Why Open Compute Is a Win For Rackspace 46
1sockchuck writes "Cloud provider Rackspace is looking to the emerging open source hardware ecosystem to transform its data centers. The cloud provider spends $200 million a year on servers and storage, and sees the Open Compute Project as the key to reducing its costs on hardware design and operations. Rackspace is keen on the potential of the new Open Rack program, and its buying power is motivating HP and Dell to develop for the new standard — partly because Rackspace has also been talking with original design manufacturers like Quantra and Wistron. It's an early look at how open source hardware could have a virtuous impact on the server economy. 'I think the OEMs were not very interested (in Open Compute) initially,' said Rackspace COO Mark Roenigk. 'But in the last six months they have become really focused.'"
Re:Open source software makes sense. (Score:2, Interesting)
Remains to be seen how well it works at the big corporate leve
That does not remain to be seen, it already has been seen to work well in many cases. Here [fpgarelated.com] is just one of many credible links to substantiate that.
It is no longer a question of "if" but "how much". The only reason open source hardware is not exploding at the same rate as open source software is, the toolchains are more effectively locked down. That is partly because the open source software community has not fully focused on the problem yet, and partly because of arguably illegal barriers to entry erected by toolchain vendors. But of course, tearing those down is part of the fun.
Re:Open source software makes sense. (Score:4, Interesting)
Good luck supporting it like HP, Dell or Cisco does.
This.
A number of years ago I was involved in supporting some hardware in a ski resort a few hours outside of Denver. One snowy night a piece of gear failed and the service contract said 'replace it in three hours.' Sure enough, 2.5 hours later headlights appeared on the snowy road as the tech showed up with the replacement part, which he installed.