Adrianna Bustamante, Rackspace Technology’s vice president of Global Alliance Partnerships, describes the relationship like this: “At Rackspace Technology we really are the multi-cloud solution experts and look to provide that end-to-end fanatical experience for customers. Our partnership with VMware is critical to our success. Our two companies are very similar from a cultural perspective and in our business strategy. We see our partnership with VMware as a great way to help our customers make their way through this multi-cloud world.”

In delivering technology solutions and business outcomes to organizations around the world, Rackspace Technology has consistently demonstrated its commitment to shepherding customers through their entire multi-cloud journey. This kind of genuine partnership with its customers is fundamental to the company’s global success and proved to be a key factor in winning the 2022 VMware Partner Lifecycle Services Award for North America.

Commitment to Customer Outcomes Through Lifecycle Services

Rackspace Technology’s long-term customer partnership is exemplified by its work with a global Fortune 500 professional services company. This customer, which specializes in information technology services and consulting, was burdened with owning and operating its own data centers and wanted to adopt a multi-cloud strategy. But the company was bound by stringent security protocols for the hosting environments provided to its own clients. Moreover, the company wanted to retain the ability to continue modernizing its platform to handle new acquisitions and integrations within its divisions.

As Bustamante explains, Rackspace Technology worked with the customer to find the right solution to address all these needs and set up the customer for lasting success. “We helped the customer redeploy their platforms and application environments into three of our global data centers, which provides touchpoints in North America, Europe and the Middle East, and Asia. This was very important for bringing more of their global business units together.”

The solution consists of Rackspace Private Cloud powered by VMware, a VMware-based SDDC private cloud running on Dell VxRail converged infrastructure. Through a next-gen DevOps-as-a-Service called Rackspace Elastic Engineering for VMware, Rackspace Technology also deployed a migration factory using tools such as VMware HCX to move the customer’s virtual machines, along with its VMware vRealize Automation blueprints, into the new multi-cloud environment. Additionally, Rackspace Technology designed a new software-defined network topology based on VMware NSX-T..

“Our team worked very closely with the customer to determine the best path for their multi-cloud journey,” Bustamante notes. “Our VMware experts enabled the required security protocols on the NSX-T network. And with our Rackspace Elastic Engineering for VMware services, we provided an agile, consumption-based support and engineering model so the customer was able to gain greater operational efficiencies while modernizing on their existing platform. Now they can scale as needed, anywhere in the world, and only pay for the resources they consume.”

Rackspace Technology engaged with the customer every step of the journey to perform assessments, migrations, and work side-by-side with the customer to implement, train and provide ongoing support as needed.

Multi-Cloud Foundation For Ongoing Growth and Innovation

The new multi-cloud solution not only meets the customer’s core requirements for more global agility and strict adherence to security protocols, it also provides a foundation for the ongoing growth and evolution of the business. For example, the customer can leverage advanced features on the latest VMware platforms to continue modernizing its platforms for delivering data-driven and AI-enabled capabilities for the business.

In addition, the customer will be able this new multi-cloud deployment to deliver enhanced networking and orchestration across its business units, as well as move into containerization for even greater agility and efficiency. In fact, a key value for the customer of moving to the multi-cloud environment is the ability to scale on demand—compute, storage and networking—as new workloads and technologies are deployed, and do so with a much more flexible OPEX financial model..

For Bustamante, these valuable customer outcomes are the direct result of Rackspace Technology’s approach to partnership. “Bringing together a strong multi-cloud ecosystem is in our DNA,” she says. “That’s why it’s critical for VMware to be a part of our ongoing strategy, to enable us to serve up the solution experiences our customers are looking for in this multi-cloud world.”

She concludes, “From my vantage point, I see the companies building these strong ecosystems as the ones that will truly thrive in the next 10 years. Customers are going to remain focused on driving outcomes and by leveraging our multi-cloud ecosystem, Rackspace Technology can be a more valuable and trusted partner for helping them reach their goals.”

Stay tuned for more spotlights on our 2022 VMware Partner Achievement Award winners just like this one. Interested in becoming a VMware Partner? Learn about the VMware Partner Connect program. Looking for a VMware Partner like Rackspace Technology? Find one using our Partner Locator and learn how VMware Principal Partners can help drive your business success. Check out the VMware Partnership Perspectives podcast featuring Subroto Mukerji, President of Americas at Rackspace Technology