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Rackspace expands Singapore office, eyes ASEAN market
Managed cloud services supplier expands regional office to develop deeper relationships with local customers as demand for its services grows
Rackspace is expanding its footprint in Singapore to tap the growing demand for managed cloud services in Southeast Asia.
The company has opened a new 4,876ft2 office space at One Raffles Place in the heart of Singapore’s Central Business District, more than quadrupling the size of its office.
It also expects to grow its headcount in Singapore by 25% this year as part of its ongoing investments in Asia-Pacific and Japan.
Through the expansion, Rackspace hopes to develop deeper relationships with local customers at a time when many organisations are using more cloud services amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Moving to the cloud gives businesses greater efficiency and productivity in the face of the changes we are experiencing on the economic and social fronts,” it said. “This is particularly important at a time when organisations are looking at cost optimisation in response to budget pressures.”
A recent Rackspace survey found that 35% of IT decision-makers in Singapore lack a basic understanding of what cloud cost governance and cloud cost optimisation are, and how they differ.
Also, 80% of decision-makers reported new concerns around budget or costs, with 53% reporting concern over being unable to fund planned projects.
Across the board, local leaders recognised the value in investing, tracking and managing IT spend, but finding someone with the expertise to do this effectively is a challenge.
And although nearly all the IT decision-makers surveyed reported having a documented IT budget and dedicated resources to manage IT spend, 40% did not feel these resources were skilled enough to be effective.
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The situation is being exacerbated by higher spending on technologies such as virtual desktop infrastructure and web conferencing to support remote work. This has shifted budget away from planned initiatives and towards obtaining the technology necessary to keep the business running.
“The greatest challenges organisations will face are associated with how prepared they are to deal with remote working initiatives as well as to take advantage of the smart nation programmes being rolled out in the region,” said Sandeep Bhargava, Rackspace’s managing director for Asia Pacific and Japan.
“A cloud-first strategy has become the foundation that enables businesses to transform, differentiate and gain competitive advantage. More than ever, businesses need help to benefit from greater operational simplicity, better support, lower costs and improved security.”
Bernard L’Allier, Rackspace’s managing director for Southeast Asia, said the company’s Service Blocks offering can help to address those challenges, enabling organisations to leverage cloud technologies without having to recruit and train talent.
Service Blocks, conceived by a group of Rackspace engineers in Asia-Pacific, comprises six modules of managed and professional services which range from a control panel to manage public cloud accounts, to optimising complex operations in advanced cloud deployments.
