Top RackSpace OpenStack Evangelists Move to MetaCloud
Scott Sanchez and Niki Acosta are two of the world’s most popular OpenStack evangelists. Since RackSpace helped found the OpenStack platform back in 2005, it made sense for the pair to work for the company who helped spur OpenStack innovation. As of today, Sanchez and Acosta have resigned from RackSpace to take on new roles at another champion of OpenStack: Metacloud.
Sanchez’s new role at Metacloud will be Vice President of Strategy. Acosta will assume the role of Director of Evangelism. While Metacloud is headquartered in Pasadena, California, Acosta and Sanchez won’t need to leave the state of Texas which is where RackSpace is headquartered. Metacloud recently opened a new office in Austin, Texas and the pair will be based from this location.
Metacloud embraces OpenStack religiously which is why these two roles are pivotal. OpenStack has received a reputation within the cloud community as being difficult to implement and administrate. Metacloud’s job is to change this perception. Metacloud mentions that it does the “Heavy lifting” associated with running an OpenStack cloud. This allows organizations to focus on development versus cloud administration.
The timing of the move leaves some to question the direction of RackSpace going forward. On October 29th, 2013 RackSpace’s stock was trading around $53 per share. Today, RackSpace’s stock quote is in the $37 per share range. Other shake ups have occurred inside of RackSpace such as Lanham Napier leaving his post as CEO and Lew Moorman resigning as President of the company. It was recently reported that RackSpace has contracted Morgan Stanley in regards to possible buyout options.
This begs the question: Is the ship sinking at RackSpace? From an outsider’s perspective, it seems as if this is case but without being on the inside, it’s hard to know for sure. Recently, Scott Sanchez and Niki Acosta participated in an interview at the 2014 OpenStack Summit held in Atlanta. The 23 minute long interview is available on YouTube and it details the future of OpenStack and to some extent, RackSpace as well.
