TWR Cloud Services Migration Outcome: avoid the Rackspace 100% increase and reduce annual cloud costs by about $120,000 (based on January 2026 usage)
Executive summary
What's happening and why we're moving
What's happening
Rackspace notified TAG on January 9, 2026 that Rackspace OpenStack Public Cloud pricing would increase 100% effective February 10, 2026.
Why we're moving
The only alternative Rackspace offered to avoid the increase was a 3-year commitment with terms and minimum commitments TAG could not accept.
What we're doing
Moving TWR's cloud "storage + delivery" (CDN) to a new vendor that provides the same core function at dramatically lower cost.
What you get
Same user experience for TWR sites and systems, with a step-change reduction in monthly cloud spend.
The "end in mind"
$10,095
Lower per month
After Phase I is complete
After Phase I is complete, TWR's cloud storage and bandwidth costs drop from "post-increase" levels to a new baseline that is roughly $10,095 lower per month, which annualizes to about $121,141 per year (using January 2026 usage as the benchmark).
Plain-English definitions
CDN Storage (Content Delivery Network)
Where TWR's media files live (images, audio, video, downloads).
CDN Bandwidth
The "delivery" cost to serve those files to people online.
Wrapper
A behind-the-scenes connector that lets TAG-hosted sites talk to the storage provider without changing each site's code in dozens of places.
Egress
A one-time transfer fee to move files out of the current provider during migration.
Options evaluated (and why they were ruled out)
1. Move to Rackspace Private Cloud
Not fully developed for features TWR uses
(example: Rackspace Connect), with no definitive timeline.
No meaningful relief on data transfer costs
to move into the new environment.

Result: not viable.
2. Limited commitment with Rackspace
01
Explored minimum commitment to prevent doubling.
02
After calls and contract redlines, Rackspace would not accept required changes.

Result: not acceptable.
3. Move LDMS source to local storage
Would require new equipment and meaningful development work to restructure how LDMS serves source files.
Higher cost during transition and significant effort for a partial fix.

Result: cost-prohibitive.
4. Move to a new CDN vendor
Best long-term savings because storage and bandwidth are the primary recurring costs.
Result
Selected as the only viable path with meaningful cost reduction.
Phase I scope: Move to a new CDN vendor
Goal: Replace Rackspace CDN storage and bandwidth for TWR media with a lower-cost provider while keeping site functionality intact.
What will be affected
Systems / sites that use CDN media:
  • LDMS (TWR360 buckets)
  • TWR360
  • The Word Today
  • Sonlift
Not impacted (no CDN use):
  • One Story
  • Kongshenwang (Seminary on the Air)
Work plan (what TAG will do)
1
Preparation
  • Final vetting of the selected vendor and contract terms
  • Team setup: accounts, permissions, test storage areas
  • Review vendor documentation and best practices
  • Confirm the lowest-cost method for moving files (to minimize one-time transfer fees)
2
Build and test the new "CDN connector" (wrapper)
  • Develop the new wrapper and required functions
  • Test end-to-end functionality
  • Measure transfer rates to estimate copy/sync time for TWR media
3
LDMS media migration (largest body of files)
  • Update the LDMS integration to use the new wrapper (assuming comparable functions)
  • Inventory existing media files and timestamps (to ensure nothing is missed)
  • Create the new storage buckets at the new vendor
  • Perform the initial copy (may take several days, transfer fees apply)
  • Run one or more sync passes to capture changes during the copy window
  • Schedule a short outage to perform the final sync and database/path updates
4
Update affected sites (database/path updates)
Utility scripts to update each site's media references where needed:
  • TWR360, The Word Today, Sonlift
5
Testing and validation
Decommission old Rackspace CDN buckets after verification
6
Update monthly reporting
Update LDMS and TWR360 reporting scripts to pull storage and bandwidth metrics from the new vendor
Downtime and risk management (what we do to keep this safe)
Multiple sync passes reduce risk of missing files that changed during migration.
Scheduled outage only for the final cutover step, so the database and file locations match perfectly.
Validation/testing before any Rackspace buckets are deleted.
Rate comparison (why this saves money)
Example month using January 2026 usage (what this looks like in dollars)
January 2026 usage inputs
  • CDN Storage: 20,610.11 GB (LDMS/TWR360 buckets)
  • CDN Bandwidth: 4,122.86 GB
Post-increase monthly cost (January example)
  • Storage: $7,543.31
  • Bandwidth: $3,118.54
  • Total: $10,661.85
Post-migration monthly cost (January example)
  • Storage: $515.26
  • Bandwidth: $51.54
  • Total: $566.80

Net savings
Monthly savings: $10,095.05
Annualized savings: $121,140.60 (based on January usage)
Investment, timeline, and payback
$29K
TAG implementation labor
$15.6K
Estimated one-time egress cost
$44.6K
Total Phase I investment
Estimated timeline
2 months total duration (end-to-end)
Payback period
~4.4 months to recover Phase I investment through monthly savings (based on January usage)
What's included vs. not included
Included in Phase I
  • CDN vendor transition for TWR media
  • LDMS migration and cutover
  • Updates for TWR360, The Word Today, Sonlift media references
  • Reporting updates for monthly storage/bandwidth reporting
Not included (planned for Phase 2 evaluation)
  • Virtual machine optimization (example: LDMS API Client VM)
  • SkyEncoder transcoding services strategy and best-fit alternatives
Decisions and inputs needed from TWR
  1. Approval to proceed
  1. Confirmation of the preferred cutover window for the scheduled outage
  1. Confirmation of the priority order if any site must be migrated first (if applicable)