Cox Buys RapidScale To Combine Connectivity, Hybrid Managed Cloud

Cox Business, the commercial division of Cox Communications, said Thursday that it has acquired cloud service provider RapidScale in an effort to strengthen its managed services and hybrid cloud portfolio.

Together, the companies will offer connectivity paired with RapidScale's robust hybrid managed cloud offerings for business customers, the two companies announced on Thursday.

Financial terms of the deal are not being disclosed.

[Related: RapidScale Acquires Vonage's Hosted Infra Business For Expanded Desktop-As-A-Service Portfolio]

RapidScale, based in Irvine, California, does business exclusively through its community of channel partners. The cloud service provider offers managed desktop, server, mail, backup and recovery solutions. “Joining Cox is an opportunity to continue to innovate and expand our existing products meet businesses IT needs both today and, in the future,” Randy Jeter, co-founder and CEO of RapidScale, said in a statement.

The tie-up will give Cox's existing managed services portfolio a boost by adding new, hybrid IT services, while also lowering expenses for businesses because they'll be able to procure their transport, IT, and cloud solutions from a single provider, according to Atlanta-based Cox.

“Adding RapidScale to the Cox family, grows our business in a strategic manner by improving our cloud platform and enhances our value to business customers, regardless of size or vertical market," Steve Rowley, executive vice president of Cox Business, said in a statement.

The acquisition comes as many of the incumbent telecom players seek to expand beyond their core connectivity portfolios. Monroe, La.-based CenturyLink is pushing its managed IT services portfolio as legacy telecom service revenues decline. At the same time, industry giants AT&T and Verizon have been expanding into the media and content arenas; AT&T with its recent acquisition of entertainment giant Time Warner for its valuable programming portfolio, and Verizon, having scooped up both Yahoo and AOL to gain more media assets.

Cox Communications is the third-largest U.S.-based cable company behind Comcast and Charter Communications. According to Cox, it was the first cable provider in the U.S. to service business customers. Today, more than $2 billion in annual revenue is generated from its business segment.

RapidScale on Wednesday announced it expanded its data backup and storage partnership with data management provider Veeam to create a secure, cloud-based backup offering.