Rackspace Technology Inc (RXT) 2023 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Rackspace Technology Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Webcast. (Operator Instructions). Please be advised today's conference is being recorded. I would like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Sagar Hebbar. Please go ahead.

美好的一天，感謝您的支持。歡迎收看 Rackspace Technology 2023 年第三季財報網路廣播。 （操作員說明）。請注意，今天的會議正在錄製中。我想把今天的會議交給你們的發言人薩加爾‧赫巴爾 (Sagar Hebbar)。請繼續。

Thank you, and welcome to Rackspace Technologies Third quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. I am Sagar Hebbar, Head of Investor Relations. Joining me on today's call are Amar Maletira, our Chief Executive Officer; and Bobby Molu, our Chief Financial Officer.

謝謝，歡迎參加 Rackspace Technologies 2023 年第三季財報電話會議。我是投資人關係主管 Sagar Hebbar。參加今天電話會議的有我們的執行長 Amar Maletira；和我們的財務長 Bobby Molu。

As a reminder, certain comments we make on this call will be forward-looking. These statements involve risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ. A discussion of these risks and uncertainties is included in our SEC filings. Rackspace Technology assumes no obligation to update the information presented on the call, except as required by law.

提醒一下，我們在本次電話會議中發表的某些評論將具有前瞻性。這些陳述涉及風險和不確定性，可能導致實際結果有所不同。我們向 SEC 提交的文件中包含對這些風險和不確定性的討論。除法律要求外，Rackspace Technology 不承擔更新通話中提供的資訊的義務。

Our presentation includes certain non-GAAP financial measures and adjustments to these measures, which we believe provide useful information to our investors. In accordance with SEC rules, we have provided a reconciliation of these measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures in the earnings press release and presentation, both of which are available on our Investor Relations website. Please note that unless stated otherwise, all results are presented as non-GAAP except revenues. I will now turn the call over to Amar for an update on the business.

我們的簡報包括某些非公認會計準則財務指標以及對這些指標的調整，我們相信這些指標為我們的投資者提供了有用的資訊。根據 SEC 規則，我們在收益新聞稿和簡報中提供了這些指標與最直接可比較的 GAAP 指標的調整表，這兩項指標均可在我們的投資者關係網站上找到。請注意，除非另有說明，除收入外，所有結果均以非公認會計原則呈現。我現在將把電話轉給阿馬爾，以了解業務的最新情況。

Thank you, Sagar. Fiscal third quarter 2023 results exceeded the midpoint of our revenue, operating profit and EPS guidance. Our 2 business unit operating model is now fully implemented and our leadership teams are executing to their plans. Additionally, we remain committed to aligning our cost structure with our current needs. These measures continue to improve our operating efficiency and execution.

謝謝你，薩加爾。 2023 財年第三季業績超過了我們收入、營業利潤和每股盈餘指引的中點。我們的 2 個業務部門營運模式現已全面實施，我們的領導團隊正在執行他們的計劃。此外，我們仍然致力於使我們的成本結構與當前的需求保持一致。這些措施不斷提高我們的營運效率和執行力。

As has been widely noted, the overall economic and demand environment remains uncertain. Organizations of all sizes and spanning various industries remain cautious on IT spending, Hence, we continue to see extended sales cycles and delays in customers' new initiatives. In response, we continue to focus on fine-tuning our organization aiming for more effective execution of our current operations.

正如人們廣泛指出的那樣，整體經濟和需求環境仍然存在不確定性。各種規模和跨行業的組織對 IT 支出仍然持謹慎態度，因此，我們繼續看到銷售週期延長和客戶新計劃延遲。作為回應，我們繼續專注於微調我們的組織，旨在更有效地執行我們目前的業務。

We are strengthening and preparing Rackspace Technology to capitalize on an uptick in demand as and when it occurs. As mentioned in the last earnings call, we launched Foundry for AI by Rackspace or FAIR. Since launching in June, we have announced offerings with all 3 hyperscaler partners, AWS, GCP and Azure.

我們正在加強和準備 Rackspace Technology，以充分利用需求的成長。如同上次財報電話會議中所提到的，我們透過 Rackspace 或 FAIR 推出了 Foundry for AI。自 6 月推出以來，我們已宣布與所有 3 個超大規模合作夥伴（AWS、GCP 和 Azure）合作提供產品。

Among the offerings is AWS FAIR, secure Landing Zone, a solution that assists our customers across diverse industries in securely harnessing this platform's native AI services. We also showcased our AI capabilities at the Google Cloud Next event to a positive response from customers.

其中包括 AWS FAIR（安全登陸區），可協助不同產業的客戶安全地利用該平台的原生 AI 服務。我們也在 Google Cloud Next 活動中展示了我們的 AI 功能，並獲得了客戶的正面回應。

In addition, we continue to work with Dell and NVIDIA in implementing our private cloud AI reference architecture for customers requiring secure, performant private cloud landing zones.

此外，我們繼續與戴爾和 NVIDIA 合作，為需要安全、高效能私有雲登陸區的客戶實施我們的私有雲 AI 參考架構。

I'm pleased with the progress we have made. AI is a long-term secular trend. GenAI is set to revolutionize every facet of companies and their operations. Its implementation promises to elevate business performance improving productivity, enhancing business agility and enriching customer experiences. Companies are presently navigating the initial phase of AI adoption, prioritizing the security, safety and reliability of their deployments.

我對我們所取得的進展感到高興。人工智慧是一個長期的趨勢。 GenAI 將徹底改變公司及其營運的各個方面。它的實施有望提高業務績效，提高生產力，增強業務敏捷性並豐富客戶體驗。該公司目前正處於人工智慧採用的初始階段，優先考慮其部署的安全性和可靠性。

Our FAIR initiative is distinctive in that it caters to both service and infrastructure requirements for AI, allowing for a safe, secure and responsible deployment. We are confident in our strong position within this fast-evolving market.

我們的 FAIR 計劃的獨特之處在於它滿足人工智慧的服務和基礎設施要求，從而實現安全、可靠和負責任的部署。我們對自己在這個快速發展的市場中的強勢地位充滿信心。

Now turning to updates on our business units. In Private Cloud, we continue to see traction in our vertical market strategy in industries such as healthcare and financial services across all regions. We maintained a sharp focus on building our pipeline with approximately 1/3 of it consisting of new prospective clients.

