Rackspace Technology appointed Gajen Kandiah as its new CEO to drive its cloud AI ambitions in the sector.

Kandiah joins the hybrid cloud provider from Hitachi Digital, where he served for more than five years across various divisions, most notably as COO and executive chairman.

Rackspace positioned the new CEO to steer its platform and product innovation in cloud management and private AI, as well as developing partnerships with major cloud providers and the open ecosystem, potentially bolstering its cloud networking offering.

Kandiah will replace Amar Maletira, who has served as Rackspace CEO since September 2022, having joined the company as president and CFO in 2020. The former chief will stay at the company as vice chairman of the board.

"I am honored to lead Rackspace Technology and its exceptional team of 'Rackers'," Kandiah said. "As industries take AI to production, they need the governed multicloud operations that our talented teams design, build, and operate across private, public, and sovereign clouds."

Rackspace chairman Jeffrey Benjamin added: “Gajen is a proven operator across services, infrastructure, software, and AI. His experience aligns with our strategy to deliver secure and governed multicloud solutions with stronger reliability, security, and time to value."

Kandiah’s Hitachi history and beyond

Kandiah was named CEO of Hitachi Vantara in 2020. This tenure also saw him lead as chief digital transformation officer for Hitachi Digital Systems & Services, as well as corporate officer for the Hitachi parent company.

In early 2023, Kandiah took on the additional role of president of Hitachi Digital while in the Vantara position, before leaving the CEO role in late 2023 to become deputy general manager of the Hitachi AI Transformation Center, while still retaining the Hitachi Digital presidency and a prominent position as its executive chair.

Leading Hitachi Digital, the exec oversaw an Nvidia partnership with Hitachi’s rail division that saw an AI platform launched for railway management. Kandiah served as board member for that division, Hitachi Rail, alongside Hitachi’s digital engineering subsidiary, GlobalLogic.

Last year saw Kandiah become chairman of security firm Hitachi Cyber, before taking on the mantle of COO at Hitachi Digital in addition to president. He served the dual role for a year before leaving Hitachi entirely in April of this year.

Prior to joining the Hitachi family, the executive spent more than 15 years at IT consulting giant Cognizant, where he joined as VP in 2003. From there, he took on ascending presidency titles before promotion to global managing director in 2011.

In 2015, Kandiah became president of Cognizant’s Digital Business and Digital Engineering division, setting him up for the Hitachi Digital residency.

Kandiah’s professional history dates back to the 1990s, with various president positions across Internet services business NerveWire and consultancy Cambridge Technology Partners.

Recent Rackspace moves

Rackspace recently launched its OpenStack Business private cloud service for enterprises, which the company touted as being “well-suited” for performance-sensitive applications that require guaranteed system resources, such as high-frequency trading (HFT) or AI training.

That offering is built on its OpenStack Flex platform, Rackspace’s private cloud alternative to hyperscale solutions. It also followed the debut of its GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS) offering late last year, which uses Nvidia H100s housed in its SJC3 data center in Silicon Valley.

In August, the firm revamped its Rackspace Cloud Management Platform, rolling out AI-powered tools for workload and application optimization, along with monitoring features that promised visibility across the entire tech stack.

Late last month, it unveiled RAISE (Rackspace AI Security Engine), an AI-powered offering designed to enhance threat detection and response in its Cyber Defense Center operations.

With these efforts and others under his CEO tenure, Maletira was thanked by Benjamin on behalf of the board “for his leadership in driving Rackspace’s transformation into a customer-centric, forward-leaning hybrid cloud and AI solutions company, while establishing a scalable business in regulated industries.”