Top 10 Companies Leading the Cloud Revolution 2021

Top 10 Companies Leading the Cloud Revolu on 2021

#NewUpdate

Tech Trends

5 things that make the Windows 365 Cloud PC truly revolu onary

Online Everything: Cloud and its ever widening scope

Ryan Walsh Chief Product Officer, Channel Chief, and Co-founder

2021 VOL.08 ISSUE 08

Klaus Dimmler Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer

John Street CEO, Chairman and Founder

A Driving Force Behind the Cloud Compu ng Revolu on

C

hances are that the text you are reading right now is somewhere stored in the cloud. The cloud has taken a unique and centralized place in our ecosystem. From storing data, video streaming, and gaming, digital cloud software (SaaS), to everyone’s personal storage, the cloud has integrated itself into our everyday life. However, this is just the beginning.

In business parlance, Cloud Computing may be the next big thing, but entirely new ways of working are already here. Cloud computing is no longer a concept of the future: it’s an integral part of our present.

Today, IT and business leaders use it to run and transform their businesses to deliver maximum value and growth. Businesses want agility and speed, leading them to increase their reliance on cloud services to reduce costs and focus on growth. Cloud adoption is growing rapidly across all industries as organizations embrace its transformative potential.

It’s a little bit unbelievable, but in 2016, less than half of small and medium-sized businesses had a cloud strategy. In a decade, the notion of an IT department will be a thing of the past. For a business, there will

Enter the Cloud

be no more IT departments, but their functions will be distributed instead across the entire company. All departments will have access to the same information and technology infrastructure in order to improve their product design and delivery.

In the long run, this will change the nature of joint development. In a cloud-based world, one would expect that there is an opportunity for the customer to gain more from its IT supplier through participation in defining-+ and developing new products and services.

In essence, this is the supply of cloud-enabled services that have the potential to inject data processing capability, mobility, and scalability into enterprises of all sizes. It is expected to radically alter the way that businesses function.

Cloud has already begun to revolutionize businesses around the globe. Whether it’s by releasing them from the burden

of maintaining costly hardware or giving them access to cutting-edge technologies, cloud computing is changing the landscape for companies, governments, organizations, and individuals alike.

Looking at the trends in cloud use, both now and in the future, we have come up with Top 10 Companies Leading the Cloud Revolution 2021 that are leading their industry towards the mass adoption of cloud.

Sumita Sarkar

Cover Story

08

Pax8

A Driving Force Behind the Cloud Computing Revolution

Articles

18 #NewUpdate

5 things that make the Windows 365 Cloud PC truly revolutionary

30 Tech Trends

Online Everything: Cloud and its ever-widening scope

Contents 14

interworks.cloud Revolutionizing the Cloud Space, Delivering Breakthrough Solutions

26

Peloton Consulting Group Your Digital Transformation in the Right Hands

22

METCloud Advocating an ‘All Cloud’ Future

32

Saturn Business Systems Disrupting the IT Space with Exemplary Cloud Solutions

Editor-in-Chief Sumita Sarkar Senior Editor Anish Miller Managing Editor Abhishaj Sajeev Assisting Editors Trishika, Vinayak Visualiser David King Art & Design Head Priyanka Rajage Art & Design Assistant Rohil Shinganapurkar Co-designer Paul Belin Art & Picture Editor Rahul Shinde Business Development Manager Sherin Rodricks Marketing Manager Joseph D'souza Business Development Executives Kelly, David Sales Executives Mark, Alice Technical Head Jacob Smile Assistant Technical Head Amar Sawant Technical Consultants Pratiksha, Aditya, David Digital Marketing Manager Alina Sege Assistant Digital Marketing Manager Amol Wadekar SME-SMO Executives Gemson, Renuka Research Analyst Eric Smith Circulation Manager Tanaji sales@insightssuccess.com

August, 2021 Corporate Ofce Insights Success Media Tech LLC 555 Metro Place North, Suite 100, Dublin, OH 43017, United States Phone - (614)-859-2600 Email: info@insightssuccess.com For Subscription: www.insightssuccess.com

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Company Name

Featuring

Brief

GetOnCRM Solutions getoncrm.com

Minkesh Patel Founder

GetOnCRM Solutions provides salesforce services such as Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Community Cloud, Lightning Experience, Pardot, Commerce Cloud and Salesforce Mobile App.

interworks.cloud interworks.cloud

Vassilios Zografos, Co-founder

The interworks.cloud platform aims to successfully respond to the problems and needs for automated billing, ordering, invoicing and recurring payments of Office 365, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft ESD, Acronis, Google’s G Suite, plus more IaaS and SaaS solutions.

LetsNurture Infotech Pvt. Ltd. letsnurture.com

Ketan Raval CEO

LetsNurture Infotech is an IT Outsourcing company that has a proven track record of catering to an array of industries.

METCloud metcloud.com

Ian Vickers CEO

METCloud's vision is to develop a globally recognised brand synonymous with robust cyber security technologies and services.

Pax8 pax8.com

John Street, CEO, Chairman and Founder

Pax8 simplifies the way organizations buy, sell, and manage cloud solutions, empowering our partners to achieve more with cloud technology.

