Steve Derbyshire

Career so far: I started working in IT for BT back in 1981, working on IBM mainframes, and spent seven years working as a systems programmer and datacentre manager. After leaving BT, I worked for the UK arm of Comparex for a year, leaving them in late 1988 to form my first business (VM Solutions). In 1995, I started Telamon Systems Ltd, a Microsoft Gold Partner and Novell Platinum Partner of 12 years standing. In October 2007, Telamon was acquired by NEC Philips (now NEC Unified) and I was appointed to its management team as solutions development director. In the last three years, we have continued to deliver our unified communications vision, and added cloud services, a large-scale datacentre and desktop virtualisation to our portfolio. We are now part of Microsoft’s SI programme and are working closely with Quest and HP ProCurve. My current role involves developing and deploying NEC’s cloud services solutions.

If you could be anyone else for a week, who would you be and what would you do? Not sure who I would be, but wouldn’t want to have been in George Osbourne’s shoes recently!

What would you have as your last meal? A rare fillet steak.

What is the best corporate jolly you have ever been on/taken partners on? That would be telling.

Do you see the cloud as a threat or an opportunity? The cloud is both a threat and an opportunity. Whether we like it or not, change will happen, although probably not to the extent that the press would have us all believe. In any event, the winners will be those who see the opportunity and seize it.

Have any of your predictions come true this year? I gave up predicting things, as it was all too volatile this year.

What do you see as the channel’s biggest challenge in 2011? Trying to see the clouds for the vapour – is this ASP II? Figuring out what’s real and what’s not, and then working out how to capitalise on it.

What is the best part of your day? Getting up in the morning and wondering what the day is going to bring.