Rising Channel Powerhouse Ahead Acquires Platform Consulting Group

Fast-growing channel powerhouse Ahead, which recently merged with fellow channel star Data Blue, has purchased its third solution provider over the past six months by acquiring Platform Consulting Group Tuesday in a move to boost its cloud-native application capabilities and Dell Technologies expertise.

Chicago-based Ahead, ranked No. 75 on the 2019 CRN Solution Provider 500, plans to bring Platform Consulting Group’s cloud-native application development expertise to its professional services organization. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“Platform’s expertise in software development will accelerate our ability to deliver transformational outcomes through application modernization and migration,” said Ahead Chief Technology Officer Eric Kaplan in a statement.

Ahead is a top Dell Technologies partner while also winning Cisco’s 2019 Enterprise Partner of the Year award for the U.S. central region. The company also is a premier consulting and authorized public sector partner for Amazon Web Services while also holding Gold Cloud Platform Competency with Microsoft Azure.

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Denver-based startup Platform Consulting Group provides services to enterprise customers focused on cloud-native applications and modern development frameworks.

Platform Consulting Group’s president and founder, Chris Birtwhistle, will lead Ahead’s Cloud Applications and Platforms practice. Birtwhistle has an extensive background running global professional services teams for VMware, Pivotal Software and Dell EMC, all of which fall under the Dell Technologies umbrella.

Prior to founding Platform Consulting Group in 2017, Birtwhistle held roles including vice president of global services for Dell EMC and global head of cloud application consulting for VMware.

“We’re thrilled to join Ahead and offer our clients a full range of support up and down the technology stack,” said Birtwhistle in a statement. “Applications are the essential element of today’s CIO agenda, and connecting Platform’s strengths in cloud-native development with Ahead’s exceptional track record in transforming infrastructure will instantly create an industry leader with true end-to-end capabilities.”

Over the past six months, Ahead has acquired solution providers Link Solutions Group and Sovereign Systems.

Founded in 2007, Ahead excels at engineering enterprise cloud infrastructure by leveraging automation and analytics to streamline operations. With the purchase of Platform Consulting Group, the company will now add modernizing and migrating applications at scale to its portfolio.

Ahead was acquired by New York-based Court Square Capital Partners in 2015 for undisclosed terms. Court Square has been a major player in the IT market, acquiring a number of solution providers. Following the merger with Data Blue, Ahead now has 16 locations and 600 employees.