現在轉向我們業務部門的最新情況。在私有雲方面，我們繼續看到我們的垂直市場策略在所有地區的醫療保健和金融服務等行業的吸引力。我們始終高度重視通路建設，其中約 1/3 是新的潛在客戶。

In healthcare, we won a multiyear contract to host and manage the industry-leading electronic health record application in our Private Cloud for a prominent children's hospital in the U.S., Northwest. We won this new client due to our differentiated high availability solution, fanatical customer support and years of experience in hosting and managing mission-critical workloads.

在醫療保健領域，我們贏得了一份多年期合同，為美國西北部一家著名的兒童醫院在我們的私有雲中託管和管理行業領先的電子健康記錄應用程序。我們憑藉差異化的高可用性解決方案、狂熱的客戶支援以及多年託管和管理關鍵任務工作負載的經驗贏得了這個新客戶。

We also entered into a multiyear contract with a leading U.S. provider of home medical equipment consolidating the 2 data centers into a Rackspace data center. This consolidation involves AS400 and other virtualized workloads migrated and managed in Rackspace's managed hosted private cloud.

我們還與美國一家領先的家庭醫療設備提供商簽訂了一份多年期合同，將兩個資料中心合併為一個 Rackspace 資料中心。此次整合涉及在 Rackspace 託管私有雲中遷移和管理的 AS400 和其他虛擬化工作負載。

In financial services, we signed a multiyear contract with a leading Asian bank to advance their cloud transformation initiative and support their growth agenda. Rackspace is enabling this complex transformation by providing a comprehensive private cloud solution that delivers business agility and financial flexibility for the bank.

在金融服務領域，我們與一家領先的亞洲銀行簽署了一份多年期合同，以推進他們的雲端轉型計劃並支持他們的成長議程。 Rackspace 透過提供全面的私有雲解決方案來實現這一複雜的轉型，為銀行提供業務敏捷性和財務靈活性。

We also signed a deal with a leading payment technology company in the Americas for custom disaster recovery as a service, enabling full data replication and rapid recovery of their critical systems in the event of an outage or breach. In addition, we had 9 product launches and enhancements across the Private Cloud portfolio in the third quarter, including disaster recovery solutions and SAP HANA certifications for software-defined data center business and enterprise environments.

我們還與美洲一家領先的支付技術公司簽署了一項客製化災難復原即服務協議，在發生中斷或違規時實現完整的資料複製並快速恢復其關鍵系統。此外，第三季我們在私有雲產品組合中推出了 9 個產品並進行了增強，包括災難復原解決方案以及針對軟體定義資料中心業務和企業環境的 SAP HANA 認證。

We're also excited about multiple innovative offerings in our Private Cloud road map that are slated for release over the next 2 quarters. Here are a few examples. First is the Software-Defined Data Center Anywhere offering. This is Rackspace VMware-based turnkey edge solution for enterprise and mid-market customers that have sensitive applications and data locality and compliance needs.

我們也對私有雲路線圖中的多項創新產品感到興奮，這些產品預計將在未來兩個季度發布。這裡有一些例子。首先是軟體定義的資料中心無所不在的產品。這是基於 Rackspace VMware 的交鑰匙邊緣解決方案，適用於具有敏感應用程式和資料在地化以及合規性需求的企業和中階市場客戶。

This solution allows customers to deploy compute where they need them, on-premises, customer colo or in any data centers globally. Second offering is called Spot. Spot is a true compute market exchange service perfectly suited for a developer and cloud-native customer base. It is a Kubernetes cluster suited for preemptable workloads. This solution provides real-time market pricing, empowering customers to use compute capacity on demand.

此解決方案可讓客戶在需要的地方、本地、客戶託管中心或全球任何資料中心部署運算。第二個產品稱為 Spot。 Spot 是真正的運算市場交換服務，非常適合開發人員和雲端原生客戶群。它是一個適合可搶佔式工作負載的 Kubernetes 叢集。該解決方案提供即時市場定價，使客戶能夠按需使用運算能力。

Now turning to Public Cloud. Despite a challenging environment in Public Cloud, we saw good traction in pipeline and bookings in the third quarter. We continue to focus towards more high-value services, making notable strides in attracting a wide range of customers and introducing new innovative offerings. On the customer front, we have established a partnership with a leading Fortune 500 biotech company committed to propelling medical innovation and enhancing patient outcomes across 100 countries worldwide. Serving as their preferred cloud infrastructure partner in AWS, we've expanded our involvement to encompass advisory and professional services focusing on their multi-cloud strategy, technology modernization and application migration, utilizing our advanced global delivery model. This collaborative initiative is empowering them to address customer needs more efficiently and expedite the implementation of digital products and services ultimately leading to improved patient outcomes.

現在轉向公有雲。儘管公共雲環境充滿挑戰，但我們在第三季度看到了管道和預訂的良好勢頭。我們持續專注於更多高價值服務，在吸引廣泛客戶和推出新的創新產品方面取得顯著進展。在客戶方面，我們與一家領先的財富 500 強生物技術公司建立了合作夥伴關係，致力於推動全球 100 個國家的醫療創新並改善患者的治療效果。作為他們在 AWS 中的首選雲端基礎設施合作夥伴，我們利用我們先進的全球交付模式，將業務範圍擴大到涵蓋諮詢和專業服務，重點關注他們的多雲策略、技術現代化和應用程式遷移。這項合作計畫使他們能夠更有效地滿足客戶需求，並加速數位產品和服務的實施，最終改善患者的治療效果。

For 2 of the largest multinational transportation logistics and warehousing companies operating out of Asia Pacific and the U.K., we are offering a broad range of cloud modernization services including modern operations. These new clients were a competitive win against some of the leading global system integrators. What differentiated Rackspace Technology was a business outcome-focused solution that drove business agility and operational efficiency for our customers.

