Cloud Technology Solutions CEO has £40m revenue in sights

Google Cloud partner sees 50 per cent year-on-year jump in recent financial results

Cloud Technology Solutions (CTS) expects to hit £40m in revenue in its current financial year, according to CEO James Doggart.

The Google Cloud partner reported a record turnover of £27.5m in its year ending 31 March 2019, a 50 per cent year-on-year jump from the previous year's figure.

Doggart told CRN that the company had seen strides in growth in the last number of years, but attributed this jump to the increased migration that customers are making to the cloud, as well as increasing interest in Google Cloud.

"[These results] have been an overnight success that's been 10 years in the making for us," he said.

"We were early to the cloud space and were waiting for the market to catch-up.

"There are two things [to account for 50 per cent growth]: One is that cloud is actually happening and there's an unstoppable move to it.

"On top of that, Google has doubled down on Google Cloud and invested in that space.

"I think the market sees that it is serious about cloud and is starting to engage at enterprise level."

As a Google Premier partner, the demand from customers for the cloud provider's offerings will help CTS hit its target of £40m in revenue this year, said the chief exec.

"At the moment, we are full-stack so do pretty much everything Google does," he stated.

"If people are new to the cloud they are looking at Google as an alternative to AWS and Microsoft Azure.

"If people have already gone to those then they are more mature in their cloud strategy and tend to look at a more multicloud strategy, where they want relationships with the three key vendors.

"Google is late to that party after AWS an Azure but they are still a key player and seeing rapid growth."

CTS is a full-stack Google partner as well as being an ISV for the vendor, and Doggart said that as the cloud provider grows its portfolio it provides new opportunities for partners - as well as attracting new partners.

"Its investment continues in the space and it clearly sees this as a key area and this grows the market for partners like us," Doggart added.

"We also see a lot of other partners enter the Google space which I think is a good thing because the market needs to grow.

"We do see a lot of traditional resellers looking at Google technology, looking to fit it into their portfolios and that's best for everybody because it means more skillsets in the market."

The Manchester-based firm acquired Dutch machine learning (ML) specialist Qlouder in October 2018, which it claimed at the time makes it "Europe's largest Google Cloud practice".

Doggart stated that though the acquisition contributes a "small part" to overall revenue, he expects it to become a bigger part of the business as conversations around ML develop.

"We've future-proofed what we are doing with our customers," he explained of the Qlouder acquisition.

"At the moment, our engagements tend to be around data and how customers can use the data they are collating in an intelligent way.

"That tends to be backend-focused, but we see organisations moving towards using ML to service their own customers.

"When that happens I think ML is going to take off in all sectors and it will become an increasingly bigger part of our business as we go forward."