Heroku vs Rackspace

August 19, 2023 | Author: Michael Stromann
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Heroku
Heroku is the leading platform as a service in the world and supports Ruby, Java, Python, Scala, Clojure, and Node.js. Deploying an app is simple and easy. No special alternative tools needed, just a plain git push. Deployment is instant, whether your app is big or small.
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Rackspace
Rackspace Cloud offers four alternative hosting products: Cloud Servers for on-demand computing power; Cloud Sites for robust web hosting; Cloud Load Balancers for easy, on-demand load balancing and high availability; and Cloud Files for elastic online file storage and CDN.Rackspace Cloud hosting customers never need to worry about buying new hardware to meet increasing traffic demands or huge traffic spikes.
Heroku and Rackspace are both cloud computing platforms, but they differ in their offerings and target audiences. Heroku is a fully managed platform-as-a-service (PaaS) solution that simplifies the deployment and management of web applications. It provides a streamlined development experience, automated scaling, and a wide range of integrations with popular programming languages and frameworks. Heroku is popular among developers and small to medium-sized businesses looking for a platform to host and deploy their applications without worrying about infrastructure management. On the other hand, Rackspace is a managed hosting provider that offers a range of cloud services, including infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), dedicated servers, and managed cloud solutions. Rackspace provides a more customizable infrastructure and offers flexibility in choosing the right combination of services for specific business needs. Rackspace is well-suited for organizations that require more control over their infrastructure or have complex application requirements.

See also: Top 10 Public Cloud Platforms
Heroku vs Rackspace in our news:

2018. Rackspace acquired Salesforce specialist RelationEdge



Rackspace has completed the acquisition of RelationEdge, a recognized partner specializing in Salesforce implementation. While Rackspace has established itself as a prominent provider of hosting and managed cloud services, the company is determined to broaden its portfolio and incorporate managed services for SaaS applications. This strategic move follows Rackspace's previous acquisition of TriCore, a company operating in the enterprise application management sector, signaling the company's commitment to expanding its capabilities in this domain. Through the acquisition of RelationEdge, Rackspace aims to further enhance its offerings and strengthen its position in the market.


2017. Rackspace acquires multi-platform hybrid IT management solution Datapipe



Rackspace has announced its acquisition of Datapipe, a major competitor in the managed public and private cloud services industry. While Datapipe has achieved significant success with enterprise and government clients, Rackspace has traditionally focused on the mid-market segment. Notably, the two companies have not consistently competed for the same deals, and their product portfolios differ substantially. Rackspace acknowledges that it could have attained similar technical capabilities through multiple smaller acquisitions, but this approach would have been more time-consuming and may not have granted Rackspace access to Datapipe's current customer base. Among Datapipe's customers are numerous large public-sector organizations, including the U.S. departments of defense, energy, and justice, as well as the U.K.'s cabinet office, ministry of justice, and department of transportation.


2016. Rackspace added cloud optimization platform to its private cloud



In a collaboration with AppFormix, Rackspace has introduced cloud monitoring and performance optimization tools to its private OpenStack cloud. This partnership grants Rackspace customers the ability to utilize AppFormix's real-time monitoring, analytics, and optimization tools. Rackspace's engineers will also leverage these tools to efficiently manage the cloud services for their customers. This marks a somewhat atypical move for Rackspace, as the company typically develops its own tools for managing the technical aspects of its cloud business. Notably, Rackspace played a pivotal role as a founding member of the OpenStack project, alongside NASA.


2015. Heroku launches application development platform for Enterprise



Heroku, the application development and hosting platform owned by Salesforce, has introduced a new offering known as Heroku Enterprise. This product line specifically targets large companies aiming to develop modern applications similar to those found in startups, while also providing the security features and access control often sought by enterprises. Essentially, Heroku Enterprise claims to offer the best of both worlds by enabling large enterprises to create agile-developed applications utilizing cutting-edge technologies like containers and new database services, all while adhering to the stringent governance requirements of the enterprise environment. It's an ambitious goal, and if Heroku successfully accomplishes it, they deserve commendation. With Heroku Enterprise, organizations can now effectively monitor all their developers, applications, and resources through a unified interface, streamlining their management processes.