我們為亞太地區和英國營運的兩家最大的跨國運輸物流和倉儲公司提供廣泛的雲端現代化服務，包括現代化營運。這些新客戶在與一些領先的全球系統整合商的競爭中獲勝。 Rackspace Technology 的與眾不同之處在於它是一個以業務成果為中心的解決方案，可以為我們的客戶提高業務敏捷性和營運效率。

On the offerings front, we also launched 9 Public Cloud offerings in the third quarter, including full stack managed services for hybrid multi-cloud allowing customers to manage their entire workload life cycle in hybrid and multi-cloud environments. A comprehensive managed security solution combining cloud native detection and response with 24/7 cybersecurity experts. We also partnered with Google to launch Google accelerated cloud migration and exclusive rapid and cost-effective path for migrating virtual workloads to Google Cloud.

在產品方面，我們也在第三季推出了 9 種公有雲產品，包括用於混合多雲的全堆疊託管服務，使客戶能夠在混合和多雲環境中管理其整個工作負載生命週期。全面的託管安全解決方案，將雲端原生偵測和回應與 24/7 網路安全專家結合。我們還與 Google 合作推出了 Google 加速雲端遷移以及將虛擬工作負載遷移到 Google Cloud 的快速且經濟高效的獨家路徑。

Overall, it was a good quarter for both our Private Cloud and Public Cloud businesses on multiple fronts. We recently had a successful Industry Analyst Day in Boston. We presented our strategy and showcased our full suite of private cloud and public cloud products and services offerings. This was well received and positions us strongly as a hybrid multi-cloud and AI solutions company.

總體而言，對於我們的私有雲和公有雲業務來說，這個季度在多個方面都是一個不錯的季度。我們最近在波士頓成功舉辦了行業分析師日。我們介紹了我們的策略並展示了我們的全套私有雲和公有雲產品和服務。這受到了好評，並使我們成為一家混合多雲和人工智慧解決方案公司。

Before I wrap up, I would like to welcome Thomas Cole as the newest member of our Board of Directors. Thomas has over 37 years of experience in banking. This is another example of how we are strengthening our organization with highly skilled and accomplished professionals.

在結束發言之前，我謹歡迎托馬斯·科爾成為我們董事會的最新成員。 Thomas 在銀行業擁有超過 37 年的經驗。這是我們如何透過高技能和有成就的專業人員來加強我們的組織的另一個例子。

Now let me wrap up by reiterating our top 4 priorities we outlined at the start of the year, which we are focused on to turn around our company's financial performance. First, reverse the decline in Private Cloud and position this business to capitalize on the growth opportunities in an attractive market; second, grow our Public Cloud services business at or above market rate; third, build a highly efficient cost structure, and ultimately drive sustained growth in operating profit and free cash flow. With that, I will turn it over to Bobby.

現在，讓我重申我們在年初概述的四大優先事項，我們的重點是扭轉公司的財務表現。首先，扭轉私有雲的頹勢，並使該業務能夠利用有吸引力的市場中的成長機會；其次，以市場速度或高於市場速度發展我們的公有雲服務業務；第三，建構高效率的成本結構，最終帶動營業利潤和自由現金流的持續成長。這樣，我就把它交給鮑比了。

Thanks, Amar. I will cover the total company results for the third quarter, then share some details on our segment performance, followed by our Q4 guidance. We maintain our commitment to enhancing the efficiency of both businesses as part of our disciplined financial strategy. We've effectively managed working capital and bolstered liquidity, notably through a more detailed focus on collections and the implementation of a new accounts receivable securitization program. Additionally, we will continue to identify additional cost reduction opportunities in areas that do not align with our current strategy.

謝謝，阿瑪爾。我將介紹第三季度的公司整體業績，然後分享有關我們部門業績的一些詳細信息，然後是我們第四季度的指導。作為我們嚴格的財務策略的一部分，我們繼續致力於提高兩家公司的效率。我們有效地管理了營運資金並增強了流動性，特別是透過更詳細地關注收款和實施新的應收帳款證券化計畫。此外，我們將繼續在與我們當前策略不相符的領域尋找額外的成本削減機會。

Now looking at the results for the quarter. Total company GAAP revenue of $732 million was at the high end of our guidance, down 2% sequentially and down 7% year-over-year, driven by declines in both private cloud and public cloud. Total net revenue was $430 million, down 4% sequentially and down 12% year-over-year. Gross profit of $162 million was 22% of GAAP revenue and 38% of net revenue. We remain on track with our prior guidance for sequential quarterly operating profit improvement for the remainder of 2023 off of the second quarter trough.

現在看看本季的結果。該公司 GAAP 總營收為 7.32 億美元，處於我們指引的最高值，季減 2%，年減 7%，這是由於私有雲和公有雲業務的下滑所致。總淨收入為 4.3 億美元，季減 4%，年減 12%。毛利為 1.62 億美元，佔 GAAP 收入的 22%，佔淨收入的 38%。我們仍遵循先前的指引，即 2023 年剩餘時間內季度營業利潤將比第二季低谷有所改善。

For the quarter, operating profit was $46 million, at the high end of our guidance, up 17% sequentially. This was down 43% year-over-year, primarily due to revenue declines in our Private Cloud business unit, operating margin was 6% of GAAP revenue and 11% of net revenue. Loss per share was $0.04, which was within our guided range of $0.04 to $0.06 loss per share. In the third quarter, we recorded approximately $214 million of noncash impairment charges primarily as a result of the decrease in our market capitalization. Additional details of these noncash expenses can be found in our SEC filings.

本季營業利潤為 4,600 萬美元，處於我們指引值的上限，比上一季成長 17%。年比下降 43%，主要是由於我們的私有雲業務部門收入下降，營業利潤率為 GAAP 收入的 6%，佔淨收入的 11%。每股虧損為 0.04 美元，在我們每股虧損 0.04 美元至 0.06 美元的指導範圍內。第三季度，我們錄得約 2.14 億美元的非現金減損費用，主要是因為我們的市值下降。這些非現金支出的更多詳細資訊可以在我們向 SEC 提交的文件中找到。

Cash flow from operations was $267 million, and free cash flow was $239 million in the third quarter. Our reported cash flow includes cash received through the new AR securitization. Normalizing for the AR securitization, cash flow from operations would have been $61 million and free cash flow would have been $34 million, in line with our expectations.

