10 Years of Success: AWS and Cloudreach, an Atos Company

“10 Years of Success” is a blog series celebrating a decade of the AWS Partner Network (APN) through stories of partner transformation, collaboration, and customer success.
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By Amanda Mock, Program Manager – AWS Partner Network
By David Kress, Managing Director Northern Europe – Cloudreach 

We’re celebrating “10 Years of Success” with the AWS Partner Network (APN). Next in our partner transformation series is Cloudreach, an Atos company and independent cloud services provider.

As an AWS Premier Tier Services Partner and Managed Services Provider (MSP), Cloudreach offers database migration services from any origin to Amazon RDS for Oracle or Amazon RDS for SQL Server. Cloudreach has multiple AWS Competencies, including Migration, DevOps, and Machine Learning.

Since its founding in 2009, Cloudreach has become a leading provider of application development and cloud migration services, helping customers modernize and manage their cloud environments.

Transformation is in the company’s DNA, as Cloudreach has expanded and adapted the team’s offerings with the times—first on their own and now as part of Atos. As it continues to expand globally, Cloudreach recently launched offices in Budapest, Hungary and Stockholm, Sweden.

Q&A with Cloudreach

We spoke with David Kress, Managing Director Northern Europe at Cloudreach and Atos OneCloud Northern Europe Lead, about the company’s 10-year transformation and what signing a Strategic Collaboration Agreement (SCA) with Amazon Web Services (AWS) has meant for the business.

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AWS: What made you decide to become an AWS Partner back in 2012?

David: Cloudreach is still proud that we were the first AWS Partner in the UK. We leaned in with AWS right from the start because we saw the value in being able to provide first-class managed services, migration support, and best-practice thought leadership.

Together, we migrated the first enterprise production workload in Europe; and ever since, we have been uniquely aligned with AWS, its leadership principles, and go-to-market strategy.

AWS: Ten years is a long time in the tech world. What changes have you seen in your customers and/or your industry during that time?

David: Ten years ago, the term “digital disruption” wasn’t in the lexicon. Cloud was still a new iteration of the utility computing model and was typically used by enterprise customers as software-as-a-service (SaaS) implementations.

At that time, our clients struggled to even define what the cloud was and definitely did not understand how it could impact their business. Cloud adoption discussions mainly focused on renting vs. buying servers that needed replacing, and conversations about speed to market and market advantages or value creation were not happening.

Today, technologists have a seat at the executive table. Companies have seen how agility, flexibility, and scalability can change the course of their business. The pace of innovation from AWS has pushed change forward, and most enterprises have deployed cloud-native technologies around new app launches, data platforms, and edge solutions.

AWS: What transformation and growth has your business gone through with AWS in the last 10 years?

David: In the last 10 years, Cloudreach has grown from a UK-based company to one of the largest cloud-native consultancies operating across multiple European and North American markets. We have been able to make some key acquisitions and also contributed to the open-source community.

This year, Cloudreach was acquired by Atos and is now focused on merging our experience with that of a global system integrator (GSI) with the goal of becoming the first and only cloud-native services provider at scale.

In recent years, our focus has shifted to addressing the skills and knowledge base in the market. We believe now more than ever that clients will need to improve their digital quotient (DQ) across their entire organization—not just techies—in order to leverage the benefits of the cloud. DQ is not just a measure of organizational maturity but, critically, of each leader’s ability to think and operate cloud-natively. To execute on cloud-native strategies, meaningful change will need to happen in the labor market.

In support of that effort, we recently launched the fourth cohort of our Cloudreach Talent Academy, a locally implemented program designed to address the current skills gap for underrepresented candidates, giving them access to tools and resources that can help them make a difference in the world. AWS has been a tremendous partner in this program, especially since we were able to leverage the AWS re/Start candidate pool.

AWS: How has partnering with AWS grown or evolved for your business since 2012?

David: In 2009, when Cloudreach was founded in London, the focus was on delivering transformation via SaaS applications. As infrastructure as a service (IaaS) offerings became more available to end users, we pivoted the company to focus on the broadest possible implementation of cloud.

While SaaS is key to any digital strategy, it is narrow in focus. AWS brought a myriad of services to the market that could be used to solve multiple challenges. So, in 2012, we pivoted to focus on becoming one of the most experienced cloud-native solutions provider in the market.