Peloton Consulting Group pelotongroup.com

Guy F. Daniello, CEO & Founder

Peloton Consulting Group has the vision and connected capabilities to help business leaders envision, implement and realize the benefits of digital transformation.

Saturn Business Systems saturnb2b.com

George Pappas, Vice President of Sales

Saturn Business Systems partners with the leading global technology solution manufacturers and software providers to tailor and implement customized data center and cloud solutions.

Talentica Software talentica.com

Nitin Shimpi CEO

Talentica Software is an innovative product development company that helps startups build their own products.

WebClues Global webcluesglobal.com

Ayush Kanodia Founder

WebClues provides state of the art user experiences by delivering simple, effective and intelligent IT solutions for your growing business.

Welcome Networks welcomenetworks.com

Nick Chandi CEO

Welcome Networks works with small to medium size businesses (5 to 200 users) with a focus on accounting and law firms that need offline or online tailored IT solutions according to their specific needs.

A Driving Force Behind the Cloud Compu ng Revolu on

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echnology—unarguably becoming the backbone of humanity's progress—has brought about transformational changes within industries across the globe.Leveraging the opportunities delivered by these changes, a few innovative organizations functioning within the IT spectrum have seeded the development of something profound – Cloud Computing.

This edition, Top 10 Companies Leading the Cloud Revolution 2021places the spotlight onthose players who have striven to innovate and conceive products and services that have formed a niche market for themselves.And a standout leaderamong such companies is Pax8.

Born from serial entrepreneur John Street's vision of modernizing the distribution channel for cloud technology providers, Pax8 simplifies the way organizations buy, sell, and manage cloud solutions, empowering its partners to achieve more with cloud tech.

Having tried to work through the channel with his previous cloud company, Street knew the challenges it presented.

Legacy distribution did not provide the solutions, technology, or support channel partners required to run their businesses efficiently. In 2012, with two other individuals,

Ryan Walsh Chief Product Officer, Channel Chief, and Co-founder

S T O R Y Klaus Dimmler Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer

C O V E R

John Street CEO, Chairman, and Founder

“At Pax8, our mission is to be the world's favorite marketplace for technology professionals to buy cloud products. To do that, we believe in building the right team that provides excellent service, and we combine that superior level of support with worldclass technology,” Street expresses.

Pax8 has won multiple awards for being one of the best places to work in the industry. The team lives and breathes what they call 'The Wingman Experience' – offering partners 247 support, education, and enablement optimized for IT professionals.

“We are passionate about our work quality, care about the people we serve, and capitalize on opportunities to improve,” says the team. Pax8 is dedicated to enabling its partners with the most advanced solutions while also having fun along the way. The company's core values are deeply rooted in the culture. “We Elev8 each other, Advoc8 for our partners, Innov8 continuously, and Celebr8 our wins,” the team adds.

Pax8'sborn-in-the-cloud platform modernizes the channel's cloud journey with consolidated billing, automated provisioning, and industry-leading PSA integrations. The company's unwavering commitment to driving partners' success and helping them achieve their goals has made Pax8 the

“

At Pax8, our mission is to be the world's favorite marketplace for technology professionals to buy cloud products.

“

Street founded Pax8 and forever changed the cloud technology marketplace.

Top 10 Companies Leading the Cloud Revolu on 2021

Pax8 empowers partners to lead their clients' digital transformations and succeed in the modern channel through partner enablement events, vast educational resources, and organizational enhancements. “We work to make the channel better every day, and we have fun doing it,” says the team.

The company is constantly innovating to meet the evolving needs of IT professionals. In the previous year, the company launched Pax8 Pro, offering partners the first-of-its-kind cloud automation software and simplified Software as a Service (SaaS) lifecycle management.

Pax8 Pro eliminates manual tasks, improves client security, and provides visibility into client workflows. The company also introduced MSP Foundations, its first live, eight-week course providing partners the key fundamentals for growing a successful and impactful business. These innovative solutions enable partners to be more efficient, productive, and deliberate in growing their business, resulting in increased client and revenue growth.

Built on Strong Foundations John Street, CEO, Chairman and Founder at Pax8, is an experienced, multiple award-winning startup CEO across multiple industries, including telecom, IT, and biotech. John is highly skilled in managed services, channel development, business IT systems, and sales process. He is a financial professional (CPA) with a strong track record of building dynamic, vibrant company culture in several startups.

John is passionate about technology and helping our partners succeed.

As Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at Pax8, Klaus Dimmler provides the vision and technical strategy for the company and its innovations. He guides the development of many diverse technologies that drive the nextgeneration distribution of cloud products and services by transforming silos created by multiple vendors into seamlessly managed IT solutions for partners on every level- automated provisioning, unified recurring billing, intelligent integration, product life cycle management, analytics, and unified dashboards.

for deeper visibility into customer buying habits and usage patterns.

These insights can be applied across several platforms and used for many functionalities, enabling a more strategic approach to sales, marketing, and client management activities.

Ryan Walsh, Chief Product Officer, Channel Chief, and Co-founder at Pax8, has almost 20 years of comprehensive experience helping cloud technology companies navigate and thrive in the channel. After spending time as VP of product management for MX Logic and then leading the cloud product team at McAfee, Ryan partnered with Street in founding Pax8. His expert knowledge has been invaluable to vendors, partners, and Pax8's overall success.

