Yesterday my colleague, Mike Mozey, posted a great article on reselling hosting services using the Rackspace Cloud Sites platform. Since then we have received several inquiries about reselling our Cloud Servers platform so I thought I’d post some thoughts on this subject.
Cloud Servers does not yet have built-in reseller functionality in our control panel and it may be some time before we see something similar to Cloud Sites implemented. This leaves you with a few different options:
A few days ago I posted two Rackspace Cloud background images after receiving many requests for them (I use them in my video demos). This post has quickly become one of the most popular posts on my site, so I figured I would treat everyone. Our local graphics super-star James Lewis created some new backgrounds for everyone to enjoy after I bugged him for a few days straight. Thanks James!
I posted a recording of my weekly webinar which I do every Wednesday for the Rackspace Cloud a few days ago. This recording was from back in September and a few things have changed since, so I recorded todays session and posted below. If you missed the session or just have trouble making the time, feel free to watch this recording anytime at your convenience. During the webinar I give a high-level overview of the different platforms offered by the Rackspace Cloud (Cloud Sites, Cloud Servers, Cloud Files), then some live demonstrations within the control panel and then an open Q&A session at the end. Click the image below to launch the video:
If you would like to register for a future webinar visit this page and sign-up for a date that works for you.
Feel free to comment with any suggestions for future webinars if there is something else you would like to see.
If you are thinking about testing the Cloud Servers platform or have already opened an account but are unsure of where to go next, this video is for you. I wanted to take the introduction video a step further and actually login to a newly created server and perform all the initial configurations to show you how easy it can be. If you are not familiar with the command line at all it can be a bit tough to get started, but the Rackspace Cloud offers tons of great help articles to get you going and there are some great books out there to reference as well. Once you get the basics down and do it a few times it will become like second nature.
You can follow along with the video or you can reference this KB article which follows the same basic steps I demonstrate in the video. In this tutorial we are launching a Cloud Server running Debian 5.0 Lenny.
If you use Cloud Servers or Cloud Files from the Rackspace Cloud and have an iPhone you definitely need to download the iPhone application for these platforms. It offers a very powerful set of features and options to manage your account including adding new servers, resizing existing servers, rebooting, SSH access, resource monitoring for Cloud Servers and for Cloud Files you can easily list all of your containers and drill down on the content inside, preview content and even email an HTTP url or the file itself directly from your iPhone.
Check out this brief live demonstration I created:
