Managed services provider Memset has appointed Chris Burden as chief commercial officer, topping off a series of management changes at the Surrey, UK firm over the past 12 months, as it pivots its cloud strategy to meet the changing needs of customers.

Burden was previously Memset sales and marketing director and before that was managing director of Civica’s cloud and managed services division. In his new role, Burden said he will consolidate Memset’s technology stack and managed services offer, strengthen partner relationships and expand customer acquisition within the SME marketplace.

He said: “When Memset formed 17 years ago, cloud storage was in it is infancy. Today, we see a maturing understanding amongst business leaders in their use of balanced, multi-cloud strategies. Our focus over the coming period is to make sure that we are well-adjusted to this changing landscape and can support customers on this journey.”

Priorities for Burden include ensuring a full data security wrap for customers, whether this is protecting against malicious activity, accidental loss or misuse or ensuring up-time of service provision. Also, he adds, addressing skills needs among customers is top of mind.

“Cloud has rapidly matured over the last few years and there are many successful reports of digital transformation and companies taking cloud-first strategies,” he said. “However, this is not the full picture, and many are struggling to gain a toe-hold through a combination of a lack of skills, experience or confidence to embrace the delivery model.”

Burden said: “Listening to the concerns and needs of customers and smoothing the migration process is something we do very well at Memset. We enable the sort of digital agility business needs to take advantage of the rising levels of disruption occurring in nearly every industry today.”

His appointment rounds off the Memset senior leadership team with Annalisa O’Rourke becoming chief operating officer in 2018 and Nick Craig-Wood continuing as chief executive.