Macquarie Cloud Services, a subsidiary of Macquarie Technology Group, has announced that it has promoted Jonathan Staff to help lead its private cloud business. Staff takes on the new role following more than two years of leading direct sales for Macquarie Cloud Services.
His appointment comes as Macquarie prepares to roll out an enhanced version of its Launch private cloud product, with investments in high-performance computing including GPUs for artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning capabilities, edge technology, as well as greater interoperability with Macquarie’s award-winning public cloud services on Microsoft Azure.
What are Staff’s thoughts on Launch?
Jonathan Staff, an 18-year cloud and network veteran with unparalleled experience at AC3 and Dimension Data, said the investment is timely with organisations suffering from a lack of competition. It comes as major players like Telstra decommission private cloud services and dominance grows among a small number of multinational public cloud providers. “Cloud costs are rising, IT budgets are shrinking, and choice is fading – it’s a recipe for disaster,” said Staff.
“We’re seeing dominance by hyperscalers in Australia’s $2.6 billion and rising infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) market, and shrinking private cloud options which means Australian mid-sized businesses and government agencies may lack choice. That could mean higher prices or outdated infrastructure that can’t ready them for AI and other data-intensive shifts.”
“It all ties to our core purpose of helping our customers which are underserved and overcharged, and there’s no shortage across these areas,” Jonathan Staff further added.
“Organisations are accustomed to compromising to fit their applications around the cloud environment they want to move into, but we’ve designed our platform to reverse engineer that and match the right secure environment to the application. And for workloads more suited to a public cloud environment, we’re tier one Microsoft Azure Expert MSP accredited.”
Why is Macquarie’s Launch a unique solution?
Macquarie Cloud Services’ private cloud has been designed to cater to customers at varying stages of their cloud transformation, including those yet to start, firms looking to adapt a hybrid cloud model and easily shift workloads between public and private cloud, and firms with mature cloud plays exploring emerging technologies like AI to gain more from their data.
Launch is also supported by Macquarie’s market-leading security expertise and tech, including over 200 staff cleared by the Australian Federal Govt to manage classified data and a Cyber Threat Intelligence Platform leveraging automation, orchestration, AI, and machine learning.
The Launch product was showcased at Dell Technologies Forum Sydney, where Macquarie picked up the Global Alliances Technology Innovation Award 2023, Australia & New Zealand. Macquarie Cloud Services’ private cloud is backed by Dell Technologies’ latest 16th Generation servers and data protection, unstructured data and block storage solutions, and Macquarie has strengthened its partnership with Dell Technologies as part of its Partner First Strategy.
The announcement also follows a significant investment from Macquarie’s data centre business to expand its next facility, IC3 Super West, to meet rising demand for artificial intelligence workloads. The Launch solution will house data within the secure, sovereign facility once completed, enabling customers to benefit from its best-in-class design.
