Hannah Duce, director of strategic alliances at Rackspace Technology, and Edward Kerr, the company’s product director, are quick to point out that different industries have different needs for the cloud and are often best served by highly customized solutions created to address their unique needs. It’s a singular mindset at Rackspace, where technology teams serve as trusted guides in the cloud journeys of more than half of the Fortune 100.
“One of the contributors to our success is that we excel in and have tremendous technical depth across the hybrid and multi-cloud worlds,” says Kerr. “We of course handle all of the basics, whether it’s helping an organization get the most out of their deployments with Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, but we also have people with significant expertise that isn’t easily replicated by the vast majority of enterprises today.”
As one example, Kerr points to a customer who wants to move their on-premises infrastructure based on VMware by Broadcom technology to the cloud but also has a crucially important workload in OpenStack. In such a situation, Rackspace’s teams draw on technical expertise honed over years in both environments.
“Rackspace of course founded OpenStack with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and we remain one of VMware’s earliest and closest partners,” he adds. “When you are a great partner – one that puts in the time and does the work needed to really know those they collaborate with, the partnership that results delivers exceptional value, particularly to the enterprise customer.”
It’s a formula that clearly works. In addition to its enviable presence in the Fortune 100, Rackspace’s more than 7,000 employees and 40 data centers serve companies of all sizes in 120 countries and numerous industries. These include healthcare, manufacturing, non-profit, education, consumer goods, automotive, food and beverage, travel, retail, government, and public utilities to name a few.
“One of the things that has really enabled us to excel across industries is the ability our teams have to fully manage and perfect the entire stack down into all of the peripheral applications,” says Duce. “Low latency is then delivered by our private high-speed network that extends across our data centers and includes onramps into the major hyperscalers.
It’s an approach made possible by Rackspace’s dedicated teams, each of which brings significant industry expertise to their work. Healthcare is but one example.
“Our healthcare team not only knows Epic electronic health records inside and out, but also the numerous applications that work with it in a clinical setting,” she adds. “We also bring with us everything needed to address compliance requirements, for example in healthcare those associated with HIPAA and HITECH.”
Partners to Enterprises that Need a Multi-Cloud Expert
Now in its second decade of a close partnership with VMware, Rackspace offers an extensive portfolio of private cloud solutions, as well as sovereign clouds for the United States and United Kingdom also powered by Broadcom by VMware technologies. The company was even a testing partner for VMware Cloud Foundation, (VCF).
“We’ve spent a lot of time together with VMware teams over the years doing beta testing on our respective and combined solutions,” says Kerr. “VCF stands out because it includes everything needed to build and run an exceptional cloud, from security to visibility tools. Most enterprises will also find that it delivers exceptional value – value that increases when they consider the tools they will no longer need to invest in because Broadcom has already provided them in VCF.”
At Rackspace, VCF, like all technologies, is backed up by fanatical support – something Kerr believes is a key differentiator for Rackspace even if it is increasingly defined in a new way.
“In the past, fanatical support was associated with the time you would put in over the holidays or on the weekend after a problem occurred,” he says. “What people want now is proactive fanatical support – support that creates automation and safeguards that not only prevent problems before they occur, but which also lead to the strongest possible cloud. VCF inherently includes both.”
Kerr stresses that enterprises also desire flexibility more than ever before, something that led Rackspace to create Rackspace Elastic Engineering. With the service, Rackspace assembles a team with highly specific cloud solutions and services expertise and skill sets. Customers then purchase a bucket of hours they can use as they see fit, for as long as needed. It’s part of a concerted effort to proactively address customers’ needs.
“Whether you are optimizing your data center, consolidating data centers, fully existing the data center business, or optimizing your AI projects with our Rackspace AI Anywhere private cloud, we will provide you with a cloud that addresses the unique needs encountered in your industry, and the unique needs encountered in your business,” adds Duce. “Our ability to provide a hybrid or multi-cloud solution, along with all of the managed services and technical expertise needed to realize its full potential, is why we thrive in the Fortune 100 and on Main Street.”
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