Published on the 30/06/2015 | Written by Beverley Head
Listed technology company Bulletproof has launched a cloud focused professional services group that will support enterprise users of cloud from cradle to grave – as long as they use the right cloud…
Bulletproof offers a range of cloud focused professional services, helping companies develop strategies, design cloud infrastructure, and find the right cloud solution – though it has acknowledged a bias toward Amazon’s and VMware’s clouds in Australia.
Mark Randall, director of sales and marketing, said that the 30-strong professional services division was established following the company’s $3.9 million acquisition of PanthaCorp late last year. That group provided cloud services and delivered clients such as Dan Murphy’s and Sydney Airport to Bulletproof.
PanthaCorp’s co-founder Bjorn Schliebitz heads the division.
Randall, who has a long history in the Australian cloud market having established Rackspace’s local operations before moving to Bulletproof, said that although Bulletproof had always provided some cloud services, it was now primed to provide a “deeper level of handholding.”
The services on offer span from working with enterprises on Agile development methods and Agile coaching, designing cloud infrastructure, developing cloud strategy, providing integration services, to navigating the cloud marketplace to identify appropriate solutions.
Though there are more exuberant forecasts about Australian enterprise’s enthusiasm for cloud, in February, IDC Australia forecast that spending on public IT cloud services would grow from $909 million in 2014 to over $1.7 billion by 2018, representing a 17.2 percent annual increase. Bulletproof is banking on the likelihood that demand for professional services supporting that transition will also grow.
Randall said he was not able to provide any estimates of the revenues that may emerge from the new professional services group. In terms of headcount however, it represents a quarter of the firm’s total 120 employees.
He acknowledged that the company would focus its efforts on a small number of public IaaS clouds, being AWS and VMware’s clouds; it will also use API management platforms Mulesoft and Apigee to support integration, and Puppet and Bamboo for cloud deployments.
“Our vision is to provide the best solutions…we don’t try and support everyone,” said Randall.
Asked whether the company might in the future support companies wishing to use the Australian instance of the Microsoft Azure cloud Randall said that Bulletproof had not announced plans to do so, but would be influenced by customer demand, and would not rule out support for Azure given sufficient demand.
