Cloud Distributor Pax8 Eyes European Expansion

Cloud distributor Pax8’s new EMEA CEO says his first goal is to create a unified European organization following several regional acquisitions.

Harald Nuij joined the company as European MD after Pax8’s acquisition of Dutch cloud distributor Resello in August 2021. He replaces former EMEA CEO Robert Belgrave, who is now spearheading the company’s global expansion as chief people officer.

In addition, Pax8 acquired UK cloud hosting and consultancy Wirehive in January 2021. It followed that up a year later with the purchase of Baltics-based cloud services distributor TVG.

Now EMEA CEO, Nuij will lead the firm in integrating its acquisitions.

Pax8’s Harald Nuij

“That will include making sure that we have great cross-country exchange of experience and knowledge,” he said. “So the things we learned in in Britain, for instance, we are able to copy that into the German market.”

Another priority is connecting with MSPs throughout the region, said Nuij.

“We have three main things that we provide to partners. [They are] making sure that our technology fuels their growth, increases efficiency, and reduces the risks to their businesses. We are now very close to the 3500 partners mark already — in just in a year and a half. We’ve seen some great traction there.”

He said every individual in the Pax8 Europe organization should be “trained to get under the skin of MSPs.” He said it was important “to really understand their business, understand their customer base and how the technology stack that we provide can play a vital role.”

Expanding Across Europe

Nuij will also lead the cloud distributor as it expands its footprint across the region. Pax8 EMEA has nine offices supporting 23 languages. The plan is to extend that into more countries and increase its headcount.

The exec identified the UK as a strong market to target and will open a new flagship Bristol office next month.

“We will not ask people to come to the office,” he explained. “We just want to make sure that the office is a great place to work and to meet each other.”

In terms of further expansion, “Benelux is a region where we are very strong,” he added. “We’re investing heavily in the DACH regions of Germany, Austria, Switzerland. The Nordics is a very important place [where] there’s a very high cloud adoption. And also the Baltic states … where we have been transitioning the partners from the existing TVG platform onto the Pax8 platform. The uptake we have seen just [is] just tremendous.”

Helping Through Turbulent Times

The cost of living and recession worries are dominating headlines across Europe. However, Nuij said those challenges will put Pax8’s MSP partners “in a stronger position than ever before” to help customers.

He said MSPs can show customers “that they bring efficiencies to the table, that they can help support the customers working in a more efficient way.”

For instance, he said customers could use Microsoft Power Automate to automate common tasks.

“That could potentially save them headcount or allow existing headcount to focus on other areas. This trend is moving MSPs working with Pax8 in a very interesting direction,” he said.

Nuij also pointed to a recent Gartner forecast that predicts equipment sales will fall by up to 5% by the end of this year. He said that too will allow MSPs to refocus from hardware to software solutions.

“That is something that is very close to our heart, obviously, and that we are very keen on supporting MSPs on,” he added.