Cloudreach CEO hints at move into Asia

New chief exec Aaron Painter says 'longer-term strategy' could see firm tackle the Asian market

Cloudreach's new CEO Aaron Painter has hinted at a move into the Asian market after completing the first acquisition of his tenure.

The cloud services provider this week announced its intention to acquire US-based AWS cloud consultancy company Relus Cloud but Painter (pictured) said the firm could now look to expand into Asia.

"We are very excited about our presence in Europe and North America and we are going to continue to focus on those. But longer term we are looking at how to incorporate Asia into our strategy," he told CRN.

Painter said the UK-based MSP is "constantly reassessing" its portfolio, and looking to seek out other assets in the market that could help it develop faster, but that it is a narrow field from which to choose.

"There are fewer and fewer companies out there that are attractive to us," he said.

"We are always looking but we feel like we have such a strong collection already of top technical talent in this space. We feel really good about where we are right now."

Painter stepped into the chief exec role last month after Cloudreach founder Pontus Noren moved aside to a vice chairman role.

Since investment firm Blackstone bought a majority stake in the MSP last year, Painter's appointment as CEO follows a number of US acquisitions in the past 12 months.

Before moving into his new role, Painter previously worked in various roles at Microsoft. He was based in Paris for a time as head of operations for the global organisation.

He also held "frontline build" roles in the company, most recently in China as VP and general manager, where Microsoft was trying to pivot its business in mainland China to cloud, selling cloud-based solutions and products.

"Cloudreach is at a time in its history where it will benefit from my background at scale, and [my] thinking about how to build in systems, processes and tools that will let us work better as the size of company that we are," he stated.

High hopes
Since his installation as CEO at the end of July, Painter says he has been undertaking a "listening tour", meeting with the MSP's employees, partners and customers in its offices in North America and Europe.

His main aim in the role is to ensure growth at Cloudreach, both in terms of revenue and employee opportunities.

"We've grown [top-line revenue] very aggressively in the last few years and quarters and I think we are going to continue to do that this year," he said.

"We expect to continue to double the business in revenue on an annual basis. That is our aspiration this year."

He added that he puts a "big focus" on making sure Cloudreach is the kind of company where employee growth reflects revenue growth.

The procurement of Relus Cloud will bring Cloudreach's global headcount to over 700, which is a long way from its boutique beginnings, according to its CEO.

"I like the word boutique…but Cloudreach is a sizeable organisation with a large footprint," said Painter.

"When we start to think about other companies in the market - particularly in the US - there are very few that have our size and footprint. When you add to that being cloud native, Cloudreach is really in a league of its own today."

Relus is the third US acquisition by Cloudreach since Blackstone took ownership of it. Painter said the private equity firm's vision for Cloudreach is to build a "world-class" software and services organisation.

"The technology landscape evolves so fast and I think their initial vision continues to evolve because Blackstone's strategy was to grow both organically and inorganically," he said.

"[They want] to look for other companies that share close things in common that could perhaps be purchased and join our family. That is what you saw with the first two acquisitions and now with Relus.

"We saw an opportunity to accelerate the direction that we're trying to go in and Relus brings us so many new things that we are really excited about."

The planned Relus Cloud purchase will bring Cloudreach continued scale opportunity in North America, as well as strong technical talent in data and machine learning, according to Painter.

"Our short-term process is to first close the Relus deal and then ensure that the integration is a success," he said.

The new North American additions will not slow down the company's European business, said Painter, adding that business across both continents is "booming".

"Our customers are increasingly global and so they are looking for coverage around the world," he claimed.

"We are very excited about our presence in Europe and North America and we are going to continue to focus on those."