Rackspace pumps up the cloud for resellers

Rackspace Hosting, a leader in hosting and cloud computing, has announced that its cloud-based applications division has plans to restructure its reseller programme to emphasise the company's commitment to channel partners through increased revenue opportunities, new training and marketing resources, and an expanded product portfolio.

The announcement follows recent updates from Rackspace to boost partner programmes for managed services and The Rackspace Cloud to aggressively grow the company's presence in the channel.

Rackspace has seen significant growth in the hosted e-mail and applications channel, nearly doubling the number of resellers in the last year, and prompting the first Email & Apps Reseller Conference, in Atlanta, Georgia.

New plans for the Email & Apps channel programme provide resellers more opportunity for recurring revenue, a tiered structure with mounting benefits to reward growth, the ability to set prices and margins, and additional marketing/training resources to help channel partners grow their businesses.

To support this new approach, Rackspace has also already begun investing in training and marketing resources for channel partners, providing new white-labelled collateral that partners can brand and use for their marketing campaigns. Resellers also have access to monthly sales force training, educational “Webinars” and materials, and Rackspace's well-known Fanatical Support.

“We see expansion into vertical markets as a big opportunity for the Rackspace cloud computing business,” said Pat Matthews, GM of the Rackspace Email & Apps division. “We really believe in our channel partner strategy and our partners who already possess the expertise and networks to best represent our offerings in these markets. In exchange, we are striving to offer our partners every competitive advantage and revenue opportunity, whether it is new products, high quality marketing resources, or providing the Fanatical Support they need to succeed.”

In the last six months, Rackspace has introduced several new products that present resellers with more opportunity than ever to increase revenue through existing customer up-sells and bundled solutions. In addition to its proprietary Rackspace Email platform, hosted Microsoft Exchange, and mobile solutions, Rackspace now offers Email Archiving, hosted Microsoft SharePoint, and expected to come soon for resellers, Rackspace Cloud Drive and Server Backup.