The Cloud

Powering the Modern Business and Application

The cloud is one of the largest shifts

in IT over the past decade, fueling
innovation across the globe.
Today, it powers many businesses and
mission-critical applications, allowing
organizations to take advantage of its
inherent flexibility.

Its Time to Move to the Cloud

$200B

90%

Gartner estimates
cloud-related spend to
exceed by 2016.

of new spending in the

next six years will
be cloud-based.

87%
of businesses
are using public cloud.

We stand to gain from these

five cloud advantages

1. Pay Only for What We Use

Rather than keeping physical servers

online that may not be used, the cloud
lets us pay only for the power we need.

2. Horizontal Scaling

The cloud gives us the ability to add

resources on-demand, especially
during a high-traffic event.

3. Quick Provisioning

Instant provisioning in the cloud

replaces the lengthy purchase
order process.

4. Abundance of File Storage

Storing large files on a content delivery

network (CDN) frees up server
space, enables faster data delivery
and can prevent our site from
crashing.

5. Hybrid Cloud Flexibility

Hybrid Cloud
Private

Public

Gives us the ability to utilize the scalability of the cloud

alongside the performance of dedicated hosting.

Workloads in the Cloud:

Moving the Basics

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Workloads in the Cloud: Moving the Basics

Email
We can offload the time-consuming job of managing mail servers.

Large Media Files

Hosting highly-requested images or videos on a CDN can free our
servers storage space and mitigate a popular file crashing our site.
Web Servers
A load-balanced configuration can scale horizontally to keep our
site online when there is a surge in traffic.

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Even when I had a full-time employee managing the server, I

wondered if I was getting my moneys worth, and if they
really knew all of the intricacies and capabilities of Exchange.
I wanted to utilize the benefits of the cloud so I could focus
on growing the business.

-Jay Kiley, President of Commflo

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Workloads in the Cloud:

Moving More Advanced Pieces

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Workloads in the Cloud: Moving More Advanced Pieces

Ecommerce
Our online store can take advantage of the elastic properties of the
cloud, scaling as necessary to meet customer demand.
Content Management Systems
A CMS can be run at scale, providing the flexibility to grow as we
gain readers and content becomes popular.
Custom Business Apps
Our app can control the infrastructure it runs onsuch as bringing
on more resources as traffic increasesby making API calls.

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As the fastest growing retailer in the world, imagine how quickly

our website presence is growing. So scale was critical.

-Ryan Bonifacino, VP of Digital Strategy

at Alex and Ani

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Raw Infrastructure vs.

Managed Cloud

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Raw Infrastructure vs. Managed Cloud

Cloud hosting infrastructure must be

managed by someone.

Should we manage it ourselves or align

with a company of cloud specialists?

Similar to owning a carsome people

choose to change fluids and replace the
brakes, others hire a mechanic.

Its better to focus on what we do best

and let the specialists do the rest.

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Why Managed Cloud Adds

Value to Our Business

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Why Managed Cloud Adds Value to Our Business

We gain a partner that knows all facets

of cloud hosting.

We dont have to hire an in-house

group of cloud specialists.

If there is a problem with our cloud

infrastructure, we have a team to help
us, 24x7x365.

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Types of Managed Cloud

Expertise

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Types of Managed Cloud Expertise

Infrastructure Level

Application Level

Architecture Guidance

Automation Tools

System Administration

Application Deployment

Performance Tuning

CMS and Ecommerce Expertise

Monitoring and Reporting

Digital Platform Management

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Rackspace Managed
Cloud Advantage

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Rackspace Managed Cloud Advantage

We can tap the power of
cloud computing without
becoming an expert in
everything.

Let the experts manage the

computing, storage, networks and
OS, in addition to the complex tools
and application stacks.
Rackspace supports over 200,000
customers around the globe.

Recommendations on how to
optimize our existing applications
for performance and enhanced
security on the cloud.

Proactive communications and

24x7x365 support. Rackspace
responds in 15 seconds by phone.

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Once you get your business to any kind of scale, you need a
partner that helps you manage your bigger growth, and has
specialization thats not just commodity. With Rackspace, not
only will you get the same performance multiplying, but youll
get advice and counseling and a whole portion of your
business just taken care of.

-Dane Atkinson, CEO, SumAll

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This enables our company to keep focus

on the core businesson building great
applications, products and landing
new customers.

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Next Steps to Get to the Cloud

Audit applications
running on internal
IT infrastructure.

Determine which
workloads are the
best fit for migrating
to the cloud.

Schedule a call with

Rackspace to better
understand the
Managed Cloud.

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www.rackspace.com
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