Accenture snaps up Google VAR Cloud Sherpas

Undisclosed deal set to differentiate Accenture's cloud services

Management consultancy giant Accenture has acquired cloud brokerage firm Cloud Sherpas in a push to bolster its cloud services offering.

Founded in 2007, Cloud Sherpas is a global cloud advisory company and claims to be "one of the top cloud service providers for Google, Salesforce and ServiceNow". The firm is headquartered in Atlanta in the US but has offices in London and across the EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions.

The deal - details of which were not disclosed - will see 1,100 Cloud Sherpas staff join the newly founded Accenture Cloud First Applications team, which provides cloud services for Salesforce, NetSuite and Google.

"Combining with Cloud Sherpas will further expand Accenture's ability to create differentiated cloud services across leading and emerging application platforms," a statement from Accenture said.

Paul Daugherty, Accenture's CTO, said he was delighted to take on the Cloud Sherpas team.

"We've reached a tipping point in cloud as our clients rapidly adopt cloud solutions," he said. "Accenture's cloud-first agenda is a game-changer that offers transformational cloud services to help clients move their businesses to the cloud and achieve significant business results more quickly. I look forward to welcoming the talented professionals of Cloud Sherpas to Accenture."

David Northington, Cloud Sherpas' CEO, said: "We are thrilled to be joining forces with Accenture. Cloud Sherpas was born in the cloud and we are perfectly aligned with Accenture's cloud-first agenda.

"The combination of our capabilities and experience with Accenture's scale, broad industry expertise and global cloud application capabilities represents a unique and compelling opportunity for our clients, for our people and for the future of cloud technology."

In March Cloud Sherpas hailed triple-digit growth in Europe. Last year the firm bagged $10m (£6.5m) in investment following which it opened offices in London, Brisbane and New York.