Plots for world domination typically fail because the plots themselves just aren’t scalable. But with the launch of Facebook’s Open Graph this week, there’s no doubt that they have some killer talent helping them scale the platform to own the rest of the web.

What you may not know, is that part of Facebook’s scaling effort has involved their use of the Apache Cassandra open source database. Other large sites including Twitter and Digg have made use of the open source technology, and the list keeps growing.

On the heels of the Facebook news, and the release of Apache Cassandra version 0.6, a new Austin-based startup has been launched and intends to capitalize on Cassandra’s popularity and success.

Riptano was launched yesterday by Jonathan Ellis and Matt Pfeil, who believe that there’s a viable services market to be built around the Cassandra ecosystem. According to company representatives, Riptano is the first company to formally offer support and professional services for Cassandra.

Rackspace, the sole outside investor, has made an undisclosed investment in the company.

Riptano’s site indicates they will provide 3 core offerings: support, training, and dedicated professional services to customers.

Considering Rackspace’s reputation for top-notch customer service, you can probably expect Riptano to be one of the new-school services companies that will aim to surprise and delight their customers. According to their site, they offer three support plans that are impressively transparent about the levels of service you can expect to receive from each plan. The bronze, silver, and gold support plans range from $1,000 to $4,000 per node, per year.

The bronze plan boasts 48 hour response times, 4 hours of consultation, as well as web and email communication. On the other end, the gold plan gets customers a four hour response time, 24 hours of consultation, as well as web, email, and phone support.

Even at the bronze level, a 48 hour response time from a professional services firm is an attractive proposition. Knowing what you can expect for your money is even better.

Nonetheless, add Riptano to the list of interesting new firms emerging in Austin this year. One would imagine that the Apache Foundation is also pleased to see Riptano on the scene.