Ryan's dedication to helping MSPs build a successful cloud practice is evident in his discerning process for vetting new technologies, ensuring Pax8's line card comprises of only toptier, channel-friendly vendors.

Overcoming Adversities Employees' health and safety are top priorities at Pax8. Powered by the technology it sells, Pax8 pivoted to an entirely remote workplace when the pandemic hit and established unique and innovative programs to keep employees engaged and their spirits lifted. Weekly communications updated employees with important information and stories shared from the leadership team provided an optimistic

Sharing their opinion on the importance of adopting modern technologies within a business, the leadership team says, “AI, big data, and machine learning offer considerable opportunities to improve user experiences. The integrations, synergies, and orchestration provided through these technologies create advanced automation that will streamline many of today's manual processes. The data they capture allows

Embedding the technology into company processes will not eliminate jobs but enable employees to be more efficient and impactful. As these modern technologies evolve, more companies will begin adapting them, creating an intelligent and powerful channel ecosystem.”

“

We are passionate about our work quality, care about the people we serve, and capitalize on opportunities to improve.

“

leader in the cloud services industry.

During these challenging times, Pax8's technologies and capabilities enabled its partner community and their clients to succeed throughout the pandemic. In addition to the company's cloud solutions, its enablement events presented partners with the best solutions for establishing their clients' remote workplaces and educated them on the capabilities for increasing security and virtual collaboration.

“The rise in remote workplaces produced phenomenal results for the cloud technology industry in 2020, with hyper-growth expected in 2021.

We will continue equipping our partners with the latest knowledge and advanced resources, empowering them to capitalize on this great opportunity,” says Street.

Bequeathing the Keys to Excellence When asked about what his advice would be to aspiring entrepreneurs aiming to venture into the cloud tech space, Street said, “to succeed in the cloud technology space, new entrepreneurs should provide valuefocused solutions. The IT channel is transforming as companies rely more on cloud technology, requiring additional support from their IT provider.”

“As these providers continue offering more cloud solutions, the number of associated managed services is also increasing. The traditional transactional sales model is outdated, replaced by a consultative, comprehensive solutions approach.

Instead of being a repairman for clients and fixing problems as they arise, future success requires becoming the architect and establishing technology solutions to enable their productivity, efficiency, and security. Whether clients are MSPs, vendors, or endusers, providing exceptional value and a great experience are how to succeed in the modern channel,” he added.

Voyaging toward New Horizons For John Street and his team, 2021 began with the exciting acquisition of Wirehive, a forward-thinking cloud hosting and consultancy company headquartered in the United Kingdom,and the launch of Pax8 UK, the company's first international office on its global expansion roadmap.

The Pax8 leadership team is actively pursuing opportunities to expand globally and is making investments to support the company's scale. Recently, the team secured a large round of funding that will enable its expansion into additional markets.

“

Pax8's technologies and capabilities enabled its partner community and their clients to succeed throughout the pandemic.

“

outlook. “We created virtual cooking classes, book clubs, and happy hours, and more, ensuring our employees stayed connected,” says the team at Pax8.

“We are investing in talent throughout the organization to continue providing exceptional support as Pax8, and its solution offerings grow. We continually evaluate and invest in new technologies for internal operations, enhancing the company's efficiency.

And we constantly develop new programs and innovative solutions to drive our partners' growth and success,” the team concluded.

“

We are investing in talent throughout the organization to continue providing exceptional support as Pax8 and its solution offerings grow.

“

Top 10 Companies Leading the Cloud Revolution 2021

Revolutionizing the Cloud Space, Delivering Breakthrough Solutions “I don’t need a hard disk in my computer if I can get to the server faster…carrying around these nonconnected computers is byzantine by comparison.” – Steve Jobs, Cofounder, CEO and Chairman, Apple Inc.

T

he recent pandemic pushed the whole world indoors. This led almost every sector to switch to cloud solutions for all the good reasons. Cloud solutions have been in picture for some time now. They not only enable increased capacity, functionality, scalability, and reduced maintenance for computer infrastructure to businesses, but also let them focus on revenue driving initiatives.

One company providing all these disruptive cloud solutions to other businesses is interworks.cloud. They are an award-winning CSP automation platform situated in Thessaloniki, Greece—with presence in Germany and US—providing pathbreaking cloud solutions to businesses.

invoicing, and recurring payments for Office 365, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft ESD, Acronis, Google Workspace, and other IaaS and SaaS solutions.

With more than 15 active and fully functional integrations—including leading products from major cloud vendors—the interworks.cloud platform helps businesses in more than 70 countries boost their service portfolio and expand their cloud offerings.

vendors, including Microsoft, Acronis, Google, Webroot, Fortinet, Dropsuite, and others.

Providing Automated Excellence Apart from its state-of-the-art cloud automation platform, interworks.cloud™ is a leading cloud service Distributor and Provider in Greece, Cyprus, and Malta. The company counts an extensive network of more than 400 Cloud Resellers and 14+ partnerships with leading software

Finally, the company offers its very own cloud services – including Cloud Servers, Databases, Backup, Security, S3 Storage – for thousands of companies in Greece and abroad, ensuring fast speeds, stability, and security in a completely renovated infrastructure center.

interworks.cloud™ is a Microsoft Gold Partner and a certified provider for all its vendors, providing first-class 24/7 support. These strong vendor partnerships allow the company to serve end companies through its extensive reseller network in Greece, Cyprus, and Malta.

