Intercept IT ramps up public cloud push

VAR expects public cloud offering to be generating 80 per cent of its gross margins within five years

Application delivery VAR Intercept IT will spurn the advances of suitors for at least another two years as it concentrates on ramping up its public cloud sales.

The Citrix and Microsoft partner has set itself the goal of doubling sales to £20m by 2012, after which it will begin considering exit options including a flotation or private-equity sale.

Ian Readman, non-executive chairman at Intercept, said the firm is regularly approached, but needed to increase its "stickiness" in the cloud space.

"We have had a public cloud platform for almost nine years and it is already 50 per cent of our gross margins," he said.

"I can see that becoming 80 per cent over the next five years as we are throwing a lot of spend and resource at that side of the business."

Readman said the cloud market had become pola­rised, with large firms favouring private cloud and smaller firms gravitating towards public cloud.

"Sub-250-staff businesses do not have a huge investment in their own infrastructure or a huge IT department and it is easy for them to transition to public cloud," he said.

Readman said that year-to-date sales were up 40 per cent and said total 2011 sales would rise from £10 to £14m before hitting £20m in 2012.