2nd Watch

Originally established as 2nd Watch in 2010 by Kris Bliesner, the firm began its journey in Seattle as a provider of tools and services for public cloud workload management. Its focus was on enabling enterprises to accelerate their adoption of the public cloud by extending and automating critical processes like governance, migration, and administration. Over the years, the company expanded its capabilities, notably through the strategic acquisition of Aptitive, a cloud data and analytics consultancy, in January 2022. This acquisition significantly strengthened its data and analytics services, particularly in data engineering and data science, and expanded its expertise in platforms like Snowflake.

The company's trajectory took a significant turn following a series of investments and acquisitions led by ST Telemedia (STT), a strategic investor focused on technology and communications. In October 2019, STT acquired a majority stake in 2nd Watch, retaining existing investors such as Madrona Venture Group and Columbia Capital. This was part of a broader STT strategy to build a global, cloud-native business, which also included acquiring majority stakes in Singapore-based Cloud Comrade in 2019 and India-based CloudCover in 2020. This strategic consolidation culminated in 2023, when 2nd Watch, along with STT's other cloud assets, were merged and rebranded to form Ollion. Now operating as Ollion, the firm is a global cloud consultancy headquartered in Seattle.

Ollion provides a comprehensive suite of cloud services, positioning itself as an enterprise tech consultancy. Its business model is centered on delivering professional and managed services across multiple public cloud platforms, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). The company makes money by offering consulting and engineering solutions to enterprises for cloud transformation, application modernization, data insights, AI, cloud cost management, and security. Its services cater to a wide range of industries, including retail, healthcare, media, and manufacturing. By integrating the capabilities of its predecessor companies from the US, Singapore, and India, Ollion serves a global client base that includes major brands like Hearst, La-Z-Boy, and Condé Nast.

Keywords: 2nd Watch, Ollion, cloud consulting, cloud migration, data analytics, managed cloud services, application modernization, AWS Premier Partner, Microsoft Azure Gold Partner, Google Cloud Partner, ST Telemedia, cloud cost optimization, public cloud management, enterprise tech, data engineering, data science, Snowflake partner, cloud security, DevOps, IT consulting, cloud advisory, Aptitive, Cloud Comrade, CloudCover, global cloud services