“Our vision is to provide personalized cloud solutions to businesses across the globe”: RapidScale

Cloud-based services have become omnipresent and for many organizations it’s difficult to imagine using applications and technology infrastructure components without the cloud. Compared with traditional, pre-cloud environments, cloud computing has brought efficiencies that enable companies to reduce capital costs and increase business flexibility. Back in the pre-cloud environment, energy consumption was on the rise; resources, such as servers, were commonly over provisioned; it took months to increase the capacity of existing services.

Cloud computing is the thriving industry which is welcomed by many businesses to solve complications, which motivated RapidScale to originate in 2008. It is a global provider of managed cloud computing and application solutions for SMB and Enterprise markets. RapidScale offers a unique managed cloud approach that complements any organization’s current IT efforts. 

With a global presence, enterprise-grade infrastructure, and a team of highly knowledgeable cloud experts, RapidScale provides the most comprehensive cloud solutions available in the industry. RapidScale’s team of experts is available at every stage of the process, from designing a custom cloud road map to complete account management. Its white-glove service is second to none. 

In conversation with the distinguished person: Randy Jeter, CEO and Co-Founder 

What was the rationale behind setting up the firm?

RapidScale came about through a project that I was brought in to lead with First Team Real Estate, as the organization wanted to work with an outsourced IT company with a cloud approach. At the time, I had no specific partners I confidently felt could handle the business, so I decided to start RapidScale alongside William Hiatt, COO and co-founder. The goal from launch was to deliver a great IT experience on our cloud platform, which we have gone on to build. The end goal is a global business app store with market-leading application performance.

Overall, RapidScale was set up to provide a great IT end-user experience. In order to do that we had to build our own global cloud platform, hire great engineering and sales talent, and go above and beyond for the Channel community. We also had to prove the model around managed IT and hybrid managed IT for a cloud computing company. 

Brief us about your initial product release.

Our first project was a success, but not without many hours of testing and sleepless nights working to build a great platform. Our first five clients are still with us today and have more than tripled in revenue. When purchasing IT services from a company, a client must trust the organization and people they are doing business with. William Hiatt and I went to clients we had done business with or were doing business with, where we had already gained that trust. We also saw a net need, which we capitalized on and delivered on. 

What is your vision statement and how far are you successful?

Our vision is to provide personalized cloud solutions to businesses across the globe. RapidScale strives to be the most customer-oriented managed cloud services provider in the industry. Our objective is to understand an organization’s long-term goals around delivering, supporting and managing IT. Our personalized cloud solutions reflect the understanding that no two businesses are the same and their cloud solutions shouldn’t be either. 

While there is always room for improvement, every single thing our team does every day is rooted in benefitting the client experience, which starts and ends with our employees. We work hard every day at each level of the business to achieve our mission statement and deliver a great client and partner experience.

What were the stumbling blocks you encountered during the initial years?

We faced failure over and over, as technology is complex and raising capital to keep up with our pace of growth added complexity to operating the business. With a lot of hard work, sleepless nights and committed people we not only got through challenging periods, but we kept 99% of our clients and are now seen as a market leader in managed cloud services. People tell us, “Your story is unbelievable, you’re a pioneer.” And I respond by saying that people are capable of far greater things when they’re accountable to goals and to each other.

There must be a two way communication to make employees feel they can share their ideas and observations. Is the same applicable in your company?

We have an open workforce setting, which invites communication and collaboration. This was designed for a reason, with a true purpose. Hire talented people and get them to work together to innovate, implement and deliver on our commitment to provide the best partner and client experience in the IT services industry.

We couldn’t be where we are today without our talented team. Employees have a chance to ask questions or share observations every single Friday on our company-wide call – and this has proven to be an important platform for the leadership team to understand what is on employees’ minds and how we can continue to improve communication. We also hold annual RapidScale Kickoff events that include cross-departmental interaction, brainstorming sessions and open forums for discussion.

Welcome the luminary 

Randy Jeter, CEO and Co-Founder, has a service-first approach to business and believes by empowering his employees to be leaders, his partners and customers receive a higher level of service. RapidScale is headquartered in Irvine, CA and is leading the way in business app virtualization via CloudDesktop. It is Mr. Jeter’s goal to eliminate the personal computer and make the devices people use today, such as smart phones, tablets and other mobile devices, their computer. Mr. Jeter has been included in multiple videos with Citrix discussing the topics of Desktop as a Service, IT as a Service and business app virtualization. Mr. Jeter received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Organizational Management from Vanguard University and is the Chairman of Premiere Worldwide, a technology consulting company.

"Our objective is to understand your organization’s long-term goals around delivering, supporting, and managing IT."