What inspired you to be a judge of the UK Cloud Awards 2019?

Our industry has matured. There is greater emphasis on emerging talent, technology and deployment techniques as well as the continual innovation in the market, that is exciting as it means that businesses can focus more on value and outcomes.  It is this that inspires me as a judge in the UK Cloud Awards.

 What experience do you bring to the judging process?

I have been working in the technology industry for over 12 years and have led the Cloud Computing group at several organisations as well as providing advice to clients from SME to global organisations. I have been fortunate enough to straddle both the technical and the strategic sides of cloud technology which allows me to bring perspective from the micro to the macro level.

​What advice would you give to those entering this time around?

Firstly, I strongly recommend that entrants read the FAQs on how to write a winning entry. The key is to be able to write succinctly and clearly whilst avoiding using sales or PR material – authenticity is very powerful. The judges want to award points for your entries, so give them the reasons to do it.  Focus on short, clearly articulated statements that have detail and evidence, with only 500 words, don’t waste your precious content space.

When you read an entry, what do you look for /what influences your scoring?

Personally, I am looking for three things that will influence me to give maximum marks: Evidence, Authenticity and demonstrating Value through business outcomes.  Our industry exists not for the technology’s sake but for a positive impact on our customers – show and delight me with facts and data backed up with testimonials from your customers.

How do you like to describe ‘innovation’?

Innovation is such a tricky word in today’s climate. I see innovation in three forms. Firstly, those that do research and discover new concepts, capabilities that are essentially prototypes. Second, those that differentiate from a basic idea and make it their own; and finally, those that take a product or service and make it a readily accessible commodity or utility service. The first definition is hard to prove, the second and third can be expressed much easier in terms of value – but all are important.

Looking back on 2018, what was the one stand out moment for you related to UK cloud computing industry?

This is a very difficult question to answer! There have been many successes for the UK, many which have broadly gone unnoticed. In terms of people, I am delighted to see increased diversity in the technology industry. By that I do not just mean more women in technology, I think about socio-economic backgrounds as well as more widely talked about issues such as gender and LGBTQ+. This leads me to thinking about the continued growth of the technology sector in the UK, it has grown at a rate of over 2 ½ times faster than the rest of the economy. You can see that in the investment of tech giants, such as Google and Apple starting to build large offices in London, Alibaba opening its capabilities in the UK, the growth of tech businesses in places such as Manchester and Bristol. There is lots to celebrate!

What are your top three cloud predictions for 2019?

Hybrid Cloud model growth. Many technology organisations are accepting the Hybrid Cloud reality for businesses, irrespective of their philosophy about it. AWS Outpost is a good market indicator of this.

Functions-as-a-Services (aka Serverless) will continue to build momentum.  Awareness and greater common understanding have shifted FaaS from hype to reality – I believe that it will start to go mainstream this year in the UK.

More acquisitions and convergence. I expect to see tech giants continue doing some big acquisitions of complementary or competition as certain areas continue towards commodity or utility type services – especially in the Open Source arena.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Firstly, I wish to thank Frank Bennett, last year’s Head Judge, for a sterling performance and I hope to meet the challenge of Head Judge as well as he did. I also want to thank everyone who supported UKCA 2018 – it was a record year for entries and it also managed to trend in the UK on Twitter during the awards ceremony! With your help, we can raise the bar again with even more competitive entries for UKCA 2019.  I look forward to seeing your entries and meeting those that are shortlisted at the Awards ceremony in May. Best of luck!

If you’ve got a cloud success story to share, now is the time to share it as there is just one week left to go before the early bird discount for the UK Cloud Awards ends.

Although the window for entries is open until 22 February, you can benefit from a big discount on the application fee if you get your submissions in by the end of the month.

Now in their sixth year, the awards – which are hosted by the Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) in association with Cloud Pro – showcase and celebrate the great and the good of the UK’s cloud industry. Whether that’s vendors, customers or individuals who are leading the way and demonstrating the power of cloud computing. 

