Rackspace, a multi-cloud MSP, has announced a strategic investment in Platform9, a SaaS managed Kubernetes provider for distributed cloud. The amount of the investment was not disclosed.
The two companies will collaborate on products, technologies and go-to-market activities, according to the company.
In the same announcement, the company unveiled its own Rackspace Managed Platform for Kubernetes (MPK), which is powered by Platform9.
Headquartered in Mountain View, California and founded in 2013, Platform9 has between 51 and 100 employees and has raised $74 million in funding, according to Crunchbase.
Rackspace’s Platform9 Investment: A Collaborative Offering
Sirish Raghuram, CEO of Platform9, commented:
“The investment from Rackspace Technology comes at a critical point as the industry moves closer to a multicloud and distributed clouds future. We are looking forward to working with the Rackspace Technology team to accelerate our customers’ cloud journeys. Platform9’s SaaS managed Kubernetes, paired with the Rackspace Technology team’s unmatched leadership in managed operations along with Fanatical Experience™ is a game-changer in distributed Kubernetes management.”
Taylor Bird, VP of technology strategy, Rackspace Technology:
“At Rackspace Technology and Platform9, we see the strain that transformation and growth puts on the ability for businesses to fully realize their cloud native strategy. It’s the often missing technical and cultural components necessary for success that inspired us to develop our first collaborative offering, Rackspace Managed Platform for Kubernetes.”
Rackspace’s Cloud Growth
Rackspace’s new MPK is designed for managing clusters across public and private clouds. The tool should fit into the company’s existing offering rather well, given Rackspace’s breadth of cloud experience. The Top 250 Public Cloud MSP has MSP expertise across AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and several other ecosystems.
Rackspace, acquired by private equity firm Apollo for $4.3 billion in 2016, has been buying MSP, cloud, SaaS application, security and automation expertise in recent years. Key buyouts have included RelationEdge, Datapipe, TriCore Solutions, and Onica.
