Rackspace Partners with F5 Networks

Rackspace uses F5 BIG-IP as basis for hybrid cloud solution.

Rackspace Hosting, a web hosting company, recently announced that it has selected BIG-IP products of F5 Networks, Inc., an Application Traffic Management provider, as the foundation for its Cloud Connect service. The company mentions that Cloud Connect is a hybrid architecture that allows customers to combine dedicated and cloud based hosting platforms. With an F5 BIG-IP solution, its customers can provision resources, secure and manage network traffic, and balance workloads in real time among the two environments.

It explains that Cloud Connect lets its customers to gain cloud computing benefits without having to rewrite their entire application to adapt to the cloud. The solution is particularly useful for companies that experience seasonal traffic spikes. The company offers its customers a full range of BIG-IP devices with Local Traffic Manager. The initial setup process connects the customer's dedicated servers to its cloud account, with BIG-IP products acting as a strategic control point between the environments. BIG-IP products automatically connect to dedicated resources, directing traffic to the appropriate application and web pools based on business requirements. It uses F5's open application programming interface solution, iControl, to automate connections between the dedicated and cloud environments.

The company says that Cloud Connect also enhances security as the iControl API contains features that prevent unauthorized access. User connections, data packets, and application data are routed through the BIG-IP device to and from the cloud environment, and are managed according to specific business policies.

"We chose BIG-IP as a cornerstone of Cloud Connect because with it, we can make our customers' dedicated servers and cloud environments communicate seamlessly with each other over a protected, private network," said Toby Owen, Product Manager for hybrid hosting solutions at Rackspace. "This solution does much more than provide a physical connection; it allows customers to take advantage of BIG-IP's intelligent traffic management capabilities between dedicated and cloud servers. Furthermore, BIG-IP has already proven itself as a reliable and cost effective component of our infrastructure."