The awards will take place on 16 May 2019 at the prestigious County Hall in London.

Entries will be scrutinised by an expert panel of judges, headed up by cloud expert Jez Back as head judge.

«The UK Cloud Awards have rightly earned their spot as one of the most credible and innovative events in the technology awards calendar, so I am delighted to assume the mantle as head judge this year,» Back said.

«To ensure that we can keep pace with the industry we have included new categories focused on next-generation technologies, such as AI, and emerging techniques such as DevOps. We also wish to look to the future, so have introduced a new individual category to showcase the diversity and emerging talent of our future leaders by creating Best Cloud Newcomer.»

Award categories are:

BEST-IN-CLASS

• Most Innovative Enterprise Product
• Most Innovative SMB Product
• Best Cloud Platform Solution
• Cyber or Security Product or Service
• Best FinTech Product or Service
• Best Data Management Product or Service
• Best AI/ML Enabled Product or Service
• Best Cloud Enabled End User Experience

BEST DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION PROJECTS

• Public Sector Project/3rd Sector Project
• Private Sector Enterprise Project
• Private Sector SMB Project
• Best DevOps & Function as a Service Implementation

BEST-IN-CLASS CLOUD SERVICE PROVIDER

• Best Cloud Service Provider
• Best Cloud Managed Service Provider
• Cloud Migration Partner/Technical Collaboration Project

ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

• Best Newcomer of the Year
• Cloud Visionary of the Year

Alex Hilton, CEO of the Cloud Industry Forum, added: “The UK Cloud Awards celebrate all the innovation this industry can offer and the whole event, from the number of attendees to the number of nominations, grows year-on-year. The Awards’ popularity owes much to our stringent and entirely independent judging process, designed to ensure that we can really identify the best of the best. 2018 was a record year for the UK Cloud Awards, and I have no doubt that we can raise the bar again this year.”

Most IT professionals are familiar with the three primary cloud options; public cloud, private cloud and hybrid cloud. Businesses all around the world are using the cloud in different ways to streamline processes, improve collaboration and communication, and save money on expensive infrastructure, while still getting the benefits of cutting-edge technology.

But as the cloud and the services around it evolve, so do the ways it can be tailored for individual business’ needs. Awareness is now growing of the potential of virtual private clouds, so here, we explain what a virtual private cloud is, why organisations are using them, and what the advantages and disadvantages are.

What is a virtual private cloud?

A virtual private cloud is a private network running within shared public cloud infrastructure, using virtualisation to isolate the resources being used specifically for each user. It ensures the same levels of security that private cloud offers, but virtualisation enables users to run applications, services and a variety of workloads on shared resources, allowing users to benefit from the flexibility of a public cloud. It also offers organisations and their IT staff the ability to isolate select applications and services within the cloud even if they are sharing the same underlying physical hardware as other apps and workloads.

Learn more about Virtual Private Cloud and how it could help your business in this special report from IT Pro.

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Implementations of virtual private cloud vary, but often operate like a private cloud running on dedicated hardware but that runs from inside a multi-tenant environment.

In most ways, virtual private clouds operate very much like private clouds, where businesses pay depending on what level of performance they require. But virtualisation allows delivery of virtual, software-defined infrastructure within a shared hardware infrastructure, before making that available to customers through the internet.

With a virtual private cloud, teams can spin up their own virtual machines, test apps, and innovate. Businesses can pool their resources to get a better understanding of benefits and costs. As well as this, private clouds improve availability by making workloads portable, and adding in more options to scale outwards or recover in a crisis.

Why use a virtual private cloud?

Not all companies will need a virtual private cloud, and for some businesses, public clouds offer everything they need at a reasonable cost. But for others, either a private cloud or a hybrid cloud system is the best one for their organisation.

Common reasons for using a virtual private cloud include:

• Needing a consistently high level of performance on business-critical applications. Whereas the public cloud can handle heavy workloads, private cloud offers more control over compute and storage performance for applications where speed is essential.

