
Rackspace lays off 200 locals in company-wide cuts - bluedino
https://therivardreport.com/rackspace-lays-off-200-locals-in-companywide-cuts/
======
AlexB138
This is another in a series of layoffs over the last year or two. They've
tried to keep them relatively quiet.

They've reimagined the company as providing support on third-party platforms,
namely AWS and Azure, instead of focusing on building, selling and supporting
their own offerings. That model requires significantly fewer employees. That
change, coupled with the buyout, means that there's no surprise in seeing
layoffs at Rackspace, and there are likely more to come.

I'm a former Racker.

~~~
godzillabrennus
Private equality bought Rackspace out. Layoffs are part of that playbook. They
basically pump cash in to grow sales, while cutting costs, so they can chop it
up and sell it off for a multiple of what they paid for it.

~~~
forgetsusername
So why aren't the sellers before PE and buyers after PE aware of the fact that
no value is being added by PE in the interim, and hence sell cheaply and
overpay?

Why is it so obvious to you, but not these other people? How does this charade
perpetuate? Maybe there _is_ value in there somewhere?

~~~
toyg
People selling to PE can usually see the writing on the wall, so they're eager
to leave with whatever cash they can still get. That makes for low prices.

Buyers always think that they have some insight about the business that can
materialise some yet-unrealised potential. You've probably done it yourself a
few times, "if only Company X did this and that, instead of what they're doing
now -- they'd make loads!". Everyone knows PE don't know how to run businesses
beyond the basics, so buyers will always see untapped potential. That makes
for high prices.

~~~
icebraining
Why aren't the sellers and buyers meeting directly?

------
andrew_wc_brown
My last Rackspace experience was awful. We signed with them because they said
they had the ability to mitigate DDOS attacks. A competitor of ours was trying
to push os of out business with downtime.

We told them the strength of the DDOS attacks and they said they could
mitigate it. We signed a contract, got DDOS and we were null routed by them. I
got to talk to one of their techs and they said they couldn't actually
mitigate DDOS attacks of that strength. He told us to use DDOS Arrest which
worked. So they lied about their ability to mitigate DDOS and were stuck with
this expensive 2 year contract.

Then a month later our site went down for 48 hours, and it was because they
had a dead router in their internal network, but they insisted nothing was
wrong and I had to debug the issue myself to get them to find the issue.

------
michaelbuckbee
My last experience with Rackspace was I think emblematic of their new
direction.

They got into doing AWS consulting and sold the startup I was working for an
AWS setup that was about 100x too large and overengineered for their static
site.

Prior, I had used them for a number of projects and always found them to be
professional and helpful. I think the old Rackspace is gone.

~~~
debt
Unfortunately, ain't no money in little "projects".

------
mavelikara
For those wondering - "locals" here means people working at Rackspace
headquarters at Windcrest, TX.

~~~
snug
Maybe more like San Antonio, Texas. Does Windcrest even have 200 people? :)

~~~
jimmywanger
Well, Windcrest is a subset of San Antonio, Texas. Which happens to be where
the Castle (corp HQ) is located.

~~~
AlexB138
Being incredibly pedantic here, but it's actually not. San Antonio almost
entirely surrounds Windcrest, but Windcrest is a separate city. There are a
few places like this in San Antonio. The city chose not to incorporate these
areas.

I know this because I worked at Rackspace, and one of the larger means of
income for the city of Windcrest is semi-bogus traffic tickets given to people
coming and going from Rackspace headquarters.

~~~
cwyers
I love false pedantry. Windcrest is part of the San Antonio Metropolitan
Survey Area:

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_San_Antonio](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_San_Antonio)

~~~
andrewem
I can't tell if you're trying to troll here, but the comment you're replying
to said Windcrest is a separate city (it is, with a Mayor and City Council,
per
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windcrest,_Texas](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windcrest,_Texas)),
and you reply that it's part of the San Antonio MSA, which is true but not
what was being discussed.

