Cloud WAN optimization specialist CloudOpt is aiming to improve the data transfer to and from Rackspace Public Cloud data centers. The company has previously worked with others in the cloud space, including RightScale when it partnered with the vendor to speed up data transfers on its cloud services.

With Speed-as-a-Service, CloudOpt is aiming to dramatically accelerate the movement of data to and from Rackspace (RAX) Public Cloud data centers. To kick things off, the new software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering is available out of Rackspace’s Chicago and Sydney, Australia data centers.

According to CloudOpt, the service can reduce data transfer times and costs by up to 90 percent—far from an insigificant saving in time and money. And if all goes well, CloudOpt plans to continue to roll out Speed-as-a-Service to other Rackspace Public Cloud data centers over time. Which ones might be next is unknown.

But what does this mean for customers and partners? Everyone wants faster connection speeds. Not one of us is complaint-free when compute or transfer speeds delay our access to our favorite cloud apps (and we go all Incredible Hulk if bandwidth drops off to little better than dial-up speeds). From the personal computing experience, poor optimization is an irritation that keeps us from finding out how Breaking Bad ended, but professionally, poor connection speeds can mean loss of business.

WAN optimization is one of those technologies that often go unnoticed, but it certainly is noticed when there is no optimization. It seems likely that over time, cloud-based WAN optimization may even become an expectation among customers rather than a nice-to-have.

A few of the key features CloudOpt touts as part of Speed-as-a-Service include:

“CloudOpt is pleased to add support for Rackspace Public Cloud,” said Dave Burow, CEO of CloudOpt, in a prepared statement. “Rackspace’s global footprint and OpenStack-based hybrid cloud offering make it a popular choice for business users.”