• Minimising downtime on the business. With more control and allocated resources, private cloud can help ensure availability, and many private cloud services have service level agreements and uptime guarantees as well as more visibility into any issues that occur.

• More control over security. A private cloud isn’t necessarily more secure than a public one as much depends on where the physical services are located as well as the steps taken to secure them, but businesses have much more control when it comes to access and building defences around data. Some private cloud services also allow more granular control over network security and patching.

• Being bound by regulatory frameworks around where and how data is processed and stored. GDPR has had an impact in this area, not necessarily because public clouds aren’t compliant, but because private clouds can make compliance that bit easier.

Pros and cons of virtual private cloud

When compared to public cloud, virtual private cloud gives users more control, and often more consistent performance. There’s no contention for compute, storage or network resources, and a reduced risk of ‘noisy neighbour’ syndrome, where another user on the same host hardware keeps processor or storage bandwidth.

‘The IT Pro guide to Virtual Private Cloud’ lifts the lid on VPC, explaining what it is, how it works and how it can help businesses. Download it here.

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There are also advantages to operating in a virtual rather than a physical environment, given that it makes it much easier to scale compute and storage demands upwards or downwards depending on business demand. If more or less CPU cores, RAM or storage resources are needed, these can be easily added and removed.

Because of the way virtual private clouds work, the workloads themselves are still hosted outside the organisation’s own data centre. This can potentially cause issues in industries which have strict regulations around where and how data is processed, and which applications can be run in a virtual private cloud.

Virtual private clouds often work out as being more cost-effective than investing in servers and infrastructure, especially when operating and maintenance costs are factored in. When compared to public cloud however, virtual private cloud is often a more expensive option, but is usually more affordable than a fully private cloud.

“If I was to put money on what would be the biggest cloud trend for 2019, edge computing would be a sure bet. Companies have already started vying for early control of this lucrative market, said to be worth up to $21 billion by 2025 according to some reports. In fact, billions of dollars have already been thrown at developing the technology, which promises to be the next generation of data analysis, especially if you’re in the businesses of IoT.

“The idea of pushing some of the heavy lifting closer to the point of data capture is dismantling the traditional topography of a data centre operation. Instead of having all the compute power of a data centre at the core of a network, you can now have a setup that operates multiple mini-data centres at the edge. Resource demand is distributed and data analysis is done faster than currently possible, at least that’s the sales pitch.

“Those looking to take control early on have already unveiled their first products, and 2019 will likely see that arms race accelerate as companies seek to refine their technology and expand on capabilities.

“HPE, Google, AWS, Cisco, IBM, Microsoft… everyone is getting involved, and they believe every business can benefit in some way from edge computing. For 2019, the reality is likely to be far more conservative, with a select few industries becoming the initial flag bearers for the technology. Those already adopting IoT at scale are prime contenders, such as large manufacturers or shipping and supply chain companies. But make no mistake, in five years time, it’s likely edge will be the network setup everyone is turning to.”

Dale Walker, acting deputy and features editor

“GDPR has proved to be less apocalyptic than was predicted by some sources; neither the EU nor the ICO came straight out of the gate with major fines for tech companies like Amazon, Facebook or Google – or anyone else, for that matter. There have been scarcely a handful of fines issued under GDPR – but they are most certainly coming.

“If next year is anything like this one, the ICO will undoubtedly have its hands full investigating the slew of forthcoming data breaches without digging into companies’ everyday data handling practices, but that doesn’t mean that cloud companies can start slacking on compliance. The fines are coming, and I predict they’ll start to land in 2019.”

Adam Shepherd, reviews and community editor

“The public sector has engaged in pockets of constructive cloud migration in the last few months, but this has only happened in silos. Take the Met Police, which in September partnered with a firm to move its data to the cloud, or the work done by various local councils, such as the London-based Lambeth.

“None of this, however, is joined-up. It’s a far cry from the high ambitions set when the government outlined a cloud-first public sector strategy in 2013, but a host of bodies and public services are edging towards effective cloud adoption.