第三季營運現金流為 2.67 億美元，自由現金流為 2.39 億美元。我們報告的現金流包括透過新的 AR 證券化收到的現金。 AR 證券化正常化後，營運現金流將達到 6,100 萬美元，自由現金流將達到 3,400 萬美元，符合我們的預期。

Let me provide a little more insight on the AR securitization we executed at the end of September. The primary objective of this securitization was to bolster our already solid liquidity position and allow us to opportunistically take advantage of the dislocation in our debt pricing. In the third quarter, we deployed $30 million of cash to opportunistically repurchase another $85 million of our senior unsecured notes in the marketplace. Through October year-to-date, we have repurchased a total of $274 million of senior unsecured notes using $96 million of cash at an average price of $0.34 on the dollar. We believe the combination of this facility and these buybacks is positive for shareholders, allowing substantial discount capture on our debt and increasing our available liquidity to $653 million, including $278 million of cash on our books.

讓我對我們在 9 月底執行的 AR 證券化提供更多的見解。這種證券化的主要目標是加強我們本已穩固的流動性狀況，並使我們能夠機會主義地利用債務定價的混亂。第三季度，我們動用了 3,000 萬美元現金，在市場上機會性地回購了另外 8,500 萬美元的優先無擔保票據。截至今年 10 月份，我們已使用 9,600 萬美元現金，平均價格為 0.34 美元，回購了總計 2.74 億美元的優先無擔保票據。我們相信，這項融資和這些回購的結合對股東來說是正面的，可以讓我們的債務獲得大幅折扣，並將我們的可用流動性增加到6.53 億美元，其中包括我們帳上的2.78 億美元現金。

We continue to monitor and assess further opportunities to deploy capital in accretive downside protected ways for shareholders. Total CapEx for the third quarter was $28 million with a CapEx intensity of 4%. We continue to expect CapEx in our typical 5% to 7% CapEx intensity range for the full year.

我們將繼續監控和評估進一步的機會，為股東以增值的下行保護方式部署資本。第三季資本支出總額為 2,800 萬美元，資本支出強度為 4%。我們繼續預期全年資本支出在 5% 至 7% 的典型資本支出強度範圍內。

Turning to our segment results. For Private Cloud, GAAP revenue for the third quarter was $300 million, which was at the high end of our guidance. This includes legacy OpenStack revenue of $31 million. Total Private Cloud revenue was down 4% sequentially due to customers rolling off old generation Private Cloud offerings. Private Cloud gross margin was 38%, up 1 percentage point sequentially driven by cost reductions offsetting the impact of revenue declines. Segment operating profit was $85 million at an operating margin of 28%, essentially flat quarter-over-quarter.

轉向我們的部門業績。對於私有雲，第三季 GAAP 營收為 3 億美元，處於我們指引的上限。其中包括 3,100 萬美元的傳統 OpenStack 收入。由於客戶放棄舊一代私有雲產品，私有雲總收入較上季下降了 4%。私有雲毛利率為 38%，季增 1 個百分點，原因是成本削減抵銷了收入下降的影響。該部門營業利潤為 8,500 萬美元，營業利潤率為 28%，與上一季基本持平。

In Public Cloud, GAAP revenue of $433 million, also at the high end of our guidance was essentially flat quarter-over-quarter, primarily due to consumption-driven growth on infrastructure resale volumes offset by declines in services. Public Cloud services revenue was down 4% sequentially given the tightening of discretionary spending. We expect our pivot to a stronger services-led focus to pay dividends as the macro environment improves and our go-to-market strategy matures. Public Cloud net revenue, which includes our Public Cloud services revenue and infrastructure resell profit was $130 million, down 4% sequentially. Gross margin for our Public Cloud segment was 11% of GAAP revenue, up 1 percentage point sequentially. Gross margin was 37% of net revenue, up 3 percentage points sequentially, driven by utilization and efficiencies from cost savings. Segment operating profit in public cloud was $22 million, which was 5% of total segment revenue, up 1 percentage point sequentially and 17% of net revenue, up 4 percentage points sequentially.

在公有雲領域，GAAP 營收為 4.33 億美元，也處於我們指引的高端，與上一季基本持平，這主要是由於消費驅動的基礎設施轉售量成長被服務下降所抵消。由於可自由支配支出收緊，公有雲服務收入較上季下降 4%。我們預計，隨著宏觀環境的改善和我們的市場策略的成熟，我們轉向以服務為主導的更強有力的重點將帶來紅利。公有雲淨收入（包括公有雲服務收入和基礎設施轉售利潤）為 1.3 億美元，比上一季下降 4%。我們的公有雲部門的毛利率佔 GAAP 收入的 11%，比上一季上升 1 個百分點。毛利率佔淨收入的 37%，比上一季增加了 3 個百分點，這得益於成本節約帶來的利用率和效率。公有雲部門營業利潤為 2,200 萬美元，佔部門總收入的 5%，較上一季成長 1 個百分點；佔淨收入的 17%，較上一季成長 4 個百分點。

Now on to our Q4 guidance. We expect the fourth quarter GAAP revenue to be approximately $710 million to $720 million. Total operating profit is expected to be $46 million to $48 million and loss per share of $0.03 to $0.05. From a segment perspective, we expect Private Cloud revenue of $284 million to $289 million and Public Cloud revenue of $426 million to $431 million. Our tax rate is expected to be 26% and other income and expense of approximately $57 million to $59 million in expenses. The share count is expected to be around 221 million to 223 million shares.

現在談談我們的第四季指引。我們預計第四季度 GAAP 營收約為 7.1 億至 7.2 億美元。總營業利潤預計為 4,600 萬至 4,800 萬美元，每股虧損為 0.03 至 0.05 美元。從細分市場來看，我們預期私有雲收入為 2.84 億美元至 2.89 億美元，公有雲收入為 4.26 億美元至 4.31 億美元。我們的稅率預計為 26%，其他收入和支出約為 5,700 萬至 5,900 萬美元。預計股數約2.21億股至2.23億股。

We expect full year cash flow from operations and free cash flow to be positive on both a reported and normalized basis. I will now turn the call over to Sagar.

