Deloitte buys Melbourne's Cloud Solutions Group

Deloitte has made its most aggressive assault yet on the IT channel, acquiring systems integrator Cloud Solutions Group.

Cloud Solutions Group's staff and directors will join Deloitte's Melbourne team, with the solutions provider's chief executive Josh Rubens becoming a partner at the Big Four consulting firm.

"The team is really excited at the prospect of joining Deloitte. It provides us with the opportunity to leverage its infrastructure to support business growth," said Rubens. "Deloitte's brand, scale and breadth of services provide access to a broader set of offerings and value for our clients, as well as opportunities for career advancement for our staff."

Deloitte will gain Cloud Solutions Group's relationships with vendors Amazon, NextDC, Nimble Storage, VMware, EMC, Citrix, IBM and Hewlett-Packard.

The value of the acquisition was not disclosed. In the 2014 financial year, Cloud Solutions Group posted 28.5 percent revenue growth to hit $11.65 million – good enough to clinch number 32 in the CRN Fast50.

"This is an innovative step for our technology practice. We can now offer our clients business driven technology solutions, hosted on next generation hybrid cloud services," said Deloitte technology consulting partner Kevin Russo. "It also supports our application modernisation offering, allowing us to assist clients at all levels of the technology stack."

The buyout is the latest in a series of incursions into the IT channel for Deloitte. The consulting firm made headlines in June for its acquisition of Oracle partner Dataweave, another incumbent Fast50 company, and in September for the purchase of another Oracle reseller, Qubit Consulting.

Deloitte Australia chief executive Cindy Hook warned that her company wasn't done yet.

"We will continue to make considered, strategic investments that are adjacent to our capabilities and better enable our private and public sector clients to respond to the rapid changes affecting their markets and customers," she said. "Integrating technology-based solutions with the quality, custom-designed experiences clients now want, is fundamental to future business success."

A Deloitte spokesperson said the company has a mission "to become the pre-eminent supplier of cloud services in Australia".