Using open source cloud technology boosts innovation according a new report by Rackspace, the open cloud company. Almost three quarters (74 per cent) of those organisations using open source cloud technology stated that it makes their business more innovative.

Cost efficiency, vendor neutrality and scalability were stated as the main benefits that help to drive this innovation by 65 per cent, 52 per cent and 37 per cent respectively.

Rackspace CTO John Engates commented: “Open source platforms, such as OpenStack have a long history of powering collaboration and development on technology platforms including PC’s and mobile devices. Extending this open source community to the cloud is vital to driving innovation around cloud services and applications. By choosing the open cloud, businesses are not locked into a single vendor’s pace of innovation. Instead they can work with a rich, vendor neutral community of nearly 7,000 developers and experts in 87 countries to create a new generation of cloud powered services that will help them grow their businesses.”

UK Businesses Embrace Open Cloud

The independent study conducted by Vanson Bourne, which surveyed IT managers from 250 UK enterprise and public sector organisations that currently outsource IT services also found that the benefits associated with open source technology are encouraging greater adoption.

Well over half (56 per cent) of those using open source cloud says their usage is increasing. This was particularly marked in the retail and financial services sectors (70 per cent) and (69 per cent) both noting a significant increase in open source cloud adoption.

Among the main open cloud benefits stated by all sectors was lower total cost of ownership, no vendor lock in, the ability to move applications between different clouds and being able to run internal and external clouds on the same, open standards.

Businesses need to prioritise collaboration between cloud ecosystems

The research also highlighted the fact that we are moving towards a future where organisations use multiple clouds, with over 50 per cent of respondents already admitting to working with two or more cloud providers.

However, almost a third (28 per cent) of these respondents either cannot or don't know if they can host their information and applications on multiple clouds.

Engates concludes: “As the cloud continues to grow in importance, multiple clouds will become increasingly commonplace. It is therefore vital that applications deployed in different clouds can ‘talk’ to each other and those of partners and customers. Open source platforms provide the easiest way of enabling this collaboration in addition to enabling businesses to avoid vendor lock. By choosing an open cloud solution, businesses avoid being locked-in to one technology and gain the freedom to move their data and applications between, public, private and hybrid cloud models as required.”

ENDS

Notes to editors

The research was carried out by research company Vanson Bourne, in September 2012, and surveyed 250 IT managers from 250 UK organisations which currently outsource IT services.

Read the report here

About Rackspace

Rackspace® Hosting (NYSE: RAX) is the open cloud company, delivering open technologies and powering more than 197,000 customers worldwide. Rackspace provides its renowned Fanatical Support® across a broad portfolio of IT products, including Public Cloud, Private Cloud, Hybrid Hosting and Dedicated Hosting. The company offers choice, flexibility and freedom from vendor lock in. Rackspace has been recognised by Bloomberg BusinessWeek as a Top 100 Performing Technology Company and is featured on the Sunday Times list of 100 Best Companies to Work For. Rackspace was positioned in the Leaders Quadrant by Gartner Inc. in the “2011 Magic Quadrant for Managed Hosting.” For more information, visit www.rackspace.co.uk

Forward-Looking Statements

This Press Release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If such risks or uncertainties materialize or such assumptions prove incorrect, the results of Rackspace Hosting could differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including any statements relating to expected or predicted behaviors of consumers and the impact of cloud computing, open source cloud platforms or OpenStack; any statements of expectation or belief directly relating to Rackspace business derived from the survey results; and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include a substantial margin of error in the survey results, inconsistencies in respondent's understanding and Rackspace's analysis of survey questions and results, the possibility that expected benefits from any shift in consumer behavior may not materialize as expected; the achievement of expected operational results from any shift in consumer behavior; and other risks that are described in Rackspace Hosting's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the third quarter 2012 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on November 7, 2012. Except as required by law, Rackspace assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements publicly, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.