I didn't ever live in or near San Antonio (or Windcrest!), but I did live in
Austin and Houston so I am familiar with the Texas phenomenon of cities
entirely or almost entirely surrounded by much larger cities. For instance,
near Houston there's Bellaire and West University Place.

~~~
cwyers
Not trolling.

The comment being replied to said "Well, Windcrest is a subset of San Antonio,
Texas." Not "the city of San Antonio, Texas." Both officially and
unofficially, San Antonio is the name of not just an incorporated city, but of
the metropolitan area of which it's the largest city. When you say that the
metro area, as opposed to the city, was "not what was being discussed," that
was an assumption the comment I replied to was making. But nowhere is that
said in the comment that started this thread.

The principle of charity
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_charity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_charity))
"requires interpreting a speaker's statements to be rational and, in the case
of any argument, considering its best, strongest possible interpretation." The
interpretation of the statement being replied to that makes it true is "Well,
Windcrest is a subset of the San Antonio, Texas metro area." The "pedantic"
comment I was replying to ignored that possible interpretation in favor of an
interpretation that made the comment false. But why not interpret the comment
in such a way that it's true, given that there's a very common way of reading
that (San Antonio the metro area) where it's so?

------
neom
Apparently the weekend weather man was correct. :)

RS will do really well as a services business, lots of fortune business that
need to migrate to software-defined infrastructure.

------
ourmandave
I just hope this doesn't eventually mothball the RHEL/Centos IUS repo.

[http://ius.io](http://ius.io)

Which, while not officially supported by Rackspace, was started there, is
sponsored by, and is currently maintained by them.

------
VeejayRampay
We're using Rackspace Cloud Files. If they ever end up shutting down or
something, what are our alternatives? We mainly use Rackspace Cloud Files CDN
to deliver assets to our clients (JS, CSS, images).

~~~
leesalminen
Fellow RS Cloud Files customer here.

We're moving a lot of files over to Google Cloud Storage (Nearline) as well as
full backups to Coldline storage.

Nearline storage is 1/10 the cost of cloud files. Lifecycle policy is very
handy for automatic file rotation. Command line is slick.

Rsync was a total lifesaver in the migration. Moved 4TB of files over 26 ish
hours.

------
unclebucknasty
Funny that AWS support is a growing business for them.

We actually gave up managed bare metal hosting with another provider for AWS a
few years ago, when we found that AWS's automated infrastructure had reached a
point wherein self-management was a viable option at a much lower cost.

Granted, our installation is straightforward, but overall, it seems AWS would
reduce the need for managed services.

~~~
toyg
_> our installation is straightforward_

Speaking from an enterprise point of view, that makes all the difference. A
lot of companies will have mishmashes of different systems with one-off setups
that are not worth the effort of automating.

The main selling point of AWS, from an enterprise perspective, is to shift
costs in the right balance-sheet column, lower build times, and lower
headcount because you can cut the hardware boys. Everything else (automation
etc) is entirely optional and only worth the effort in some particular
circumstances.

~~~
true_tuna
It's always worth it to automate, just adjust your timeframe and internalize
the admin cost. As someone who has done it both ways, let me assure you --you
don't want had crafted bespoke servers. You want generic and repeatable.

------
danm07
All this hiring and firing makes me think that the economy should err towards
gigs rather than FT employment.

i.e. Full-time work is only full-time until it ends, but the ending is
inadequately spelled out on the side of management, so it becomes an ongoing
expense drag, leading to diminishing returns.

Multiply this by the number of employees, layoffs seem inevitable.

~~~
DrScump
"All this hiring and firing makes me think that the economy should err towards
gigs rather than FT employment."

The danger of this (to the employees) is a recession creating another
2009-like economy, where the best one could hope for is a contract gig of more
than a couple of months. People tend to forget how disposably they can be
treated during hard times.

~~~
danm07
Good point. Although, I tend to think the timespan of contracts, whether
employment or temporary, are of little moment if the employer were to fall on
hard times. If they don't have the cash, termination is going to happen either
way.