A Vision of Transformation interworks.cloud™ is a leading cloud automation platform provider with two decades of experience in transforming traditional IT service businesses into powerful Cloud Solution Providers.

Addressing the needs of Cloud Distributors, CSPs, MSPs, and ISVs worldwide, the interworks.cloud platform automates key cloud service processes, such as billing, ordering,

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The Creator’s Quest Dr. Vassilios Zografos is the Co-founder and CEO of interworks.cloud. His background and affinity have always been in the IT industry. He graduated in Computer Science and Economics from the Brunel University, attained his MSc in Information Systems from UMIST, and his Ph.D. in e-Business Components Architectures from the same institution.

A true believer in business automation, Vassilios was the conceptual designer of BOS (Business Operating System), a highly acclaimed distributed development platform for effective Knowledge Management, Workflow, and Organizational Modeling used in large corporations globally.

This successful track led Microsoft Corp. in 2009 to choose interworks.cloud as a certified Incubation Center for Southeast Europe for providing Cloud Services and Business Consulting to ISVs (Independent Software Vendors), Telcos, etc.

And in 2010, long before cloud services were even an option for business, Vassilios steered the company towards developing a Cloud Business Operating System (CBOS), the first of its kind.

Outlook that Counts We asked Vassilios about his opinion on how the adoption of modern technologies such as AI, big data and machine learning have transformed the cloud computing industry and what more could be expected in the near future, to which he replied, “The pandemic brought a remarkable shift towards cloud computing, leading the industry to more resilient and sustainable growth. At the same time, widespread connectivity has made big data more available and accessible to businesses, whereas machine learning is being embedded into an increasing number of products and services. Therefore, it is only a question of time until these trends converge.”

“

Dr. Vassilios Zografos Co-founder and CEO

Innovation results from thinking out of the box, questioning existing solutions, experimenting, and inevitably, daring to make mistakes.

He further added, “We firmly believe that combining the power of cloud computing with the potential of artificial intelligence will create new opportunities for the digital

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“

Vassilios could always see what is around the corner in the future of the IT industry. When business automation was wishful thinking rather than the standard practice for many companies, he directed interworks.cloud towards developing an on-demand CRM platform that led the business in Greece from 2005 to 2009.

“Working with interworks.cloud is proving to be a forwardlooking and highly beneficial partnership in what is a very fast-moving market sector.”

– Marco Iten, Head of Cloud & Services, Alltron AG, Microsoft Indirect CSP, Switzerland".

transformation of businesses, which are bound to become more innovative and more efficient. Ubiquitous computing will become available thanks to the public and private cloud.

At the same time, AI technology will help businesses offer smart applications and systems that harness the knowledge of big data and contribute to the creation of truly personalized solutions tailored to each customer's specific needs.”

Overcoming Challenges We asked Vassilios about how he was driving his company to sustain operations and ensuring the safety of his employees at the same time, taking in consideration the current pandemic, and its impact on global economies, to which he said “When we started working remotely, our top priority was maintaining a healthy remote working environment with high mental wellbeing levels. Undoubtedly, managing a team remotely requires a whole different approach. We wanted to empower our managers with tools that help them keep their teams together, engaged, and motivated no matter where they are. So, we started using tools to measure our employees' pulse every week, and thus, understand how they feel and what challenges they may be facing. More importantly, knowing employee pulse allows our managers to offer valuable mentoring.”

He further explained, “On top of that, we organize regular 1-on-1 remote meetings. In these dedicated sessions, our managers discuss openly with their team members, address their concerns, and commit to resolving issues together. Almost 1.5 years in WFH mode, we are proud to report that 86% of our team members feel their overall performance has not been disrupted while 81% stated that the spirit of collaboration, togetherness, and open communication on which our company is founded, has not been affected by the pandemic.”

Words of Guidance In his advice to budding entrepreneurs who aspire to venture into the cloud tech space, Vassilios expressed, “Twenty years in the tech industry, we are pleased to say that the most pivotal moments center around risky decisions. So, although it may sound cliché, it is the most important advice for budding entrepreneurs: believing in your dreams and throwing yourself into the unknown can be rewarding.

Some important lessons we learned along the way:

are they happy all the time.

However, they never cease to be the reason and the focus of everything you do. Listen to them carefully, value their feedback, and never stop creating the business solutions that best suit their needs. Ÿ Mistakes are made, and that is okay: working in a tech company means you always must brim with innovation. Innovation results from thinking out of the box, questioning existing solutions, experimenting, and inevitably, daring to make mistakes.”

Future Endeavors Talking about his vision to scale his company’s operations and offerings in 2021, Dr. Zografos said, “Our mission is to create the most compelling cloud commerce platform by removing the hassle of selling and managing cloud services to businesses. We have developed a strategic hiring plan for 2021, and we are hiring 40 new experts who will form an integral part of our mission. In addition, we are expanding into new markets across the world with our Standard Edition for Resellers.”

Additionally, he said, “We also want to keep our clients satisfied by expanding our product roadmap with new updates, features, and integrations.