我們預計全年營運現金流量和自由現金流在報告和正常化基礎上均為正數。我現在將把電話轉給薩加爾。

Thank you, Bobby. Let us begin the question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions)

謝謝你，鮑比。讓我們開始問答環節。 （操作員說明）

(Operator Instructions). Our first question comes from Ramsey El-Assal with Barclays.

（操作員說明）。我們的第一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的拉姆齊·阿薩爾。

I was wondering if you could comment on how the shift towards selling value-added services versus infrastructure has been going. What was value-added services growth in the quarter? Or are clients increasingly open to that approach? Maybe how can you support that strategy going forward?

我想知道您是否可以評論一下向銷售增值服務與基礎設施的轉變進展如何。本季增值服務成長多少？或者客戶越來越願意接受這種方法？也許您如何支持該策略的發展？

Yes. Thanks, Ramsey. Great question. So the focus on selling services is left, right and center of what we're doing in the Public Cloud business. We have made a lot of structural changes in the company. As you know, we are reorganized across 2 BUs and with focus on both public and private cloud.

是的。謝謝，拉姆齊。很好的問題。因此，銷售服務的重點是我們在公有雲業務中所做的工作的左、右和中心。我們對公司進行了很多結構性變革。如您所知，我們重組為 2 個業務部門，重點關注公有雲和私有雲。

And within Public cloud, we are very much focused on selling higher value-added services. We have also aligned our go-to-market accordingly. Similar to Private Cloud, we also have go-to-market aligned across verticals in Public Cloud. We also have aligned it very close to the hyperscalers, so that we can go drive more migration, modernization services along with our hyperscalers. We have also changed our sales resource mix. We have forced (inaudible) underperformance in sales. We continue to hire services and business outcome focused sales execs. We launched a number of new offerings in services, Ramsey. In the last 9 months, close to 30 new offerings. In the last quarter itself, we launched 9 new offerings. One of that was managed services for both hybrid and multi-cloud environment.

在公有雲中，我們非常專注於銷售更高附加價值的服務。我們也相應地調整了我們的市場推廣。與私有雲類似，我們也在公有雲的各個垂直領域進行了一致的上市。我們也使其與超大規模企業非常接近，以便我們可以與超大規模企業一起推動更多的遷移、現代化服務。我們也改變了銷售資源結構。我們迫使（聽不清楚）銷售業績不佳。我們繼續聘請注重服務和業務成果的銷售主管。拉姆齊，我們推出了許多新的服務產品。在過去 9 個月裡，推出了近 30 個新產品。在上個季度，我們推出了 9 種新產品。其中之一是混合雲端和多雲環境的託管服務。

So a lot of changes, a lot of structural changes that are taking hold. Now what we see in Public Cloud services is we -- like most of the services companies in the ecosystem, there is a cyclical headwind in Public Cloud services business. And what we are seeing is customers are very much focused on cost optimization projects, which we are working with them very closely. We are capturing those cost optimization projects.

因此，很多變化、很多結構性變化正在發生。現在，我們在公有雲服務中看到的是，與生態系統中的大多數服務公司一樣，公有雲服務業務存在週期性逆風。我們看到客戶非常關注成本優化項目，我們正在與他們密切合作。我們正在捕捉這些成本優化項目。

New initiatives in services are getting delayed. But as I always tell our salespeople during good times and bad times, you have to stay close to the customer, but you have to stay close to the customer during when the macro environment is uncertain. So we continue to work with our customers helping them plan for new initiatives so that we'll be ready when we can go capture those -- that demand when it returns.

服務領域的新措施正在被推遲。但正如我總是告訴我們的銷售人員，無論順境或逆境，你都必須與客戶保持密切聯繫，但在宏觀環境不確定的情況下，你必須與客戶保持密切聯繫。因此，我們將繼續與客戶合作，幫助他們規劃新舉措，以便我們能夠做好準備，在需求回歸時抓住這些需求。

So I feel good about the structural pivot that we are making from low-margin intra resale to higher-margin services. Now you will see our services business has declined year-on-year as well as sequentially, and that's a result of the cyclical headwinds that we are seeing generally in the services business.

因此，我對我們從低利潤內部轉售轉向高利潤服務的結構性支點感到滿意。現在您將看到我們的服務業務同比和環比都下降了，這是我們在服務業務中普遍看到的周期性逆風的結果。

I see. Okay. And I also wanted to ask you for a little bit more commentary on the sales delays, which you might be seeing out there, which is consistent with many of your peers. Are you seeing delays in signing new work or delays converting bookings to revenue or maybe on both sides?

我懂了。好的。我還想請您對銷售延遲發表更多評論，您可能會看到這一點，這與您的許多同行一致。您是否看到簽署新作品的延遲或將預訂轉化為收入的延遲，或者雙方都有延遲？

So I think that's a great question. I think what we are seeing here is the pipeline. If I see -- look at the pipeline, both from Public Cloud and Private Cloud perspective, our pipeline is growing, it has sequentially grown. So at the top of the funnel looks great. But I think the decision-making cycles have basically extended and that's extended the sales cycle.

所以我認為這是一個很好的問題。我認為我們在這裡看到的是管道。如果我看到——從公有雲和私有雲的角度來看管道，我們的管道正在成長，它已經連續成長。所以漏斗頂部看起來很棒。但我認為決策週期基本上已經延長，這也延長了銷售週期。

So the conversion from pipeline to bookings is taking more time and because customers are very cautious on their IT spend, and given the macro environment, which remains uncertain, I think we always typically see services business are very cyclical. So that's what we are seeing. So sales cycles are getting extended. Decision-making is taking more time and -- but the top of the funnel looks okay. It's just the conversion of pipeline to bookings is taking more time.

因此，從管道到預訂的轉換需要更多時間，而且由於客戶對其 IT 支出非常謹慎，並且考慮到仍然不確定的宏觀環境，我認為我們通常總是看到服務業務具有很強的周期性。這就是我們所看到的。因此銷售週期正在延長。決策需要更多時間，但漏斗頂部看起來還不錯。只是從頻道到預訂的轉換需要更多時間。

Our next question comes from Frank Louthan with Raymond James.

