Claranet adds Azure depth with Union buy

Managed services player Claranet has once again dipped into the acquisitions market picking up Union Solutions to increase its footprint in providing cloud services to the legal, financial and retail sectors.

The firm is no stranger to adding to its operations through purchases and made several UK acquisitions in its last fiscal year, including application management player Ardenta and security firm Sec-1. There were also deals struck in France, Portugal and the Netherlands to bolster the Group operations.

The latest move will add to the cloud muscle that Claranet can bring to the table and Union, which is based in Surrey and Kent, comes with 30 staff and a £10m turnover.

Union has developed an expertise around Azure and can deliver migration, hosting, design and transition services to customers, which include Kingfisher and Mitsubishi Finance. The company owners are staying on after the deal, the terms of which were undisclosed, is completed.

“Claranet has acquired Union Solutions to enhance its hosting design, transition, and migration capabilities for large-scale on-premise solutions as well as additional strong Azure skills and offerings," said Michel Robert, managing director of Claranet UK.

"Union has a depth of experience and capability in the design and implementation of mission critical infrastructure, with emphasis on data storage and security.  It has developed strong, long-term customer relationships in the legal, financial services, and retail verticals which will further enhance our capabilities in these important sectors," he added.

In response, Jason Rabbetts, founder and director at Union Solutions, said that becoming part of a larger entity would give it more reach.

"Union’s data management services, hyper converged platform skills, and Azure specialism – now coupled with Claranet’s public cloud and private cloud capabilities – brings an incredibly powerful hybrid transformation proposition to our customers and the general market," he said.