Designed for high performance and throughput, Rackspace Cloud Databases is built on top of a hardware and software infrastructure that is optimized for running databases. Initial performance benchmarks using SysBench show a 180 percent performance improvement over running on a comparable Cloud Server.

Increased Capacity and Global Availability

When we first launched, we were limited to availability in our Chicago datacenter. Today are happy to report that we now have global availability, extending support to our Dallas and London datacenters. On top of that, you can use Rackspace Cloud Databases with the Cloud Servers, Powered By OpenStack [Beta], announced in late February.

New Features

In addition to adding capacity, we have been incrementally adding features into the service. Our API now supports the ability to restart instances, scale storage up, and resize instance RAM up or down. And we are only getting started. We are already working on a set of additional features including configuration management, backups and restores and an integrated user interface. Stay tuned.

Hacking Success

Last February we unleashed Rackers on the private beta and told them to surprise us with their hacking skills.  When it was all said and done, they did more than surprise us.  After a week of hacking, Rackers had submitted code bindings for PHP, an Objective-C client, a PHP web client, integration with Cloud Load Balancers and much more.  Their input and unique use cases have helped us improve the service and get insight into its potential.

Get Started Today

With all the extra capacity we’ve added since the launch in December, we are ready to bring on more users to evaluate this service.  If you have not already done so and would like to apply for free access to the Rackspace Cloud Database API Private Beta program, please take a moment and fill out a brief survey and we will work on getting you access to the beta.

APRIL 16 UPDATE:   Rackspace Cloud Databases is now available through our Early Access Program.  For more details, click here:  http://www.rackspace.com/cloud/cloud_hosting_products/databases/

Overview & Features

Historically, customers running relational databases in the cloud have suffered from poor and inconsistent performance as a result of the limitations inherited from the underlying hardware virtualization platform.  These constraints are common across most infrastructure providers, including Rackspace.

For example, with virtualized disks, there is extra overhead for each operation against the database.  While there have been advances to alleviate some of these constraints, this overhead continues to limit the performance of I/O intensive applications running in the cloud. Other providers have dealt with this limitation by creating custom database storage engines that operate directly in memory.  This approach has great benefits in terms of availability and scalability, but often sacrifices referential integrity or compatibility with your existing applications.

Rackspace has taken a fundamentally different approach to solving this problem by eliminating the overhead of traditional virtualization platforms and utilizing a container-based solution to provide a high performance MySQL relational database service.  This solution provides resource isolation and allows you to quickly and easily automate complex database administration tasks.

Designed specifically for databases, our offering leverages dedicated SAN storage with built-in data replication that gives you high-speed access and redundancy for your data.

Currently, the Rackspace MySQL Cloud Database API operations for the Private Beta include:

• List, add, and remove database instances
• List, add, and remove databases
• List, add, and remove database users
• Enable root user access

However, we are not stopping there.  We are hard at work on a robust set of additional features such as instance and storage scaling, configuration management, backups/restores, and much more.

OpenStack

We are also thrilled to be able to say that we are developing this offering in the open!  Rackspace believes this is the first and only OpenStack affiliated cloud database solution built on top of OpenStack’s Nova code base.  Click here to see our latest OpenStack video with an update from Mark Interrante, VP of Product at Rackspace, and Troy Toman, Director of Engineering for Cloud Compute. Check out http://www.openstack.org and https://launchpad.net/reddwarf to learn more about these open source initiatives.

Are You Interested In Participating?

As we work through the beta development phase of this project, we’re looking for customers to evaluate and test this service. The ideal candidate will have Cloud Servers currently running transaction heavy applications with MySQL databases in their configuration and be familiar with the Rackspace RESTful web service APIs.

If you would like to apply for free access to the Rackspace Cloud Database API Private Beta program, please take a moment and fill out a brief survey and tell us why you think you would be a good candidate for the beta. Selected participants will start receiving invitations for the Private Beta over the next couple weeks.

We are truly excited to work with our customers to finalize this new offering and your participation and feedback will be crucial to making this product a success.

Be sure to subscribe to our blog for future product announcements.

APRIL 16 UPDATE:   Rackspace Cloud Databases is now available through our Early Access Program.  For more details, click here:  http://www.rackspace.com/cloud/cloud_hosting_products/databases/

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Daniel Morris is the Sr. Product Manager for Platform at Rackspace.

