Total Wine & More drives innovation in ecommerce and inventory management with multicloud

Solution

With its multicloud strategy set and Rackspace Technology® selected as its managed services provider, Total Wine gained access to a broad range of services and deep technical expertise. Rackspace worked with the retailer to align those capabilities with its technology goals through both ongoing services and a commit agreement.

• Rackspace Elastic Engineering: Engineers and architects from the Rackspace Elastic Engineering team provided ongoing support as Total Wine modernized its inventory system and migrated core backend operations to Azure. They helped automate tasks that would have been delayed or deprioritized, such as implementing Terraform to synchronize DNS records across both clouds. “Going multicloud stretches your technical resources, but Rackspace Elastic Engineering helps bridge the gap,” said DeSantos. “We trusted that team to do a great job.”
• Rackspace DBA Services: With the shift from an on-premises operation to the cloud and migration of critical systems to Azure and Google Cloud, Rackspace DBA Services helped ensure that Total Wine’s databases supporting both its ecommerce and inventory systems were expertly managed and optimized for availability, reliability and performance. Database specialists from Rackspace enabled Total Wine’s lean technical team to maximize efficiency and reduce operational risk.
• Rackspace Optimizer+: This service supplied the retailer with deep, strategic business insight that it hadn’t anticipated needing. It played a key role in cost optimization and cloud resource management, enabling significant savings while maintaining best-in-class performance. Through proactive monitoring, tailored recommendations and automated optimizations, Rackspace Optimizer+ helped Total Wine save 20% year-to-date, providing the financial flexibility to invest further in innovation and digital transformation.
• BigQuery: Total Wine harnessed the power of Google Cloud by building its enterprise data analytics platform on BigQuery. This enables the retailer to efficiently process and analyze large volumes of data, driving smarter decision-making and enhancing overall business intelligence in support of its digital innovation strategy and growth plans.
• Google Cloud Commit: This negotiated agreement gives Total Wine discounted pricing in exchange for specific usage commitments, providing predictable costs that support its long-term cloud strategy.

“With our Rackspace partnership, it’s not just the tools we’ve acquired; it’s the people,” said DeSantos. “The extremely talented Rackers we work with aren’t just problem-solvers. They’re partners who know our team on a first-name basis and continually impress us with both their technical depth and soft skills.”

“I would even argue that their soft skills are an equal strength,” DeSantos added. “The Rackspace team listens better to their customers than others we’ve talked with. Their genuine willingness to listen and their flexibility keep us coming back.”

DeSantos added, “We can throw a challenging question at Rackspace and see if they have somebody who can help. More than half the time, and often closer to 80% of the time, the Rackspace team brings better resources to the table, leading to more productive conversations. It’s a consistent pattern.”

Going forward, Total Wine will use Rackspace services to strengthen its personalized customer experience initiatives and further optimize its use of BigQuery.