SME Member of the Week: Cloud Gateway

Cloud Gateway power innovation in digital services through simple, fast connectivity to multiple cloud service providers, the HSCN, the PSN and the internet. 

How did your company start?

Back in 2017, cloud computing had stormed onto the technology scene. Cloud adoption was gathering pace, and organisations were spinning up environments for their business critical functions. We were promised better flexibility, scalability and cost savings compared to hosting on physical tin in the data centre. In theory this was true - but for many, the reality was different. 

Amongst the clamour to become cloud-native, little thought was being given to existing on-prem operations, and even less to the corporate network connecting everything together. Cloud Gateway was born from a shared frustration that the network had been left behind, and that those providing connectivity services were slow and reluctant to change. The result? A hodge podge of applications in different locations, which users struggled to access, supported by a network that was somehow both over-provisioned and under-performing at the same time.

We launched Cloud Gateway to do networks differently.

Our aim was to build a service that offered an alternative way to securely connect clouds, data centres, sites and users. Powered by a cloud-built platform, the service needed to give our customers the reliability of a traditional telco offering, including SLAs, resilience and top-notch security - but also keep up with the flexibility and pace of change associated with cloud.

Over the past 5 years, Cloud Gateway, the UK's first SASE platform has helped organisations in the public and private sectors to transform their network - into an intelligent ecosystem that's FINALLY fit for the cloud age!

How does your company contribute to this month's theme?

Our client base mainly consists of public sector, including health, central and local government customers.

There are a number of unique challenges in the public sector when adopting cloud. For one, strategy is not necessarily defined by the organisation. Bodies like GDS and NHS-Digital will set out the ambition and expect individual authorities to implement projects that deliver on those targets. Programmes like cloud first, internet first and Future Networks for Government (FN4G) are fantastic in theory, but when budgets are tight and the skills gap is widening - it can be difficult to put those intentions into practice, or even know where to start.

Security and secure networking is another challenge. The public sector handles a lot of sensitive citizen and patient data, and historically has used closed networks like the Public Services Network (PSN) and Health & Social Care Network (HSCN) to transmit information between endpoints. The shift to cloud (using internet as backbone and API) can improve accessibility and interoperability, but also introduces risk.

Cloud Gateway helps by taking away as much of the burden as we can. As a managed service provider, we build, deploy and manage the network on the customer's behalf, which reduces pressure on the IT team to find those skills in-house. Connections are secure and traffic is inspected by our platform regardless of source or destination. Firewall policy is defined by the customer, but we manage it all for them.

We connect to cloud, of course - but we're also PSN compliant and an accredited HSCN CN-SP. This allows us to maintain connections with those closed networks for as long as they're needed, perhaps while a cloud migration takes place - or indefinitely, in the case of workloads that simply aren't cloud-suitable.

The result is a digital foundation that allows public sector bodies transform at their own pace.

Who's behind your company?

Our co-founders Justin Day and Neil Briscoe come from telco and network backgrounds - having played the role of provider and consumer over the years. They know the pain points that come with procuring and managing networks, and are passionate about dragging the industry into the 21st century!

The company is growing too. We now have around 40 staff based across the UK - with hubs in London, The North, and East Anglia. 

A recent standout hire was Steve Ellerington, who joins us as a Local Government and Healthcare lead - here's what he had to say about Cloud Gateway:

"Cloud Gateway is doing things differently. Its approach removes the typical bottlenecks that slow down digital innovation, such as long service-level agreements and expensive lock-in contracts. So that customers can make the most of flexible networking and security solutions that connect the people, places and devices they need. It’s this ability to deliver great outcomes for the public sector and citizen-centric services that drew me to my role here.”

Our colleagues embody 5 core values:

1. Innovative & Improving
2. Transparent & Honest
3. Human, Fun & Daring
4. Empowered
5. Be the best

From sales, to tech, service and support, we live and breathe our values for the betterment of our staff and our customers.

Here's us!

What’s your perspective on the present and the future of this month's theme?

We're proud to be a Tech UK member and get great value from events and discussions in the community.

For public sector especially, Tech UK is one of our go-to organisations, along with Innopsis, to access to industry briefings and pre-tender market engagements. The breadth and depth of subject matter covered by Tech UK allows us to get involved in topics ranging from high level strategy, detailed best practice, to the nuts and bolts of CCS procurement frameworks.

Recent Success

We recently signed our 100th customer! The full story will be released soon - watch this space.  

What does the future look like for your company?

Our value comes from our platform and our people - so we're investing heavily in these areas. We want to make sure our talented team grows alongside our customer base, and that our technology continues to solve the problems for public and private sectors for years to come.       

Asks for other members

We'd like to know more about the blockers to cloud transformation and cloud adoption. 

We know the network is a hurdle, and that's the piece of the puzzle we hope to provide, but we're keen to learn from other members about their specialisms and find out how they help their own customers. Whether it's the procurement process, regulation, software or security - we're total nerds and are always open to a conversation about the bigger picture!

If there are partnership opportunities out there too, we'd love to explore them.

More information

Website - Cloud Gateway

LinkedIn - Cloud Gateway

Our knowledge centre for all things cloud, networks and more! https://www.cloudgateway.co.uk/knowledge-centre/

SME Member of the Week: May - Local Public Services Innovation

For May's SME Member of the Week, we’ll be focusing on local public services innovation. Local public services are faced with a range of challenges and digital presents the opportunity to do things differently and smarter. We want to showcase SME members who have worked with local authorities to find solutions that improve outcomes for citizens and help create thriving, productive and safer places for all.