Some of our significant additions into our vendor portfolio will be Acronis extensions for IT Distributors, IBM, Adobe, Bitdefender, BitTitan, Vade Secure, Serveil, and many more,” concluded Dr. Zografos

Have a clear mission: a clearly defined mission helps convey the reason your business exists and helps your employees become part of your endeavor. Ÿ Always think of the customer: customers are not always right, nor

Ÿ

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5

things that make the

Windows 365 Cloud PC

truly revolutionary

T

he COVID-19 pandemic changed the working dynamics of almost all the sectors in the world economy. As the world dealt with the problems and challenges posed by the pandemic, a lot of companies switched to remote work settings to contain the spread of COVID-19. Organizations all around the globe transformed their functioning by switching to virtual processes and remote collaborations to run and expand their business.

One of the many things that will be changed forever after this pandemic, is people’s preference to work remotely whenever, however, and from wherever they wish to.

Employees everywhere have acquired the taste of liberty to work according to their convenience, which is a major contributing factor to the drastic transformation that the business world will see in the near future when things will go back to normal.

To empower this new world of hybrid work, Windows has come up with its new cloud service that takes the operating systems to Microsoft cloud. The new Windows 365 Cloud PC is just what the new world of hybrid work requires.

Following listed are the five things that make the Windows 365 PC truly revolutionary – A personalized full Windows experience on any device – The new Windows 365 Cloud PC enables its users to access

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#NewUpdate

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their personalized tools, applications, data, and settings from anywhere on any device. You can pick up your work right from where you left off even if you change devices as it can be accessed from any device including your Linux device, iPad, Android, or Mac.

their own innovations to the market. The new service enables Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to amalgamate Windows 365 into their broad selection of services alongside their services’ strong features and secure hardware.

The experience is consistent with the new Windows 365 Cloud PC. This feature gives great flexibility to the work structure. Seasonal workers can switch on and off work according to the needs of the company.

Hybrid Windows for hybrid work culture – The new Windows 365 Cloud PC gives organizations of all sizes the power, simplicity, and security they need to function optimally with ease. This new service by Microsoft will allow businesses to adapt to the new paradigm shift in the work setting that happened during the times of the COVID19 pandemic. As most of the business world has shifted to the new hybrid culture, Windows 365 empowers it with its new services that help streamline its functions for maximum output.

Increased simplicity with familiar tools – Windows 365 Cloud PC is based on one of the basic design principles of Windows that is simplicity. It gives you the freedom to choose the size of the Cloud PC that best fits your needs with per user per month-based pricing.

The Windows 365 Cloud PC brings two edition choices for businesses that include a complete cloud-based service with multiple Cloud PC configurations based on execution needs that are Windows 365 Business and Windows 365 Enterprise. Although Windows 365 Cloud PC is built on Azure Virtual Desktop, it simplifies the virtualization experience and manages all the factors for you .

Maximum Cloud security powered by Zero Trust architecture – Windows 365 Cloud PC is powered by the Zero Trust security architecture to ensure maximum security for all your data. It helps in solving today’s security challenges by design, storing, and securing information in the Windows Cloud.

The new service by Windows that claims to suit the needs of the changing work culture looks promising. As people embrace the new hybrid work environment, they will be empowered by the new Windows 365 Cloud PC to face the challenges of the new culture.

It’s Multifactor Authentication (MFA) works through integration with Microsoft Azure Activity Director (Azure AD) to explicitly verify any login or access attempt to a Cloud PC. You can pair MFA with dedicated Windows 365 conditional access policies to access policies to evaluate login risk instantly for every session within the Microsoft Endpoint Manager.

Windows 365 Cloud PC brings new opportunities for partners – New opportunities have been created for partners of all types across the Microsoft ecosystem to deliver new Windows experience by the Windows 365 Cloud PC. The new Windows 365 creates opportunity for independent software dealers to continue building Windows apps, and now, distribute them in the Cloud to reach a wider audience.

Windows 365 also leverages APIs available to partners by developing new opportunities that enable them to bring

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- Trishika Rokade

Top 10 Companies Leading the Cloud Revolu on 2021

Advocating an ‘All Cloud’ Future

C

loud solutions are bringing an inevitable change in the world of business. The ease and convenience of accessing data on-the-go is what makes cloud solutions the need of the hour. Technologies like AI/ML, Blockchain, Data Analytics, and more have created unlimited potential for firms to leverage cloud tech and grow exponentially.

In our endeavour to seek companies that make business easy by delivering cutting edge cloud tech solutions, we discovered METCloud, a multi-award winning cybersecure cloud platform.

In our conversation with METCloud’s founder and CEO Ian Vickers, he tells us the story behind the genesis of the company and how it overcame all the challenges that came along its way during the pandemic, and yet how it seamlessly assisted and provided services to its clients.

The Beginning “METCloud is on a journey. When Jeff Bezos launched an online bookstore in 1993, we are pretty sure he did not envisage what Amazon has become today. Similarly, METCloud is on a journey to become the most trusted company globally for connecting people and businesses,” says Ian. The company’s mantra is Get Connected Cyber Safe and so it is constantly developing capability to ensure it achieves this goal. In its mission to achieve success it is essential that the company keeps true to its core values – Excellence, Innovation, Integrity, Respect, and Responsibility.

METCloud’s commitment to its core values also helps it identify and align to its customers with similar values.