“Some six years later, we may finally see genuine fruits of these efforts, with some promising digital transformation work being done behind the scenes, albeit not in any way first envisaged in 2013.

“It won’t be a swimming success story, and will by no means take the form of a massive centralised push with a coherent strategy; for starters, the legacy systems and existing infrastructure between different bodies and departments vary wildly.

“But the groundwork laid by massive institutions such as NHS Digital in the last 12 months could see the public sector making huge strides in adopting cloud technology, as well as using its data in a meaningful way for the first time.”

Keumars Afif-Sabet, staff writer

“In many ways, 2018 was the year that major cloud companies started to deliver on the hybrid promises made in 2017. The likes of AWS and Google Cloud now seem to understand that the idea of a ‘cloud-first’ approach remains, for many companies, entirely unrealistic. Larger organisations or those heavily invested in legacy hardware are simply too entrenched to shift their operations to a public cloud.

“Product releases this year seem to reflect this understanding, with Google Cloud, in particular, going as far as to not only encourage customers towards hybrid, but also help them cut administration costs once they arrive. AWS, somewhat late to the party, used its re:Invent conference in November to make its own hybrid push. Outposts, it’s latest hybrid service, gives customers a chance to buy preconfigured server racks designed to run AWS services as if they were operating on Amazon’s own data centres.

“It’s announcements like these that make it clear that going all in on cloud is no longer a viable marketing position for cloud giants – it simply doesn’t align with the reality of their customers.”

Dale Walker, acting deputy and features editor

“As predicted last year, 2018 was the year of multi-cloud; rather than trying to lock customers into a walled ecosystem, cloud vendors embraced the concept of integration and interoperability, allowing customers to adopt best-of-breed cloud solutions by cherry-picking the providers which best fit their needs.

“And adopt they did. Cloud adoption is now in full swing across the majority of businesses, and a good chunk have finished their deployments and are moving onto other transformation projects.

“A popular one is AI, which has steadily become more of a focus for both cloud vendors and cloud consumers. As machine learning technology develops, companies have started to explore the possibilities, with several AI-based products and services already in market.”

Adam Shepherd, reviews and community editor

“A small story we spotted back in September turned out to be one of the biggest takeaways from AWS re:Invent 2018. The company posted job adverts for satellite specialists and swiftly removed them before anyone could see them. But it wasn’t swift enough as Amazon enthusiast website This Just In managed to get screenshots of the postings.

“The positions were Space and Satellite System Software Development Engineer and Space and Satellite Product Manager. There was little detail provided beyond brief job descriptions, but we got answers, surprisingly, in November when AWS CEO Andy Jassy announced AWS Ground Station, a new operation to improve the transfer of satellite data to the cloud.

“The announcement was one of the biggest talking points at re:Invent 2018, as it means AWS can download and migrate geospatial data into the cloud for its customers. Now, it’s less about what AWS will do next and more about what customers and partners are going to do with it.”

Bobby Hellard, staff writer

“Cloud technology has become more crucial to businesses in the last 12 months, and this is a trend that’s sure to continue for some time to come.

“But, to some extent, 2018 betrayed a certain fallibility in service providers, and confirmed organisations will never be able to rely on them to offer an undisrupted service, or fully guarantee data security. It’s an issue that affected the two biggest players in this space, AWS and Microsoft’s Azure.

“Although critical changes to AWS towards the backend of 2017 and in 2018 – such as default encryption to S3 buckets – aimed to bolster security, a fluttering of incidents suggested issues still prevailed. For instance, the Buckhacker tool, a white hat hacker-developed plugin, comprised a search engine that trawled through AWS servers for unsecure servers.

“Microsoft, meanwhile, suffered a series of embarrassing and occasionally bizarre service outages, exemplified by a “severe” weather event knocking out its Texas-based data centre, leading to a global Azure and Office 365 outage.

“It demonstrates, if anything, that service providers can never guard against absolutely everything, including the forces of nature, and businesses who rely on the cloud to host their data and run their critical operations must take this into account.”

