British Medical Journal Relies on Rackspace for Global Presence

Starting out more than 170 years ago as a print publication, the British Medical Journal is now a global brand, encompassing 60 specialty medical and allied sciences journals with millions of readers.

BMJ helps medical organizations and clinicians tackle today’s most critical healthcare challenges through its digital platform, publishing cutting-edge academic research, providing professional development solutions and creating clinical decision support tools.

In 2011, BMJ implemented a DevOps culture and automated its release cycle with a private cloud environment implemented by Rackspace. It used Rackspace’s expertise to move to a new, agile way of working, in a transition completed with zero downtime.

This was just the first phased of its infrastructure overhaul, but the company’s needs changed in 2015 when it opened a local Beijing office. Its attraction to Rackspace’s services was driven by the availability of on-the-ground support in China and knowledge of the local Chinese market.

Tapping into Rackspace for its global expertise, BMJ has now implemented a hybrid multi-cloud solution using both AWS and Alibaba Cloud, fully realizing the strategy it started working towards two years ago. With Alibaba Cloud supporting BMJ’s core infrastructure, the company can enjoy all the benefits of public cloud infrastructure while satisfying the requirements of the Chinese authorities.

“We see the People’s Republic of China as a key part of our growing international network,” said Sharon Cooper, BMJ’s Chief Digital Officer. “Therefore, we needed the technical expertise to be able to expand our services into China, and a partner to help us navigate the complex frameworks required to build services there. Rackspace, with its on-the-ground support in China and knowledge of the market, has delivered the local public-cloud infrastructure we needed using Alibaba Cloud.”

BMJ has seen extraordinary change in its time, transitioning most recently from print media to digital content provision. With the help of Rackspace experts, it now has the infrastructure and culture in place to cement its position as a premier global digital publisher and educator.

Read the full case study here.