When co-founder and CTO Carroll Moon wanted to find a permanent home for CloudFit Software, he immediately knew where to go: Home. Currently putting the finishing touches on the historic Carter Glass building in downtown Lynchburg, they are committed to investing in their local community. Founded in March of 2018, CloudFit continues to grow and excel, recently winning the prestigious Microsoft Partner Award for Industry – Government. We caught up with Carroll regarding this recent achievement, and to see what’s next on the horizon for CloudFit.
image credit: CloudFit Software
We’re so excited that CloudFit has chosen Lynchburg as its home! Can you introduce yourself and tell us a little more about how you came to choose Lynchburg?
Lynchburg is my home. “Home” is a very powerful word, and other people who are from this area know will know what I mean when I say that that. I grew up in Pittsylvania County just outside of Altavista. I was actually born in Lynchburg too. My family has been farming in Virginia since the 1600s. There is no other way to say it other than to say that Lynchburg is my home. We are here because we want to bring hope and opportunities to the wonderful people in this region. The people in our region have servant hearts, great work ethic, tremendous intelligence, strong common sense, intense loyalty and often a desire to stay in this region even at the expense of knowing they could have higher paying jobs somewhere else. CloudFit aims to bring great jobs, training and opportunities to this region. We are just getting started, and we are so thankful.
When someone reads the term ‘Software’ in CloudFit’s name, things like Department of Defense contracts don’t initially come to mind. Can you tell us a little more about what you do?
We work for large commercial companies (including Microsoft), and we do federal work including DoD. We build critical applications in the cloud, we move critical applications to the cloud and most importantly, we take accountability for running the critical applications once they are in the cloud. We have our own proprietary platform that enables us to run those critical applications in the cloud. We don’t sell the platform. If we run your application(s), our platform comes with us. Just like a builder would bring his tools, we bring our platform. Our platform is called “CFS” which is “CloudFit Software”. The platform—the software—is one of the things that makes us different. Our software is at the heart of what we do—so much so, we named our company after our software.
You just won the MSUS Partner Award for Industry – Government. What does that accolade mean to CloudFit and future endeavors?
Let’s say we owned a grain mill on a river 125 years ago. Just because the electrical utility ran wires by our mill doesn’t mean that we’d update all of our machines (or get all new machines) to consume that electricity on day 1. We would move to electricity over time only as it made sense for our business. And even if we wanted to move a machine to use electricity, we would likely need some help making it happen. We might especially need help in taking care of the new machine because electricity would be new to us. Cloud providers, like Microsoft, are analogous to the electrical utility. Critical applications are analogous to the machines in our fictitious grain mill. CloudFit is filling a gap in the industry. Lots of companies move applications to the cloud. Most companies won’t take accountability for the applications once they are in the cloud. CloudFit intentionally fills that gap in the industry. We like to say “twice as fast, twice as good and half the price.” CloudFit’s founders left Microsoft to fill this gap. Microsoft’s honoring CloudFit with this award is Microsoft formally recognizing the value of what CloudFit is bringing to their government and DoD customers. The customers need and want the capabilities of the cloud. Microsoft wants their customers to get those benefits quickly and safely. CloudFit is honored to partner with Microsoft to help the customers recognize the benefits of the cloud with lower risk and greater speed. We are so very blessed to be able to do what we do for our customers—in partnership with Microsoft everyday. This recognition is an “exceedingly abundantly” blessing, and we are so grateful.
What other programs or partnerships are you particularly proud of and would like to share with us?
Serving customers is our goal. Helping them achieve their missions is what drives us. Truly serving customers rather than selling to customers. From a partnership perspective, we believe that Microsoft is the best way to help our customers achieve their missions. So, we are closely partnered with Microsoft. We are honored to be their partner to serve important customers together.
If someone wants to get into your industry, where do you suggest they start?
Thank you for asking this question! It is near and dear to my heart. I grew up farming beef cattle and tobacco. My first public job off of the farm was as a janitor. I get to do what I do today because great people helped me learn, and great people gave me opportunities. CloudFit exists to generate funding for 501c3 non-profits including KidFit and JobFit. KidFit provides mentoring and opportunities via athletics for all youth whether they can pay or not. JobFit helps students and career changers get real training and real experience, including paid internships. JobFit’s goal is to lower the barrier to entry for great IT careers. My recommendation for folks who want to get into this industry is to get involved with JobFit at jobfit.online.
To learn more: cloudfitsoftware.com