Keumars Afifi-Sabet, staff writer

The Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) and Cloud Pro are pleased to announce that the UK Cloud Awards are now open for entries.

Has your business creatively used cloud services to drive a new cloud-based project? Or are you an innovative cloud vendor? Have you played a key part in a successful digital transformation project powered by the cloud? Do you see yourself as a cloud leader, entrepreneur or visionary?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, we want to hear from you as the UK Cloud Awards 2019 are now open for business.

Now in their sixth year, the awards, which are designed to showcase and celebrate the leading vendors, customers and individuals who are setting the benchmark in the UK cloud industry and beyond, will take place on 16 May 2019 at the prestigious County Hall in London.

Since their launch, the Awards have constantly evolved to keep pace with the changing tech landscape. This year is no exception, with new categories introduced focused on the impact of AI/ML, DevOps, the increasing diversity of talent, and the formation of ecosystems.

The award categories are as follows:

BEST-IN-CLASS

• Most Innovative Enterprise Product
• Most Innovative SMB Product
• Best Cloud Platform Solution
• Cyber or Security Product or Service
• Best FinTech Product or Service
• Best Data Management Product or Service
• Best AI/ML Enabled Product or Service
• Best Cloud Enabled End User Experience

BEST DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION PROJECTS

• Public Sector Project/3rd Sector Project
• Private Sector Enterprise Project
• Private Sector SMB Project
• Best DevOps & Function as a Service Implementation

BEST-IN-CLASS CLOUD SERVICE PROVIDER

• Best Cloud Service Provider
• Best Cloud Managed Service Provider
• Cloud Migration Partner/Technical Collaboration Project

ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

• Best Newcomer of the Year
• Cloud Visionary of the Year

Entries will be scrutinised by an expert panel of judges, headed up by cloud expert Jez Back as head judge.

«The UK Cloud Awards have rightly earned their spot as one of the most credible and innovative events in the technology awards calendar, so I am delighted to assume the mantle as head judge this year,» Back said.

«To ensure that we can keep pace with the industry we have included new categories focused on next-generation technologies, such as AI, and emerging techniques such as DevOps. We also wish to look to the future, so have introduced a new individual category to showcase the diversity and emerging talent of our future leaders by creating Best Cloud Newcomer.»

Alex Hilton, CEO of the Cloud Industry Forum, added: “The UK Cloud Awards celebrate all the innovation this industry can offer and the whole event, from the number of attendees to the number of nominations, grows year-on-year. The Awards’ popularity owes much to our stringent and entirely independent judging process, designed to ensure that we can really identify the best of the best. 2018 was a record year for the UK Cloud Awards, and I have no doubt that we can raise the bar again this year.”

Entries to the awards can now be submitted via the website and submissions must be completed before close of business on 22 February 2019 to be eligible.

Digital transformation is big business. That much is a fact. But how to move from theory to reality still poses a massive headache for many organisations, large and small. 

But, with disruption happening across all organisations in all sectors, there’s never been more of a need to digitally transform to ensure current and future success. 

Indeed, research firm IDC predicts that worldwide spending on digital transformation will surpass $1 trillion in 2018 – up nearly 17% from last year. But it’s about more than just throwing money at the problem. Business and technology professionals need to have a solid strategy in place and ensure they’re working with the right partners and using the right tools and technologies. 

The HR and finance functions lie at the heart of digital transformation, but with people invested – quite literally – in legacy solutions, it can be hard to make the transition from A to B. 

If you’re struggling to join the digital dots or just want reassurance you’re on the right path, we’re here to help. Join us for a live panel discussion, where we will show you have to truly achieve organisational agility and digital transformation success.

Moderated by Dennis’ B2B editorial director Maggie Holland, with input from Dave Sohigian, EMEA CTO at Workday and Steve Brooks, an analyst at Creative Intellect Consulting, the discussion looks set to debate and digest many of the key topics of concern and interest to decision makers today.