我們的下一個問題來自弗蘭克·勞森和雷蒙德·詹姆斯。

Can you walk us through how many new logos you signed up in Public Cloud and Private Cloud? That's my first question. And a follow-up question. You recently changed your sales comp for Public Cloud to drive a little better engagement in various services. How has that gone in the third quarter? And how is that tracking?

您能否向我們介紹一下您在公有雲和私有雲中註冊了多少個新標誌？這是我的第一個問題。還有一個後續問題。您最近更改了公有雲的銷售薪酬，以提高對各種服務的參與度。第三季進度如何？追蹤情況如何？

Yes. So let me just give you some color on our bookings generally, and I will also answer your question around the new logos. So given the macro backdrop, Frank, we had a fairly good quarter from a bookings perspective with over 200 new customers across both Public Cloud and Private Cloud. Public Cloud bookings actually grew sequentially. So this also answers some of the questions that Ramsey had about the top of the funnel and how we are seeing the services and (inaudible) Public Cloud how it's panning out.

是的。因此，讓我簡單介紹一下我們的預訂的總體情況，我還將回答您有關新徽標的問題。因此，弗蘭克，考慮到宏觀背景，從預訂角度來看，我們度過了一個相當不錯的季度，在公有雲和私有雲上都有 200 多個新客戶。公有雲預訂實際上連續成長。因此，這也回答了拉姆齊關於渠道頂部的一些問題，以及我們如何看待服務和（聽不清楚）公有雲的發展。

In Private Cloud, we did see 2 large deal slip into our December quarter, and we anticipate to close these deals in this quarter. So we do expect Q4 or a December quarter to be a strong quarter for Private Cloud bookings. And just as a reminder, as you guys know, large Private Cloud deals are typically multiyear deals, anywhere between 3 to 7 years. It is very sticky. It's quite lumpy, too. Hence, we are very thoughtful in making sure that we close deals that are a win-win for both the customers as well as Rackspace. So feeling good about the bookings overall and how it might pan out in Q4 for Private Cloud.

在私有雲方面，我們確實看到 12 月季度有兩筆大交易，我們預計將在本季完成這些交易。因此，我們確實預計第四季或 12 月的季度將是私有雲預訂的強勁季度。提醒一下，正如你們所知，大型私有雲交易通常是多年期交易，期限在 3 到 7 年之間。它非常粘。它也很凹凸不平。因此，我們非常周到地確保我們達成的交易對於客戶和 Rackspace 都是雙贏的。因此，我對整體預訂情況以及私有雲在第四季度的表現感到滿意。

From a pipeline perspective, we see growth in both Private Cloud and Public Cloud. And as you know, we are using a vertical strategy. Health care is the first vertical that we double down on. And what we are seeing is health care vertical is a significant contributor to the growth in pipeline, and just -- which is now sort of aligned to our overall vertical strategy and focus.

從管道的角度來看，我們看到私有雲和公有雲的成長。如您所知，我們正在使用垂直策略。醫療保健是我們重點關注的第一個垂直領域。我們看到的是，醫療保健垂直領域是管道成長的重要貢獻者，現在這與我們的整體垂直策略和重點是一致的。

Regarding the sales comp changes, well, it -- sales comp changes we made to make sure that we pivot our sales focus from low-margin business to higher-margin business, which is mainly services. And that's working well. It is working through the system. Typically, it takes some time. But as I mentioned in my earlier remarks and response to Ramsey's question, the top of the funnel looks good.

關於銷售薪酬的變化，我們所做的銷售薪酬變化是為了確保我們將銷售重點從低利潤業務轉移到高利潤業務（主要是服務）。這運作良好。它是透過系統工作的。通常，這需要一些時間。但正如我在之前的評論和對拉姆齊問題的回答中提到的，漏斗的頂部看起來不錯。

The conversion, especially in the services business is taking time as decisions are getting sort of extended and sales cycles are getting elongated. But it is, I think, driving the right behavior. That's the key for us -- driving the right behavior in our sales organization to pivot to higher margin services.

這種轉變，特別是在服務業務中，需要時間，因為決策時間越來越長，銷售週期也越來越長。但我認為，它正在推動正確的行為。這對我們來說至關重要——推動我們的銷售組織採取正確的行為，轉向更高利潤的服務。

Our next question comes from Bradley Clark with BMO.

我們的下一個問題來自 BMO 的 Bradley Clark。

I want to ask about the margin performance. For the first time in a number of quarters, you sequentially grew both adjusted gross margins and operating margin. Can you talk about the drivers of the margin improvement between say, mix cost efficiencies other than that you're doing internally?

我想問保證金表現。多個季度以來，您首次實現調整後毛利率和營業利潤率的連續成長。您能否談談除了您內部所做的之外，混合成本效率之間利潤率改善的驅動因素？

And my second question would be, you've announced your own Generative AI solution partnership with hyperscalers. How are you thinking about the time line that it takes for Generative AI services to have a meaningful or even just a modest impact on your bookings and/or revenue ?

我的第二個問題是，你們已經宣布與超大規模企業建立自己的生成式人工智慧解決方案合作夥伴關係。您如何看待生成式人工智慧服務對您的預訂和/或收入產生有意義甚至輕微影響所需的時間？

Yes. Let me do the first question on the margins and the expansion and the gross margins. So that's right. So we talked about the fact that we are taking on a lot of cost reduction this year as a result of the macro headwind. And we've seen that play out. We've talked about the fact that we'll see operating profit improvement on the back of cost reductions, and that's exactly what we've executed.

是的。讓我回答關於利潤率、擴張和毛利率的第一個問題。所以說是這樣的。因此，我們談到了這樣一個事實：由於宏觀逆風，我們今年將大幅削減成本。我們已經看到了這種情況的發生。我們已經討論過這樣一個事實，即我們將在成本削減的支持下看到營業利潤的改善，而這正是我們所執行的。

Just to give you a little color on Public Cloud, we also have mentioned that we had staffed up in our delivery organization for an expected demand at the beginning of the year. But given the cyclical headwinds given the macro environment, that wasn't coming through and we were experiencing an underutilization. So as part of our cost reduction, we took some actions there. We've (inaudible) the utilization. As a result, we're seeing that flow through in the gross margins.