Cloud, AI/ML and Data Analytics can accelerate the growth of businesses exponentially if executed correctly.

and since then, it has scaled to be recognised as one of the most secure cybersecurity platforms not only in the UK but has also won dozens of internationally recognised awards for innovation.

Recently, Ian has been appointed a Founding Member and Chair of the Cyber Resilience Centre West Midlands (WMCRC). The WMCRC is a government backed initiative establishing ten regional Cyber Resilience Centres working in collaboration with NCSC, Police Cyber Teams (RCCU), Businesses and Academia.

Ian’s International Memberships and Partnerships

Expertise that Redefines Benchmarks

Ian is a member of the Microsoft Partner Advisory Council, which is made-up of approximately twenty global Microsoft Partners to assist in the development of the Microsoft Partner program.

Ian Vickers, the Founder and CEO, is a serial Tech Entrepreneur. In 2017, he launched the METCloud brand

In May 2020, Ian became a member of The World Economic Forum’s Global Innovator Community

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Ian Vickers Founder and CEO

METCloud

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(Invitation only membership). The World Economic Forum is an organisation for Public-Private co-operation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business, and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas.

Outlook that Matters We asked Ian for his opinion on how the adoption of modern technologies such as AI, big data, and machine learning have transformed the cloud computing industry and what more could be expected in the future.

In his response, Ian says, “Data volumes have skyrocketed.

More data was generated in the last two years than in the entire human history before that. By 2030 around 572 Zettabytes of data and by 2050 it will have 500,000 Zettabytes, which is 10,000 times bigger.”

“This seismic growth in data demands that organisations embrace machine learning, AI and data analytics. In its world of helping organisations defend against cybercrime METCloud must equally employ AI/ML. AI/ML will effectively speed up the timeframe of detection to remediation of threats from hours to milliseconds.”

Overcoming Challenges Sharing with us how METCloud managed to sustain operations and ensured safety of its employees during the pandemic, Ian says, “The global pandemic has created a much larger attack surface as organisations restructure to support more flexible working practices such as working from home, downsizing, upsizing, mergers and acquisitions.”

“The markets have turned to greater online commerce and so with such a dramatic and chaotic period of change risk inevitably increases. METCloud’s portfolio of products and services help organisations address most if not all of the issues listed above.”

Towards a Digital Future METCloud provides private cloud infrastructure, cloud migration services, cybersoc, security orchestration services and developing AI/ML and data analytics to maximise security for its customers.

To continuously achieve this, METCloud has recently secured significant VC funding to scale the organisation and will seek further funding rounds to achieve long term growth aspirations.

Words of Advice In his advice to budding entrepreneurs who aspire to venture into the cloud tech space, Ian says, “There are very few businesses today that do not require technology. The cloud movement is arguably the most exciting period in history for technology innovation. Cloud, AI/ML and Data Analytics can accelerate the growth of businesses exponentially if executed correctly.”

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Top 10 Companies Leading the Cloud Revolution 2021

Your Digital Transformation in the Right Hands

T

he present and future of businesses have transformed drastically – thanks to the continuous technological evolution.

With the help of the new technologies, such as AI, machine learning, and automation, businesses can now tremendously speed up their operations, to flourish competitively and increase revenue generation.

This helps companies to focus its workforce on tasks that are more intrinsic to the business and those that need a human touch. However, with the abundance of tech that caters to each business process uniquely, it’s not always possible for business leaders to figure out which technology best suits their requirements.

Enter Peloton Consulting Group, an organization that functions to solve this problem for businesses. The company analyses the needs of clients and then consults them to invest in the right tech accordingly.

Origin of Excellence Peloton Consulting Group (Peloton) is a leading consultancy focused on digital transformation leveraging the cloud. Peloton’s customer-focused approach ensures that its clients’ vision turns into reality, driving meaningful business transformation. With the digital age disrupting entire industries, Peloton provides Advisory, Implementation, and Application Managed services.

Peloton specializes in services that make digital transformation a reality, leveraging Enterprise Performance Management (EPM), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Human Capital Management (HCM), Supply Chain Management (SCM), and Analytics for the cloud.

The company has the experts, leading practices, know-how, and capabilities to help clients realize the vision of digital transformation. Peloton believes that organizations that will thrive in the new digital age will provide value through hyper-connected capabilities that connect people, processes, and technology which is why the company partners with its clients to design strategies, implement solutions, and enable digital transformation.

Peloton serves over 500 North American-based multi-national companies across industries that include: Retail, Industrial Manufacturing, High Tech, Utilities and Energy, Life Sciences, Healthcare, Financial Services, Counstruction and Engineering and Manufacturing.

Talking about the company’s values, Guy F. Daniello, the CEO and Founder says, “Peloton is built on the power of connection. We prioritize our ability to connect with our clients, helping them to modernize business processes with integrated cloud-based applications and analytics. We value connectivity, diversity, and inclusion as a team and with the community.”

He further adds, “Our customers’ success is job ONE at Peloton. We pride ourselves on driving digital transformation that has a real business impact. The outstanding global team at Peloton truly cares and celebrates our customer's success.”

Why Choose Between a Boutique Firm that is Responsive and a Global Firm with Robust Capabilities?

