Rackspace Offers Free iPad App for Cloud Server Management

Capitalizing on the popularity of the new Apple product, Rackspace Hosting (rackspace.com) has released the first application for the new iPad that lets developers monitor and manage their servers on the Rackspace Cloud.

According to Rackspace's Tuesday announcement, the Rackspace Cloud Pro app, available for free in Apple's marketplace, lets users turn on backups for a server, create new servers from backups, manage back-up scheduling, re-boot, rename, resize and delete servers -- all using the iPad's intuitive touchscreen interface.

From their iPad, users can monitor the system status of the entire Rackspace Cloud and the US and UK Rackspace support numbers. They can also ping the public IP address for a Cloud Server to see how responsive their server is from wherever they are located. Beyond just a novelty, Cloud Pro for iPad frees IT staff from their desktops by offering enterprise-quality server control and functionality on the go.

"It's amazing to think about how the iPad tablet and Cloud Servers can lower the entry barriers for web start-ups everywhere because they no longer have to make large investments in hardware to get their businesses going," Rackspace Hosting developer Mike Mayo said in a statement. "I also believe the mobility and functionality made possible by the iPad and The Rackspace Cloud will change the way we work because we are now unchained from our desktops and offices. You can control your servers from wherever you are -- in a meeting, at dinner or at the beach!"

The Rackspace Cloud features open APIs and the company encourages developers to build tools and applications to enhance its cloud with community-driven features and functionality. Using this open framework, Mayo headed the building of the iPad app, as well as a mobile cloud management application for the iphone released in September 2009. Rackspace has also open sourced the specifications for its Cloud Servers and Cloud Files APIs under the Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution license.

"As we build out our cloud, we expect to become more visible around the issues of openness, data access and customer choice," stated Lew Moorman, President Cloud and Chief Strategy Officer, Rackspace Hosting. "Our goal is to allow our customers to be able to choose the services, applications, databases and OSs they want to use in a non-proprietary environment without the fear of being locked into one particular cloud. Our Cloud Server mobile management capability for the iPad is the latest example of Rackspace's leadership in driving open cloud innovation."

In its ongoing commitment to contributing to open cloud standards, Rackspace is engaged in several significant community initiatives including the development of open source databases such as Cassandra and Drizzle.