為了讓您了解公共雲，我們也提到我們已經在交付組織中配備了人員以滿足年初的預期需求。但考慮到宏觀環境的周期性逆風，這個目標並未實現，而且我們正在經歷利用率不足的情況。因此，作為降低成本的一部分，我們在那裡採取了一些行動。我們已經（聽不清楚）利用了。結果，我們看到了毛利率的變化。

Also in the OpEx, you'll see improvements there as well. This quarter flowing through from the cost actions we've taken. So a lot of it is on the back of cost reduction, and you'll see that as well in Q4.

同樣在營運支出中，您也會看到改善。本季是我們採取的成本行動的結果。因此，很大程度上是成本降低的結果，您也會在第四季度看到這一點。

So let me take the GenAI question. First of all, thanks for the question. This is a very exciting space for Rackspace. As you know, we are a very workload-centric company. And for us, AI and GenAI is the net new workload that didn't exist before. So it's a massive TAM expansion for us. And what we did to capitalize on this trend, which we believe is a secular trend that will accelerate very rapidly. We launched Foundry for AI by Rackspace or FAIR back in June. And since as we launched FAIR, we refenced a part of the organization, we spun up the organization with resources within the company. We had a lot of resources who were very well versed with AI, and we saw good traction in the last 6 months.

那麼就讓我來回答 GenAI 問題。首先，感謝您的提問。對於 Rackspace 來說，這是一個非常令人興奮的空間。如您所知，我們是一家非常以工作負載為中心的公司。對我們來說，AI 和 GenAI 是以前不存在的全新工作負載。所以這對我們來說是一次大規模的 TAM 擴張。我們為利用這一趨勢所做的事情，我們相信這是一個將非常迅速加速的長期趨勢。早在 6 月份，我們就透過 Rackspace 或 FAIR 推出了 Foundry for AI。自從我們推出 FAIR 以來，我們引用了組織的一部分，我們利用公司內部的資源來組建該組織。我們擁有大量精通人工智慧的資源，並且在過去 6 個月中我們看到了良好的吸引力。

Let me give you a little bit of color on what -- from a bookings perspective where we landed. The interest in GenAI has increased. We roughly have about 900 active leads in our pipeline. And this is 2x what we saw when we reported last quarter. We were close to about 100 qualified opportunities probably across all 3 regions, Americas, Europe and Asia Pac. We won about 10 deals. Now these are pure GenAI deals, which are paid engagement after we launched FAIR. And most of these deals are in what we call it the ideation, which is a discovery and incubation phases. And the deal sizes tend to be smaller as expected since we are in early phases of GenAI adoption.

讓我從預訂的角度來為大家介紹一下我們的情況。人們對 GenAI 的興趣增加。我們的通路中大約有大約 900 個活躍潛在客戶。這是我們上季報告時看到的兩倍。我們可能在美洲、歐洲和亞太地區這 3 個地區找到了大約 100 個合格的工作機會。我們贏得了大約 10 筆交易。現在這些都是純粹的 GenAI 交易，是我們推出 FAIR 後的付費參與。這些交易大多處於我們所謂的構思階段，即發現和孵化階段。由於我們正處於 GenAI 採用的早期階段，因此交易規模往往較小。

So when we start moving into what we call as an industrialization or production space, which will involve both fine-tuning and inferencing the models, we expect this to scale. So as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, we work with all 3 hyperscalers to launch joint AI solutions on Public Cloud, and we have won deals across all the hyperscalers. We are also working on implementing the private AI cloud reference architecture collaborating with both Dell as well as NVIDIA.

因此，當我們開始進入所謂的工業化或生產空間時，這將涉及模型的微調和推理，我們預計這種規模將會擴大。正如我在準備好的演講中提到的，我們與所有 3 個超大規模提供者合作，在公有雲上推出聯合人工智慧解決方案，並且我們已經贏得了所有超大規模提供者的交易。我們也致力於與戴爾和 NVIDIA 合作實施私有 AI 雲參考架構。

So early stages, early phases, so to speak, probably it will take time, but most important thing for us is to go get the thought leadership, which will lead to more mind share, which will lead then finally to wallet share. And we can help customers wherever they are in the AI journey. Today, it's all about consulting services. It's all about building and helping them building those applications. Ultimately, it has to work on certain infrastructure, and the landing zones can be either Public Cloud or Private Cloud, and that's where the real monetization happens.

所以早期階段，早期階段，可以說，可能需要時間，但對我們來說最重要的是獲得思想領導力，這將導致更多的思想共享，這將最終導致錢包共享。無論客戶處於人工智慧之旅的哪個階段，我們都可以為他們提供協助。今天，一切都與諮詢服務有關。這一切都是為了建立並幫助他們建立這些應用程式。最終，它必須在某些基礎設施上運行，著陸區可以是公有雲或私有雲，這才是真正的貨幣化發生的地方。

And now we have really started driving thought leadership in this place. So I would say still more to come. And we are just in the early innings, so to speak.

現在我們已經真正開始在這個地方推動思想領導。所以我還要說更多。可以這麼說，我們還處於早期階段。

Our next question comes from Matthew Roswell with RBC.

我們的下一個問題來自加拿大皇家銀行的馬修·羅斯威爾。

Two questions. I guess, first, pricing and competition for both Public and Cloud, what are you seeing this quarter and how has it changed over the last couple of quarters? And then following up on the AI conversation, are you finding as you go in and do these ideation deals that clients often need to sort of do preliminary work, for example, move more of their workflow to the cloud, things like that before they can even take advantage of GenAI?

兩個問題。我想，首先，公共和雲端的定價和競爭，您對本季的看法以及過去幾季有何變化？然後跟進人工智慧對話，當你進入並進行這些構思交易時，你是否發現客戶經常需要做一些初步工作，例如，將更多的工作流程轉移到雲端，諸如此類的事情，然後他們才能甚至利用GenAI ？

Yes. Let me -- so what was the first question around pricing (inaudible).