Peloton Consulting Group is a key leader in cloud-based solutions for customers. As a leader in the cloud revolution, the company is at the forefront of the market related to cloud-based business applications and the shift to the cloud. The company is committed to providing its customers local services with connected global resources.

The Peloton team helps companies realize the benefits of digital transformation by providing them robust capabilities on the journey to the cloud, transform the business focused on people, process, and technology. It assures that customers realize the benefits of their investments.

The company provides Advisory services to help its customers imagine the possibilities by providing them a blueprint of the roadmap to transform their business. It provides Implementation services designed to transform their business and deliver results. It also provides Application Managed services to ensure its

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customers have ongoing training, education, and application support needed to be successful.

Exemplary Consulting Services Peloton offers and specializes in a full suite of services: EPM, ERP, HCM, SCM, CX, Analytics, and PaaS. It helps companies in leveraging solutions that realize the benefits of digital transformation through its full suite of services.

Peloton’s best practice Advisory services, help companies envision, benchmark, and assess their current processes and technologies to provide a roadmap and implementation blueprint incorporating modern best practices.

Peloton’s Consulting services ensure successful implementations that drive change across people, processes, and

technology. Applying a Fit-to-Modern approach, they transform customers’ business processes to leverage enabling technology, such as Oracle, more effectively.

Peloton provides a differentiated customer experience by actively involving clients from the start. Using their proven Breakaway implementation methodology to deliver high-quality, innovative projects, Peloton teams focus on driving end-user adoption as they link business processes throughout the project lifecycle.

As a long-time Oracle and Anaplan partner, Peloton has also developed various Cloud Solution Accelerators to help customers reduce manual effort, cost of ownership, and increase accuracy, and efficiency.

Peloton’s Application Managed Services provides day-to-day operational support and solution enhancements. The peloton team works as part of the client’s team to maintain, upgrade, and provide education and training to ensure its customers’ longterm success. The company is focused, committed, and passionate about demonstrating progress, measuring results, and delivering practical solutions that produce real digital transformation.

Peloton is committed to providing its customers outstanding service with connected global resources.

Throughout North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific, and Europe, Peloton connects with its clients virtually and onsite to build lasting partnerships that drive business transformations.

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Illustrating Excellence

By actively involving clients from the start of an engagement, Peloton values its ability to provide a differentiated customer experience. Leveraging their breakaway methodology, teams collaborate with customers to understand the unique challenges facing their business, align modern best practice business processes leveraging leading cloud-based technology, and drive end-user solution adoption.

Opinion that Matters We asked Guy for his opinion on how the adoption of modern technologies such as AI, big data, and machine learning have transformed the cloud computing industry, to which he replied, “The cloud computing industry and specifically cloud business applications are evolving rapidly.

Cloud applications are leveraging and integrating artificial intelligence (AI), robotics process automation (RPA), big data, and machine learning into cloudbased applications.”

“Peloton customers are realizing the efficiency and effectiveness gains from these integrated solutions. The future is now and companies that are investing are becoming the leaders in their respective industries by realizing the business gains from cloud-based solutions leveraging modern and

“It’s been so impressive watching the Peloton team over the course of our multi-system implementations.

These Oracle solutions are the backbone of our support structure. Without them, not much could be done in this company. This will stand out as one of the highest quality implementations our company has seen. My sincere thanks in all that Peloton has done and is continuing to do for us.” – Senior Executive at North American Utilities Service Provider “We are excited to be live on Oracle’s Financial Analytics solution in only 8 weeks.

Peloton’s partnership and agile implementation methodology have enabled us to successfully drive solution adoption. The platform will significantly improve our analysis capabilities while providing an extensible environment for future analytic subject areas. With our joint success, we are expanding our Oracle Cloud footprint to Autonomous Data Warehouse for Manufacturing KPIs and analytics.” – Head of Analytics and Reporting at Leading Consumer Packaged Goods Manufacturer

integrated technologies,” he added.

On a similar note, Matthew Conner, SVP at Peloton said, “Customers want and expect that cloud-based applications leverage artificial intelligence (AI), robotics process automation (RPA), big data, and machine learning into cloud-based applications. What at one point was just talk, is now being integrated and leveraged routinely in solutions for our customers.”

The Road Ahead While interviewing Daniello, we asked him about his plans for further scaling Peloton, to which he said, “Peloton has acquired TRI Consulting Services a leader in Latin America and the Asia Pacific. We have been rapidly building and expanding our global capacities to service North American-based multinational customers. Throughout North America we continue to hire and retain top talent.” expressed Daniello.

“A professional services firm is all about people. Peloton continuously invests in our employees and fosters a collaborative culture focused on cultivating top talent”, shared Kristen Connell, Chief People Officer at Peloton.

“We’re grateful for Peloton’s work and guidance throughout the implementation process.

On-time and on-budget is never said in system implementations and that says a lot.” – Finance Executive at Retail Delivery Services Company

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Online

Everything

Cloud and its ever-widening scope

C

loud apps are moving forward with growth at a rapid pace. It’s not difficult to see why the cloud is becoming the main choice for having storage space—it’s always accessible, saving mobile devices battery life since it doesn’t need to sync with an app to use it, are an extension of our smartphones, keeping files safely, and more.

