Growing from a small cloud team to a community of over 70 people

We are long-term solitans, and we’ve had the opportunity to witness the growth of our cloud community from the start. The team was created when we saw the first signs from our clients that there is a need for cloud specialization. In the beginning, in 2014, we only had a couple of people in the team. But we had our eyes in the market, and we started developing our cloud services from a holistic point of view. We wanted to be a full-service cloud partner and kept this in mind when planning and developing our services.

In 2016 when we saw an increased number of opportunities in the market, we officially launched our Cloud & Connectivity unit. Since then, we have grown from a small team to a community of over 70 cloud professionals. These people are specialized in demanding cloud services, like infrastructure, cyber security, and public cloud platforms.

It all started from our clients’ needs 

The key driver in our growth has been the willingness to serve our clients better and pay close attention to their needs. When we saw a growing demand, we responded to it. In the past years, the world has turned more complex, and technologies have developed very fast. These days a big part of our job is to help our clients to choose the right solutions that serve their needs in the best possible way.

It’s also been an interesting journey to see how the attitudes towards cloud services have evolved. There was a lot of resistance and insecurity in the beginning. These days it’s quite the opposite. Our client portfolio has become diverse, including organizations from many different industries. We also work with several organizations in the public sector, and we’ve built cloud solutions for companies in the heavily regulated financial sector. Cloud has become mainstream, and we’ve been glad to be part of this development.

As an example, we’ve helped Savings Bank build a solid cloud foundation and supported them with their “cloud first” strategy, which states that as much as possible should be built on the public cloud. Solita CloudBlox has allowed them to get up and running quickly, and results so far have been great. As for billing and reporting, the contrast between the transparency of Solita CloudBlox and the traditional data center world could not be greater. For the first time ever, Savings Bank gets thoroughly granular reports on every hour worked, every euro spent, and every cloud component implemented – literally, an eye-opener for the bank.

Our people have enabled our growth

Solita is a value-driven and people-focused company, and our people play a key role in our growth equation. While managing growth is not always easy, during every step, we’ve tried to do our best to make sure that people are happy to work here. We have fostered our culture and kept the organization lean and agile.

In practice, it means that our people have a voice, and their opinions are appreciated. Our professionals get plenty of freedom to execute their work the best way they think they should, and everyone gets to have a say in which type of projects they want to work. Caring is one of our core values, and it’s visible in many ways. Our people here really care for one another. There is always help and support available; you are never left alone.

But being a frontrunner company in many arenas also means that there

is a requirement to learn new things, explore and test new products, and investigate new services. For some, it could become overwhelming or uncomfortable. Also, the fact that we deliver a wide range of projects means that people must be adaptable, and managing oneself becomes essential. We live in a constant change in this industry, so we need to stay alert and aim to be a bit ahead of the game all the time. And it’s our job as leaders to provide the best possible set-up for our people to do so.

The growth in the cloud community has also provided a personal growth journey for both of us. We’ve understood that like this community, also we personally are constantly evolving and never “ready”. We’ve gone through tough moments as well, but when we’ve had the courage and humility to ask for help, there’s been a line of colleagues providing their support. That’s the beauty of our culture and something we also want to hold on to in the future.

Writers of this blog, Jari Jolula and Karri Lehtinen, are long-term Solitans and have been leading our Cloud offering since the beginning.

Would you have something to add in our culture? Please check our openings and contact us!

Want to know how we do managed cloud? Please visit our Solita CloudBlox site.