Q&A with Andrew Slater, Cloud Portfolio Director at Node4

‘Many businesses lack the required foundations to support AI integrations’

Node4 is a finalist in the MSP of the Year, Multi/Hybrid Cloud Product of the Year and Most Successful Cloud Migration categories in Computing's Cloud Excellence Awards.

Andrew Slater is Cloud Portfolio Director at Node4, leading the company’s cloud strategy and development. Andy joined Node4 in 2017 following its acquisition of Onomi, a “Start up of the Year”- winning data platform company he co-founded. With over 27 years’ experience across a wide range of technology areas, Andy has worked with hundreds of clients to drive transformation and is a passionate speaker on all things cloud.

What prompted you to enter the Cloud Excellence Awards this year without giving anything away of course!

We entered the Cloud Excellence Awards this year because the cloud market is undergoing a dramatic shift. At Node4, we have long recognised that cloud optimisation requires a considered, business-led approach. Our research highlighted growing demand for cloud optimisation, with businesses increasingly evaluating whether workloads are running in the most appropriate environment from a cost, performance and governance perspective.

Over the past year, we have been increasingly focused on supporting customers by helping identify the right balance of public, private, colocation and on-premises environments to maximise performance, security and value.

Entering the awards is an opportunity to celebrate our teams who have helped Node4 deliver excellence in the field and support our customers on their various cloud journeys.

What would winning this award mean to both your people and your customers/partners?

Being shortlisted across the MSP of the Year, Multi/Hybrid Cloud Product of the Year, and Most Successful Cloud Migration Project categories is already a phenomenal achievement for us. We know the standard of competition is incredibly high, so to go on and win these awards would make the occasion even more special. Most importantly, this recognition reflects the hard work and commitment our teams bring to our customers every day. They are the reason we have reached this stage, and a win would be a fantastic way to celebrate their contribution and give them the recognition they deserve.

What would you say is your company's proudest achievement over the past year?

Over the last 12 months, our proudest achievement has been helping customers navigate what has become an increasingly complex cloud landscape. For years, the conversation was largely about getting workloads into the cloud. Today, customers are asking much tougher questions around cost, performance, security, sovereignty and where workloads should actually run.

We've worked with a range of customers to take a more deliberate approach, helping them understand what belongs in public cloud, what might be better suited to private or sovereign infrastructure, and how to build an environment that supports both current requirements and future innovation. We make sure technology decisions support long-term business outcomes, including modernisation and AI adoption.

What have been the biggest challenges of the current year so far and how have you overcome them? How have your people/partners helped with that?

Over the last year, businesses have faced pressure to rapidly adopt AI tools and services lest they fall behind. However, many of these businesses lack the required foundations to support AI integrations. One of the biggest challenges has been helping customers understand how to build an effective infrastructure to meet AI requirements – and trying to hold them back from simply boarding the AI train and seeing where it takes them!

At Node4, we have supported our customers through this process, educating them on the importance of creating solid foundations. Data sits at the heart of all AI processes, and over the last 12 months we have helped companies identify the solutions that best fit their unique business model. This includes determining where their data should be hosted to deliver the most value, and implementing the right guardrails to protect it.

What do you see as the main opportunities for the industry in the coming 12 months? How do you plan to capitalise on those opportunities?

Over the next 12 months, customers will spend less time debating public cloud versus private cloud and more time focusing on what belongs where. AI is only making that more important. Businesses want to move quickly, but they also want to understand where their data sits, who controls it and what the long-term commercial impact looks like.

The businesses getting this right aren't following a particular cloud trend. They're making deliberate decisions about workload placement and building an environment that gives them the right balance of innovation, cost, performance and control.

Offering a range of UK-based, private and public cloud solutions, Node4 is perfectly positioned to help customers build an environment that meets their business needs whilst supporting innovation.