Logicata, a remote-only MSP specialising in helping businesses migrate and run their workloads in the AWS cloud, is on track to increase its revenue by more than 100% this year, following growth of 40% in 2022. Founded in 2019 by IT specialist Karl Robinson, Logicata employs 12 IT and tech professionals across the UK, Italy, Andorra, Slovakia, Columbia and the United States, all with proven experience and expertise in AWS and underlying technologies. Logicata is the third business set up by Robinson, who in 2014 sold his dedicated VMware Hosting business StratoGen.
Logicata is a specialist Amazon Web Services [AWS] Managed Service Provider operating primarily within the software sector. Please explain how you developed the concept and positioning for the business.
Karl Robinson (KR): I have worked in Internet and hosting all my career, before the industry called it ‘Cloud’. I have always kept a keen eye on the evolution of cloud technology and thrive on being able to solve customer business challenges through the application of the latest technology.
In recent years, technology has advanced rapidly due to the scale and innovation of the big public cloud providers, such as AWS, so much so that it is becoming harder and harder for smaller businesses to compete.
Those smaller businesses that have evolved have embraced the public cloud provider ecosystem and adapted their services to remain relevant.
When starting Logicata I had a clean slate, so I chose to focus on what interested me most. AWS is the public cloud market leader by a long stretch, so it made sense for us to focus on the biggest fish in the pond, with the broadest range of services.
Also, I’ve enjoyed much of my previous success in the SME space, so again it made sense for Logicata to focus its attention on integrating and managing cloud services for SMEs, where there is more of a skills shortage.
We chose to operate primarily in the software vertical, as we know that software businesses that are delivering their applications to customers share a common set of goals around the availability, performance and security of their cloud-based applications. They also tend to be developer-heavy and potentially lacking in infrastructure engineering skills, which is what Logicata brings to
the party. This means we can truly act as an extension of our customer’s team and showcase our value.
Despite only launching in 2019, Logicata has already achieved AWS partner status. What weight does this carry? And why should businesses opt for AWS partners over other Managed Service Providers?
KR: For Logicata to deliver AWS consulting and managed services to our customers, being an AWS Partner is table stakes. Having that AWS partner badge shows our commitment to AWS and our experience in delivering AWS services.
To qualify as a partner, there are requirements around the number of AWS- certified individuals, number of registered deals launched, number of publicly visible customer references and positive customer feedback etc.. So, you need to have skills and experience to become a partner – it’s not the case that just anyone can sign up.
There is a lot less risk involved in working with an AWS Partner with demonstrable skills and expertise.
How does AWS compare to other cloud solutions? And why did you decide to specialise in this area?
KR: AWS is by far the market leader in both overall market share for cloud services and in the breadth and depth of its portfolio. AWS has been built from the ground up by developers, for developers. Many of the developers and engineers I speak with much prefer working with AWS because of the user experience, whether that is via the AWS Console or command line.
Customers buy into AWS for these reasons. Conversely, we have found that many businesses buy into the services of AWS competitors because it makes commercial sense for the business due to existing licensing or advertising spend, which can be converted or applied to cloud infrastructure spend, and not because those cloud infrastructure services are the best tools for the job.
How do you think AWS will continue to evolve in the coming years and what benefits will this bring to businesses utilising the solution?
KR: Data and Artificial Intelligence are the two major focus areas right now for the evolution of AWS. AWS are leading the way in driving business insights from unstructured data, which will help businesses to serve customers in ways they had not previously considered. AI technology will also help to improve and streamline business processes, enabling developers to develop faster and businesses to accelerate their innovation. In addition to this, AWS continue to innovate with their own silicon chips (Graviton). They have a better price/ performance ratio than third party silicon, which is driving down the price of compute for AWS customers.
In your opinion, how has the cloud industry evolved post-COVID? Do you feel growth has stagnated?
KR: Covid was a huge shot in the arm (pun intended) for the cloud industry, creating a significant acceleration in cloud adoption as businesses strived to remain online during the pandemic. While the press may be jumping on topline growth deceleration in the cloud industry, there is a bit of a post- pandemic reset going on, where businesses are seeking to optimise their cloud spend, which the vendor and partner ecosystems are doing their best to help with.
Rapid adoption led to sub-optimal setups which are now being optimised. Customers are leveraging better purchasing plans, optimising their compute and moving to lower cost, more cloud- native technologies. In my opinion, it’s not that cloud adoption is slowing, it’s that customers are getting better at optimising their costs. Some estimates state that only 10-20% of all IT workloads are currently in the cloud, so there is still a huge amount of market potential.
How do you think the cloud industry will grow and develop in the coming years? What do you see as the biggest challenges?
KR: The cloud industry will continue to grow by tapping into the latent market potential that still exists for traditional IaaS and PaaS services, while innovating and offering more value-added services to both new and existing customers around data, artificial Intelligence and machine learning.
I don’t think we’ll see a significant shift away from the ‘Big 3’ vendors any time soon, but as we’ve seen in this industry before, nothing lasts forever. It will certainly be interesting to see what comes next. The monopoly position of the big 3 is definitely starting to raise some eyebrows.
Logicata has achieved impressive growth over the last few years. What has been the secret to your success?
KR: Logicata’s success has been due to our laser focus on what we deliver for our clients. We have 100% customer retention in our AWS Managed Services customer base – we listen to our customers and ensure that we are continuing to add value. We also have 100% staff retention and strive to make Logicata a fun, inclusive and flexible working environment where our team can bring their whole self to work and develop their skills to continue to delight our customers.
That retention of customers and staff leads to long-term working relationships between Logicata and its clients, which really delivers value.
We’re also selective about who we choose to work with. The customer/ supplier relationship needs to work both ways, and it’s important for us to continue to enjoy what we do.
What is next for Logicata?
KR: Logicata is looking to continue our growth trajectory by finding more customers to help and developing more ways in which we can help them. Right now, we focus on infrastructure management for our customers, but our strong software development pedigree enables us to extend our management services higher up the application stack.
Ultimately, we want to help as many businesses as possible to optimise their cloud infrastructure, ensuring that their products and services remain available, scalable, secure and compliant.
Fore more info Visit: https://www.logicata.com
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