Rackspace Hosting is adding its heft to the push toward cloud computing in Australia.
The American web hosting major attracted droves of clients by signing up with highly popular business and startup incubators like Y Combinator, 500 Startups and TechStars. It is attempting the same in Australia and New Zealand by announcing a “zero cost” program that will help startups leverage cloud computing technologies.
Pollenizer, a Sydney incubator, became the first to sign up with the IT hosting and cloud computing company, holding out the promise of bringing many of its startups to the portals of Rackspace.
“Startups have a multiplicity of commercially sensitive factors to juggle that they need to manage — from strategic planning and business development, to back end programming and IT systems development. Rackspace wants to make life easier for these new ventures,” said Jim Fagan, VP and managing director of Rackspace APAC.
“As such, we’re offering our cloud services and support to specially-selected incubators and their startup companies for free in an effort to build relationships and grow with them all as they continue to develop and expand,” he added.
Pollenizer said it would conduct a qualitative and quantitative analysis of each potential new startup and then decide which of these are suitable for induction into the Rackspace program.
“We are very pleased to have joined Rackspace’s startup initiative. It allows local companies, which we believe in, to concentrate on their core businesses without having to worry about their IT infrastructure,” said Pollenizer co-founder Phil Morle. “The Rackspace Startup Program is an amazing program and allows everyone involved to get to know each other and flourish as we assist these growing businesses in every way we can.”
The Pollenizer team consists of 80 “web-loving entrepreneurs,” covering all aspects of a web business Its portfolio of companies includes mogeneration, Posse, 99dresses and Spreets.
Rackspace APAC’s country manager, Mark Randall, pointed out that Rackspace itself began as a startup in 1998 and has “taken a proactive approach towards assisting entrepreneurs and enterprises of all sizes.”
“Rackspace likes to refer to information technology as the Fifth Utility because cloud computing has now made IT accessible to everyone, everywhere. An individual can now start a company without the pain of high capital expenditure costs upfront whether they are located in Perth or Sydney,” he said. “Business dollars can instead be directed towards important business tasks and research and development projects.”
UPDATE: Ninefold Supports Melbourne’s York Butter Factory Incubator
Ninefold, an Australian public cloud computing company, also announce last week its sponsorship of the newly-launched York Butter Factory (YBF), a co-working space for early-stage digital and Web 2.0 businesses.
Following sponsorship of Tech23 and MEGA in New South Wales, Ninefold has expanded its focus to Melbourne and identified the York Butter Factory as an exciting and new hub for the Victorian start-up community.
Companies which sign up for 12 months’ tenancy at YBF will receive up to AUD $300 per month credit, free of charge, for Ninefold’s cloud computing or cloud storage over 12 months. This will help them grow their business, customer base and revenues through the initial seed stage of their development.
Ninefold will host YBF’s website and offers tenants access to joint marketing opportunities among Ninefold’s entrepreneurial ecosystem — via guest blog posts, events and co-branded opportunities — to help them expand their reach and brand.
Ninefold will also host regular networking and educational events to provide entrepreneurs with valuable technical and business insights, according to a media statement.