These apps are in demand as the present era is rising at exponential growth in terms of communication, collaboration, and enterprise mobility which in turn endorses software as a service (SaaS).

The truth is – all the leading cloud storage providers offer promising, top-of-the-line features. In fact, they also offer some cutting-edge functionalities that takes ease of use and security to a whole new level. The more things change, though, the more some things stay the same. While those established elements remain important, it’s what’s on the horizon that’s going to make a big difference for consumers—and marketers—in 2021.

In the business world, Private and Public cloud storage services exist to meet the unique data storage needs of each

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Tech Trends

and every organization and user, and it’s important that businesses select a solution that is well-suited to their specific requirements.

Having said that, we guess that the ongoing trend towards moving more workloads to the cloud will continue in the future. Customers choosing cloud solutions for handling their current workloads may find an object store an appealing storage choice if their applications require scalability and high availability or if they want to offload data backup to a third-party provider. There is no question, however, that the vast majority of organizations are choosing public cloud providers for file storage.

As such, Cloud storage usage continues to grow, and we can see that in terms of the ongoing investments by cloud service providers. Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) used to be the main application area for cloud storage, but lately, it’s been driven more by Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offerings.

We expect that to continue with Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) driving adoption in the years ahead. Cloud apps are here to stay. In fact, they’re getting better with better security and new trends on the horizon.

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Disrupting the IT Space with Exemplary Cloud Solutions

T

he COVID-19 pandemic posed many different challenges for the world. Major disturbances were created in almost all the industries considering people had to stay home to stop the spread of the highly infectious virus. One of the prominent changes made during this time was companies adopting the work-from-home culture.

This meant for companies to shift all their procedures on cloud to ensure seamless operations. Although, one risk factor that arose due to this was that cybercriminals with malicious intentions could take undue advantage of this opportunity to unethically breach company data.

To keep safe from such intruders, companies had to make sure that they use cloud solutions that provide optimum security and end-to-end encryption. To deliver this exact need Saturn Business Systems came into the picture.

In the following interview, George Pappas, the Vice President of Sales at Saturn Business Systems, talks about the top-notch integrated information technology solutions that the company has been providing since its inception.

Please brief our audience about Saturn Business Systems, its values, and how the company has been positioned as a leading player in the cloud services space.

Established in the year 1982, Saturn Business Systems has been continuously providing its clients with cutting-edge industry solutions to suit their needs. Saturn has been an IT thought leader and innovator for over 39 years. We rely on our experience and expertise to provide innovative and customized technology solutions tailored to clients’ business goals and objectives.

We like to position ourselves as a true trusted advisor for our clients that helps bring value to address some of their pressing needs.

Our extensive IT expertise enables us to deliver clear, adaptable, and actionable strategic plans that simplify technology decisions. Customer satisfaction is our number one priority. We tailor each solution through our assessment, design, implementation, and follow-up process to ensure we exceed the highest expectations every time.

What other solutions/products does your company offer, and how are these making an impact on the industry and your clients?

Our solutions vary greatly depending on our clients' needs.

We architect everything from basic data center upgrades to network connectivity to hybrid cloud solutions. You name it. We like to position ourselves as a true trusted advisor for our clients that helps bring value to address some of their pressing needs.

In the wake of the pandemic, a critical issue these days is more companies adopting a ‘work from home strategy’. We have solutions that support that effort with everything from

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Top 10 Companies Leading the Cloud Revolution 2021

George Pappas Vice President of Sales

About the Leader George Pappas has been with Saturn for over 26 years. He started when Saturn was a traditional reseller just selling part numbers. The market has changed, and George was a critical part of helping Saturn move with the changing times in our industry. He helped establish critical alliances with different vendors to expand our solution portfolio for Saturn's clients.

having their employees connect seamlessly as well as securely. The bad actors out there have taken advantage of these issues, so our solution can help protect a company's most valuable asset, which is its data.

Being an experienced leader, share your opinion on how the adaptation of modern technologies such as AI, big data, and machine learning has transformed the cloud computing industry, and what more could be expected in the near future?

There's been a huge shift in our industry. IT has become more and more intelligent with the advent of AI and Machine Learning. Companies are looking to be more automated for problem resolution and have better insights into their data; with many clients making the change to a cloud environment, whether on-prem private cloud or public, security, problem resolution, and data intelligence will become more critical. Saturn has developed partnerships and solutions to help our clients in their digital transformation journey.

Taking into consideration the current pandemic and its impact on global economies, how are you driving your company to sustain operations and ensure the safety of your employees at the same time?

Saturn has not missed a beat during the pandemic. We’ve been able to support our clients as we did pre-pandemic and will continue to make them our top priority. That being said, our employee well-being is just as important, and we’ve adjusted our business to be virtual for the most part with the hopes of getting back to normal very soon.

What would be your advice to budding entrepreneurs who aspire to venture into the cloud tech space?

Cloud is the direction most clients are moving to in the near future if they are not there already. I would say do your research, learn the space well and figure out a way you can bring value to the company you are working for.

How do you envision scaling your company’s operations and offerings in 2022 and beyond?

With the adjustments we’ve made in our business, we can already see the fruits of our labor. Having highly effective solutions for our clients, highly skilled legacy employees, critical OEM partnerships, and looking to hire more talented individuals, scaling is a certainty for Saturn!

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