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Rackspace acquires Cloudkick, aims to be cloud service point guard

Rackspace has acquired Cloudkick in a move that will give the company software that can manage various cloud computing environments and automate them.
Written by Larry Dignan, Contributor

Rackspace has acquired Cloudkick in a move that will give the company software that can manage cloud computing environments and automate them.

Cloudkick, a San Francisco-based company, has more than 1,500 customers and has more than 1 million servers pass through its tools.

Cloudkick provides a dashboard that aims to better manage hybrid cloud shops. Cloudkick's can manage services on Amazon Web Services, Rackspace, GoGrid, Slicehost and other cloud providers with dashboards and visualization tools. Cloudkick was well received at the 2009 Under the Radar conference for filling a need. At that conference, Rackspace executives were vary interested in Cloudkick's plan to focus on cloud service provisioning as well as being a market maker.

Here's a screenshot of Cloudkick's dashboard, which allows customers to easily deploy and manage cloud environments.

For Rackspace, Cloudkick moves the company more into cloud management. Today, Rackspace is a hosting company that offers cloud services. With Cloudkick, Rackspace moves up a bit higher on the cloud stack. Cloudkick will also come in handy as Rackspace moves to blend its hosting and cloud services.

Earlier this week, Rackspace launched managed cloud services.

Lew Moorman, chief strategy officer for Rackspace, said that Cloudkick will help the company contain cloud sprawl. Since it's easier to provision servers in cloud and virtualized environments, infrastructure can proliferate. Moorman added that Cloudkick positions Rackspace as a cloud player going forward.

Terms of the deal weren't disclosed. Cloudkick will give Rackspace a larger presence in the San Francisco area, which has a bevy of current and potential customers.

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