We’re delighted to be named one of the Top 50 Fast Growth businesses in the South West 2018. The list, compiled by Trinity Mirror PLC, highlights the fastest growing companies in the South West and shortlisted Cloud Direct as a finalist for the Technology and Innovation award. Brett Raynes, CEO of Cloud Direct, said: “It’s fantastic to be recognised as one of the fastest growing businesses in the South West. We are in a rapidly growing market as more companies move to use cloud computing. Our experience and expertise mean we are in a great position to help them do this and therefore to grow ourselves.”

London Stock Exchange Group celebrates AOG, a Cloud Direct company

alwaysON Group (AOG), a Cloud Direct company, has been identified as one of London Stock Exchange Group’s “1000 Companies to Inspire Britain”. The report is a celebration of the UK’s fastest-growing and most dynamic small and medium sized businesses across the UK. To be included in the list, companies needed to show consistent revenue growth over a minimum of three years, significantly outperforming their industry peers.

Best Cloud Service Provider – finalist

Cloud Direct was shortlisted among ‘hundreds of entries’ – including industry giant Ingram Micro – as one of the UK’s best cloud service providers (CSPs). The awards celebrate innovation, entrepreneurialism and technical excellence from the leading cloud suppliers, technologies and projects in the UK cloud sector. Microsoft, Red Hat, IBM and Deloitte were also shortlisted for the finals in their chosen categories.

Best Emerging Company Marketing Campaign – finalist

Oracle named Cloud Direct as one of five finalists in their tenth annual Oracle Marketing Cloud Awards, The Markies, in the “Best Emerging Company Marketing Campaign” category. The award celebrates the best in modern marketing, recognising customer-centric best practice in marketing excellence – “marketing magic with online creativity, digital communication and compelling content”. Fellow awards finalists include Dell, Vodafone, Ingram Micro, Hewlett Packard, Thomson Reuters, Cisco and BT Global Services.

Best Cloud Services Provider – finalist

Cloud Direct was shortlisted in the Cloud Services Provider (CSP) category at The CRN Channel Awards 2015. The awards recognise excellence in the delivery of solutions, service and support to end-user customers. They take into consideration the CSP’s ability to deliver real benefits to the user organisation, and to meet customer objectives in terms of improved efficiency, ROI, investment protection and cost reduction.

In recognition of Cloud Direct’s commitment to global standards for security best practice, the packaged cloud provider was one of the first UK businesses to be awarded ISO 27001:2013 certification, in March 2015. ISO 27001:2013 is the latest international standard and benchmark for information security management. The certification demonstrates that Cloud Direct has implemented and upholds an independently assessed and certified information security management system (ISMS). The certification proves to customers, suppliers and stakeholders that Cloud Direct is committed to, and compliant with, global best practice for information security. It also proves that Cloud Direct can support its customers’ obligations under the Data Protection Act (DPA) 1998, and has robust policies around access control, incident management, business continuity, physical security, human resources and technical procedures.

ISO 20000 certification is an independent audit of a business’ ability to deliver consistently high-quality IT services and was certified ISO 20000 compliant in June 2011. Cloud Direct bases its processes on ITIL® – a comprehensive set of best practices for IT Service Management. The ethos behind ITIL is the recognition that organisations are increasingly dependent on IT in order to meet business needs. This leads to an increased requirement for high quality IT services. Used around the world by companies such as Microsoft, IBM, Hewlett Packard and the Ministry of Defence, ITIL is a route to ensuring quality and efficiency in the world of IT. ITIL® is a registered trademark of the Office of Government Commerce.

ServiceMark is an organisational accreditation which uses a combination of self-diagnosis, customer satisfaction measurement and independent assessment. The ICS assessor stated: “All the directors / line managers and staff interviewed and observed were found to be helpful, friendly, very professional and keen for the company to achieve a world class customer service, to achieve the ICS ServiceMark and to maintain their strong focus and culture of continuous improvement. It was impressive to see the improvements and results already achieved and the commitment to work harder to develop an outstanding customer experience.” On Direct Business Services Limited (the legal entity of Cloud Direct) was strongly recommended to the ICS board as an extremely worthy award recipient of the ICS Service Mark SME, achieving ServiceMark accreditation late 2010.

Beacon status is an award given to companies who demonstrate outstanding achievement across a range of criteria, including improvements in productivity and performance, profitability, work culture and innovation. Beacon Companies are identified as the South West region’s top performing businesses. Beacon South West is a key business initiative of the South West of England Regional Development Agency (SWRDA); it acknowledges and brings together companies with a proven track record of success, from a diverse range of industries, to showcase good practice, share ideas and exchange experiences.