是的。讓我來談談——關於定價的第一個問題是什麼（聽不清楚）。

Correct pricing and competition.

正確的定價和競爭。

Yes, pricing and competition. So listen, I think in Public Cloud, we play in markets. So let me give you a little bit of color on the markets we play in, so that you get an understanding of who we compete against, right? So we address all 3 market segments: enterprise, mid-market and commercial.

是的，定價和競爭。所以聽著，我認為在公有雲中，我們在市場中發揮作用。因此，讓我向您介紹我們所處的市場，以便您了解我們的競爭對手，對嗎？因此，我們致力於解決所有 3 個細分市場：企業、中端市場和商業。

In enterprise, we are very focused because enterprise is where you find a big GSIs, global system integrators. And we are very focused. We think about 50 accounts, and we have a selective penetration strategy in enterprise. So we don't go head on with the GSIs. When it comes to mid-market, that's a sweet spot. Mid-market is customers with between $300 million to about $3 billion in revenue, you don't have large GSI call on these customers. These customers have the same complexity and challenges that an enterprise (inaudible) will have. This is a sweet spot for Rackspace. This is where we want to expand, and that's where we have built a big business.

在企業領域，我們非常專注，因為企業是大型 GSI、全球系統整合商的所在地。我們非常專注。我們考慮了50個帳戶，並且我們在企業中有選擇性的滲透策略。所以我們不會繼續與 GSI 對抗。當談到中端市場時，這是一個最佳點。中端市場是指收入在 3 億美元到 30 億美元之間的客戶，您對這些客戶沒有大量的 GSI 電話。這些客戶面臨著與企業（聽不清楚）相同的複雜性和挑戰。這是 Rackspace 的最佳選擇。這是我們想要擴張的地方，也是我們建立大業務的地方。

And commercial is $300 million and lower. It's also a sweet spot for us. So when you think to look at competition, we see -- depending on which markets we play, we see competition in that market. Obviously, the services business right now has a cyclical headwind and so everybody is chasing the same business. But it's more important for us to remain engaged with the customers so that when the demand returns, we'll go and capture the demand. That's how we are approaching this, okay.

商業成本為 3 億美元或更低。這對我們來說也是一個甜蜜的地方。因此，當你考慮競爭時，我們會看到 - 根據我們參與的市場，我們會看到該市場的競爭。顯然，服務業務目前面臨週期性逆風，因此每個人都在追逐相同的業務。但對我們來說，更重要的是保持與客戶的聯繫，這樣當需求恢復時，我們就會去捕捉需求。這就是我們處理這個問題的方式，好吧。

Now talking about AI and your question around ideation and whether customers are ready for incubation and -- that's a great question, by the way, because right now, I think a lot of customers are looking for use cases. In fact, we are also very surprised that some of the customers already have use cases. So we actually go into the incubation pace with this customer, where we help them to pick what we call as the large language models, but it is an open model or it is a proprietary model will help them to architect the data and then make sure that we've trained these models on the data. So instead of data coming to AI, AI is -- AI applications are going to the data so that we can go -- but the real monetization will happen with industrialization and the production phase, as I mentioned earlier. That's when I think you have to create massive data lakes.

現在談論人工智慧和你關於創意的問題，以及客戶是否準備好孵化——順便說一句，這是一個很好的問題，因為現在，我認為很多客戶都在尋找用例。事實上，我們也非常驚訝有些客戶已經有了用例。因此，我們實際上與該客戶一起進行孵化，幫助他們選擇我們所說的大型語言模型，但它是一個開放模型或專有模型，將幫助他們建立數據，然後確保我們已經根據數據訓練了這些模型。因此，人工智慧不是數據進入人工智慧，而是——人工智慧應用將進入數據，以便我們能夠前進——但真正的貨幣化將在工業化和生產階段發生，正如我之前提到的。那時我認為你必須創建大量資料湖。

But what we are seeing is, currently, customers are using the existing data and running what we call as co-pilots. So we have created many intelligent co-pilots for enterprise. We call it as ICE I-C-E, and this is where we are winning a lot of deals. In fact, we have created a lot of intelligent co-pilot for enterprise even internally at Rackspace. And we ran a big AI readiness program at Rackspace.

但我們看到的是，目前客戶正在使用現有數據並運行我們所謂的副駕駛。所以我們為企業打造了許多智慧副駕駛。我們稱之為 ICE I-C-E，這也是我們贏得大量交易的地方。事實上，我們甚至在Rackspace內部也為企業創造了許多智慧副駕駛。我們在 Rackspace 運行了一個大型人工智慧準備計畫。

Five months ago, we decided and took a very bold step in making sure that we get entire 6,500 of our employees AI-ready. And we said we should be AI-ready by 12 months. To be honest, in the last 4 or 5 months since we implemented it, we about 3/4, 75% of our 6,000-plus workforce is AI ready. So a lot of things to come here, and this is what we are also going and helping our customers.

五個月前，我們決定並採取了非常大膽的一步，確保我們的 6,500 名員工全部做好人工智慧準備。我們說過我們應該在 12 個月內為人工智慧做好準備。老實說，在實施以來的 4 到 5 個月裡，我們 6,000 多名員工中大約有 3/4，即 75% 已經做好了人工智慧準備。所以這裡有很多事情要做，這也是我們正在努力幫助我們的客戶的事情。

So a lot to do here. I think this is an early phase, but it's a good question.

這裡有很多事情要做。我認為這是一個早期階段，但這是一個很好的問題。

And I'm not showing any further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the call back over to Sagar for any closing remarks.

目前我不會提出任何進一步的問題。我想將電話轉回薩加爾，讓其結束語。

Thank you, everyone, for joining us. If we did not get to your question or if you have a follow-up, please e-mail us at ir.rackspace.com. Have a great evening, everyone.

謝謝大家加入我們。如果我們沒有回答您的問題或您有後續跟進，請發送電子郵件至 ir.rackspace.com。祝大家有個愉快的夜晚。

Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's presentation. You may now disconnect, and have a wonderful day.

女士們、先生們，今天的演講到此結束。您現在可以斷開連接，並度過美好的一天。