A series of recent successes for Cloud Direct, the Bath-based cloud services firm, has led to it being shortlisted in the industry’s top awards.
The firm is among the finalists in the Cloud Services Provider (CSP) category of the CRN Channel Awards. Now in their 22nd year, the awards aim to represent the pinnacle of achievement in the UK market, rewarding outstanding performance in IT. 
Cloud Direct’s recent successes include being appointed to Microsoft’s Cloud Services Provider (CSP) program – one of only eight UK companies on the program – and its acquisition of former partner IT hosting and infrastructure solutions provider Datel Business Systems in a move that has expanded its private cloud offering.
The firm has also had its ISO accreditation raised to the latest ISO 27001:2013 security standard while its packaged cloud solution demonstrated its value to business continuity when London & Continental Railways’ (LCR) HQ was out of action for three weeks following a fire. As LCR use cloud services – hosted desktop, Office 365 and business VoIP telephony – it was back to business as usual by lunchtime the following day.
Cloud Direct CEO and founder Brett Raynes said: “With our packaged cloud solutions we have vetted and selected the best technologies on the market and packaged them into easy-to-use solutions. Supported by our new professional services and customer success teams, packaged cloud breaks down four of the main barriers to cloud adoption among small-medium sized, regulated organisations – namely: security, control, integration and migration.
“We currently have around 200 partners reselling our packaged cloud solutions. And demand is increasing – seemingly alongside trust in cloud technology. According to The Cloud Security Alliance, today some 50% of global finance firms have cloud strategies in place. And 41 percent of them have already gone through email migration to the cloud.”
Since its launch 11 years ago the firm has helped 4,000 businesses move to the cloud. Its packaged cloud services provide what it calls “the antidote to traditional IT” – they free-up businesses to compete and grow by driving better business continuity, productivity and infrastructure delivery.
