There are critical stages in every business success story and ITCloud.ca is no exception. Founded in 2005 as Les Solutions Backup En Ligne, the Trois-Rivières, Quebec company hit the ground running and set about redefining digital security.
Unlike pre-cloud companies with on-premise servers and networks, ITCloud.ca entered the cloud with a clean slate and matured to become one of only six Microsoft authorized 2-Tier distributors for indirect CSPs in Canada. Not only is it one of the top cloud Distributors, but it also offers the country’s best margins for Office 365 and lifetime retention for cloud backup.
“Born in the cloud’ is more than a slogan for ITCloud.ca,” says co-founder David Latulippe, Vice President of Sales and Business Development. “Entering a cloud environment from the outset gave us a distinct advantage over traditional solution providers. While they were struggling to catch up, we were forging ahead in new directions and focusing more and more on solutions for small and medium sized businesses (SMBs).
After 10 years of business success, Les Solutions Backup En Ligne adopted a new name – ITCloud.ca – and a new corporate directive to extend the product line and pursue a more ambitious growth strategy.
“The new name better represented our cloud offerings,” says Latulippe. “Our services expanded dramatically over the first decade. In 2015, we offered SBackup, our flagship backup solution, but we had added a distinctive array of cloud services and begun to dominate the SMB market.”
Latulippe describes 2017 as a banner year for ITCloud.ca. Not only did they receive the Small and Medium Business in the Spotlight Award from the Association of Technologies of Quebec, but they also formed two strategically important partnerships: one with Bitdefender, a world leader in antivirus and anti-malware, and one with Mandarine Academy to supply the Mooc Office 365 training platform.
“Mooc Office 365 helps our partners and their customers digitally transform their organizations,” says Latulippe. “With this support, they can maximize the adoption of Office 365 solutions and provide ongoing education via a platform that’s as accessible as it is affordable.”
More distinctions arrived in 2018. In addition to receiving the Best Cloud Distributor Award at the Canada Reseller Choice Awards in Toronto, ITCloud.ca announced it is now selling through the Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider Indirect program, a licensing model that enables the company to be a Microsoft cloud solution provider to its partner channel. Because a partnership with ITCloud.ca is also a partnership with Microsoft, bundled solutions include Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS), Microsoft Intune and Microsoft Dynamics 365.
“This was a critical step for ITCloud.ca,” says company president Mirco Cristoni. “Being an official Microsoft Cloud Distributor allows us to build even stronger relationships with our partners and provide them with integrated cloud solutions for their customers.”
For ITCloud.ca partner George Naugle at Corey’s Computing in Winnipeg, MB the new Microsoft relationship makes it easy to add clients and products. “ITCloud.ca is the new, value-added distributor in the cloud services market,” he says. “Starting with a full training orientation of their services, they demonstrate a caring attitude through their sales and tech support staff backed up by their detailed and easy to use web portal.”
Other benchmarks for 2018 include the introduction of Replica, a full image backup and disaster recovery appliance service that features StorageCraft Technology. Marvin Blough, vice president of worldwide sales at StorageCraft, speaks enthusiastically about this collaboration, crediting ITCloud.ca as being the first partner to use the complete StorageCraft solution to create a purpose-built appliance to meet the disaster recovery needs of its partners.
“We are proud to be able to offer Replica. It’s far easier to plan for what might happen than to recover from what did happen,” says Latulippe. “An investment in backup and disaster recovery will reduce the impact and costs related to data retrieval, work interruptions, tarnished reputation, and violation of legislation around data security.”
With so many recent successes, it might have been easy to rest on their laurels, but ITCloud.ca knows that sitting still is never an option in today’s fast-paced world. In July 2018, they announced the acquisition of Cloud-IT, a cloud technology company that won the prestigious Microsoft Partner of the Year award in 2014. This strategic move reinforces ITCloud.ca’s position as a Canadian leader and underscores a commitment to the SMB market.
“Cloud-IT is a valuable resource and their Executive Director, Steve Noel, has Microsoft Office 365 MVP (Most Valuable Professional) status, an elite MS award held by very few people worldwide,” says Latulippe. “This move enables us to deepen our relationships with MSPs across Canada and offer more in the way of resources, trainings, certifications, and support.”
ITCloud.ca’s partners will soon see the benefits of this acquisition. A new ITCloud Academy for partners will give MSPs access to expert training and help them obtain a range of certifications related to cloud solutions. In other exciting news, a department of services and consulting will provide SMB MSPs with all the tools and resources they need to close business – from support in the presentation of a solution to an MS Azure architect to help prepare and implement complex deployments for large customers.
“Adding a Microsoft Office 365 MVP to our team gives us a competitive edge and allows us to be more advanced in the market,” says Latulippe. “We have built our success on a foundation of collaborations and partnerships. This is the next step in our maturation process.”
As cyberattacks become ubiquitous, businesses are finding it pays to leverage the experience and resources of a native cloud partner, like ITCloud.ca. With cloud spending expected to exceed $500 billion by 2020, there are endless advantages in being born and raised in the cloud.