Cloud Sherpas Buys Google Apps Cloud Services Provider in New Zealand
July 27, 2011
Cloud Sherpas has acquired a Google Apps reseller and cloud service provider (CSP) in New Zealand as part of a strategy to dramatically expand its business in the Asia-Pacific region. WaveAdept, based in Wellington, is the third company acquired by Cloud Sherpas, a top Google Apps partner, in the past six weeks. To cement its commitment to helping Asia-Pacific clients go Google, Cloud Sherpas has opened an office in Sydney, Australia…
Terms were not disclosed, but the acquisition of WaveAdept provides Cloud Sherpas with local, well-connected senior management talent, additional Google Apps Certified Deployment Specialists, and enthusiastic Google Apps customers. The acquisition also extends Cloud Sherpas’ brand in one of the world’s fastest-growing markets for cloud computing. Analyst firm IDC says cloud computing in Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan) will grow 40% annually through 2014, from $1.3 billion in 2010.
“We’ve heard that businesses in New Zealand and Australia have been slower to embrace cloud computing,” said Jon Hallett, CEO for Cloud Sherpas. “But from what we’ve seen, companies in this market are aggressively looking to replace on-premise email and collaboration products with cloud-native platforms — particularly Google Apps.”
“Google Apps adoption in Asia is accelerating because businesses in this market are seeing real benefits from replacing their legacy systems with pure cloud solutions." said Richard Suhr, Google Enterprise Sales Director for APAC. “Google Apps Resellers have played a key role in the growth of Google Apps, and we’re delighted to see Cloud Sherpas move into this region."
According to Google, Google Apps is used today by 30 million people in three million businesses worldwide, and 3,000 new companies are signing up every day. This growth is consistent with what Cloud Sherpas is seeing in the market: In three years, the company has migrated over one million workers to Google Apps, and Cloud Sherpas’ IT admin add-on for Google Apps — SherpaTools — has been installed on more than 20,000 domains in over 110 countries, including over 80 percent of the countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
WaveAdept was a logical acquisition target for Cloud Sherpas — which recently snapped up leading Google Apps CSPs on the West Coast and in the Midwest United States. WaveAdept has migrated dozens of companies and thousands of workers to Google Apps, and the firm has significant experience selling and servicing major accounts.
“We plan to staff up quickly in New Zealand and Australia, but the acquisition of WaveAdept gives us immediate help from senior managers and Google experts who know the local market inside-and-out,” said Hallett. “Asia is a huge opportunity for Google Apps, and we’re thrilled to be a key catalyst for rapid adoption.”