Dimension Data has acquired the Ceryx Inc. of Toronto for an undisclosed amount.
All of Ceryx’s 55 employees are to be retained and the Ceryx brand will be part of Dimension Data’s ITaaS cloud services unit.
Ceryx founder and CEO Gus Harsfai will stay to lead this part of Dimension Data’s cloud offering.
Ettienne Reinecke
Ettienne Reinecke, Dimension Data’s Group CTO described Ceryx’s Cloud Control a missing piece to Dimension Data’s portfolio along with the solution provider’s Office 365 integration. Dimension Data did have this offering for private clouds, but Ceryx’s offering was for both private clouds and on-premise environments.
“It was on our road map but the Ceryx solution was independent of location. We only had it on private clouds the Ceryx offering is a complete offering. When we looked at Ceryx was saw that they were strong in an area we were weak,” Reinecke said.
Ceryx also provide solutions build around Microsoft’s Messaging and Collaboration suite, Exchange, Sharepoint and Skype for Business.
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Reinecke added that for Dimension Data the Ceryx acquisition was strategic as the CDN Top 100 Solution Provider is confident it can scale the Ceryx solutions globally because of the company’s delivery model and its channel program.
“What attracted us to Ceryx is their IP with Cloud Control and they have very good skilled people. Culturally it is a fantastic fit and I have no doubt that Ceryx’s service delivery will help us,” he said.
Gus Harsfai
As for Harsfai, he told CDN that being a 55 person company challenged him in trying to address the market on a global level.
“We did recognize that we needed to find someone to help us expand or raise money and do it ourselves. We found a fit with Dimension Data,” Harsfai said.
Harsfai said through this process he approached the deal in a reverse form of due diligence as he focused on stakeholders such as investors, partners, employees and customers to find a company that is aligned will all of Ceryx stakeholders.
“It’s tough to give increased operations to 55 people but to 31,000? We build something here that is valuable and they saw the future through the same lens,” he added.
Reinecke also told CDN that the Ceryx deal is part of a much greater investment for the company in Toronto. “We feel that Toronto is in a great geographic position and the city has a great pool of talented, skilled people. This is just part of a deeper investment for Dimension Data in Toronto.”