New Zealand, 25 June 2024 – Microsoft has today announced CCL, a leading provider of IT and hybrid cloud services within Spark Business Group, as the first at-scale cloud launch partner for its New Zealand hyperscale cloud region.
The partnership makes CCL the first New Zealand partner to be able to migrate customers to Microsoft’s New Zealand North cloud region at scale. CCL will support its customer Scales Corporation as the first mover, as well as other potential customers, to migrate data and workloads using its best-in-class tools and frameworks to optimise cloud solutions and help make the transition seamless.
CCL and Microsoft will also explore partnership opportunities to build specialist digital skills to grow the cloud talent pool, something essential to enabling New Zealand to realise the full potential of hyperscale cloud and AI.
“We’ve seen huge interest from customers in leading end-to-end cloud services, hyperscale cloud and AI, and this signaled a significant opportunity to partner together and provide customers more choice to choose the best cloud platform and services to meet their needs,” said Richard Adams, CEO of CCL.
“Our clients will be able to benefit from Microsoft’s world-class cloud infrastructure right here in New Zealand, while receiving the local support and extensive cloud expertise that CCL is known for. We look forward to helping businesses navigate their digital transformation journeys with confidence, not only by making the right technology decisions today but also planning for tomorrow.”
Aaron Magon is Group CIO at Scales Corporation Limited, a leading global proteins and agribusiness group based in New Zealand, providing essential services to the primary export sector.
“Scales Corporation will transition over time to the New Zealand North cloud region as we continue to enhance our cloud-native capabilities to improve resiliency and optimise costs. This underscores our commitment to leveraging advanced technology for business growth and superior customer service on the international stage,” said Magon. “As we mature our cloud strategy, we value a partner like CCL to ensure our applications and data are secure, accessible, flexible, and still regionally close to our people and needs of our processing capabilities.”
Vanessa Sorenson, Managing Director of Microsoft New Zealand, is also looking forward to the new opportunities this partnership will unlock for New Zealand businesses, especially with the arrival of generative AI promising enormous opportunities for local innovation.
“This truly is the year of delivery. We’re more than excited to be opening our New Zealand North cloud region here in 2024, and partnering with CCL will massively accelerate the number of organisations who can hit the ground running as soon as we open. CCL’s expertise in hybrid cloud solutions and deep understanding of the New Zealand market make them the ideal partner to help our customers get the best from hyperscale, while also helping them achieve their sustainability goals faster,” she said.
As the largest locally focused cloud services provider in New Zealand, CCL’s nationwide team of cloud experts provides comprehensive support from strategy and architecture to security, migration, and modernisation, filling the gap for organisations seeking specialised skills to thrive in the ever-evolving cloud landscape. Spark Business Group owns and operates local datacentres comprising 22.3MW of existing total capacity with an additional $250-$300 million being invested in datacentre expansion in the coming years.
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Note to editors:
- According to the 2023 edition of CCL’s State of New Zealand Cloud Transformation report, 88 per cent of IT decision makers indicated that the cloud is ‘extremely important’ or ‘moderately important’ to their future strategy and growth.
For more information please contact:
Andrea Jutson, Acumen on behalf of Microsoft NZ
Phone: 021 0843 0782
Email: [email protected]
Angely Cullerne, Corporate Relations for CCL and Spark Business Group
Phone: 021 303 403
Email: [email protected]
About Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @Microsoft) is the leading platform and productivity company for the mobile-first, cloud-first world, and its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
About CCL
Part of Spark Business Group, CCL is New Zealand’s largest locally focused IT services and hybrid cloud provider. Bringing the best of global cloud innovation to Aotearoa, CCL has more than 500 employees and 10 offices across New Zealand. concepts.co.nz
About Spark Business Group
Spark Business Group is a collective of best-in-class digital specialists here to help unravel the complexities of business challenges and deliver future proof solutions with real results. From connectivity, digital infrastructure and the latest in business hardware, to cloud computing, customer experience (CX) optimisation, data science and artificial intelligence models, we can help your organization thrive by tapping into tomorrow, today. businessgroup.spark.co.nz