Tom Bernadou - Managing Director, Data Solutions Group
A simple, and perhaps obvious observation, but for Data Solutions Group (DSG), it’s a question that has shaped the company’s cloud vision since its creation in 2010.
Built around the notion of thinking big, the Melbourne-based born-in-the-cloud provider is ripping up the rulebook in favour of innovation, backed by an average of 50 per cent year-on-year growth since 2014.
As a staunch Amazon Web Services (AWS) provider - focusing on designing, planning and implementing IT infrastructure - DSG is rising to prominence across Australia, outlined by an 80 per cent revenue increase during the past 12 months.
Core to DSG is helping customers leverage cloud services, whether that be through strategy implementation, migration assistance or managed offerings.
“Unlike other partners, we’ve put AWS at the centre of everything we do,” Data Solutions Group managing director, Tom Bernadou, said. “We build services about the technology and while we work with other providers, AWS is our primary partner.
“We’re a very customer focused, services only partner. Being born-in-the-cloud means that our business structure allows the platform to provide those services to the customer, but in a way that is profitable.”
In light of widespread AWS adoption, DSG splits its core offerings into two divisions, focusing on project services and digital platforms.
Firstly, Bernadou said its enterprise systems practice assists customers in moving node 1 workloads that have been in the traditional IT space.
“We think of those things as what runs our customers’ businesses,” Bernadou explained.
“It comes down to systems such as CRM, or ERP systems. A lot of those platforms tend to be commercial, off the shelf software. They tend to run on a Windows stack or an Oracle stack, and we help customers migrate those into AWS.
“Customers want stability, uptime and performance.”
Secondly, and specific to DSG’s digital capabilities, the company delves into transformational work such as new applications in the cloud in areas that include e-commerce, the Internet of Things, serverless computing, big data and analytics.
“Where we see customers in digital practice is where they’re building new applications or services to interact and work with their customers or suppliers or new initiatives within their business,” Bernadou said.
“Those areas tend to be more born-in-the-cloud type solutions and are typically new services built to solve a business need.”
In addition to offering services to migrate customers, Bernadou said DSG also provides ongoing management of those environments for those customers.
To innovate in that area, it has built its own tooling that leverages the features of the cloud to be able to automate operations and make sure they are consistent.
“We’ve got data along with that to help report back on the status of the services that we manage for customers,” Bernadou added.
“We’re trying to innovate as much as we can in that area to build our own platform to assist in managing our customers.”
Bernadou said DSG works across AWS’ commercial sector, which primarily focuses on mid-market and larger enterprise plays.
Specific to verticals, DSG provides expertise in retail, legal and financial sectors.
Following the opening of a Sydney office in 2016, Bernadou said the company is turning its attentions to New South Wales, with plans in place to double the size of the business - while growing another 50 per cent - within the next 12 months.
“In 2017, we will continue to invest in our internal tooling to automate our operations,” Bernadou added.
“For us, it’s all about building out that tooling to be consistent and efficient.
“We also want to build out our digital practice more, focusing on serverless architectures and building out our skill sets around those.”
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KEY TECH - Cloud, big data, analytics, enterprise system migration
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This article originally appeared in the December issue of ARN magazine - to subscribe, please click here