Discussion points will include:

• Why cloud-based technologies are the right platform for digital transformation.
• How to get buy-in from key stakeholders needed in the change process.
• How large businesses can be as agile as smaller players and how small firms can scale and grow without constraint.
• How to marry your business vision with your employee and customer expectations. 
• How improved data flow and insight can help you make better decisions much more quickly and deliver greater market understanding.
• How to avoid common digital transformation and cloud migration pitfalls.

You can sign up for the webinar here. 

Can you detail what Ingram does and its history for those not familiar with the company?

Ingram Micro works with thousands of partners in the UK to help them responsibly transform their business through specialism, diversity, and innovation while helping end-users accelerate business outcomes from their technology investments.

We’ve got partnerships with the leading innovative technology vendors in the industry, whose services we offer through the Ingram Micro Ecosystem of cloud, which provides partners with the ideal platform to deliver premium cloud solutions to their end customers.

Describe your role in three words

Vision, motivate, transform.

Who is your tech hero? And why?

Elon Musk for his disruptive approach to business, innovation and breaking boundaries.

What does your current role involve?

Enabling transformation inside and outside of the organisation and embracing disruption. Articulating and amplifying the business opportunity that is cloud, but also motivating my team to deliver excellence every day.

How did you arrive at your current role?

Through good old hard work, fun and natural progression. I believed and embraced the subscription economy long before it became a reality so when opportunity arose to create the UK cloud organisation for the that was about disruption and I jumped at the chance to lead it.

Did you always want to work in the tech industry?

Yes.

What do you enjoy most about your role?

Seeing how the partner ecosystem is embracing cloud technology to enhance end-user organisations and change society.

And what is your least favourite aspect about your role/the industry?

The pace of partner transformation needs to be faster.

What was your first job in tech?

I started as an associate product manager at one of Europe’s largest VARs.

How do you think the cloud is shaping and changing our working and personal lives?

The fourth industrial revolution is gathering pace and this is the year that we’ll look back on and remember how the quiet revolution gained full momentum.

We’re almost precisely at that tipping point where the physical environment of computing gives way to the virtual world of cloud and its associated enabling technologies; not just in bold initiatives here, and ingenious transitions there, not just from pioneers within certain verticals, and visionary disruptors, but for every organisation, everywhere, in every industry.

Yesterday played host to the fifth annual UK Cloud Awards, brought to you by Cloud Proand the Cloud Industry Forum (CIF), where the creme de la creme of the industry gathered at London’s Counrt Hall to celebrate and recognise collective and individual cloud achievements.

Last night’s ceremony, which was supported by headline sponsor Ingram Micro, rewarded the best cloud providers, products and projects from the past year, as decided by an expert panel of independent judges – led by chief judge Frank Bennett.

Margot James, the Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, was in attendance at the awards, which received hundreds of submissions, with just 18 walking home with prizes on the night.

«In 2016 the digital sectors contributed £116bn to our economy and we’re very keen to continue the upward trajectory. By working closely with the private sector, we intend to increase this contribution to £200bn by 2025 – and I think that’s a target that we can bust,» James said.

«You, the cloud computing sector, are going from strength to strength. As companies across the country continue to adopt cloud-based services into their businesses at the rate they are doing, I see a great future for you all. Your technology allows SMEs to leverage technology and compete globally. You are providing a leapfrog technology. Your services are not only a catalyst in our country, they can be a catalyst in others, especially developing countries. So, there are great export opportunities for UK cloud service providers the world over. I wish you every success in exploiting those opportunities.»