Domain and record management underlies nearly every web application and we have designed this API to make it easier to control this critical aspect of your web-based solutions.  The Rackspace Cloud DNS API enables you to automate and simplify your DNS management and has the features you have requested, including:

• REST-based API with comprehensive management capability
• New record types  (e.g. recent additions include TXT, AAAA, and SRV)
• Enhanced infrastructure with new regional DNS endpoints
• Decreased propagation times
• Full TTL Control
• Migration –import or export a BIND9-formatted file of domains and configuration details

Since July, we have also made significant updates to our underlying DNS infrastructure.  We are adding additional nameserver endpoints and have successfully improved response times and decreased the time to propagate changes.

If you want to learn more, go to the Rackspace Cloud DNS web page here.

And we’re not done yet.  While there is some DNS functionality already available in our current Cloud Control Panel, we are working to integrate the full set of Rackspace Cloud DNS API operations into our new Cloud Control Panel to deliver a first class user experience in 2012. Our goal is to expose the capabilities that are available via the API, including full management of domains and records, TTL settings, import/export, and more.

Pricing

Rackspace Cloud DNS is FREE.  That’s right, there is no cost for using the Rackspace Cloud DNS in combination with other Rackspace Cloud products.  Existing Cloud Servers™, Cloud Servers with a managed service level, Cloud Sites™, and RackConnect™ customers have access to the Rackspace Cloud DNS by default.

Cloud DNS is backed by Fanatical Support.  For support details, visit our website here.

The API

Implementation and management of our Cloud DNS solution is available through our API. To use our API, customers should have a general understanding of DNS management and be familiar with:

• RESTful Web Services
• JSON and/or XML Data Serialization Formats

To get started, download the API Developers Guide at http://docs.rackspace.com/api/

Check out the Rackspace Cloud DNS Knowledge Center FAQs here.

As always, we want to hear what you think about our offering.   Head over to our product feedback site and be heard.

Also, let us know if you have any questions about our new offering.  If you need the ability to automate and simplify your Domain Name System management, we hope you try our Rackspace Cloud DNS API offering.

Back in March, we announced that we are actively developing a Cloud DNS solution and that we were seeking customers to participate in our Cloud DNS private beta phase.

Since then, our engineers and our private beta customers have been evaluating and testing the Rackspace Cloud DNS (Beta) along with the API.  Our private beta customers have provided us critical feedback on what works well and what improvements needed to be made.  We’re pleased to announce the availability of Rackspace Cloud DNS (Beta) to all US and UK Cloud customers.

Rackspace Cloud DNS (Beta) automates and simplifies your Domain Name System management and has the features you’ve been asking for, including:

• REST-based API
• New Record Types
• Performance Improvements
• Comprehensive Management Capability
• Full TTL Control
• Simplified Migration

If you want to learn more, click here for a PDF document that gives additional details or go to the Rackspace Cloud DNS (Beta) web page here.

As part of the next phase of this project, we will be completely overhauling the DNS management sections of the cloud control panel.  We will be exposing the full set of capabilities that are available via API, including management of TXT records, TTL settings, import/export and more.

Pricing

If you are interested, I’m sure you are wondering about the price.  Rackspace Cloud DNS (Beta) is FREE.  That’s right, there is no cost for using the Rackspace Cloud DNS (Beta) in combination with other Rackspace Cloud products!  Existing Cloud Servers™, Cloud Servers with a managed service level, Cloud Sites™, and RackConnect™ customers have access to the Rackspace Cloud DNS (Beta) by default.

The API

Implementation and management of our Cloud DNS (Beta) solution is available through our API. To use our API, customers should have a general understanding of DNS management and be familiar with:

• RESTful Web Services
• JSON and/or XML Data Serialization Formats

To get started, download the API Developers Guide at http://docs.rackspace.com/api/

Getting Started

If you are ready to start using Rackspace Cloud DNS (Beta), it’s an easy three step process:

1.    Sign-Up for a Rackspace Cloud Account
a.    If you don’t have a Rackspace Cloud account, go to the Order Now page and sign up for an account. Once you have a Rackspace Cloud account, you automatically have access to the Rackspace Cloud DNS (Beta) using your existing Rackspace Cloud Authentication credentials.  Before you begin, take a look at the Rackspace Cloud DNS (Beta) Developers guide here for information on accessing and authenticating with the service.

2.    Create or Import Domains
a.    Using the Rackspace Cloud DNS (Beta) API, use the “Create Domains” or “Import Domains” API operation to start managing your domains.  Note: If you are already using the DNS management capabilities of the Cloud control panel, then all your existing domains will be capable of being managed from the API.

3.    Begin Managing your Domains
a.    Leverage the API to list, add, modify, and remove domains and records as needed.

Let us know if you have any questions about our new offering.  If you need the ability to automate and simplify your Domain Name System management, we hope you try our new Rackspace Cloud DNS (Beta) offering.