Amidst an industry ripe for transformation, a new consultancy launches

Formerly 2nd Watch, CloudCover, Cloud Comrade: Ollion arrives


SEATTLE, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ollion, a new consultancy formed by the merger of four successful cloud and technology consulting companies, launched today, ready to disrupt the professional services industry by providing a faster time to value through tight coupling of strategy development and execution with technology solutions.

While many consulting firms are seeking to acquire or develop the technical and engineering depth to elevate their digital transformation offerings, Ollion brings a cloud-native approach designed for efficiency, business outcomes and speed.

“The digital transformation coming to the professional services industry is long overdue,” says Peter Wright, Ollion’s CEO. “No one wants a 100-page strategy document dropped on their desk anymore – businesses want a partner who is accountable for outcomes. By combining strategy, tech and people disciplines, we use methods to test, refine and iterate ideas in a way that is pragmatic, visible and scalable.”

Ollion isn’t a small startup entering the space anew, but a well-funded global outfit, with nearly 600 experienced employees around the world. What Ollion understands, and where the many consulting firms struggle for relevance, is that the customer has much more agency in the modern world.

“We're seeing strategy becoming less top-down in organizations and more grassroots,” Wright says. “Many consulting firms have strong power at the board level, but the strategy is shifting to be developed within the business itself, and we need tech to do it. How else can enterprises keep up with the speed of newer competitors?”

“That creates opportunities for new players. That's where we fit in,” Wright says.

Established businesses

The firms that make up Ollion have already proven themselves with some of the world’s biggest brands. Major clients include NAIC, La-Z-Boy, Hearst, SCOR, Condé Nast, and Koo, the multilingual microblogging platform.

They also have deep relationships with the most progressive tech platforms in the world, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform and Snowflake, putting Ollion in position to give its clients the right solution to fit their needs.

The four principal firms were born in the engineering and consulting cloud arenas, and covered North America, Singapore and India. “The logic was to obtain exposure to digital unicorns in Asia to help drive our innovation agenda, having a front-row seat to understand the various types of successful digital business and operating models and then creating enterprise credibility and scale,” Wright says.

  • US-based 2nd Watch has been providing cloud migration, cloud management, IT assessment and strategic consulting to many of the world’s biggest companies since 2010, and is an Amazon Web Services (AWS) Premier Partner, Microsoft Azure Gold Partner and a Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Partner.
  • 2nd Watch acquired the specialist data and analytics firm, Aptitive, a Snowflake Services Partner, in 2022 to better address the holistic digital transformation needs of enterprise organizations.
  • Cloud Comrade is a Singapore-based cloud computing consultancy focused on building and implementing bespoke technology solutions on top of cloud infrastructure platforms, and also is an AWS and GCP Premier Partner, and Microsoft Azure Gold Partner.
  • CloudCover is a cloud-native product and services firm focused on automation and scale, working with scaled start-ups and agile enterprises to drive innovation, speed and business value. As a GCP Premier Partner CloudCover accelerated migrations for key Google customers such as BBM, ShareChat, Tokopedia, and Bukalapak.

These companies – originated in Seattle, Chicago, India and Singapore – make Ollion a truly global enterprise, with employees all over the world.

Ollion is backed by experienced tech investors including ST Telemedia, Columbia Capital, Madrona and Delta-V.

Ollion Chairman Stephen Miller says, “We are excited at the emergence of Ollion and their global position in the cloud native ecosystem. With strong and experienced shareholders, Ollion is a credible enterprise change partner capable of working with clients over the long term. We look forward to Ollion developing long lasting relationships with enterprises and government entities, as well as the CSPs.”

A new attitude

Born in the cloud, Ollion boasts a confident approach that it backs up with results.

Market research revealed enterprises say that the existing professional services model is falling short in meeting the contemporary needs of the enterprise.

Ollion’s approach is to bring the expertise, in a manner that is visible and accountable – and then use it to empower its clients to do the work on their own. It will help boost the skills of clients’ employees so they become the cloud experts.

It innovates in the open, with its software and business ideas, sharing actionable methods, effective code and practical points of view with the broader community. It experiments with new technology in plain sight to chart a course for the future, refine great ideas and lead from the front.

That helps explain the purpose statement Ollion embraces: multiply humanity’s potential.

“Ultimately, this is about people,” Wright says. “We don't want tech for tech’s sake. We also don't want a strategy that is lofty and unaccountable. We want to understand the impact of technology on people by starting with a clear needs-based approach to problem and opportunity-solving. Setting our purpose as ‘multiplying humanity’s potential’ takes into account not just an individual perspective, but the interaction of people, and the notion of working for the common good.”

The name Ollion was developed to reflect its “all-in” commitment to its people, clients, and the power of the cloud to shape the future in a thoughtful and engaging way.

“We’re all in on making digital transformation happen,” Wright says. “And we’re all in on making sure it happens in a way that benefits humanity.”

Ollion is the enterprise tech consultancy that’s all in on your future. Our global team of nearly 600 employees around the world is solving the kind of business problems you can actually put a name to, working together to untangle complex challenges on our way to creating elegant, iterative and enduring solutions. In other words, helping ambitious organizations just like yours change – and change for good.

Formed in 2023 through the merger and integration of ST Telemedia Cloud in Singapore (comprising the former businesses of Cloud Comrade and CloudCover) and 2nd Watch in the US (including Aptitive, acquired by 2nd watch in 2022). Backed by experienced tech investors, including ST Telemedia, Columbia Capital, Madrona and Delta-V. Learn more at ollion.com.

Media contact:
Kevin Wolf, TGPR, LLC
kevin@tgprllc.com