{"id":19993,"date":"2025-04-08T17:45:39","date_gmt":"2025-04-08T21:45:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/?p=19993"},"modified":"2025-04-07T17:52:49","modified_gmt":"2025-04-07T21:52:49","slug":"from-hosting-to-ai-rackspaces-channel-evolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/ai\/from-hosting-to-ai-rackspaces-channel-evolution.html","title":{"rendered":"From Hosting to AI: Rackspace\u2019s Channel Evolution"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In an in-person interview with Adrianna Bustamante, VP of Global Partnerships, and Judy Vansell, Senior Director of Partner Programs &amp; Operations at Rackspace Technology, we explored how the company is doubling down on the channel with a reimagined partner strategy. Long known as a managed hosting provider, Rackspace has evolved into a global hybrid cloud and AI powerhouse, and it&#8217;s bringing the partner community along for the ride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;It\u2019s exciting to tell the story of our evolution,&#8221; Bustamante said. &#8220;We\u2019re not just hosting anymore. We\u2019re helping partners drive end-to-end digital transformation and AI adoption for their customers.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/image-1.png\" alt=\"Generated image\" class=\"wp-image-19995\" style=\"width:285px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/image-1.png 1024w, https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/image-1-90x90.png 90w, https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/image-1-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/image-1-300x300.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>Rackspace\u2019s relaunch of its partner program underscores this commitment. The new structure includes an Account Ownership Program that allows partners to maintain commission on workloads indefinitely, providing long-term, predictable revenue. The program is built around enablement, expanded vertical offerings, co-selling, and a range of new tools, including campaigns-in-a-box, access to case studies, and internal chat-based systems like RITA (Rackspace Intelligent Technology Assistant), which has automated 90% of internal ticketing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bustamante highlighted the importance of their AI strategy, which is anchored by the Foundry for AI at Rackspace (FAIR) initiative. &#8220;We help partners and clients ideate, incubate, and industrialize AI projects, even if they don\u2019t know where to start,&#8221; she said. With over 70 deployments and a library of use cases, Rackspace enables partners to bring AI from proof-of-concept to production with confidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rackspace also works side-by-side with the hyperscalers\u2014AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and others\u2014layering services and workload-aware solutions that optimize cloud usage. The company\u2019s hybrid cloud capabilities allow partners to place the right workload in the right location with an expert-guided approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With a vertical focus on healthcare, BFSI, and public sector, Rackspace offers differentiated strengths such as SLA support at the application layer. It is the largest third-party hosting provider for Epic and recently supported a high-profile deployment with Seattle Children\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We want partners who want to co-sell, win, and grow together,&#8221; Vansell explained. The enhanced program reflects Rackspace\u2019s long-term vision: to be a leading hybrid and AI cloud provider while making business easier for partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From traditional VARs and TSDs to emerging MSPs and ISVs, Rackspace is embracing a broader definition of partnership. And with its relaunch tagline\u2014&#8221;Win More. Earn More. Accelerate Your Growth with Rackspace Technology&#8221;\u2014the company is making a clear statement to the channel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>If you liked this post, you\u2019ll love the leading global business communications and technology event since 1999, the&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.itexpo.com\/\">ITEXPO #TECHSUPERSHOW<\/a>, Feb 10-12, 2026 Fort Lauderdale, Florida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Don&#8217;t forget the collocated <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mspexpo.com\">MSP Expo<\/a> &#8211; just for managed service providers!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/image-2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"694\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/image-2.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19858\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/image-2.png 1000w, https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/image-2-768x533.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Aside from his role as CEO of&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.tmcnet.com\/\"><em>TMC<\/em><\/a><em>&nbsp;and chairman of&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.itexpo.com\/\"><em>ITEXPO<\/em><\/a><em>&nbsp;#TECHSUPERSHOW Feb 10-12, 2026,&nbsp;Rich Tehrani is CEO of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt-advisors.com\/\">RT Advisors<\/a>&nbsp;and a Registered Representative (investment banker) with and offering securities through&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.4pointscapital.com\/\">Four Points Capital Partners LLC&nbsp;<\/a>(Four Points) (Member FINRA\/SIPC). He handles capital\/debt raises as well as M&amp;A. RT Advisors is not owned by Four Points.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The above is not an endorsement or recommendation to buy\/sell any security or sector mentioned. No companies mentioned above are current or past clients of RT Advisors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In an in-person interview with Adrianna Bustamante, VP of Global Partnerships, and Judy Vansell, Senior Director of Partner Programs &amp; Operations at Rackspace Technology, we explored how the company is doubling down on the channel with a reimagined partner strategy. Long known as a managed hosting provider, Rackspace has evolved into a global hybrid cloud<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":19994,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194],"tags":[1918,1811,1920,3118],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19993"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19993"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19993\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19997,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19993\/revisions\/19997"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}