What might work is automated Just-in-Time contracting, with minimal agency
cost and lead-times, and with automation providing the stability of full-time
employment. LinkedIn 2.0 essentially (fyi: this doesn't exist, I just made it
up)

~~~
softawre
Gigster?

------
hoodoof
Rackspace has been defeated.

Expect them to close/sell their cloud hosting division.

~~~
tostitos1979
What does this bode for Openstack? Especially, given what happened at HP? :'(

~~~
anon7503
It is the other way around. OpenStack is dying, we're just watching how
vendors respond.

Rackspace and HP needed OpenStack to take off in order to generate demand for
their public clouds. When that didn't happen HP shut down its cloud. Rackspace
couldn't do that, their cloud accounted for too much of their revenue, so what
we're seeing is their fallback plan.

Interesting anecdote: yesterday the OpenStack Foundation sent out an email
announcing the speakers for the upcoming OpenStack summit. The subject line:
"Hear from Google's VP of Cloud Platforms at OpenStack Summit Boston".

~~~
hueving
>It is the other way around. OpenStack is dying, we're just watching how
vendors respond.

The idead of a bunch of giant openstack public clouds is dying, but openstack
as the solution to build private clouds still seems to be going strong.

~~~
compuguy
Exactly. Openstack's strength building out a private cloud infrastructure.
Deploying it is still a major undertaking (wish things like fuel were more
reliable).

------
locusm
I have never encountered better online support than Rackspace.

------
Rapzid
"We’re confident we can accomplish these reductions without any effect on the
expertise and exceptional customer service we provide to our customers."

Lanham never would have missed the opportunity to drop "fanatical" in.

"The company is cutting jobs in its corporate administration and management
teams."

Sounds like they are not releasing technical and customer facing talent?

------
dbg31415
Less than ideal for central Texas, but given how many people AWS has been
hiring this news isn't really a surprise.

~~~
arcaster
I know Amazon AWS has most of their core engineering talent in Austin. The
scene is small but strong, this doesn't really reflect on the hiring climate
in ATX.

As a true Austinite, I never really considered San Antonio a "tech hub" or
indicator of anything in tech.

~~~
toddmorey
Pretty sure AWS has most of their core engineering talent in Seattle.

------
esw
We've been with Rackspace since 1999, but I'm getting concerned about the
future of the company. Can anyone recommend a comparable managed host for
Windows?

------
samstave
I don't mean this insensitively; why would I choose rackspace over aws/goog?

~~~
snowwrestler
If you don't want to be a sysadmin.

I don't have services like Pingdom or Pager Duty for my sites. I have
Rackspace. If a site goes down, they immediately attempt to recover it, acting
within the account rules I set up with them. If that fails, I get a phone call
from an expert and we troubleshoot together.

I once got a call that one of my servers had started sending out a high volume
of email. When I took the call, Rackspace folks had already found the nasty
script doing it and just needed my ok to take the site down for a few minutes
to boot it.

The service is really great. But, it ends just below the application layer,
and these days, that's where most of the problems show up. So I am looking at
moving off of Rackspace, but I'm looking _up_ the service ladder at
application-aware hosting services like WP Engine or Pantheon. As opposed to
down the service ladder, to a self-service "don't call us" system like AWS or
Google.

~~~
samstave
Fantastic reply - thank you

------
danjoc
Speaking as a Rackspace customer, if any of these guys are Linux techs, and
you're looking, hire them. With signing bonuses.

Anecdote: A couple years ago, I had one explain to me (in a way that made
sense) how the battery on the raid array was probably the cause of some
problems with https. And _he was right_.

Maybe not everyone there is a certified genius, but that really blew my mind.
They really know hardware. I haven't talked to one who couldn't save my tail
in a pinch. Rackspace might seem a bit on the expensive side, but their
support is absurdly good.

