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Lathwood has been at UKFast since 2000 and is the longest serving employee at the cloud firm
UKFast has announced that current IT director Neil Lathwood has stepped into the role of chief technology officer (CTO) as the firm look to accelerate its DevOps approach.
The DevOps approach puts sysadmins and developers into one role which allows for businesses to streamline IT development and exercise end-to-end control over project delivery.
Lathwood is the longest serving employee at the cloud firm after joining founders Lawrence and Gail Jones in 2000. He currently oversees the technical delivery of all hosting solutions to clients alongside complimentary software creation and implementation.
Speaking about his new job role Lathwood said: “The title of CTO means different things to different businesses. For us, the key focus of this role is to bridge the gap between the tech teams and R and D.”
“Our current DevOps team has grown massively in recent years and now represents around 20 per cent of our workforce. I can see us adding hundreds more in coming years.”
During his 18 year tenure of leading UKFast’s IT, the annual revenue has grown from £100,000 to £47 million.
Lathwood added: “When I got the initial chance to work with Lawrence and Gail it felt like a great opportunity but I never envisaged that it would become what it is today. It’s been a constant learning curve and it’s never stopped because we are continuously pushing boundaries and inventing new ideas.”
UK Fast CEO Lawrence Jones is “hugely excited” to see what Lathwood can bring to this part of the business.
Jones said: “Developing leaders from within guarantees a much smoother transition, which is incredibly important whilst we continue to evolve and grow at speed.”
“We interviewed a number of CTOs but were unable to find anyone who came close to Neil’s skill, passion and understanding of our industry.”
UKFast owns and operates four data-centres in Trafford Park, with development ongoing at further DC sites in the region.