Global VAR witnesses 24 per cent lift in UK

Public cloud usage drives rapid growth for firm as global revenues hit $1.7bn

SHI International posted record revenue for the first quarter of 2017, with 13 per cent growth year on year and $1.7bn (£1.3bn) in revenue.

The firm enjoyed particularly strong growth outside the US, including a 24 per cent increase in the UK year on year.

SHI's US sales divisions grew in the first quarter, led by a 24 per cent gain for the corporate and SMB division, and 13 per cent gains in the commercial and strategic enterprise space.

"Organisations today face a rapidly evolving technology landscape, so they require a partner that can listen, understand, and meet their unique needs," said Thai Lee, president and CEO of SHI International.

"Our success is contingent on our ability to adapt our offerings. As such, we have developed new programmes and deployed additional resources that can support our customers' demands for technologies from emerging cloud, security, and mobile partners."

SHI highlighted the growth in public cloud usage, paced by Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS). SHI's Microsoft Azure revenue jumped 147 per cent in the first quarter and, led by Azure and Office 365, it forecasts managing over $1bn in customers' Microsoft cloud assets in 2017.

SHI's AWS business experienced a 112 per cent jump in first-quarter revenue compared with the same period a year ago after a 242 per cent year-over-year spike for all of 2016.

"SHI speaks to thousands of customers every day, and they've asked us to guide them, both technically and financially, to the best solutions," continued Lee. "That was the genesis of our AWS Support Services programme. Both new and long-time SHI customers have reacted positively to our new offering."