Migrate to the Cloud Efficiently, Not Just Quickly

Q: How can becoming a cloud company transform the way a company handles its day-to-day operations and the services it can provide its customers?

A: During the pandemic, companies ran to the cloud thinking they needed to be more cost-efficient, evolve their business, and add an e-commerce portal. For this, companies need to understand their data and assets, transform them into workloads and identify the best way to move these workloads to the cloud. Many companies just moved to whatever service they thought was best for them. We got numerous requests from businesses wanting to move workloads to the cloud without asking if it was the best move. After some time, many CIOs and CEOs realized it was not. For some workloads, the cost was higher than they expected or the service did not work the way they wanted it to in terms of performance.

With a transition from “cloud first” to “cloud smart,” clients first analyze how to move to the cloud and request our help in assessing their infrastructure and business. Rackspace technology can advise companies on the best way to move into the cloud and suggest a combination of different public clouds, of a public and a private cloud, a combination of private and public clouds and microservices, and many other alternatives. There are now numerous technologies available in the marketplace, making the journey to the cloud even more challenging. Companies need to understand what they have, change each workload and application and choose the best cloud configuration to move forward.

Q: What added value does Rackspace Elastic Engineering provide and how does it help companies see that it is not enough to “just be in the cloud?”

A: Elastic Engineering’s main market differentiator is that it was developed for the cloud environment. Clients want to change processes as soon as new technologies arise and Elastic Engineering facilitates this. Our service is flexible, elastic and provides what clients will need tomorrow, not yesterday. Clients in Latin America enjoy these services because their business is always evolving. Following the e-commerce and other tech transformations, Elastic Engineering gives clients what they need.

Q: What would be factors to take into consideration in terms of migration, management, and security matters when using this service?

A: Different companies have different security protocols or needs. While we can follow existing best practices for migration and management, security is very particular. It is important to make clients understand that Elastic Engineering is an extension of their staff. Our people specialize in their security protocols and best practices to make sure we respect clients’ protocols. Elastic Engineering is flexible and as more clients use it, our people understand their businesses better, improving the response to threats.

Q: How can using Rackspace Solutions increase and drive business growth?

A: Rackspace Technology does not see the journey to the cloud linear, as other companies do. We see it as a cycle where we can provide advisory services to walk through it. We help clients to transform, manage and optimize their business with the right usage of technology. After their transformation, we continue providing advice to address the new developments that arose during the process.

Rackspace Technology is the market’s end-to-end multicloud solutions company. We are a trusted adviser that understands how to apply best practices. Clients do not need our help with established technologies. They need our help with new technologies, best practices and keeping their core business alive. Clients leave their cloud with us while they run their business. We want to make sure everything we do helps their business grow.

Q: What would be long-term repercussions for enterprises that refuse to go digital?

A: CIOs and CEOs need to understand that their business needs a platform in the cloud, just like many CEOs opposed to remote work changed their mind during the pandemic. Many CIOs prefer to have a tangible thing but business models have evolved so much that the cloud is a necessity. They could leverage great things for their businesses by using the cloud.

Q: How does Rackspace find the right cloud fit for each sector and company?

A: We have a large professional services organization in the Americas. Through our “cloud readiness” assessment, our experts analyze the client’s business and create a proposition for every workload and a cost estimate. Every single company has a legacy where sometimes it makes sense to move some data to the cloud and sometimes it does not. Several CIOs in Mexico City recently told me they are not migrating applications to clouds because they do not see a business reason to do so. We are honest with our clients so we tell them which areas need to migrate to the cloud and which do not. Every single client has different needs and legacies.

Q: What are Rackspace’s plans for 2022?

A: Last year, we grew in Latin America, focused on solidifying our presence in Mexico and Colombia, and landed in Chile. This year, we want to continue solidifying our position in Mexico, Colombia, and Chile and expand to other countries. We want to have a local presence in Peru, Argentina, and Ecuador and then expand to Central America, also, we are taking a special focus on startups and fintech.

Our mission is to initiate the cycle and make sure that companies take full advantage of the cloud. We will continue to expand and invest in bringing more and more offerings from the US and the EU to Latin America. Business is booming in Mexico, where we have hundreds of employees. Colombia is our second hub and we will continue to hire talent.  We are excited about the Latin American market.

Rackspace technology has been fundamental for the growth of cloud in Latin America. Our strategic alliances with AWS, Google and Microsoft have been amazing. As an end-to-end cloud solutions company, we really value our clients in Latin America and we want to continue helping them adapt to the cloud-smart approach.

Rackspace is a leading end-to-end multicloud technology services company. We can design, build and operate our customers’ cloud environments across all major technology platforms, irrespective of technology stack or deployment model. We partner with our customers at every stage of their cloud journey, enabling them to modernize applications, build new products and adopt innovative technologies.

It operates in Australia, Canada, Germany, Mexico, the UK and the US, among other countries.