Managed cloud computing specialist Rackspace Inc. is offering up its expertise to help enterprises get up and running with software containers.

The company today announced a new offering called Rackspace Kubernetes-as-a-Service, based on the popular software that’s used to manage deployments of multiple software containers.

Rackspace believes it’s entering the market at just the right time. Containers, which are used by developers to build applications just once and run them anywhere, are rapidly displacing other software deployment methods due to the agility they provide. The market for application container software is likely to grow by 40 percent in the next two years, to almost $3 billion a year by 2020, according to 451 Research Inc.

And Kubernetes is all set to become the most important technology for working with containers and managing production workloads. So it’s no surprise that Rackspace is eyeing a piece of the action for itself.

With its latest offering, Rackspace is once again hedging its bets that most enterprises won’t want to bother with setting up and running their own Kubernetes deployments. Just like it’s becoming more and more popular for companies to outsource the management of other aspects of their information technology such as their public cloud deployments – an area Rackspace has already capitalized on – the company believes the same will apply to Kubernetes deployments, since many organizations don’t have the talent and resources to manage them themselves.

So Rackspace’s Kubernetes-as-a-Service is designed to be a fully managed offering, one in which it does all of the infrastructure work under the hood, allowing its enterprise customers to focus solely on building their containerized applications.

Rackspace reckons its customers can gain several advantages by letting it take care of their Kubernetes-based infrastructure. Unlike many other managed Kubernetes services, Rackspace offers something called “Day 2” operations, which is essentially ongoing management after deployment, covering new updates, security patches and the like.

“There are many Kubernetes infrastructure offerings, but few if any are fully managed services,” Scott Crenshaw, executive vice president and general manager of Rackspace Private Cloud, told SiliconANGLE. “One of the differentiators of Rackspace Kubernetes-as-a-Service platform is that Rackspace takes responsibility for the entire range of Day 2 operations needed to be successful with Kubernetes deployments.”

Crenshaw elaborated on this, saying that typical “Day 1” tasks have matured to the point where they no longer present challenges to the average user or organization. Instead, the real challenges for most organizations begin on “Day 2”, with the need to configure Kubernetes for specific use cases and environments, validate and test its components, and build the tooling, automation and processes needed to properly operate and scale deployments, all of which Rackspace will provide.

“These Day 2 operations are critically important, as they will determine whether users will actually realize the benefits they’re expecting when deploying containers,” Crenshaw said. “They will also determine the reliability and efficiency of their environment, and the return on investment that the organization can deliver.”

Crenshaw also spoke about the economic benefits of Rackspace’s platform, saying that its customers will save up to 50 percent on costs with its service compared with going it alone, because its service allows them to predict costs more accurately and choose the most appropriate infrastructure for each workload. He added that Rackspace Kubernetes-as-a-Service also offers enterprise-grade security features and the ability to enable deployments on multiple clouds with its managed Kubernetes offering.

“With Kubernetes-as-a-Service, we are providing the industry’s simplest Kubernetes consumption model by delivering it fully configured, tested and validated at enterprise scale with the managed cluster services customers need to effectively run their applications,” he said.

Rackspace’s offering should be well received by enterprises as it gives C-level executives more options for deploying Kubernetes-enabled next-generation applications on more platforms, said Holger Mueller, principal analyst and vice president of Constellation Research Inc. “It’s good to see Rackspace adding more services, which has been the vendor’s strategic imperative for several years, adding vital support for Day 2 operations as many enterprises struggle with operating Kubernetes clusters,” he said.

Rackspace said its Kubernetes-as-a-Service product is available now on Rackspace Private Cloud, with support for leading public clouds to be added later in the year.

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