Glasgow's Iomart achieves 'longstanding ambition' to push into cyber security

Iomart, the Glasgow-headquartered cloud computing group, has achieved a “longstanding ambition” and pushed into the cyber security market after agreeing a new partnership.

The agreement with e2e-assure combines the Scottish group’s cloud infrastructure expertise with a “state of the art” cyber defences team, to provide security operations centre (SOC) and proactive response service to the UK market, bosses said.

Iomart said the move was in line with a recent increase in security services demand, providing the company with an opportunity to work more closely with existing customers while attracting new ones.

Chief executive Reece Donovan said: “Expanding our ability to support our customers with state of the art cyber security solutions is something we have been targeting for some time now. We are excited for this partnership to bring even greater value to our customers.

Iomart CEO Reece Donovan. Picture: Peter Devlin

“e2e-assure’s customer-focused approach resonates with our own focus on service delivery making them the perfect business for us to work with. Our combined skillsets allow us to give customers full peace of mind that threats are not only identified, but dealt with quickly and effectively by someone who understands their business and their cloud environment.

“We look forward to working with e2e-assure to help our customers secure their business,” he added.

Rob Demain, founder and chief executive of e2e-assure, said: “From the outset of developing this partnership, the fit between our companies has been obvious. Bringing our services together provides customers that wish to consume cloud services with confidence they are underpinned with our independent expertise in 24/7 security monitoring, detection and response.

“The trust that Iomart has built in its customer base as experts in cloud computing is the ideal platform to allow e2e-assure to bring its respected heritage in securing the most complex government organisations to the broader market.

“We are excited to be releasing this unique approach with Iomart to ensure we address the cyber security challenges that every organisation faces today.”

In December, Iomart secured a £100 million financing facility to back its growth plans.

The firm said it had agreed a refinancing, replacing an existing single bank revolving credit facility of £80m that was due to mature at the end of next September, with a new £100m facility.

It is being provided by a group of four banks - HSBC UK, Royal Bank of Scotland, Bank of Ireland and Clydesdale Bank, part of Virgin Money group.

The group also insisted in December that its growth strategy was on track and beginning to deliver “tangible results” after a mixed first-half performance.

Donovan said the firm was “energised” by its refreshed strategy, new branding and “clear focus” as he revealed flat pre-tax profits of £6m for the six months to the end of September.

Revenues were down 8 per cent at £51.9m, in line with an autumn trading update and reflecting lower non-recurring equipment and consultancy sales, along with lower customer renewals.

Bosses said they were confident that this “short-term impact” on sales would be reversed.

Donovan added: “Iomart's high level of recurring revenue remains a considerable strength.”

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