Member Article

UKFast Creates Group to Bring Three Brands Under One Roof

Manchester-based hosting firm UKFast has created a group of companies to consolidate three successful brands into one entity, bringing ClearCloud and UKFast Public Sector together within the core UKFast hosting business.

In spite of tough market conditions with Brexit looming, ClearCloud made an impressive start with 11 customer wins in its first quarter of trading.

ClearCloud specialises in delivering high-quality managed support and migration services for public cloud hosting from Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure.

The public sector arm, which provides services for the likes of the Cabinet Office and Ministry of Defence, was accelerated significantly with the acquisition of Secure Information Assurance (S-IA) in 2017.

UKFast Public Sector is expected to again grow by more than 50% in 2019, with the combined turnover of UKFast Group set to exceed £60m.

UKFast CEO Lawrence Jones said: “ClearCloud and UKFast Public Sector sit well within UKFast’s dynamic environment. The trading relationships and synergies within the three customer bases are clear.

“It was always the plan, following the acquisition of S-IA, to roll this business into UKFast. We recognised a strong cultural fit and they’ve been incredible since they joined us. This is now one of the fastest growing and exciting areas of the business.

“Nowadays businesses want multi-cloud strategies, so our investment in ClearCloud is timely. It helps us support our customers that want to spread workloads across multiple providers.

“In tough market conditions, as we’re seeing with continued Brexit uncertainty, businesses look to their key suppliers for cost savings and efficiencies. With our increased focus on R&D in recent years we’re well placed to help our clients increase their productivity and accelerate their sales online.”

UKFast employs 350 people across its campus HQ in Manchester and office in London, supplying cloud, dedicated servers and colocation to more than 5,000 clients.

Private equity house Inflexion holds a c.30% stake in the group, following an investment deal late in 2018 which valued UKFast at £405m.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tim Parker .