Rackspace support fuels OLIVER’s cloud modernization journey
By migrating to Google Cloud, OLIVER optimized operations for 5,500 employees in 46 countries — without needing to expand its internal IT team.
Industry
Technology
Challenge
OLIVER’s needed a platform update that would support its growth, enable rapid scalability and give global employees and clients access to essential marketing tools and workflows.
Outcome Through its migration to Google Cloud, OLIVER was able to seamlessly scale its operations globally, helping it efficiently support a workforce spread across 46 countries while maintaining stringent EU data compliance standards. Solutions Optimizer+ Platforms Google CloudProfessional & Managed Services
Rackspace Modern OperationsCustomer
OLIVER, the largest company within the BrandTech Group, is a leading global marketing and advertising firm renowned for pioneering the "in-agency" model, which embeds marketing professionals directly within client organizations, seamlessly integrating operations for maximum efficiency.
Founded with a commitment to bespoke marketing solutions, OLIVER has grown exponentially from a 350-person firm to over 5,500 employees across 46 countries, managing complex global marketing workflows for prominent brands.
Central to OLIVER’s operational excellence is its proprietary workflow management application, OLIVER Marketing Gateway (OMG), which orchestrates the agency’s end-to-end production and client engagement.
"Rackspace is an essential extension of our team, providing critical 24x7 support and technical expertise that allow us to focus on strategic projects and innovation."
Situation
OLIVER was experiencing fast-paced growth and realized that its current private cloud colocation environment couldn’t keep up with business's fast pace and increasingly complex demands.
“The challenges we had with colocation was that it was very static,” explained Zahir Lalani, Director of Enterprise Systems at OLIVER. “As the business began growing, we quickly realized the scalability was going to be an issue.”
This was particularly impactful to its proprietary workflow management application, OMG, which orchestrates the agency’s end-to-end production and client engagement
“It drives our entire business, but it’s also sold to clients,” Lalani said. “And for clients who don't buy it, they still interact with it, because that’s how we ingest briefs, run our approval systems, etc. It drives all our production tools in terms of automation.”
OLIVER’s in-agency business model required consistent access to the same set of tools regardless of geography. As OLIVER expanded — now supporting marketing operations in 46 countries — so did the strain on its infrastructure.
Its dedicated servers limited scalability and flexibility, making it difficult to manage the increasing demands for real-time collaboration and efficient data handling across global teams. Additionally, the pandemic accelerated the need to move operations online.
Recognizing these challenges, OLIVER decided it needed to centralize and modernize its technology to support its distinctive business model and enable rapid scaling and seamless global collaboration.
"I think it’s not just about whether we’re successful with Google — it’s about whether we’re successful from a DevOps delivery perspective. That includes our team, the Rackspace team and the hosting environment. It’s that trio I measure success on. The real question is: Are we able to deliver enterprise-level, mission-critical services to the entire business? And the answer is a clear yes.”
Solution
OLIVER selected Google Cloud, managed by Rackspace Technology, for its robust global backbone, intuitive interface and scalable infrastructure.
“When we did our tests in the console, it just made sense…it felt much more intuitive.” recalled Lalani. “As a small team without access to loads of highly trained people, the Google offering was just a lot easier to wrap our head around.”
With support from Rackspace, OLIVER executed a smooth migration, transitioning approximately 45 servers and over 50TB of critical data to Google Cloud. With 24x7x365 support, Rackspace helped maintain operational continuity during migration and beyond.
The initial migration was a straightforward a lift-and-shift, keeping much of OLIVER’s infrastructure as-is. The long-term vision was always to modernize and adapt incrementally.
“As the organization has grown, so has the number of internal systems — such as HR and finance,” said Lalani. “These systems were once scattered, but we’ve been gradually consolidating them and automating data flows to streamline how they’re managed and how they communicate with one another.”
As OLIVER matured in the cloud, it leaned heavily on the Rackspace Modern Operations offering to help assess, tune and enhance its environment. The Rackspace team became a trusted advisor, guiding the company through best practices and validating architectural decisions in real time.
Through the Rackspace Optimizer+ offering, a custom GAST report was created for OLIVER to give a comprehensive review of its infrastructure across dozens of Google Cloud projects. Each client engagement runs in its own isolated environment — including staging, testing and production — which makes standardization and monitoring more difficult. The GAST report can surface issues such as misconfigured firewall rules, out-of-date runbooks, unused services still incurring cost and outdated access control lists.
