Rackspace to AWS: Why and How to Make the Shift?

Rackspace and Amazon Web Services (AWS) are the two most popular cloud hosting companies. Rackspace, founded in 1998, offers computing services such as virtual servers, cloud storage, and managed services. AWS came into existence much later in 2006 with services such as infrastructure facilities, server-less computing, and hosted Kubernetes to offer. 

AWS provides infrastructure facilities through EC2 instances. It is the cloud division of Amazon and leads the cloud vendor market with a share of 32%. Rackspace has also consistently been named a leader in the 2020 Gartner magic quadrant for public cloud infrastructure professional and managed services.

Why Companies Prefer AWS over Rackspace?

Companies or Enterprises opt for cloud computing to gain the following benefits:

•   Easy and Instant access to servers
•   Improve data security
•   24×7 availability of data
•   Improve performance speed
•   Cost-effectiveness

AWS has a gamut of options that suffices these needs for enterprises and startups alike. Their products can be classified into the following categories:

•   Amazon’s virtual machine service – EC2
•   Cloud storage service – Glacier
•   Amazon’s storage system – S3

One of the major concerns while handling data on a cloud system is security. AWS uses the Identity and Access Management (IAM) framework to monitor security and access control. Even with some glitches in the past, AWS has proven to be one of the most reliable cloud hosts.

Rackspace, on the other hand, uses Role-based Access Control (RBAC) to restrict unauthorized access. Both IAM and RBAC provide security in terms of dedicated servers. It means users do not have the authority to share the server.

AWS offers direct support for DevOps as well. Some of the popular AWS tools are:

•   Cloudformation tool:  Enables users to use a common language to build AWS and other third-party integration application resources to their cloud environment. 
•   CodeDeploy:  A deployment service from AWS, which helps companies automate applications deployment to various AWS platforms, such as EC2 instances, on-premises instances, etc. It allows deployment of almost all kinds of application content like codes, multimedia files, and other technical data. 
•   AWS code pipeline:  It is a continuous delivery service that helps its users to automate the release process. The companies can also easily integrate AWS code pipeline with third party services. 
  

Rackspace, on the other hand, supports the latest technology through third-party apps. One crucial reason behind AWS’s popularity among the startups and small enterprises are that it charges only for the services used by the company. Rackspace usually charges the services in a more generalized manner, like for an hour or on a monthly/yearly basis.

Even though both are widely accepted cloud services, companies are more inclined towards AWS due to holistic cloud services. Rackspace helps companies migrate the whole of their workloads to the AWS cloud. They announced a partnership with the AWS Migration Acceleration Program (AWS MAP) to provide smooth cloud migration services in June 2018.

Companies can now easily migrate their workload to AWS through the transformation as a service from Rackspace. It can be applied to migrate applications, data, security, and infrastructure. Rackspace has expertise in simplifying the process for moving workloads and applications to AWS. Since it is an official AWS MAP partner, it helps companies migrate to the cloud efficiently and create a robust foundation for their operations. Their expertise is also beneficial for companies to cut down unnecessary initial migration costs.

Also Read: Understanding Cloud-Ops: The Reinvented IT Ops

How to migrate from Rackspace to AWS?

A successful migration can help companies achieve the advantages mentioned above. However, if not done correctly, it can lead to an unsuccessful process, draining out the resources of the company.

 An unsuccessful migration can be due to:

•   Lack of right experience in deploying such services
•   Setting timelines that do not match the available resources
•   Migrating to a wrong cloud

Rackspace provides migration services that companies can rely on for a successful shift. It can be carried out in three steps:

• Application Inventory Assessment

The first and foremost step is to prepare the company for migration. All the available data, applications, and other documents are assessed and organized in a way that they can be grouped.

Since AWS has three cloud verticals, as mentioned above. Grouping the available resources will help them simplify the architecture. It creates an ecosystem that will clarify the enterprise to understand where and which cloud type to choose.

• Set Clear Goals

The next step involves the company to set the proper goals. What is the outcome desired by the organization?

It will help in proper planning and listing out the requirements. It not only saves time but also avoids unnecessary costs due to the selection of a wrong cloud type. Here, the crucial decision-making process takes place. The companies need to prioritize migration on an application-by-application basis. A native application independent of the application stack has a different cloud requirement than a complex application dependent on the data ecosystem.

1. Migrate

Once the data and applications are sorted out, it is easy to migrate them to AWS. The Rackspace users need to operate the AWS workloads according to the readiness of the accounts for the migration. These accounts can be interconnected via a landing zone where the services and workloads are shared. The landing zone has all the required services that enable easy migration to AWS, such as security, logging, and transit network services. So, the applications will have all the existing information soon after the migration.

Also Read: What is Cloud Vendor Lock-in and How to Avoid it?

Conclusion

Compared to AWS, the scope of AWS for businesses is much more significant. However, Rackspace can be a medium to migrate their workloads to a cloud, like AWS, without much hassle. Rackspace being an AWS MAP Partner has expertise in migrating its customers’ data with utmost security. It also builds a firm operational foundation and reduces the initial migration costs to a great extent. Consult with our cloud experts for free for guidance and insight into cloud infrastructure and framework.