UK IT Channel News | IT Channel Oxygen
  • News
  • Topics
    • Vendor
    • Distributor
    • Partner
    • Indepth
    • Sustainability
    • M&A
    • People Moves
    • AI
    • Tech trends
  • Sustainability
  • About Us
  • Partner with us
Members
Must-Know Distributors
Oxygen 250
No Result
View All Result
  • News
  • Topics
    • Vendor
    • Distributor
    • Partner
    • Indepth
    • Sustainability
    • M&A
    • People Moves
    • AI
    • Tech trends
  • Sustainability
  • About Us
  • Partner with us
No Result
View All Result
UK IT Channel News | IT Channel Oxygen
No Result
View All Result
Home Big Interview

Bunch to build ‘AWS partner of scale’ at D55

"I’m not looking for a nice, relaxing, go-and-play-golf-on-a-Friday job"

Doug Woodburn by Doug Woodburn
17 May 2024
in Partner, Big Interview, Indepth
Chris Bunch, CEO, NoBlue2

Chris Bunch, CEO, NoBlue2

Share on LinkedinShare on Twitter

Chris Bunch is looking to build an AWS partner with “several hundred” staff after joining D55 as its CEO.

The Cloudreach and CTS alumni took up his post at the 30-employee, Manchester-based outfit in March, five months after leaving CTS following its merger with Appsbroker.

Talking to IT Channel Oxygen, Bunch said his mission is to build an application modernisation-focused AWS consultancy “of scale” via both organic and inorganic growth.

“It’s AWS only, and will be several hundred people minimum,” he said.

“The way I think about it is similar to the other businesses I’ve worked in – we’d look for some strong organic growth and then evaluate the inorganic opportunities as we find them.”

Who is D55?

Founded in 2018, D55 specialises in complex application modernisation and data modernisation services for UK businesses, with a focus on the energy and software development sectors, Bunch said.

It was named after the structured data bundle sent between suppliers when consumers switch energy providers (founders Jonathan Rothwell and Rhys Jacob initially met while working in the energy sector).

Bunch claimed no one currently does what D55 does at scale in the UK.

Chris Bunch, CEO, D55
Chris Bunch

“I’ve got no interest in building an AWS migration partner,” Bunch said.

“There’s nothing wrong with that. There’s still tonnes of opportunity in that space with people with old datacentres and all the nonsense going on with VMware and Broadcom. But there are lots of people doing that, and doing it at scale and, in many cases, from offshore locations.

“The play here is much more about the UK, onshore, high-quality, complex end of modernisation, rather than just mass-scale migrations.”

Pressing refresh on AWS

Having spent four years building Google partner CTS, Bunch has rejoined an AWS partner ecosystem he called home at his previous company Cloudreach. His arrival at D55 coincides with AWS becoming a $100bn-revenue runrate business.

News this week of Matt Garman’s appointment as AWS CEO was “taken as a positive” by the D55 team, Bunch said.

“He was the one everyone thought would get the job [when Adam Selipsky was appointed in 2021],” Bunch noted.

“That sales passion to drive the growth is something Amazon is going to need both this year and beyond if they want to keep growing what is now a very, very large business.”

“Best opportunity for growth”

D55 is privately owned, profitable and cash generative, meaning it can grow off its own steam, Bunch said.

“But there may well come a time in the future when we choose to do that a bit more aggressively with help from someone else,” he said.

“When I left CTS, there were a lot of conversations to be had with lots of businesses in this space across all the hyperscalers, most of which were private-equity owned. But this is the one that provided the best opportunity for growth.

“That’s what interests me in life. I’m not looking for a nice, relaxing, go-and-play-golf-on-a-Friday job. I’m looking for a fun, fast, friendly, big growth opportunity, which is what I’ve been doing in the cloud space since 2011.”

Doug Woodburn
Website |  + postsBio

Doug Woodburn is editor of IT Channel Oxygen

  • Doug Woodburn
    https://itchanneloxygen.com/author/itchanneloxygen-com/
    ‘We go with different USPs’ – Phoenix Software MD on boosting 4% share with sister company Bytes
  • Doug Woodburn
    https://itchanneloxygen.com/author/itchanneloxygen-com/
    ‘We’re impatient’ – Qodea CEO hints at more M&A following Beyond deal
  • Doug Woodburn
    https://itchanneloxygen.com/author/itchanneloxygen-com/
    ‘They weren’t alone’ – Exertis IT CEO opens up on AURELIUS sale process
  • Doug Woodburn
    https://itchanneloxygen.com/author/itchanneloxygen-com/
    CDW’s Williams: ‘We’re going to be investing in our services business through organic investment and acquisition’
Tags: CloudreachCTSD55featured
Previous Post

Cisco CEO: 5,000 customers are a slam dunk for Splunk

Next Post

‘We’ll be looking for more’ – Celerity COO on maiden acquisition

Related Posts

Clare Metcalfe, Phoenix Software NEW
Big Interview

‘We go with different USPs’ – Phoenix Software MD on boosting 4% share with sister company Bytes

17 July 2025
Alan Paton, Qodea and Matt Iliffe, Beyond
M&A

‘We’re impatient’ – Qodea CEO hints at more M&A following Beyond deal

15 July 2025
Tim Griffin, Exertis
Big Interview

‘They weren’t alone’ – Exertis IT CEO opens up on AURELIUS sale process

15 July 2025
Penny Williams, CDW
Big Interview

CDW’s Williams: ‘We’re going to be investing in our services business through organic investment and acquisition’

11 July 2025
Ingram Micro HQ
Cybersecurity

Ingram Micro ‘grateful for support’ as it restores business operations

10 July 2025
Gavin Bell, Econocom
M&A

Econocom buys an Irish AV firm, just like it said it would

9 July 2025
Mark Lee, Sales Director, NormCyber
People Moves

Former Nasstar duo reunite at NormCyber

8 July 2025
Tom Stephens, Techary
Big Interview

‘Who’s this £25m VAR growing at 75%?’ – Techary CEO on its lightning growth

8 July 2025
Next Post
Craig Aston, COO, Celerity

‘We’ll be looking for more’ - Celerity COO on maiden acquisition

Follow Us

Oxygen 250 2025: UK’s top 250 resellers and MSPs unveiled
Market data

Oxygen 250 2025: UK’s top 250 resellers and MSPs unveiled

by Oxygen staff
22 January 2025
0

Collective sales exceeded £29bn, but who was crowned number one?

Read moreDetails

IT Channel Oxygen keeps you informed on the UK IT channel and its sustainable transformation. Learn more

  • About
  • Our Team
  • Partner with us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
  • News
  • Cookie Policy (UK)

© 2025 IT Channel Oxygen

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}
No Result
View All Result
  • Oxygen 250
  • Must-Know Distributors
  • Member area
  • KOcycle Zone
  • Big Interview
  • News
  • Indepth
  • About
  • Partner with us

© 2025 IT Channel Oxygen