Rackspace expands Palantir partnership

Rackspace Technology said on July 9 that it had expanded its work with Palantir through a definitive agreement that makes Rackspace a preferred partner for deploying Palantir Foundry and Artificial Intelligence Platform, or AIP, in regulated and sovereign environments. The companies said the operating framework is aimed at mid-market customers as well as organizations in industries with tighter data, governance and deployment requirements. Rackspace described the offering as a package that combines Palantir software with Rackspace private cloud, sovereign cloud, on-premises infrastructure and managed operations. (rackspace.com) The move builds on a February 18 partnership in which Rackspace and Palantir said they would help enterprises deploy and run Foundry and AIP in production with governed managed operations. In that earlier announcement, Rackspace said it would provide implementation expertise, cloud hosting and data migration support. ### What changed in the July 9 announcement? The July 9 agreement goes beyond the February partnership by naming Rackspace a preferred partner and by setting out an operating framework for deployments in mid-market, regulated and sovereign settings, according to the companies. Rackspace said the framework is delivered through its infrastructure and operations stack, while Palantir supplies Foundry and AIP. (rackspace.com) Palantir’s partnership page already described Rackspace as a certified delivery partner, but the new announcement adds preferred-partner status and a more defined go-to-market focus around regulated enterprises and sovereign-ready environments. (rackspace.com) ### What exactly is Rackspace selling around Palantir? Rackspace said it will combine Palantir Foundry and AIP with governed private cloud, sovereign cloud, on-premises infrastructure, certified Forward Deployed Engineers and managed operations. Rackspace’s Palantir materials say the company provides advisory, implementation, production support, optimization and what it calls Day 2 operations. (rackspace.com) Palantir says Foundry is its data operations platform, while AIP is its platform for connecting generative AI into operational domains and building AI-driven products and workflows. Palantir’s documentation says AIP includes model access, agent creation, evaluation and automation capabilities under governed controls. (palantir.com) ### Why are sovereign and regulated customers central to this deal? Rackspace said the offering is designed for customers that need control over data, security, governance, deployment location and operational outcomes. The company’s Palantir pages describe the environments as sovereign-ready and aimed at enterprises that need private or on-premises deployment options rather than a standard public-cloud setup. (rackspace.com) The companies named healthcare, financial services, energy and private equity among the target sectors. (palantir.com) Rackspace also said its enterprise AI partner materials position Palantir deployments around governed operations and embedded engineers working from use case to production. ### What does the “400 certifications” detail tell customers? Rackspace said it has about 400 Palantir certifications tied to the partnership. The figure is being used to show implementation depth at a time when buyers of enterprise AI software are asking not only what a platform can do, but who can deploy it inside complex environments. (markets.businessinsider.com) Rackspace’s marketing materials also say Palantir-trained Forward Deployed Engineers are embedded in customer environments to connect Palantir with existing systems and move projects from pilot work into production operations. (rackspace.com) ### What happens next for customers evaluating the partnership? Rackspace’s July 9 release says the new framework is available now for mid-market, regulated and sovereign deployments of Foundry and AIP. Palantir’s service-partner pages list other implementation firms as well, which means Rackspace is entering the market with a formal preferred-partner designation rather than as Palantir’s only outside services option. (rackspace.com) Rackspace and Palantir said the next step is customer deployment across healthcare, financial services, energy and private equity, using Rackspace-managed infrastructure and operations around Foundry and AIP. (rackspace.com 1) (rackspace.com 2)