בזק בינלאומי ורוקספייס קובעות אמות מידה חדשות לשירותי ענן מנוהלים בישראל

Bezeq International and Rackspace Set New Standard for Managed Cloud Services in Israel

Israel's Leading Cloud Hosting and International Telecommunications Provider Teams With Rackspace to Deliver Managed Multi-Cloud Expertise and Support Services Excellence

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, July 26, 2016, (Marketwired):

Bezeq International and Rackspace® (NYSE: RAX) have announced a strategic relationship with the intention of providing a new standard in managed cloud computing services in Israel. Known for its leading position in cloud solutions delivery for Israeli businesses, Bezeq International's status as a Strategic Channel Partner with Rackspace represents a significant expansion of its cloud services portfolio.

The new relationship will enable Israeli customers to benefit from Rackspace's breadth of technology leadership in OpenStack® operations and its managed cloud experience across various cloud models. The firms will provide a special focus to help enterprises with OpenStack adoption underpinned by the convenience of purchasing services from a local company in Israel, plus the full guidance and support provided by professionals at Bezeq International.

In addition, Bezeq International will leverage the Rackspace OpenStack Everywhere solution* to offer managed OpenStack private clouds-as-a-service. These managed clouds can be deployed either on Bezeq International premises or in an enterprise's own data center. For additional support, this relationship also brings the availability of professional OpenStack courses with Rackspace certification. These courses sit alongside OpenStack related professional services to help provide quick on-boarding and technology adoption.

Bezeq International CEO Moti Elmaliach said, "Cooperation with Rackspace sets a new standard of innovation and service for the cloud services available to businesses in Israel. We believe that this cooperation fulfils the need that we have identified among Israeli customers, who wish to expand and upgrade their businesses' information management in an internationally-managed cloud, while at the same time benefitting from the services of a familiar local provider. We are grateful for the trust that the Rackspace management has placed in us, and are sure that the current cooperation will bring with it good news for the Israeli IT market."

Rackspace operates eleven data centers around the world and has more than 6,000 employees. Its business is differentiated through its approach to managed cloud and the firm's ability to solve the challenges of cloud adoption. Analyst firm Gartner ranks Rackspace as a leader in the Magic Quadrant for cloud enabled managed hosting in Europe and North America. A leader in managed cloud services and OpenStack operations, managing the largest public OpenStack public cloud environment, Rackspace serves customers in 120 countries including more than half of the Fortune 100. The company delivers expertise, tools and results-obsessed customer service called Fanatical Support® that spans across the industry's leading public and private clouds -- including OpenStack, Amazon Web Services® (AWS), Microsoft® Azure™ and VMware®.

"This strategic relationship with Bezeq International will be very helpful in terms of our expansion into Israel. As a leading innovator in its market and as owner of the country's largest data center, Bezeq International is a natural and right fit for Rackspace," said Alex Pinchev, Executive VP and president of global sales and marketing at Rackspace. A former president of Global Sales, Services, Field Marketing at Red Hat®, Pinchev served for six years in the Israeli army's Center of Computing and Information Systems. He continues to be personally involved in the Israeli cloud market, shaping the market trends.

Speaking during a visit to Israel, Graham Weston, chairman and co-founder of Rackspace said, "Rackspace is extremely pleased to be working with Bezeq International given the firm's technical expertise and local market knowledge. Rackspace regards Israel as a center for innovation and development where customers are ready to start a building new line of business competencies powered by managed cloud services and OpenStack. We believe that Rackspace tools, expertise and our results-driven approach to customer service is a natural fit to Bezeq International's own specialized cloud engineering strength. We now hope to build on our presence in Israel and expand our managed services for multi-cloud environments in the country."

As a result of this new relationship, Israeli customers will have the opportunity to choose the type and physical location of the cloud service they need whether it is public, private, or hybrid. Rackspace will help Bezeq International customers find the best fit where each workload can achieve the highest performance and cost-efficiency. With this new agreement, customers can also keep their clouds in Israel when needed, according to the type of work done by the business and the geographical locations of its customers.

Customers will also be able to choose whether to run the cloud at the customer's own data center or at Bezeq International's data center, with its enhanced reliability and security system, and pay Bezeq International directly, using a variety of payment methods, in shekels.

Rackspace and Bezeq International offer a unique service model for cloud services in Israel based on the following:

1. Managed cloud services: While most cloud-storage providers offer IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service) cloud solutions, Rackspace provides managed cloud services across multi-cloud environments including OpenStack, Amazon Web Services® (AWS), Microsoft® Azure™ and VMware®. This expertise includes professional assistance in the process of fitting each solution's architecture to the customer's requirements, installing the environment, monitoring, optimization, consultation and shared management.

2. Service and support at the highest levels: 24x7x365 Fanatical Support provided by Rackspace in the US, UK and Israel and support and services from Bezeq International professionals in Israel.

About Rackspace

Rackspace (NYSE: RAX), the #1 managed cloud company, helps businesses tap the power of cloud computing without the complexity and cost of managing it on their own. Rackspace engineers deliver specialized expertise, easy-to-use tools, and Fanatical Support® for leading technologies developed by AWS, Google, Microsoft, OpenStack, VMware and others. The company serves customers in 120 countries, including more than half of the FORTUNE 100. Rackspace was named a leader in the 2015 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Cloud-Enabled Managed Hosting, and has been honored by Fortune, Forbes, and others as one of the best companies to work for. Learn more at www.rackspace.com.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If such risks or uncertainties materialize or such assumptions prove incorrect, the results of Rackspace Hosting could differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including any statements concerning expected development, performance or market acceptance associated with channel partners' participation in the Rackspace Partner Network; anticipated operational and financial benefits from any channel partners' participation in the Rackspace Partner Network; any statements of expectation or belief; and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include the possibility that expected benefits from the Rackspace Partner Program may not materialize because Rackspace services are not generally accepted in the marketplace, which could occur due to certain factors including (i) a failure to market the services cost effectively, differentiate the services from competitive products or communicate differentiations effectively, (ii) the reliability, quality or compatibility associated with the services, (iii) changes in technology which adversely affect the services' benefit, (iv) slowdowns in the general economy or technology industry that impact consumer spending habits, (v) internal strategy decisions that impact the product, and (vi) and other risks that are described in Rackspace Hosting's Form 10-Q for the quarter year ended March 31, 2016, filed with the SEC on May 10, 2016. Except as required by law, Rackspace Hosting assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements publicly, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.

The use of the word 'partner' or 'channel partner' does not imply a partnership relationship between Rackspace and any other company.

* OpenStack everywhere offering from Rackspace enables customers to run a fully managed OpenStack private cloud in their data center of choice i.e. in an enterprise's own data center, a Rackspace-supported third party colocation facility or in a Rackspace data center all underpinned by Fanatical Support®.

Contact Information

Peter Beck
44-20-8734-4016
[email protected]

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