Rackspace today announced that Car Delivery Network (CDN) has repurposed its application Reach to connect individuals in need with local community groups during the COVID-19 pandemic. Leading technology services company Rackspace supported CDN in ensuring the app was tested and available in just four days.
Millions of people find themselves locked down and in isolation; the Reach app helps community groups, Facebook groups, churches and associations to mobilize their volunteers to get help to those who need it. Reach is a free global app that is typically used to arrange delivery of vehicles and is now supporting tens of thousands of self-isolating people in the U.S, the U.K. and New Zealand with the ability to scale worldwide.
Reach is hosted on Rackspace’s OpenStack public cloud, which provided CDN with the redundancy and security of an enterprise-grade application, ensuring the scalability required to support volunteers around the world. CDN recognized that its platform – software that usually connects car manufacturers with car dealers and allows tasks to be tracked – was agile and sophisticated enough to be repurposed quickly to help coordinate volunteering efforts.
“CDN saw an opportunity to leverage our Reach app to help those in need,” said Mike Thorby, founder and CEO, CDN and Reach. “We are happy to be able to connect millions of requests across the world, thanks to Rackspace’s infrastructure, customer commitment and support through Fanatical Experience™.”
Reach is already being used by more than 30 community groups in the UK and a growing network in the U.S. Translations into French and Spanish are underway to support a global roll-out. Reach will also continue to be available in the future for continued community support beyond COVID-19.
Rackspace set aside $10 million in free OpenStack public cloud hosting resources over the next six months for organizations participating in COVID-19 relief efforts. Rackspace teams remain dedicated to providing seamless support and Fanatical Experience for customers.
“Rackspace is dedicated to supporting our customers through these unprecedented times,” said Matt Stoyka, Chief Solutions Officer, Rackspace. “CDN needed a technology solution that helped them adapt to this changing environment and ensure they were able to reliably leverage and scale their cloud and web-based applications.”
