INTERVIEW Founded in 2003 by Brett Raynes, Cloud Direct began by delivering managed backup services to help organisations strengthen business continuity. Over two decades, the company expanded alongside the evolution of cloud computing, supporting customers as they modernised infrastructure and moved away from legacy systems. In December 2025, Leighton Searle – who previously spent nearly 20 years at Microsoft and served on Cloud Direct’s board – stepped into the CEO role. While the technology landscape has transformed, he sees continuity in the company’s purpose: using trusted technology to unlock business value without creating unnecessary complexity. That philosophy is now being applied to the AI era, where Cloud Direct is placing security and compliance at the heart of its strategy. “Security isn’t a standalone thing anymore, but it’s also not a downstream consideration,” says Searle. “If you fast-forward to where we have autonomous AI agents operating across organisations, that introduces new security parameters and new kinds of risk.” Those risks extend beyond traditional cyberthreats. As organisations adopt AI at scale, they must also manage accidental data exposure, governance failures and reputational damage linked to AI use. “There’s a new frontier of security emerging as you introduce more AI, so it has to be designed upfront,” he says. Searle believes Cloud Direct’s experience gives it a strong foundation for this shift. “We’ve migrated hundreds of customers to the cloud, run and operated their infrastructures right across the Microsoft technology portfolio,” he explains. “From this, we have developed a huge knowledge base of customer patterns. Every support call and deployment adds to our understanding.” That institutional knowledge is formalised in Cloud Direct IQ, which informs how the company manages identities, infrastructure and devices – and now AI agents, described by Searle as “effectively semi-autonomous teammates”. Internally, the business applies a ‘customer zero’ mindset to its own AI governance. “One of the first things I’ve done is a review of our responsible AI policy,” says Searle. “We’ve included a responsible AI training course, which will be mandatory for everyone at Cloud Direct. Level one is all about responsible AI usage, how to work with and trust AI, and what our principles are.” For Searle, helping organisations become agent-ready ultimately means enabling them to deploy AI securely and confidently at scale – with security designed in from the start. Read more about Cloud Direct’s next chapter on the Technology Record website Leighton Searle, new CEO of Cloud Direct, is turning AI-driven transformation into practical, deliverable outcomes for businesses Security as a foundational concern BY ALICE CHAMBERS “ Security isn’t a standalone thing anymore, but it’s also not a downstream consideration” 67
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