The Cloud
Powering the Modern Business and Application
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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.
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It’s 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.
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We stand to gain from these
five cloud advantages
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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.
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2. Horizontal Scaling
The cloud gives us the ability to add
resources on-demand, especially
during a high-traffic event.
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3. Quick Provisioning
Instant provisioning in the cloud
replaces the lengthy purchase
order process.
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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.
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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.
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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
server’s 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 money’s 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 on—such as bringing
on more resources as traffic increases—by 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.
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Should we manage it ourselves or align
with a company of cloud specialists?
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Similar to owning a car—some people
choose to change fluids and replace the
brakes, others hire a mechanic.
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It’s 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 don’t have to hire an in-house group
of cloud specialists.
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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 that’s not just commodity. With Rackspace, not
only will you get the same performance multiplying, but you’ll
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 business—on 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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