Enterprises can now run Hortonworks' Hadoop-based Data Platform in Rackspace's managed hosting environment and its public cloud. Big data applications are difficult to deploy and harder to maintain, so many companies need help analyzing and extracting value from this vast amount of information, according to Rackspace. Like other cloud vendors, Rackspace pitches this new offering as a way to reduce the amount of time required to deploy and maintain a Hadoop-based environment.