~~~
mikeash
So... how _was_ that battery the cause of an https problem?

~~~
duskwuff
Not the OP, but a guess: A lot of RAID cards will switch from writeback mode
to writethrough when the battery is low, because they can't guarantee that the
(battery-backed) cache will persist across a power failure. Writethrough mode
makes writes significantly slower, which could cause problems higher up the
stack.

~~~
bogomipz
Yep they will also go write through during a battery "learn cycle". The DELL
PERC controllers are notorious for this. And there is poor visibility into
this. You basically have to know about the awful MegaCli utility to gain any
insight.

What is the learn cycle?

"The purpose of the learn cycle is to determine the condition of the battery.
The learn cycle charges, fully discharges, and then recharges the battery in
order to determine the condition and health of the battery. The battery full
charge capacity degrades over time and a battery is deemed completely degraded
when it can no longer hold a charge for 24 hours and must be replaced."

Source: [https://discuss.pivotal.io/hc/en-
us/articles/204955498-FAQ-G...](https://discuss.pivotal.io/hc/en-
us/articles/204955498-FAQ-Greenplum-DCA-PERC-Battery)

~~~
Dylan16807
What kind of trash-tier reliability-increasing hardware stops working for a
day every 90 days? I'm really surprised they didn't put two or three batteries
into it.

~~~
true_tuna
All of them. You learn to disable learn cycle, most people learn that the hard
way. I switched to flash backed cache for this reason (along with being sick
of replacing batteries)

------
OJFord
> _“We were very intent on preserving as many Racker positions as possible in
> our customer-facing roles, and we’re confident we are not going to affect
> fanatical support for our customers,” the spokesperson said._

What a bizarre comment! 'Fanatical'?

~~~
afarrell
"Fanatical support" is a big part of their branding.

~~~
OJFord
Huh, well, bizarre branding then!

~~~
praneshp
could you explain what's bizarre about the branding? Do you not like the word
'fanatical'? (which just means 'filled with excessive and single-minded
zeal'/'obsessively concerned with something.').

~~~
OJFord
> _what 's bizarre about the branding [... 'fanatical'] which just means
> 'filled with excessive and single-minded zeal'_

Branding your support 'excessive' or 'single-minded' would also be bizarre.

Fanaticism is typically taken with religious or political connotations, and
derogatorily.

Cambridge [0] says:

> [informal] extremely interested in something, to a degree that someone [sic]
> _people find unreasonable_

​> [disapproving] holding _extreme beliefs_ that may lead to _unreasonable or
violent_ behaviour: a fanatical group that has _threatened to assassinate_
doctors

Oxford [1] says:

> A person filled with _excessive and single-minded_ zeal, especially for an
> _extreme religious or political cause_ : 'religious fanatics'

> ... originally described behaviour that might result from _possession by a
> god or demon_ ... (Oxford [1])

(Italics mine.)

[0] -
[http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/fanatical](http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/fanatical)

[1] -
[https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/fanatic](https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/fanatic)

~~~
manarth
No more bizarre than describing someone as a "football fan", "music fan",
"star trek fan", etc.

~~~
OJFord
Why? That's actually a common usage.

Add '~atic' to any of those and it's sounds much more extreme; something to
disapprove of.

I quoted Cambridge online dictionary above as defining it as disapproving, the
same dictionary defines 'fan' exactly as you use it, and does _not_ give
'fanatic' as a synonym.

Of course it originates as an abbreviation, but the usual usage is very
different.

~~~
pertymcpert
It really doesn't, everyone knows that football fanatic is just a big fan of
football. Same for any other interest. It's hyperbole but one that everyone
knows is hyperbole. Strange that you think otherwise to be honest.

~~~
OJFord
Well, maybe it's regional.

I have at least backed up my surprise at the use with two different dictionary
citations, so it can't be that strange of a view.

~~~
praneshp
It's possible your surprise is regional. Rackspace has had success with that
branding (though it's ironic to discuss that in this article).

