Based on OpenStack Essex release, on August 01, 2012, Rackspace officially launched Open Cloud.

Whether you agree with the media arguments pro- and against OpenStack as being the Linux for the Cloud, one issue gets addressed: Rackspace Open Cloud quells competitors' and critics' assertions that OpenStack has not been implemented in major deployments.

Rackspace Open Cloud is available hosted at Rackspace public datacenter(s) and alternatively as a download, GNU/Linux Ubuntu-based ISO image, that you can burn to a DVD and subsequently create your own private cloud in your own premises. There is also the option of a so called Hybrid Cloud, where Rackspace hand-holds you in extending your private cloud fabric to that of Rackspace public cloud.

After selecting Dallas or Chicago datacenter(s), next generation cloud server images in Rackspace OpenStack Essex are created automagically in 10 to 20 minutes of specification. The GNU/Linux distributions start with Arch 2011.10, CentOS 5.6/6.0/6.2/6.3, Debian 6 (stable), Fedora 16/17, Gentoo 11.0, openSuSE 12.1, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5/6.1, Ubuntu 10.04 LTS/11.04/11.10/12.04 LTS, as well as Windows Server 2008.

The RAM that can be allocated ranges from the lowest 512 MB with 20 GB of disk storage to maximum 30 GB with 1.2 TB of respective storage. Of course, the cost varies upon the resources public compute, storage, and free/proprietary operating system used: price list.

Evidently Metztli IT is here to guide or help you if you need assistance in your cloud planning or solution, alternatively, contact Rackspace if you need support for your private cloud implementation and/or hybrid cloud solution.