Member Spotlight: AHEAD
AHEAD transforms how and where enterprises run applications and infrastructure. From strategic consulting to implementation and managed services, AHEAD creates tailored solutions at all stages of the enterprise cloud journey. Daniel Adamany founded AHEAD in 2007 and we opened our North Carolina office in 2017.
Headquartered in Chicago, AHEAD maintains offices in Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin. Within North Carolina, we have offices in both Raleigh and Charlotte.
Company-wide, AHEAD has more than 250 employees, 70 of which were hired just last year. Since opening our Raleigh office in 2017, we grew from five employees to 12. We plan to hire an additional 17-18 employees in North Carolina by mid-2018.
What do you love most about doing business in NC?:
I love the culture here in North Carolina and our relationships with customers. We take time to really get to know our customers on a personal level before delving into business. By building that personal connection, we’re able to truly deliver personalized solutions that fit our customers’ needs. North Carolina is a very tight-knit community. Everyone knows each other and it’s not like doing business with other separate entities, it’s like doing business with a family community.
What is your corporate culture in three words?
Collaborative, Innovative, Driven
What makes your business stand out?
We’ve had a lot of success in the healthcare industry in Raleigh thanks to our small sales and technical teams in North Carolina, along with support from resources in Chicago. We’re unique in that we bring a very holistic, next-generation data center and cloud consulting approach, which other consulting companies aren’t offering today. We are also one of the only preferred partners for ServiceNow, AWS, Azure and DellEMC.
What kind of technology trends have affected your company, and how has your company dealt with those trends?
Starting out, we were focused on designing and deploying enterprise infrastructure and data centers, but as the cloud matured into an increasingly viable solution for the industry, we adjusted to become trusted partners to our clients. Because of our deep expertise in both on-and off-prem infrastructure, we can stitch together optimal solutions for our customers.
What are the greatest obstacles and/or challenges that your business has faced? How have you and your business overcome them?
While CEOs are looking for technology to help their companies to be more agile or innovative, they’re also concerned about the bottom line. They’re aware of the fact that adopting the cloud is not just as simple as swiping a credit card. While transitioning to the cloud can help your enterprise to be highly elastic, maintain and automate security, and reveal blind spots in cost and inventory, it also comes with its fair share of risks.
Unforeseen expenses and data breaches are among these risks, and the c-suite is well aware of the challenges they face when it comes to enterprise cloud adoption. This is where AHEAD comes in. Our knowledge and expertise--coupled with our partnerships--allow us to help clients sustain financial returns throughout cloud migration by maintaining proper governance, controls and security. We help clients manage innovator/operator tradeoffs and strike balances at all levels -- from infrastructure, to security, to the right tooling for application development, to the automation and orchestration that coordinates it all.
What’s new with your technologies?
Currently, we’re working with a lot of interesting startups that are focused on advanced machine learning and artificial intelligence technology to help address security concerns within the enterprise environment. In addition, we’re always engaging with transformative and disruptive technologies as well as hyper-converged infrastructure, cloud, security and DevOps tools.
Recent accomplishments?
Our company has won a number of awards including most recently Puppet’s “2017 Channel Partner of the Year” award. We have also held previous rankings on Inc.’s 5000 list and our CEO Dan Adamany holds the title of “Ernst & Young 2015 Entrepreneur of The Year.”
What does the future hold?
I see AHEAD continuing the success it has had in its Midwestern locations in North Carolina. I think we’ll continue applying our unique expertise in infrastructure modernization to help businesses increase savings, efficiency and speed across their enterprise cloud.
Any upcoming events?
AWS Innovation Day: Charlotte, NC – May 22; Raleigh, NC – May 23, https://www.thinkahead.com/aws-innovation-days-2018-tour/