Do we really need another Consulting firm?
(Why I chose to help found CloudLogic)
As I faced this and many questions about being one of the co-founders of CloudLogic from family, friends, and colleagues I originally decided to write a Lebron style “why I chose my next team” article but Sports Illustrated wasn’t interested in a middle aged IT guy who needs more workouts and less webinars. So I had to settle for posting a few words about why CloudLogic and why now to the blog.
Why CloudLogic and why now goes back to what set me on this path and how I ended up on this journey. In December I made a difficult decision to leave my employer of 10 years shortly after an acquisition event. You work somewhere for 10 years when your are provided with opportunities to grow as a professional, provide for your family, and have the opportunity to work with some exceptionally talented people. That is exactly what I found there, along with more opportunities than I could have ever imagined for myself and my family. I received heaps of support through many difficult and important times in my personal life, the passing of both of my parents, the birth of my son, cross country moves, and even in this difficult decision for me to move on, to name only a few. I consider myself very lucky to have been a simple cog in something great and to have gained so many friendships from that time that continue on. For all of those things I will always be grateful. However it was time for a change, I had never better understood the popular phrase, “There is a season and a time for all things in life” than I did at that time. The seasons had changed and it was time for my family, time for my health, time for me to reset. So my family and I came to the conclusion that it was time to move forward and on to new adventures, even if we didn’t know what those adventures would be yet.
When I left my previous role my wife and I decided to prioritize caring for an ill family member, time together that we had not had for years, time to engage with my son in ways I had not been able to yet in his young life, and time to revitalize and update my professional skills before taking on a new opportunity. The six months I spent with these new priorities were worth every minute, I am so grateful to have had them. I had the opportunity to witness many small miracles in the care of our family member and the challenges they faced. It provided time where my family could be my central focus without having to check my phone every five minutes or spend several days of the week in two or three other cities and away from them. In addition, if you are trying to determine where you want to invest your priorities, I suggest you have a few deep conversations with a two year old, their grasp of what really matters in this world can be more introspective than you might expect. I am grateful I was able to have that time to renew personally and to invest in myself professionally. Having a short period of time where I could wake my son up in the morning and spend the whole day invested directly in his interests without interference will be some of the warmest memories I will ever have. The time to study and complete several new certifications in aws, azure, and agile methods, while also updating previous skills in security and project management gave me an opportunity to develop a new perspective, without the pressure of built in bias or conflicting focus of an existing project.
As I began looking into the market to find my next opportunity I learned a couple of things, Applicant Tracking Systems should really be called Applicant Blocking Systems (as long as I am at CloudLogic, we will not use one. A human, preferably with a little subject matter expertise will always review credentials). Your network is your key to opportunities, if your looking for a new opportunity push the boundaries of your network and ask for introductions, I came into no opportunities through application submissions, I came into several opportunities through my network or friends of my network. There are some truly exceptional organizations out there that are doing great things with great talent. I am truly appreciative of the opportunities I was approached with and hope our roads cross again in the future. For those who reached out, assisted me, or supported me….Thank You. I consider myself lucky to be associated with so many thoughtful and encouraging people.
When I made the decision to Co-found CloudLogic several people close to me asked the same questions. “Does the world really need another Consulting firm?” “Isn’t starting a consulting firm what someone does when no one will hire them, I thought you had offers?” As I spent time evaluating opportunities and companies I found that there was a gap in the market created by the bias of new and old IT organizations. New, cloud focused firms always had the same answer, everything belongs in public cloud and always with the provider they were most closely aligned. Their largest concern was often how fast they could get clients to adopt any space they could in cloud, often leaving havoc in their wake as enterprise clients were not ready to adopt cloud in scale. On the other side of the coin I found that firms focused in traditional technologies were focused on keeping clients from expanding their public cloud footprint and directing them to where their own capabilities still existed in legacy technologies. Frankly, neither of these models are right for most enterprise environments.
As my eventual Partners and I each surveyed the market independently we all came to each other to share what we were seeing with the same conclusions. There was clearly a gap that needed to be filled in the market. CloudLogic was founded on the belief that taking a logical approach to evaluating a client’s business and technology needs in an unbiased framework would provide the right mix of traditional and cloud solutions. No two enterprises are exactly the same. Each situation needs to be designed and implemented in a way that can be successful and adds value to individual customers. Cloud can be adopted in scale through a careful and customized approach. In order to accomplish this, clients need to have access to partners who can reach both traditional and cloud technologies while properly aligning a customer’s business initiatives. This approach, this focus is where I saw my passion as a consulting professional going forward. This is not only what brought me to CloudLogic, but also why there is a need for CloudLogic.
I am excited about this opportunity to do new things with old friends, it’s the right mix for me. It is not often in life you get to take on something this exciting. We may succeed, we may fail, but either result will not be from a lack of passion and effort. In the end its about finding joy in the journey, not just the destination. In less than a couple of months we have already engaged into multiple exciting projects, not only with public and private cloud, but also in helping our clients tackle challenges with their traditional technologies and projects. We are at the dawn of an exciting time in our industry, what a great time to try something new.
And for the sake of a shameless plug, take a minute to check out what the team is up to at CloudLogic (www.cloudlogicit.com or follow us on twitter, facebook, or Linkedin).
