Global business services and consulting firm Accenture is acquiring Gekko, the French Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud company. The acquisition will expand Accenture’s AWS resources in France to support enterprise cloud migrations and development on cloud platforms.
The deal will also enhance Accenture’s end-to-end Intelligent Cloud & Infrastructure Services and will complement the capabilities and strategic objectives of the Accenture AWS Business Group (AABG) within Accenture Technology in France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
Providing consulting, integration and managed services on AWS, Gekko has more than 100 trained cloud professionals, with more than 85 AWS certifications and a “deep” relationship with AWS, said Accenture. Gekko is an AWS Advanced Partner, holds an AWS competency in Storage and is an AWS Authorised Training partner. Gekko is also part of the AWS Solution Provider and Well Architected Framework programme.
Since its inception in 2015, Gekko says it has helped more than 80 clients - including some of the largest French companies - design, deploy and maintain a flexible, connected and secure cloud infrastructure.
For clients in France and across Europe, the acquisition will strengthen Accenture’s general and industry-specific cloud offerings. “The combination of Gekko’s deep skills in AWS with Accenture’s industry knowledge and experience in global large-scale cloud initiatives will now provide highly differentiated end-to-end services to the European market,” Accenture said. Clients will benefit from a full range of cloud services including strategy ideation, migration and managed services.
Olivier Girard, Accenture’s geographic unit managing director for France and the Benelux, said: “Aligned with our development strategy, the acquisition of Gekko will be another significant addition because it will give clients more support for public cloud options. Gekko will also be a major opportunity to accelerate our growth strategy with key AI and DevOps skills through its delivery centre located in the west of France.”
Roland Esnis and Julien Favre, co-founders and CEOs of Gekko, said: “In the fast-growing cloud market, joining Accenture is a unique opportunity to help even more organisations to leverage their journey to the cloud for accelerating their digital transformations, growing their businesses and improving customer experiences. By combining the renowned talent, reputation and capabilities of Gekko with Accenture’s strong team of AWS practitioners in France, we are better positioned to lead in cloud services in France.”
The acquisition requires prior consultation with the relevant works councils at the company and will be subject to customary closing conditions, said Accenture. Financial terms of the transaction are not being disclosed.
Last month, Accenture acquired Mudano, a strategic data services consultancy to financial services firms. Mudano is headquartered in London, with an office in Edinburgh, Scotland, with the whole team joining the Accenture Applied Intelligence unit. The latest deal comes on the back of well over 30 other Accenture acquisitions made in the digital space over the last 12-plus months. One of the biggest was Accenture's purchase of the Symantec cyber security services business from Broadcom.
