Rackspace launches DevOps Automation Service

Cloud company Rackspace has introduced a managed service designed to build, operate and maintain software applications created in DevOps-oriented environments. Recently made available in Australia and New Zealand, the company says its DevOps Automation Service is designed to enable developers to get products and features to market faster by deploying, scaling and testing new configurations in hours rather than days.

Rackspace itself has guinea-pigged the solution says the company's Angus Dorney, director and general manager, Rackspace ANZ. "Rackspace lives and breathes the connected DevOps way of working, because that's the way our own teams collaborate. We've been through the process and have seen the benefits internally [and now] bring this experience and our service tools to our customers.

The DevOps Automation Service was created and refined in the North American and European markets and is now introduced to local companies.

Everyone loves automation (with the notable exception of labour unions) and Rackspace reckons its DevOps service can improve the quality of software deployments and create more frequent releases by consistently provisioning servers while minimising the mistakes associated with manual installation and configuration.

Rackspace says it has identified demand in Australia and New Zealand from organisations which 'very often face challenges when it comes to recruiting and training DevOps talent'. If that sounds like you, Rackspace wants to help.

Key features of its DevOps Automation Service include:

• Enhanced Infrastructure Automation –multi-server environments are now provisioned in minutes instead of the hours it previously took without automation tools.
• Managed Services –Rackspace designs, builds, configures, monitors and optimises the infrastructure, software stack and the automation tools.
• Support for Linux-based technologies –From application and infrastructure monitoring to MongoDB and MySQL database support including PHP, Python, Ruby, Java, Node.js, Ruby on Rails, MySQL, Elasticsearch, Memcached, Varnish, Redis, Rackspace Cloud Monitoring, RabbitMQ, and more.

Windows users, don't fret, Rackspace promises DevOps Automation for that platform 'soon'.