Telecom, soon to adopt the Spark name, has conditionally agreed to buy cloud services specialist Appserv for $17 million.

The move will give Telecom a stronger cloud services portfolio and build on the earlier acquisition of another major cloud player, Revera, the company says.

“We pursued this opportunity because many thousands of businesses already supported by Telecom Business Hubs, and other channels within Telecom Retail and Gen-i, want to take advantage of the Cloud but need a hand to get there,” says Telecom Retail CEO Chris Quin.

“We know that the benefits of cloud computing are still largely untapped by New Zealand business, particularly at the small and medium sized enterprise level. Through Appserv, Telecom can help more New Zealand businesses fulfil their potential using the power of cloud computing and IT as-a-service.”

The combined capabilities of Appserv and Revera means Telecom can offer cloud expertise via Telecom and Gen-i sales channels, says CEO Simon Moutter.

“Revera is a cloud computing specialist that provides Cloud solutions predominantly for government and corporates, while Appserv brings specialist cloud desktop-as-a-service solutions for a range of business sizes, particularly small to medium sized,” says Moutter.

“It’s a powerful combination that adds to our existing strengths in cloud infrastructure, mobility, managed ICT and platform as a service.

“We have secured a number of significant new IT as-a-service contracts. We have added new or imminent data centre business totalling in excess of 250 racks since the beginning of 2014. Revera is continuing to grow strongly and perform well.”

Appserv is based in Auckland and was established in 1999 by founder and managing director Graham Clarke.