While OLIVER had a capable internal IT team, including a senior architect with deep knowledge of the OMG workflow management application, the team was small. OLIVER depended on Rackspace for additional support, technical validation and around-the-clock response capabilities that the internal team couldn't sustain. Rackspace served as an extension of OLIVER’s team, taking on the tasks of maintaining runbooks, addressing alerts and implementing enhancements identified by Rackspace Optimizer+ and the GAST review.
One critical modernization milestone involved shifting a resource-heavy video rendering service from VMs to Cloud Run from Google Cloud. This workload, which ingests hundreds of videos during peak customer activity, required auto-scaling and cost control to be viable. Rackspace helped validate the architecture and performance tuning of Cloud Run to ensure the system scaled effectively without runaway costs. Identity and Access Management (IAM) policies and permissions across environments were also improved in parallel.
Migrated 45 servers and 50TB of data to Google Cloud, enabling real-time global collaboration and scalability for OLIVER’s embedded marketing teams.
Outcome
The strategic shift to Rackspace-managed Google Cloud has significantly empowered OLIVER’s global business model.
“The main thing was having a very good, scalable infrastructure — which Google clearly had,” explained Lalani. “The other was a strong EU presence. From a legal point of view, we had to be GDPR compliant and hosted in the EU, regardless of where the user was. The EU was the benchmark we had to conform to, and Google met that requirement. It also came down to scalability and the simplicity of working with the platform.”
Now fully cloud-enabled, OLIVER can effortlessly accommodate expansive global data workflows, manage heavy file transfers seamlessly and support the dynamic collaborative needs of its embedded teams around the world.
But the Rackspace partnership delivers far more than basic infrastructure support – it enables OLIVER to operate a lean, focused DevOps function, freeing its small internal team to work on the high-impact modernization and development initiatives that matter most to the business.
“I think it’s not just about whether we’re successful with Google — it’s about whether we’re successful from a DevOps delivery perspective,” said Lalani. “That includes our team, the Rackspace team and the hosting environment. It’s that trio I measure success on. The real question is: Are we able to deliver enterprise-level, mission-critical services to the entire business? And the answer is a clear yes.”
Rackspace Modern Operations helps OLIVER’s environments remain clean, compliant and efficient, while GAST reporting has uncovered redundant infrastructure, idle projects and over-provisioned resources. Regular performance and security reviews ensure the environment evolves as the business scales.
And Rackspace Modern Operations’ impact on OLIVER’s ability to win new business can’t be overstated, as it allows the company to confidently deliver mission-critical services to enterprise customers without expanding its internal IT team. New client environments can be spun up quickly, monitored continuously and optimized with Rackspace support — delivering scale without adding complexity.
The relationship is also a safeguard. As a mid-sized company, OLIVER’s voice alone might not always command attention in cloud provider support channels. But with Rackspace as a managed partner, it benefits from faster escalation paths and expert advocacy in resolving issues — critical when delivering services for Fortune 500 clients.
OLIVER extends this advantage to its largest customers, providing them with direct access to Rackspace Modern Operations. Confident in Rackspace expertise, OLIVER trusts its partner to deliver day-to-day support without constant oversight from its internal DevOps team — a model that helps OLIVER win and retain enterprise clients.
“Have we scaled globally? Absolutely. OMG is available 24x7x365 around the world, and no one has issues using it,” said Lalani. “That connectivity — along with our production automation and the broader ecosystem we’ve built — makes all the difference.”
Looking ahead, OLIVER expects its Google Cloud footprint to expand significantly, and its infrastructure and operational model is being evaluated as the potential standard across the BrandTech Group. With demonstrated success supporting OLIVER’s fast-paced global operations, Rackspace is now positioned to provide unified support across a much broader enterprise landscape.
About Rackspace Technology
Rackspace Technology is a leading end-to-end hybrid cloud and AI solutions company. We can design, build, and operate our customers' cloud environments across all major technology platforms, irrespective of technology stack or deployment model. We partner with our customers at every stage of their cloud journey, enabling them to modernize applications, build new products, and adopt innovative technologies.
Let’s Talk Strategy
Tell us a little about your challenges and we’ll contact you.
You may withdraw your consent to receive additional information from Rackspace Technology at any time. Information collected in this form is subject to the Rackspace Technology Privacy Notice.
Rackspace Technology Support
To create a ticket or chat with a specialist regarding your account, log into your account.
Support Phone
1-800-961-4454
International Support
+1-512-361-4935
Help Documentation
System status
Rackspace Technology Careers
Rackspace Technology accelerates the value of the cloud during every phase of a customer’s digital transformation. Join us on our mission.