Datapipe Flexes Global Muscle, Purchases 200-Person AWS Consulting Partner

Amazon Web Services pioneer Datapipe has bought the United Kingdom's fastest-growing MSP to beef up its overseas capabilities, skill sets and talent around cloud services.

The Jersey City, N.J.-based company, No. 105 on the 2016 CRN Solution Provider 500, said its acquisition of London-based advanced AWS consulting partner Adapt will add 200 employees capable of supporting physical infrastructure, managed public cloud and professional services, Richard Dolan, Datapipe's senior vice president of marketing, told CRN.

Although Datapipe has had a presence in London for more than a decade, Dolan said acquiring a company with more clout and name recognition inside the United Kingdom will make Datapipe more competitive in the request for proposal (RFP) process. Dolan praised Adapt for going beyond "off the shelf" solutions and acting as a true partner and guide to customers along their buying journey.

[RELATED: Datapipe Doubles Down On AWS Migrations With Purchase Of DualSpark]

Adding Adapt's 200 employees will propel the size of Datapipe's workforce in Europe past the size of its workforce in Asia, Dolan said. The larger U.K.-based presence will make it easier for Datapipe's North American clients to expand globally, Dolan said.

Adapt's customers will benefit from Datapipe's expertise in everything from cloud, automation and DevOps to compliance, security and governance, as well as the company's support teams across North America, Europe and Asia. Dolan also hopes to focus on Adapt's sales and marketing strategy to make it clear the combined company can address customers' unfulfilled needs.

Datapipe should also help accelerate growth of Adapt's recently launched managed AWS practice thanks to its six years of expertise managing, monitoring and architecting AWS environments, Dolan said. Adapt specializes in agile hybrid solutions that deliver the best of public and private cloud to customers as a single service.

Datapipe is seeing increased demand for professional services around AWS as cloud migrations evolve from a basic lift-shift to more complex assessments and prioritizations of cloud environments, which often entail the use of application code to re-architect for the cloud.

Financial details of the deal, which closed Tuesday, were not disclosed. Adapt's employees will be fully integrated into Datapipe, Dolan said, and the company will be rebranded under the Datapipe moniker in early 2017.

Adapt CEO Stewart Smythe will become managing director of Datapipe Europe, with most of Adapt's leadership team and other employees expected to remain on board.

Smythe said in a statement that U.K.-only consolidations in the managed services space can be messy and short-sighted. To better fulfill emerging customer requirements for a more tactical and strategic overseas presence, Smythe said Adapt therefore opted to become part of a global company rather than create a bulkier domestic organization.

Adapt is Datapipe's fifth acquisition in the past 15 years, and comes nearly a year after the company purchased AWS migration and automation specialist DualSpark. Although Datapipe doesn't have plans to acquire anyone else at the moment, Dolan said the company would act if the opportunity to boost its skill set or strategic position were to arise.

"The market is so hot right now," Dolan said.