their public cloud.

Lock in. Forced decisions. Proprietary platforms.

Not really what the promise of the Public Cloud was all about, is it?

Then a really, really goodthing happened.(Two things actually).

Two major innovations have restored the promise of the Public Cloud:The Open CloudAn alternative to lock-in and proprietary platforms.

The Hybrid CloudA bold new way to combine public, private and hosted models to suit who you are, where you are and what you want to do.These aren’t little things.They’re big.

And IT people – and the innovators they support – are leaping at the good things they offer.

Let’s take a (very) quick look at each one…

Open Cloud Hybrid Cloud

Open Cloud is, well… open.

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It’s built on OpenStack.

Like any truly public cloud, it’s a cloud operating system that controls large pools of computing, storage, and networking resources, all provisioned and managed through a web dashboard. (Phew!))

But, unlike proprietary public cloud platforms, it’s owned by the community. By thousands of vendors and hosting companies and developers*. By you.

*Names like Dell, Cisco, HP, IBM, AT&T, Ubuntu, Intel, Juniper, NetApp, VMware, Red Hat, Suse, Nebula, Ericsson, Yahoo!, Avaya, EMC… and Rackspace.

Watch our video to learn more about Rackspace and the OpenStack project

Open is better.

Because you can move your cloud any time you like.You can switch vendors easily.Or move the whole stack closer to your customers in, say, China.

Or take it all back in-house to your data center.

Or work across multiple OpenStack providers (for commercial, technical or regulatory reasons).And you can do all that without needing to re-architect everything.

Because, after all, it’s yours.

As you might expect, IT people and innovators are pretty excited about the Open Cloud.But they’re even more excited about the other big development…

The Hybrid Cloud.Public cloud.Private cloud.Dedicated hardware (in 3rd party data centres or in yours).

There are strengths and weaknesses to each of these.

The Hybrid Cloud is all about combining these into the ideal solution for your app, your idea, your innovation and your company. (Makes sense, doesn’t it?)

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It’s a simple idea.Each application has its own service level needs, usage patterns and regulatory implications.

Each has a different level of integration with the rest of your business.

Each has different demands for scale, security and performance.

The Hybrid Cloud gives you the power to choose the best-fit platform for each application and situation.

And change that mix as things change.(Which things tend to do).

It’s a powerful idea.But you can’t get it if you lock yourself into a provider that can only do one flavour of Cloud and can’t help with dedicated hosting options – much less combine them all.

A moment of silence, please.Think about what happens when Open Cloud and Hybrid Cloud comes together.

[Still thinking?]

Yeah. We know.This is HUGE.

You get all the Public Cloud benefits.Pay-as-you-go, no up front investment, instant scalability.

Total flexibility So you can match the platform to the app. And change it anytime. With no lock in and no need to re-architect everything.

Control.You – not your provider – choose the platform mix. You can move to another Open Cloud provider any time.

Why you should care about all this.Open and Hybrid do wonderful things when attached to the word ‘Cloud’:

So it’s the best of all worlds. The security of dedicated servers. The scale and elasticity of cloud.

The freedom to do whatever the hell you like. Without your platform provider locking you down.

That’s why you should care about all this.

It’s not really about IT at all.It’s about bold, new things and the people who make them happen.

It’s about innovation.And a completely new approach to IT platforms that makes new ideas not just possible but affordable, testable, scalable and portable.

Open Hybrid Cloud.One small step for a cloud.One giant leap for cloud-kind.

Thanks for listening.

Did we mention we’re Rackspace?Well we are.Together with NASA, we invented OpenStack.

And we deliver on its promise through our Open Cloud and Hybrid Cloud solutions.

And back it all with the Fanatical Support™ that we’ve become famous for.(It’s not just a slogan, it’s a deep culture of going the extra mile: ask any Rackspace customer.)

Open Cloud and Hybrid Cloud are big ideas.Put Fanatical Support behind them and there’s nothing you can’t accomplish.

Tell us what you need and we’ll help you take the next step and deliver the next innovation.

Want to learn more about all this?Good. We’ve got plenty of stuff for you:

The Cloud Innovators resource website Full of stories about enterprise innovators like you and the cool things they get up to.

The Disruptive CloudAn eBook about innovation and the Threshold of Viability that determines whether a new idea lives or dies.

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The Hybrid Cloud storyAn introduction to the Rackspace Hybrid Cloud.

The OpenStack communityThe growing global community of OpenStack innovators.

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