Rackspace announces in their press-release an intent to acquire Datapipe. And in the now almost obligatory blog post, their CEO explains why this is a good fit. Rackspace will complete the deal in Q4 2017, subject to regulatory approval.
Datapipe will provide Rackspace with additional hosting capacity, several public sector customers in both the US and Europe, and professional services expertise. Datapipe also provides managed services on the Alibaba Cloud in China.
The capacity is in areas where Rackspace has had little or no presence. The Datapipe locations are in Brazil, China and Russia. Rackspace gains access to new markets as well as additional capacity on the West Coast of the United States.
Joe Eazor, CEO, Rackspace.
“Our customers are looking for help as they spread their applications across public and private clouds, managed hosting, and colocation, depending on the blend of performance, agility, control, security, and cost-efficiency they’re seeking. With the acquisition of Datapipe, we’re very pleased to expand the multi-cloud managed services we provide our customers, while also opening doors to new opportunities across the globe.”
This will be the largest acquisition in Rackspace’s history. There are implied concerns within the blog about maintaining Rackspace (and Datapipe’s) reputation for customer service. The blog makes special mention that they “will lead a thoughtful and thorough integration process”.
The deal will make Rackspace the leading provider of multi-cloud managed services. Rackspace will support all the hyperscale platforms, covering Alibaba Cloud, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure.
They also continue to be the leading global provider of managed hosting and private cloud solutions, especially as Datapipe brings public-sector customers like the US government’s Treasury Department, Department of Defense, and the UK government’s Ministry of Justice and Department of Transport. Datapipe also brings large enterprise customers such as Johnson & Johnson, McDonald’s and Rubbermaid to the Rackspace stable.