Cloud Training and Consulting at Scale: The CloudThat 14-Year Story

It was 2012. AWS was quietly reshaping global infrastructure. Most Indian enterprises were still debating whether the cloud was worth taking seriously: watching from the sidelines, waiting for someone else to go first. A small team in Bengaluru had already decided the answer was yes, and more importantly, that someone needed to help the country’s IT workforce get there.

That team was CloudThat. Founded by Bhavesh Goswami, a Microsoft team member and ex-Amazonian who’d worked on the AWS S3 pro team, CloudThat launched as India’s first dedicated cloud training and consulting organisation; not a year later, not after waiting to see how it played out, but right then, at exactly the moment it mattered. That wasn’t luck. It was conviction.

Fourteen years, 1.1 million professionals trained, and 750+ consulting projects later, here’s how it happened.

The First Partnerships Take Shape (2013–2014)

Microsoft was building out its Azure partner ecosystem, and enterprises were starting to ask a pointed question: who can actually train our teams on this?

CloudThat had an answer. In 2013, it was recognised as a Microsoft Silver Learning Partner: the first formal signal that its training quality met the standards of the world’s largest software company. A year later, in 2014, CloudThat became an AWS Consulting Partner, establishing itself as a trusted training and consulting partner across both major cloud platforms, at a time when most vendors hadn’t committed to either platform.

Two clouds, two partnerships, two years. The pattern was set.

MongoDB, an MS Gold Partnership, and Going Broader (2015–2018)

The cloud stack was getting more complex. With managed databases, container orchestration, and infrastructure-as-code, enterprises no longer need just cloud skills. They needed a full ecosystem of technical expertise.

CloudThat expanded accordingly. In 2015, it added MongoDB as a partner, signalling a move beyond pure cloud platforms into the broader modern data stack. In 2016, Google Cloud joined the portfolio, bringing three major cloud providers under one company, with no dilution in depth. By 2017, that breadth was being recognised: CloudThat won the Microsoft Learning Partner of the Year Award for India. In 2018, the Microsoft relationship deepened further with Gold Partner status, the highest tier in Microsoft’s partner programme, which required demonstrated technical capability rather than just volume.

Building the Infrastructure to Scale (2019–2020)

AWS launched its Managed Kubernetes services. Serverless architecture was maturing. The gap between what enterprises needed and what their teams could do was widened faster than anyone had predicted.

By 2019, CloudThat had trained 2,50,000 students on AI alone, well before AI training became a crowded category. The numbers were already speaking for themselves.

Then 2020 hit. The pandemic forced enterprises to rethink everything: how they operated, where their teams worked, and how urgently they needed cloud expertise. For many organisations, the sudden shift to remote operations exposed just how wide the skills gap really was.

CloudThat had spent years building the delivery infrastructure, the curriculum, and the instructor network to train at scale, and in 2020, all of that came into its own. That year also brought formal recognition of the depth CloudThat had built: AWS Advanced Consulting Partner status, and a Microsoft Learning Partner of the Year (Finalist) nod. Enterprises didn’t have to pause. Neither did CloudThat.

The Recognition Years Begin (2021–2022)

Microsoft launched its global Superstar Campaign for Asia. It was designed to identify the partners who had moved the needle, the ones changing how enterprises adopted Microsoft technology and expanded their workforce.

CloudThat won it. The Microsoft Asia Superstar Campaign for India award in 2021 came alongside a string of other recognitions: AWS Think Big ATP Partner, Authorized Training Partner, Public Sector Partner, and Well-Architected Program Partner.

In 2022, more recognition followed- a Microsoft Partner of the Year Learning Award Finalist nod and a DevOps Competency Partner designation. These weren’t participation trophies. They were the result of years of work, finally getting names attached.

A Global First (2023)

AWS announced its annual Partner of the Year awards for APJ. The competition was fierce; every major training and consulting firm in the Asia Pacific was in the running.

CloudThat won AWS Training Partner of the Year (APJ) for 2023. It also won Microsoft Superstars for Asia and India in the same year – a simultaneous recognition from the two biggest cloud platforms on earth. On the consulting side, it earned Data & Analytics Competency and became an Amazon EKS Delivery Service Partner, reflecting genuine depth in the areas where enterprises were investing most heavily.

By this point, CloudThat had trained over 850,000 professionals and delivered 500+ consulting projects across 30+ countries.

The Microsoft Global Award (2024)

Microsoft announced its global Training Services Partner of the Year. Nominees came from every major market: Europe, North America, and the Asia Pacific. No Indian company had ever won it.

CloudThat won it.

The first. Ever. From India.

2024 wasn’t just about that award. CloudThat launched its Centre of Generative AI Innovation, expanded its AWS capabilities with new Competencies and SDPs, and retained the AWS Training Partner of the Year (APJ) title for the second consecutive year.

The Only One (2025)

In 2025, CloudThat became the only company in the world to have received awards from all three major cloud providers: AWS, Microsoft, and Google. AWS Training Partner of the Year (APJ) for the third year in a row. An official Oracle partnership. India’s first NVIDIA Education Services Partner. Seven new SDPs added, with competencies spanning Education, Networking, and Managed Services.

That last one matters more than it looks. NVIDIA doesn’t partner with just anyone- it looks for organizations with the technical depth and delivery infrastructure to teach AI at a level that actually translates to production. CloudThat qualified.

And in 2025, CloudThat was certified as a Great Place to Work, because none of this would be possible without the people who build it from the inside.

One Through-Line, Fourteen Years

The tools changed. The certifications multiplied. The buzzwords came and went. But the idea stayed the same: the gap between where technology is going and where people’s skills are is a problem worth solving.

1.1 million professionals. 30+ countries. 14 years of showing up.

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