Optimize your cloud migration and modernization journey with Microsoft Azure and Rackspace Technology

Business leaders worldwide are embracing digitization in retail, healthcare, manufacturing, financial services, and many other industries. Over the past decade and beyond, the cloud has been essential to executing digital transformation agendas.

Because of its elasticity, scalability, and high availability, the cloud is recognized as a pivotal part of their technology portfolios worldwide as companies use it to fast-track their strategies.

Initially, business leaders may have been cautious about the security of cloud resources, but major cloud service providers like Microsoft Azure and managed services experts like Rackspace Technology® now help provide a secure path that enables organizations to better protect their cloud and on-premises environments through advanced security and threat detection services.

The cloud offers many other advantages, such as sustainability, accelerated time-to-market, modernization and innovation, built upon Zero Trust architecture. All these factors contribute to the resiliency and security of the cloud.

As you drive cloud modernization, you can immediately realize the associated cost benefits, as well as increased efficiency, agility, and scalability.

Our Rackspace Technology team's collective expertise is built on years of delivering successful cloud modernization programs. We offer a wide range of cloud modernization services designed to help you:

• Reduce costs
• Improve customer experience
• Accelerate innovation
• Create market differentiation

With our customer-centric, cloud-centric approach to service delivery, we enable continuous modernization with leading technologies managed and optimized on the platforms that drive the best outcomes for your business.

Paths to migrate or modernize or both 

Getting started with the cloud is all about migration and modernization. The two approaches are closely related: migrations lay the foundation for an elastic, scalable, and secure infrastructure, while modernization uses this foundation to innovate legacy applications to be more agile or provide richer user experiences. The big question for many organizations is, “Where do we start?”  

One of the notable benefits of Microsoft Azure is that you can move to the cloud and execute your migration and modernization initiatives at a pace that makes sense for your business, whether it is lift and shift, re-platforming or modernization. Microsoft Azure solutions for hybrid environments enable IT teams to manage mixed environments of on-premises and cloud resources more easily, applying consistent management and governance controls across both. This flexibility allows you to manage some resources on-premises, even as you move other resources to the cloud, without added complexity.  

Simplifying the management of diverse IT environments is more important than ever in today’s digital world. A recent Flexera “State of the Cloud Report” notes that 82% of enterprises today have a hybrid cloud strategy and 92% use multicloud strategies.

[In fact, more than half (51%) of the 1,400 global IT professionals who participated in our Rackspace Technology Multicloud Annual Research Report 2022 said that they are users (or intend to become users) of at least two hyperscalers.]

Microsoft Azure was built to support the need for flexibility so you can have the agility and innovation of the cloud in your on-premises environments for a holistic, seamless, and secure approach consistent across on-premises and cloud resources.  

Expand your cloud value 

Once in the cloud, you’ll be able to take advantage of numerous opportunities to increase the value of your initial investment. Just as application modernization can follow (or integrate with) your earliest migration, there are other ways to use the cloud to advance your digital goals.  

For example, you could build on your new cloud infrastructure to modernize your data estate. Microsoft Azure’s data and analytics services help you unify data from multiple sources so you can derive richer, more actionable business insights from your data.  

The benefits of using data as a strategic asset are significant. In addition, Microsoft Azure provides a wide range of services, including virtual machines, containers, databases, analytics and AI/ML, providing customers with outstanding agility. A 2020 Harvard Business Review study found that 54% of organizations that embrace data to drive digital transformation experience increase revenue performance; the same percentage (54%) increase profit results; some 44% report faster time to market; and 62% experience improvement in customer satisfaction.

You can also choose to explore a number of other opportunities, such as:  

• Using the cloud to accelerate innovation 
• Increasing security and compliance 
• Monitoring and optimizing performance
• Driving consistency across hybrid IT estates 

Cloud is transforming industries 

Cloud-enabled digital transformation is happening across industries worldwide. Many organizations are already using the cloud to address their most pressing business challenges. Let’s look at a small sample to see what’s possible.  

In Retail, evolving buyer behavior is prompting retailers to focus on better understanding their customers to meet their needs more effectively and ultimately redesign and reinvent the retail experience. At the same time, the cloud can help bring much-needed resilience to retail supply chains and enable more resilient operations.

For example, Dole Europe Migrated from On-Site to Azure IaaS, tapping into the full range of Microsoft cloud solutions to accelerate digital innovation in retail. Bright Skies, a Rackspace Technology company, led the project and delivered a complete service package from the start, including a Cloud Readiness Assessment, a feasibility study and budget plan, and technical workshops to define the target architecture.

This enabled the team to integrate a more cost-effective central firewall, as requested by the customer. Bright Skies' Managed Services division will ensure that the new solution runs smoothly, helping to relieve the customer of any concerns about future technical issues.

Within Travel and Hospitality, the cloud is also helping companies become more agile, innovative, and competitive to attract, retain, and enhance customer satisfaction. 

Rancho Valencia US-based Five-Star resort and spa is using Microsoft Office 365 to Strengthen Customer Service Standards while reducing costs, improving performance, and strengthening security. The upgraded Rancho Valencia email platform has given users a 30% faster and more secure experience than before, and the resort is also taking fuller advantage of Office 365 applications since the new email platform is now in the same Microsoft Office 365 ecosystem with applications. 

Cloud is helping Financial Services organizations protect against growing threats like cyber and financial crime while increasing agility by modernizing aging financial systems.  

New Zealand-based CNS Treasury reduced costs and improved performance of its treasury risk management application with Microsoft Azure, helping to discover new levels of performance, flexibility, and freedom in the public cloud.  

And in Healthcare, cloud has enabled health organizations to accelerate digitization to support the rise of virtual healthcare, allowing both patients and providers to virtually interact and access vital data while securing sensitive information.  

The UK-based British Heart Foundation provides a great example of an organization accelerating the mission to beat heartbreak forever with technology, using Microsoft Azure to deliver a platform to support life-saving research.  

Get started today 

Rackspace Technology and Microsoft Azure offer comprehensive resources and guidance to help simplify planning and execution of your cloud migration and modernization. Talk to us about your cloud vision and let us help you get started. 

Build a modern tech stack that better positions you for future innovation and take that initial step to move ahead of the competition.

Learn more by visiting our Microsoft Azure Center or download our Migration and Modernization e-book.