Rackspace snaps up open-source database firm ObjectRocket

Cloud-computing giant Rackspace has made a small but smart acquisition in ObjectRocket, a MongoDB database service.

Rackspace senior vice president of corporate development Pat Matthews said, “Customers have been asking for a powerful database,” and the acquisition is in line with their open cloud strategy. MongoDB was the best option from Rackspace’s perspective as it’s one of the fastest growing NoSQL open source databases, and many existing customers already use it.

According to a report from British technology research firm The 451 Group, NoSQL software revenue is expected to grow at an annual of 82 percent to reach £141 million ($214 million) by 2015.

Database technology floods the market, but Matthews said that MongoDB has experienced a “runaway success” with developers. It’s easy to get started and supports about a dozen programming language on the Web, including C, C++, C#, JavaScript, Node.js, and Scala. But it can be difficult to manage and scale, which is where ObjectRocket comes in.

In the future, Rackspace is likely to support other database technologies.

ObjectRocket co-founder Kenny Gorman has been recognized as a “MongoDB Master,” an award 10gen gives to only 35 MongoDB contributors around the world. (Check out a video interview with Gorman and Rackspace’s chief developer evangelist Robert Scoble below.)

The full team will relocate to Rackspace’s San Antonio headquarters (they previously worked remotely), and customers should see the benefits of an integration in a matter of weeks.

On the topic of Rackspace’s broader acquisition strategy, Matthews revealed that his team doesn’t plan to buy established companies. “We have a good sales and marketing engine and know how to acquire customers,” he said. Instead, they are on the lookout for small, under-the-radar teams with impressive technology. The company’s other recent acquisition, MailGun, was a six-person operation with just a seed round of funding.

Rackspace has not disclosed the terms of the deal.