Cloud success needs diverse thought - Cloudreach, Cloud Awards finalist

Unlocking the power of cloud, like any initiative, means involving many different voices and perspectives. It's no good approaching a project from a single angle: you need a multi-pronged plan of attack.

Cloudreach is a global cloud consultancy firm providing end-to-end public cloud IT transformation services. The company covers many different areas of the cloud: strategy consulting, infrastructure design and build, application migration and modernisation, managed services, security, DevOps services, and more - but it also places great importance on the power of diverse thought.

"The culture at Cloudreach encourages each individual to develop their self-growth and professional growth. It is leading the way with diversity and inclusion and is striving to be the voice behind women in tech, encouraging its staff to become role models for anyone wanting to break into the industry," says Dave Chapman, the company's head of strategy, product and marketing.

"As part of our AWS Strategic Collaboration Agreement, we are launching a Talent Academy this year - an initiative designed to train hundreds of diverse and promising candidates to become the next generation of cloud consultants, engineers, architects and developers. For entry into the programme, Cloudreach will look for candidates with a passion for building their career in cloud, even if they do not have a technical background, and fast-track their technical development.

"We are committed to addressing underrepresentation and the lack of diversity within the technology workforce and cloud industry. This purpose-driven investment is one of the most exciting aspects of this collaboration with AWS as we look to solve complex business challenges for our customers."

The Strategic Collaboration Agreement Cloudreach signed with AWS this year, which builds on an existing 12-year partnership, is one of Chapman's proudest achievements of the last 12 months.

"It will mean an acceleration of the companies' joint go-to-market proposition, along with investments in Cloudreach software innovation, geographical expansion across North America and Europe, and the launch of the Talent Academy focused on diversity and inclusion."

Cloudreach's support for its customers through the pandemic "paved the way" for the new Agreement with AWS, says Chapman; and the company's new delivery methodology is another example of how it's helping clients.

"Our new SMART™ delivery methodology helps clients understand how they can maximise the value they're getting from the cloud, by providing an experienced team of cloud professionals (DevOps as a Service), enabled by best-in-class software, to accelerate digital transformation."

DevOps is one of Cloudreach's core strengths, and the company has reached the final stages of this year's Cloud Excellence Awards for its work - appropriately, in the Most Innovative Cloud Product or Service - DevOps category.

"It's important to stop and take the time to recognise innovation and achievements within the IT industry, which is so fast-paced. Everyone has had an extremely difficult 18 months during the pandemic, so it's important to recognise the hard work of teams delivering innovative products and services for customers. We want to offer our congratulations to all the nominees and winners."

Cloudreach hasn't stopped or slowed down post-nomination, though; it's still working to develop its SMART™ methodology.

The SMART™ approach speeds cloud adoption and reduces time to value by as much as 40 per cent, leveraging Cloudamize (planning, assessment, and migration automation software) and Sunstone (a cloud modernisation machine learning engine). Expanding the SMART™ ecosystem is a key goal for this year:

"The rollout of our SMART™ delivery methodology will accelerate the transformational IT outcomes for customers via software-enabled services. We are unique in this pursuit, using software and automation to underpin the wide range of cloud services. The methodology enables Cloudreach to execute migrations better, faster and more efficiently than anyone else."

The Cloud Excellence Awards take place in the Montcalm Marble Arch on the 23^rd September this year. Click here to reserve your place.