In 2017, we purchased Cloudamize—a robust migration assessment tool—and became a leading migration partner with the ability to assess and deliver against complex customer needs. Today, we provide full end-to-end migration and support across a wide variety of customers and segments.

We added capabilities around artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), as well as faster but better migrations (smart migrations). Since then, we have won three AWS Partner of the Year awards and have been involved in several new Competency and product launches.

Now, we are leaning into green initiatives with our decarbonization efforts on the digital landscape. In addition, we are growing our diversity and inclusion efforts with our cloud Talent Academy, which focuses on expanding the role of under-served communities and women in technology.

AWS: Have you worked with any other AWS Partners to advance an offering or your business in general? What was your experience like?

David: One of the benefits of the APN is the global community. We have jointly delivered complex solutions working with multiple service partners.

We routinely leverage independent software vendors (ISVs) to enhance the value of our services and have long-lasting relationships with companies such as Evolve, Cloud Health, CloudEndure, CrowdStrike, and Alert Logic, to name a few.

We also work with Intel, NetApp, and other hardware partners to maximize the benefit of the underlying infrastructure, and have a distinguished partnership with A Cloud Guru to help clients bridge the skills gap.

AWS Marketplace is instrumental in quickly delivering our services and allowing for engagement across a variety of vendors in a more streamlined and consistent way.

AWS: In your opinion, what’s the best part about working with AWS or your most favorite aspect of being an AWS Partner?

David: That’s simple—it’s the people we get to work with each day. From the talent we attract internally by being one of the top global partners, to our fellow partners, to all of the teams across AWS. The AWS community brings together an amazing group of people.

Engaging with AWS allows us to learn from some of their management practices. Over the years, we have benefited from the “two-pizza team” rule and the “one-way or two-way door” decision process.

The AWS Competency Program and AWS Migration Acceleration Program (MAP) are instrumental in our go-to-market plan, and are unique to AWS. These programs help us focus our solutions and accelerate the value our clients get from AWS.

In addition, our Strategic Collaboration Agreement (SCA) with AWS has been an impactful investment for us. Signed in 2021, the SCA allows us to accelerate our joint go-to-market offerings and grow our investment in expansion and innovation, including launching new offices in Stockholm and Budapest.

AWS: What do the next few years look like for your organization with AWS? What are you hoping to achieve for continued growth?

David: The opportunity for us has never been brighter. As we exit the era of IT-led adoption with the majority of workloads running in legacy environments, our focus is on offering our end-to-end cloud-native, decarbonization, and security capabilities to deliver differentiated, more impactful technical and business change outcomes for customers.

Empowering the cloud-native enterprise to modernize critical workloads requires substantial changes to the way organizations are run and managed, not only technologically but culturally as well. The talent crisis in technology is further slowing the pace of change, and therefore, investing in efforts to attract, educate, and keep badly needed talent is central to everything we do.

Sustainability is humanity’s responsibility towards the planet, but it’s also a massive business opportunity today. In Northern Europe, companies are pressured to meet ambitious sustainability targets. As a result, board-level initiatives around sustainability are becoming more critical drivers for change. There is an urgent need to add value and help customers in this space.

This year, Gartner named Atos the number one Managed Security Services provider worldwide based on 2021 revenue. Building on a global network of over 6,500 dedicated experts and 16 next-generation Security Operation Centers, we are strategically placed to offer a complete portfolio of advanced digital security solutions.

Organizations today seek a trusted managed security partner in their fight against a growing and advanced cyber threat landscape. Cloudreach and Atos are ready to help customers fight the most sophisticated of cyber security threats in the world.

Tackling these challenges requires a global GSI capable of delivering such tall orders. Working with AWS, we will continue to help our customers overcome challenges in these areas, enabling them to grow their leadership positions and remain relevant in their markets for years to come.

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About the AWS Partner Network

The AWS Partner Network (APN) is a global community of partners that leverage programs, expertise, and resources to build, market, and sell customer offerings. This diverse network features 100,000 partners from more than 150 countries.

Together, partners and AWS can provide innovative solutions, solve technical challenges, win deals, and deliver value to our mutual customers.

▶ Read Jeff Barr’s blog post about the APN’s anniversary: 10 Years and Going Strong!

▶ See other stories in the APN’s “10 Years of Success” blog series.