The winners of the UK Cloud Awards 2018 are as follows:

BEST IN CLASS PRODUCTS

Security Solution of the Year
Verify by Aspect Software

Storage Solution of the Year Rubrik

Collaboration Solution of the Year Freshdesk

Business Continuity Solution of the Year iland Secure DRaaS by iland

Most Innovative Enterprise Product iPortalis Control Portal

Most Innovative SMB Product Advanced Voice Services by Natterbox

Unified Communications Product of the Year Advanced Voice Services by Natterbox

Fintech Solution of the Year Mambu

Cloud Platform Solution of the Year Cloud Protection Manager by N2W Software

BEST DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION PROJECTS

Best Public Sector Project Health and Social Care digital meal planning with Kafoodle Kare

Best Private Sector Project (SMB) Stephen James Group supported by Charterhouse Voice Data

Best Private Sector Project (Enterprise)Most Innovative Emerging Technology
Project Freq by Amido

BEST IN CLASS CLOUD PROVIDERS

Best G-Cloud Public Sector Provider UKCloud Ltd

Best Cloud Service Provider (CSP) Sesui Ltd

Best Cloud Managed Service Provider (MSP) Ensonodiv

ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

Cloud Visionary of the Year Apay Obang-Oyway, Ingram Micro (awarded Honorary CIF Membership)

Cloud Entrepreneur of the Year Mitchell Feldman, RedPixie

«The UK Cloud Awards have had a fantastic year and it is clear from the quality and number of submissions we received that this is an incredibly exciting time to be in the industry,» said Alex Hilton, CIF CEO.

«The standard of entries we’ve seen this year has been so high that making the shortlist is an achievement in itself and deserves to be recognised. However, there can of course only be one winner in each category so I’d like to offer my congratulations to everyone that took home accolades on the night.»

Paul Franklin, publisher of Cloud Pro and IT Pro, added: «These awards wouldn’t be possible without the support from the industry and I would like to offer a special thanks to our headline sponsor Ingram Micro, as well iland and T-Systems, for helping to make the event a success. We pride ourselves on the impartiality and thoroughness of our judging process, which we believe is one of the reasons the UK Cloud Awards have struck a chord with the industry. We fully expect to repeat the success of this year’s awards next year, so watch this space!»

The UK Cloud Awards has welcomed T-Systems as its latest sponsor, also naming its formal charity partner as the EY Foundation.

The awards, now in their fifth year, take place at London County Hall on Wednesday, 16 May, with winners to be picked across nearly 20 categories from a shortlist of dozens of organisations.

T-Systems, which focuses on delivering services around SAP HANA, cloud, networks and connectivity and IoT, is sponsoring the projects categories at the event.

These cover Best Public Sector Project, Best Private Sector Project (SMB) and Best Private Sector Project (Enterprise) and most Innovative Emerging Technology.

«We are very pleased to be able to support the UK Cloud Awards, given its role in cultivating innovation and excellence within the industry,» said Mark Turner, vice president of IT delivery at T-Systems.

«We are particularly looking forward to the talent in the project categories, and seeing the ways others in the Industry are advancing UK cloud services with their products, projects and offerings to their own customers.»

Entries to the awards are now closed, with 25 judges made up of industry experts and veterans from the UK Cloud Awards’ founding partners, Cloud Pro and the Cloud Industry Forum, having picked the winners ahead of Wednesday’s ceremony.

Attendees at the event are invited to take part in a fundraising raffle for the EY Foundation, a UK charity established by professional services firm EY that aims to help disadvantaged young people fulfill their work and education ambitions.

«We believe that every employer, regardless of size and sector, plays a vital role in helping young people to realise their potential. We also recognise the huge role that the technology sector will play in our growth and how we scale our offering to support even more young people in the future,» said Maryanne Matthews, CEO of the foundation.

«We’re therefore very appreciative and excited to not only benefit from the fundraising from this event, but also to have the opportunity to further develop our presence in the technology sector and gain exposure to a brilliant audience.»

Alex Hilton, CEO of the Cloud Industry Forum, said: «We are delighted to be able to partner with the EY Foundation for the UK Cloud Awards this year and support the charity’s important work from our relatively privileged positions.»

T-Systems joins headline sponsor Ingram Micro Cloud, while iland and Zerto are sponsoring the bar.

«The UK Cloud Awards has gone from strength to strength each year, and this would not have been possible without the support of organisations like T-Systems,» Hilton added. «The company has helped countless organisations embrace this new era of technology, which is why their sponsorship of the project categories couldn’t be more appropriate.»