Angela Kurien Murze to head Rackspace's cloud innovation centre in India

American cloud computing company Rackspace Technology on Monday announced the promotion of Angela Kurien Murze as the head of cloud innovation centre for India. Based out of Pune, she will lead the Global Delivery team for support from India, the company said in a statement.  

The company launched its cloud innovation centre (CIC) Hyderabad and Delhi-NCR to offer solutions to meet new and evolving customer needs.  

Murze joined Rackspace as director business operations from IBM in January 2022, where she was heading delivery and integrating operations infrastructure service. 

In her most recent role at Rackspace, Murze will be responsible for driving profitability, leading a matrix organisation that includes pre-sales, delivery, alliances, and marketing. 

"I am delighted to welcome Angela to the Rackspace Technology leadership team," said Sandeep Bhargava, senior vice president, global services and solutions, public cloud business unit, Rackspace Technology. "We see significant potential in India as one of the fastest-growing markets and we are confident that Angela's wealth of experience will propel our growth further," he added. 

Murze has a Doctorate in Public Administration from Nagpur University, and over 20 years of corporate experience in designing and running profitable businesses in Technology Operations through emerging technologies and distinctive customer experiences. She has managed multiple programs, client relationships up to $500 million in annual revenues, and transitioned operations across multiple industry verticals and multiple locations in the Asia Pacific.  

“An inspirational and transformational leader,” as most of her colleagues’ believe she is, Murze has also led major clients to adopt cloud technology, and even developed key area in workplace automation, bringing lasting change to her clients.  

Quoting market research firm International Data Corporation’s December 2022 report, Murze said, India's public cloud service market has the potential to be worth $13 billion by 2026. “As one of the most significant technological innovations in recent history, the cloud has drastically reduced entry barriers to businesses and facilitated innovation and transformation at scale. I am proud to join Rackspace Technology India and look forward to building on its extensive global expertise in multi-cloud deployments that help businesses maximize the benefits of the modern cloud,” she said. 

Murze’s appointment is part of Rackspace Technology’s recent executive team expansion which includes the appointment of former Oracle executive Martin Dubé as Vice President, Cloud Asia Pacific & Japan in December 2022 and the promotion of Sandeep Bhargava to a global role as Head of Services and Solutions, Public Cloud Business Unit.  

A ransomware attack hit Rackspace in early December, forcing the company to shut down its Hosted Exchange Environment. In early January, Rackspace said that an investigation into the attack had found that cybercriminals had only stolen data from 27 of its 30,000 customers. The company added that it had decided not to rebuild the Hosted Exchange email environment and would instead migrate to Microsoft 365. 

For the fourth quarter that ended December 31, Rackspace reported earnings before costs such as stock compensation of $74 million, or six cents per share, down from $122 million, or 25 cents per share, in the same quarter of last year. Revenue rose just 1%, to $787 million.