Rackspace launches cloud consultancy service while firing staff

Hot on the heels of a global haircut of its workforce, Rackspace is moving into the professional services space as it chases those "digital transformation" pennies.

It's calling the new thing "Global Solutions and Services", or GSS, and will ostensibly be offering access to its architects and engineers to customers to "plan, assess, design, migrate, manage and optimise their journey to the cloud", etc.

Somewhat more interestingly, Rackspace will do this regardless of the cloud infrastructure that customers choose, proudly boasting that it "has earned the highest level of partner certification from Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, and recently announced a strategic relationship with Google Cloud to become its first managed services support partner for Google Cloud Platform (GCP)" too.

The move was on the cards. Following the announcement of Jeff Cotten as company president, the newly private Rackspace has promised more professional services in support of public clouds and VMware as it enters a tipping point year.

Previously, Pund-IT principal analyst Charles King told The Register that the $4.3bn acquisition of Rackspace, completed in November 2016 by private equity firm Apollo Global Management, was unlikely to have a "serious impact on the company's customers".

"Rackspace has been pivoting away from its original cloud platform business for years to focus on providing high-end OpenStack services and consulting. That strategy doesn't seem likely to change in the short term," said King. "Plus, given the $4.3bn price of the deal, it'd be idiotic if Apollo did anything to undermine Rackspace's existing business or upset customers." ®