2014. Rackspace will sell and manage Google Apps



Cloud provider Rackspace has expanded its offerings to include the sale and support of Google Apps for Work to business customers, alongside its existing reselling and support of hosted Exchange and Sharepoint. Google Apps for Work, available directly, starts at $5 per user per month with 30 GB of online storage, while an unlimited storage version costs $10 per user per month. Rackspace will charge $10 per user per month for the basic package and $15 per month for unlimited storage. The additional $5 provides access to Rackspace's renowned "fanatical support," encompassing assistance with provisioning, security configuration, device management, migration issues, and account management. By offering Google Apps for Work, Rackspace aims to cater to the diverse needs of its business customers and provide comprehensive support for their collaboration and productivity tools.


2014. Rackspace guarantees 99.99% uptime of private cloud



Rackspace is expressing great confidence in the latest release of its private cloud software, built on the OpenStack open-source framework for cloud computing. The company is even offering a guarantee of success for enterprise workload production. Rackspace initially introduced its private cloud in the summer of 2013 and has now enhanced its offering with several notable features. These include a 99.99 percent uptime guarantee for the OpenStack API, increased scalability capable of supporting hundreds of nodes, and DevOps automation services for efficient application lifecycle management. While facing tough competition from industry giants like Amazon Web Services, Google Compute Cloud, and Microsoft Azure, which can provide more competitive pricing, Rackspace aims to leverage the momentum it has built through its private cloud solutions.


2014. Salesforce connects Heroku to its cloud



After acquiring the Heroku cloud application platform in 2010, Salesforce has finally established a connection between Heroku and Force.com through the introduction of the Heroku Connect tool. Although Heroku and Force.com are built on different development systems with distinct programming languages, Salesforce has successfully established a functional bi-directional link between them. This connection eliminates the need for extensive recoding, which can be both expensive and time-consuming, allowing Salesforce customers to effortlessly connect their Heroku apps to the Salesforce ecosystem. Salesforce recognizes the importance of showcasing tools like Heroku Connect to attract developers and assure them that Force.com seamlessly integrates with popular web toolkits like Node.js, Ruby on Rails, and Java.


2012. Top 7 Dreamforce stories



At the Dreamforce 12 conference Salesforce presented a lot of new products, but the problem is that most of these new products either had been already presented at the conference last year, or will become live to next year's conference. So, we'll just briefly go over the main ones: ***


2010. Force.com 2 - already 5 PaaS platfroms



At the Dreamforce conference, Salesforce demonstrated one more time that now it's not so interested in CRM (it was mainly a subject for jokes) as in cloud platforms. Following the release of SaaS database Database.com, the company introduced another big Force.com feature - Heroku - the PaaS startup that Salesforce has recently acquired for $ 212 million. Heroku - is a cloud platform for developing and hosting Ruby-applications (Ruby - is a popular framework for developing Web apps, created by 37Signals). Heroku became one of the five PaaS-services included in the new version Force.com 2. And the new structure of the Force.com platform now looks like this: ***


2010. Rackspace launched a dating service for apps and their users



After Amazon had entered the niche of low-cost cloud platforms (where previously Rackspace ruled), Rackspace has to look for the new ways to attract customers and provide value-added services for them. One of these services is AppMatcher - a marketplace, where SaaS-applications and their users can find each other. It's designed in a very original way - it imitates dating site. The potential customer enters basic information about his organization (industry, number of employees, the IT budget, department) and the service finds apps, that may be interesting for him. After  registration in the online account he can specify more parameters about his business and app criteria, to narrow the search results. He can also invite co-workers and discuss potentially useful applications with them in the online account. On the other hand, developers add their SaaS apps (for free), filling in the questionnaire list. And it's not necessary that the app was hosted on Rackspace. ***

Author: Michael Stromann
Michael is an expert in IT Service Management, IT Security and software development. With his extensive experience as a software developer and active involvement in multiple ERP implementation projects, Michael brings a wealth of practical knowledge to his writings. Having previously worked at SAP, he has honed his expertise and gained a deep understanding of software development and implementation processes. Currently, as a freelance developer, Michael continues to contribute to the IT community by sharing his insights through guest articles published on several IT portals. You can contact Michael by email stromann@liventerprise.com