THE DUO behind the North-East’s only cloud computing business are taking the business world by storm.

Tom Roberton and Michael Povey have run their business, Circle Cloud, from offices in Prudhoe and Middlesbrough for two years.

However, having won two new contracts, the duo are looking to expand their outfit by recruiting four new team members.

Their business offers advice to companies on all aspects of IT, including cloud computing, where systems are operated remotely.

Circle Cloud lists the North East Chamber of Commerce (NECC) among its clients and has recently won new contracts with a Darlington Credit Union Bank and Cosatto, a babycare retail business.

Tom said: “We believe we are the only public cloud specialist in the North- East, which means we focus on helping our customers choose the correct cloud platform, which tends to be Office 365 and Microsoft Azure, and use our technical expertise, which has recently been recognised by Microsoft, to help migrate and implement the solutions.

“Our goal is to provide businesses with an IT infrastructure that is always available, accessible from anywhere and that avoids high capital expenditure by no longer purchasing on-premise hardware.

“Before cloud computing, small businesses could never achieve this quality of IT infrastructure within their budget.”

He and fellow director Michael decided to join the North East Chamber of Commerce for a range of reasons, including the free HR and legal advice, as well as networking opportunities.

Joanne McLauchin, relationship manager at the NECC, said: “Circle Cloud is a great company and we are delighted to have been able to support the team in growing the business.”