Dimension Data Buys 65-Person Microsoft Cloud Maven

Dimension Data has purchased Ceryx, a 65-person cloud services firm, to strengthen its Microsoft public cloud offerings for end users with hybrid workloads.

The New York-based company, No. 10 on the CRN Solution Provider 500, said its acquisition of Toronto-based Ceryx will also make it easier to serve businesses at which some employees need to stay on premise or use private cloud to avoid latency or sovereignty issues, while others can use the more cost-effective public cloud.

"Clients are moving toward cloud models, but they're all moving at a different pace," Ettienne Reinecke, Dimension Data's group chief technology officer, told CRN.

[Related: Dimension Data Americas Ends 2015 With 26 Percent Organic Growth]

Before the deal, Dimension Data was able to offer its customers only a private cloud offering known as Cloud Services for Microsoft (CSfM). But with Ceryx's capabilities, Reinecke said, the solution provider will now be able to provision, manage and optimize cloud workloads around programs such as Office 365, Exchange, Sharepoint and Skype for Business.

"Ceryx's view, strategy and offering is totally aligned to the hybrid cloud model," Reinecke said.

Terms of the deal, which closed Friday, were not disclosed. Ceryx's products and services will gradually be rebranded under the Dimension Data name, according to Reinecke.

Ceryx's customers, meanwhile, will benefit from the investments Dimension Data has made in areas complementary to messaging and communication such as voice, security, mobility and end-user computing, Ceryx founder and CEO Gus Harsfai told CRN.

Dimension Data should be able to bring end-to-end enterprise voice offerings -- such as a Skype for Business enterprise voice offering that's about to launch worldwide -- to Ceryx's customer base, Reinecke said.

"This is not a futuristic vision," Reinecke said. "This is directly based on client feedback."

Given the global footprint of Ceryx's Fortune 500 customer base, Harsfai said, the company realized a year ago that it would be more successful as part of a larger organization.

"The world is changing right now, and the markets that we're servicing have larger and larger enterprise customers," Harsfai said.

Ceryx has data centers only in North America, meaning the company is able to directly serve only customers on this continent. Customer needs outside North America are met through Ceryx's large outsourcing partners, including CompuCom -- No. 23 on the CRN 2014 Solution Provider 500 -- Dell and IBM.

Ceryx typically handles the Microsoft piece on multi-tower outsourcing deals for the large players, Harsfai said, and is capable of managing those workloads either on premise or in a public, private or hybrid cloud. Reinecke said Dimension Data was impressed by Ceryx's ability to scale and land enterprise service agreements with partners like IBM.

Dimension Data, meanwhile, works primarily with service provider channel partners to improve their reach in areas where the company has less of a presence, Reinecke said.

Ceryx will be kept intact as a business unit with Dimension Data's cloud organization and scaled around the small number of existing private cloud employees at Dimension Data, Reinecke said. Harsfai and the rest of Ceryx's management team are expected to stay on board and retain leadership positions within Dimension Data.

"There is absolutely no intent to reduce head count," Reinecke said. "We need good leadership."