Ian Kerr (Rackspace)
Managed cloud provider Rackspace is planting its flag in New Zealand, opening a new office in Auckland.
The company, which appointed Ian Kerr as its country manager last month, said the expansion would see greater customer care in the region, particularly at a time when organisations are looking to cloud solutions for greater efficiencies and disaster recovery.
With 119 customers already in New Zealand, including the likes of Kathmandu and Carters, Rackspace said it could now offer additional support to its existing customer network and foster and strengthen new channel relationships.
Formerly of Microsoft, where he led that company's relationship with Datacom, Kerr has worked for over 30 years in the IT industry, including stints at IBM, Dimension Data and Fujitsu.
Kerr said, in his experience, the New Zealand channel ecosystem, as a whole, already did a great job and there were some great partners available.
"There is, however, an opportunity for New Zealand customers to gain access to the vast capabilities and skill-sets that Rackspace has developed globally over our 20 years," he said.
Rackspace had a significant and unique global channel program for vendors and resellers to leverage, he said, not only solutions but also a full suite services across its public cloud partnerships.
It could speak openly, as an unbiased strategic advisor, on the best cloud platforms for specific business needs.
"We are also focused on building relationships with any vendors or resellers who would like to take the Rackspace solutions to market either directly or in collaboration with us throughout New Zealand," Kerr said.
Rackspace, which incorporated a local subsidiary in December, would also be looking to employ more local talent to help support businesses as they transform, pivot and rebuild from the COVID-19 outbreak.
Top of the list would be a cloud solution architects and customer success managers, Kerr said.
“This investment demonstrates Rackspace’s ongoing commitment to its customers to offer more comprehensive and tailored managed services."
Rackspace's A/NZ managing director Sean Girvin said the expansion would enable Rackspace to bring some of the country’s greatest tech minds together and to continue delivering exceptional experiences to customers.
The Auckland office is part of the company’s overall strategy to increase its customer base in the professional services industry globally by 2021, Girvin said.
The new office would complement Rackspace’s current APJ locations across Australia, Hong Kong, India, Japan and Singapore.
Rackspace was launched in 1998 as a hosting company and grew fast to list on the New York Stock Exchange in 2008. It was bought for US$4.3 billion by Apollo Global Management in 2016 and then taken private.
It has been a major contributor to, and user of, the OpenStack cloud computing platform.
