Cloud Direct Broadens Its Business Offering With the Acquisition of iHotdesk – Its Second Acquisition in Six Months

BATH, England, December 22, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

Pure cloud player adds traditional IT end-user support to its portfolio 

Cloud Direct, the UK provider of packaged cloud services, today announced its acquisition of London-based managed services business iHotdesk.

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The deal follows Cloud Direct's June acquisition of Datel Business Systems Ltd, the IT hosting and infrastructure solutions provider. The acquisitions support Cloud Direct's ambitious growth plans - both organically and through acquisition - as the business continues to strengthen and consolidate its market offering.

Cloud Direct's CEO Brett Raynes said: "We've been operating a pure cloud business since we set up in 2003. Over the years, we've developed our offering from solely cloud backup, to full cloud services right across the board. With iHotdesk, we're now adding traditional on-premises support to our portfolio.

"In a way, though, we're bucking the trend. The usual scenario is for traditional IT companies to start offering cloud services - not the other way round. But this can be very slow and painful for traditional IT companies as they're used to operating on a project basis, rather than with a subscription-based revenue. For us, however - as a born cloud solutions provider - we can pretty much run with this new acquisition, as we've seen with our acquisition of Datel earlier in the year."

New services now offered by Cloud Direct include support for on-premises application servers, desktop environments and network infrastructures.

Preet Chahal, founder and managing director of iHotdesk, said: "We're delighted to be working with Cloud Direct. Our customers increasingly wanted to start moving their IT to the cloud safely and securely. With Cloud Direct, we can strengthen our existing cloud services, while still providing our traditional on-site and 24/7 end user helpdesk and server support."

The two acquisitions have seen Cloud Direct's revenue almost double in 2015. And with further acquisitions in the pipeline, the hope is to achieve the same revenue growth next year.

Until 2014, Cloud Direct operated as a self-funding business, with year-on-year profits invested back into the business. In 2014, to help catapult growth, Cloud Direct sought its first batch of external investment. The company received a total of £2.74 million investment from reputed technology investors including Nigel Wray, Rob Giles and Jamie Brooke, as well as the West of England LEP "Going for Growth" fund and Santander Bank.

About Cloud Direct: 

Since 2003, Cloud Direct has helped 4,000 organisations move to the cloud - quickly, easily and securely. It has built the best technologies into ready-to-go, enterprise solutions that meet the compliance, security and performance needs of regulated organisations in the UK.

Cloud Direct's packaged cloud services come with one monthly bill and an award-winning, 24/7 customer service team. Packaged cloud drives better business continuity, people productivity and guarantees the availability and security of IT infrastructure and applications.

Cloud Direct is ISO 270001:2013 and ISO 27000 accredited, holds Investors in People - Gold, and is a Gold Microsoft Partner for Small and Midmarket Cloud Solutions.

CONTACT:  0800-078-9437

SOURCE Cloud Direct