Success in the tech and telecoms space isn’t the result of one organisation, but the product of a whole host of trailblazers. Only by unlocking true collaboration, can we drive significant progress, in line with digital and connectivity needs. That’s why, to inspire groundbreaking ideas and celebrate the sector’s top talents, we’re spotlighting some of the companies we think are making waves right now, in our quickfire Q&A.
Up first, it’s DevOps and digital transformation consultancy, Adroit Cloud Consulting — founded by ex-BP engineers Pav Khural and Tom Hudson. Take it away, Tom…
Summarise Adroit Cloud Consulting in just one paragraph:
Built and run by engineers, with a vast and varied track record of delivering scalable and automated cloud solutions — meaning we’ve been there, and know what works. With Cyber Essentials certification and Crown Commercial Services Supplier status, as well as efforts to achieve ISO 27001 credentials this year, we’re geared up to help highly regulated organisations, as well as start-ups, too.
Tell me about your role more specifically, and the part you play in driving the business forward:
As a co-founder and engineer, I manage the business, as well as day-to-day trade, from a high-level. Amongst many things, this involves liaising with customers and their Chief Technology Officers (CTOs), handling procurement processes, and supporting on complex technical challenges with our ‘on the ground’ engineers.
What sets Adroit Cloud Consulting apart from other tech start-ups?
The fact that it’s built and run by engineers. We’ve all been there, done that — we know what ‘good’ looks like, and which solutions deliver the best results. We build relationships with professionals at all levels too — there’s no ‘one size fits all’ solution to our approach.
With a detailed portfolio of relevant industry experience, Adroit has built a vast network of trusted consultants, who we can engage for customer work. Plus, with many of our team having collaborated on previous projects, our communication is extremely robust and reliable too.
Adroit’s teams are usually UK-based, but if required, we’re able to tap into the support of our nearshore team in Lithuania too — enabling our solutions to extend even further afield, and streamlining support for European customers too.
What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced, during your first three years of operations?
Getting our first customer! We knew it wouldn’t be easy, but breaking barriers by talking to the right people enabled us to build good momentum. Breaking into the market brought a variety of challenges too, and it became crucial to understand every moving part — from procurement and legal services, to sealing the deals and delivering contracted work.
Once the initial ball was rolling, other pieces slowly fit into place, and we’ve been able to do what we set out to do — delivering great engineering capabilities and cloud solutions — ever since.
And how do you see the company evolving over the next three years?
We’re gunning for growth in two key areas:
- Adroit’s engineering capability, insofar as the services we offer — such as Technology Leadership/CTO as-a-Service, Engineering On Demand, Adroit Squads and our product offering “DevOps-in-a-Box”.
- The strength of our leadership team. As well as having recently hired an experienced client partnership director, we’re looking forward to expanding our marketing capabilities in-house.
Which opportunities on the horizon are you most excited about?
With so much ahead of us, it’s difficult to pinpoint specifics. We’re definitely keen to take our technical leadership and engineering opportunities further, but are excited to see everything become bigger, better, and smarter as a whole. Watch this space!
Which client project has been your favourite to-date, and why?
Probably our first client — which was to set up build and deployment pipelines, as well as a scalable, highly-redundant Kubernetes cluster in Amazon Web Services (AWS). Being our first project, it had a very real and natural buzz around it, and it was also the first time we were referred to by our company name.
Running the high-level side of things meant we were heavily involved in granular details too, and it was a bit of a milestone moment for Adroit in our then stage of growth to be involved in such a crucial project. As well as delivering the outcomes within the three-month timeframe, and to budget, we’re also pleased that the customer is still very happy with our service today.
You’ve worked with Trenches Law for just over two years now. Based on your experience, what’s been key to the organisation’s success?
Having such excellent rapport with Sharon. Of course, other members of the team have stepped in to support when required, but we’ve maintained the same primary point of contact since day one. She understands the nuances of Adroit — including our general requirements and terms — and the relationship has just grown organically. We’re sure this would have been lost if we’d have approached a big city law firm instead.
If you had to pick three words to summarise your relationship with Trenches Law, what would they be?
Great, thorough, productive.
And finally, share some advice for fellow start-ups keen to make an impact — whether in the tech sector, or more broadly:
I can’t stress the importance of doing the groundwork, and being patient. To get Adroit up and running, lots of work has gone underway in the background — particularly to structure our legal framework and get relevant documents in order. So be patient, resilient, and have good legal support in place!
Keen to learn more about Adroit Cloud Consulting? Head over to their website, here. Or, if you want to delve deeper behind Trenches Law’s legal nous, get in touch today.
