As we continue our exploration of India’s cloud transformation story, this edition turns the spotlight onto the remaining four partners from Crayon’s Trailblazer ecosystem— each representing a different dimension of innovation, resilience, and customer-centric growth. While the first set of partners showcased how vision and collaboration can create industry-shaping outcomes, these next four bring a fresh layer of depth, highlighting the diversity and strength of Crayon’s partner community.
Their journeys—shaped by decades of technological evolution, shifting market realities, and an unwavering commitment to customer value—offer a compelling look into how midsize technology companies are redefining their role in India’s digital future. From companies that built their legacy in the on-prem era and navigated through cycles of reinvention, to those that embraced the cloud early and built service-led, globally deployable capabilities—the stories featured here capture the full spectrum of the partner landscape.
What stands out across their experiences is not just their technical proficiency, but their adaptability. Whether it is building private cloud architectures, transitioning to multi- cloud models, adopting AI-driven services, or expanding into cybersecurity and turnkey solutions, each organisation illustrates how continuous learning and strategic partnerships—especially with Crayon and AWS—create lasting momentum.
Together, these four stories complement the first five we presented earlier, completing a powerful tapestry of insights, lessons, and inspiration for the larger partner community. And in doing so, they reaffirm a simple truth: India’s cloud revolution is being driven by people and companies that dare to evolve, collaborate, and lead with purpose.
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SHIVAAMI CLOUD: EVOLVING WITH EVERY WAVE OF TECHNOLOGY
PUNEET THAKKAR
CEO & MD, SHIVAAMI CLOUD
“DON’T SELL TECHNOLOGY— SELL SOLUTIONS. CUSTOMERS VALUE CLARITY, HONESTY, AND A GOOD HUMAN BEING BEHIND THE BUSINESS.”
Over 22 years, Shivaami Cloud has reinvented itself multiple times—starting as a web design company, moving into SEO, and eventually emerging as a cloud-focused organisation serving customers across sectors. Puneet Thakkar, the company’s founder, attributes this sustained growth to adaptability, humility, and a people-first philosophy. His belief that an office should feel like a second home reflects Shivaami’s culture—where employees feel empowered, valued, and encouraged to grow alongside the company.
The post-COVID era accelerated cloud adoption, and Shivaami rode that wave with clarity and purpose. Puneet sees cloud as the foundation of the next major inflection point—AI and security—and the company is already transitioning toward these high-growth domains. Their partnership with Crayon and AWS has played a pivotal role: from customer acquisition and solution delivery to certifications, training, and consumption growth. Puneet values the simplicity and transparency of working with Crayon, calling the journey “smooth, supportive, and growth-led.”
For Puneet, the Indian SMB sector represents the next big opportunity. Agile, fast-moving, and aspiration-driven, SMBs will shape the future of cloud and AI consumption—and Shivaami aims to be at the heart of that evolution.
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TECH9LABS: AN ACCIDENTAL TECHNOLOGIST’S JOURNEY TO BUILDING HIS OWN CLOUD
AMIT JAIN
FOUNDER & CEO, TECH9LABS
“OUR IP IS SERVICE, QUALITY, AND INTELLIGENCE—TECH9IQ IS WHERE OUR INNOVATION FINALLY MEETS INDIA’S CLOUD AMBITION.”
Amit Jain’s journey is a testament to reinvention, resilience, and ambition. A commerce graduate who stumbled into technology in 1997, Amit found his passion during his tenure at IBM, where he specialised in storage and trained partners across APAC. That exposure to real customer challenges, market dynamics, and enterprise technology became the foundation for Tech9Labs, launched in 2011.
Fourteen years later, Tech9Labs stands as a services-driven organisation with strong consulting DNA, long-term customer relationships, and multiple verticals spanning infrastructure, cybersecurity, cloud transformation, and managed services. The company’s evolution accelerated during the pandemic when it transitioned fully into a service-led model. Today, its 80-member team drives complex migrations, builds end-to-end solutions, and manages critical workloads.
The latest milestone is Tech9IQ, Tech9Labs’ own cloud platform that blends Nutanix, Cisco, and IBM technologies into a unified, intelligent cloud experience. Designed for Indian needs—with flexibility, value, sovereignty, and simplicity—it offers capabilities that many hyperscalers miss. For Amit, the vision is clear: build an Indian cloud platform that empowers SMBs, partners, and enterprises with intelligence, choice, and world-class service.
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PROGRESSION: THREE DECADES OF EVOLVING WITH TECHNOLOGY—AND LEADING IT
DEVAL KULSHRESHTHA
CTO, PROGRESSION
“PEOPLE ARE THE CORE— TECHNOLOGY CHANGES, BUT IT’S PEOPLE WHO BUILD, RUN, INNOVATE, AND MAKE EVERYTHING WORK.”
Progression’s 30-year journey mirrors the evolution of India’s IT landscape itself. Founded as a system integrator, the company helped customers build on-premises data centres long before cloud became mainstream. As technology shifted, Progression stayed ahead—adding capabilities in virtualization, high-performance computing, security, data services, and even launching its own cloud as early as 2010, when “utility computing” was the prevailing term.
For CTO Deval, who has spent 23 years with the organisation, the secret to Progression’s longevity is simple: invest in people. Technology changes constantly, but an empowered team—encouraged to experiment, learn, and innovate—creates lasting value. This culture has allowed Progression to serve customers across India and in global markets, from Europe to the Middle East.
Progression’s partnership with Crayon dates back to the earliest cloud days. Crayon played a significant role in helping the company adopt the right OEMs, licensing structures, pricing models, and skilling initiatives. As AI and security shift into the next wave of services, Deval sees Crayon as a key enabler in helping them build new practices and expand their cloud footprint—especially with AWS.
With people at the centre and collaboration as the philosophy, Progression continues to evolve with every technological wave.
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MAYANKS IT SOLUTIONS: THREE DECADES OF INNOVATION, INTEGRATION & CUSTOMER-CENTRIC GROWTH
NEHA BATRA
CEO, MAYANKS IT SOLUTIONS
“LISTEN TO YOUR CUSTOMER— WHEN YOU TRULY HEAR THEM, EVERY SOLUTION BECOMES CLEAR.”
Mayanks IT Solutions stands as one of India’s enduring technology integrators, with a journey that began in 1989 as a small end-user computing firm. Within just a few years, the company pivoted from basic computing to complex networking—partnering early with global OEMs like 3Com—and steadily expanded into data centre builds, storage, cybersecurity, and large-scale turnkey projects. Today, under the leadership of CEO Neha Batra, Mayanks operates across Delhi, Noida and Mumbai, delivering sophisticated solutions to government bodies, defence forces, banks, and large enterprises.
What distinguishes Mayanks is its ability to go far beyond conventional system integration. From creating automated RTO testing centres with facial recognition to executing nationwide security and infrastructure projects for police, border forces, and enterprises, the company blends hardware, applications, surveillance, and network intelligence into unified solutions. Its portfolio has further expanded into AI and GPU cloud services through strong partnerships with Yotta and other OEMs, ensuring customers can scale workloads on demand.
For Neha, leadership begins with people. Her 43-member team often goes the extra mile— working late, responding to emergencies, and prioritizing customer needs—because they believe in the company’s mission. Her advice to new entrepreneurs is simple but powerful: listen to your customers.
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