The standard recognises an elite group of cloud experts with in-depth skills, demonstrating delivery of sophisticated bespoke cloud and data centre solutions leading to customer success. To achieve the standard, the firm completed a rigorous third-party audit of its services to verify that they are delivered with enterprise-class reliability, security and support.
UKFast CEO, Lawrence Jones MBE, said: “This is a massive step in a hugely positive direction and I‘m immensely proud of everyone who's been part of this. It’s a key milestone which has been years in the making and it really helps us accelerate with Cisco and enter a new era.
“It demonstrates to our customers the huge investment and incredible commitment we’ve made, enabling us to provide them with cloud that they can use with 100% confidence, expanding and transforming their business.”
The partnership between UKFast and Cisco also extends into the marketplace. Cisco will actively sell UKFast’s Cisco Powered cloud services through its own sales channels, boosting the Manchester firm’s sales capability. UKFast and Cisco plan to work together continuously to drive innovation in the cloud.
Angela Whitty, Managing Director, Partner Organisation, Cisco UK and Ireland , said: “This specialisation recognises channel partners who have developed practices and demonstrated skills to provide customers with Cisco cloud services that address today’s evolving needs for cloud services while also delivering valuable business outcomes.
“UKFast has invested resources to gain deep expertise in design and implementation of complex, cross-architectural cloud solutions, plus built competencies around security services, all with enterprise-class reliability and support. That opens up new business opportunities for UK business and earns customer confidence for UKFast.”
In 2015, UKFast achieved EBITDA of £16.2m on a turnover of £34.3m and is set to utilise a £40m bank fund from RBS to drive the next phase of its explosive growth.