Demand for open source cloud technologies is so strong that multiple vendors, including IBM, HP, Dell and Red Hat among others, are all building OpenStack-based cloud solutions. All those vendors are also potential commercial rivals to Rackspace’s cloud business.
“I think it’s good for the ecosystem that these other companies are out there and from a distance, I think they seem to be doing well,” Napier said. “We serve a chunk of the Fortune 1000, but we don’t serve all of them. So I think there’s plenty of room for these other companies to be making traction there as well.