TRAILBLAZERS OF CLOUD EXCELLENCE: HOW CRAYON IS POWERING INDIA’S NEXT WAVE OF PARTNER-LED INNOVATION

India’s cloud transformation story is no longer  just  about  technology  adoption— it is about ambition, reinvention, and the emergence of a new class of digital champions. To bring this narrative to life, VAR India, in association with Crayon Software, produced a dedicated podcast series – Crayon Trailblazers - spotlighting ten of Crayon’s most dynamic partners. Each of these organisations represents a unique facet of India’s cloud revolution: from digital-native disruptors to traditional IT firms reinventing themselves for a cloud-first world.

The objective of this series was simple yet powerful—to uncover the journeys behind the logos. What motivates these leaders?
 
How do they navigate the shifts in customer expectations? What role do partnerships play in their evolution? And most importantly, how has the combined strength of Crayon and AWS enabled them to scale faster, deliver smarter, and innovate with confidence?

Through candid conversations, these partners shared their growth trajectories, business transitions, technological bets, and the pivotal moments that helped shape their identity. Their stories highlighted something deeper than cloud migration or managed services; they revealed the fabric of collaboration—where strategy meets execution, and where the right guidance can turn constraints into catalysts.
 
As you move through the profiles of these ten organisations, you’ll witness firsthand how Crayon’s advisory-led approach and AWS’s global capabilities have empowered them to solve complex challenges, unlock new business opportunities, and chart their own distinct paths in India’s fast-growing cloud ecosystem.

In this edition, we spotlight the inside stories and inspiring journeys of five of Crayon’s leading partners—each shaping India’s cloud ecosystem in their own way. The remaining five stories will follow in the next issue.

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STANNIK TECHNOLOGIES: A PARTNERSHIP BUILT ON PRECISION AND TRUST

“WITH CRAYON, IT NEVER FELT LIKE TWO COMPANIES PARTNERING—IT FELT LIKE TWO FRIENDS LIFTING EACH OTHER UP.”

LALIT KUMAR
HEAD, CLOUD DELIVERY, 
STANNIK TECHNOLOGIES

Stannik Technologies’ journey began with a bold decision. Its founder, Gaurav—an SAP Basis expert with years of experience across MNCs—left a stable, well-paying job in 2018 to build something of his own, despite resistance from family. The company started by focusing exclusively on SAP migrations and upgrades, staying close to the expertise that shaped its early identity.

According to Lalit Kumar, Head of Cloud Delivery, the turning point came when Crayon entered the picture. What began as a partnership quickly evolved into a relationship built on trust—“more like two friends supporting each other,” as he describes it. Crayon helped Stannik expand its vision beyond SAP, introducing them to AWS and strengthening their documentation, qualification processes, and OEM engagement.

Crayon also played a crucial role in enabling cloud adoption for Stannik’s customers, helping optimize consumption, refine bidding, and bring clarity to the perceived complexity and cost of cloud. Stannik, in turn, built a customer-first approach—continuously reassessing workloads, recommending optimizations, and ensuring that solutions evolve with business needs.

Today, Stannik stands as a cloud delivery organisation built on precision, empathy, and long-term collaboration.

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A CLOUD-NATIVE VISION BUILT ON CONFIDENCE AND COLLABORATION

“THE SUPPORT FROM CRAYON GAVE US THE CONFIDENCE THAT WE COULD GROW LIKE CRAZY—AND WE DID.”

GOVIND DUBEY
CO-FOUNDER & CEO, 
IMEGH

For Govind Dubey, founder of iMEGH, the company’s story is deeply personal—rooted in over a decade of experience in cloud sales and a belief that India needed its own cloud-native capability. Five years ago, he and co-founder Manvinder transformed this belief into iMEGH Private Limited, even embedding that vision in the company’s name: “I” for India and “Megh” meaning cloud. Starting with their own private cloud setup hosted at Yotta in Noida, they gradually expanded into AWS, Google, and Microsoft partnerships.

A pivotal moment came when they met Crayon. Govind recalls how Crayon’s early support—especially from Rajiv and the technical team—helped iMEGH onboard its first major AWS customer. With limited initial revenue and high billing demands, credit support and solution guidance from Crayon became critical. This boost gave the founders the confidence to scale, and iMEGH soon recorded 150% year-on-year growth, expanding to more than 200 customers across cloud and cybersecurity offerings.

Crayon also played a defining role in helping iMEGH qualify for key AWS programs, win competitive opportunities, and systematically build capabilities across OEMs. Today, iMEGH continues to grow with dedicated teams for AWS and Microsoft, strengthening its position as a fast-rising cloud services provider.

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LDS TECHNOLOGIES: TWO DECADES OF STEADY GROWTH BUILT ON PEOPLE AND PARTNERSHIPS

“IF YOU TAKE CARE OF YOUR PEOPLE, THEY WILL TAKE CARE OF YOUR CUSTOMERS—THAT’S BEEN OUR MANTRA FOR 26 YEARS.”

AMARNATH SHETTY
MD, 
LDS INFOTECH

For Amarnath Shetty, Managing Director of LDS Technologies, the company’s journey is one of persistence, patience, and strong values. Founded in 1999 with just a handful of employees, LDS was born during one of the toughest phases for the global IT industry— the Y2K era. Amarnath credits sheer determination and a deep understanding of customer needs, gained from his early years in IT, for helping the company navigate those uncertain beginnings and gradually find its footing.

The real strength of LDS, he emphasizes, lies in its people. Many team members have stayed with the company for over 15–20 years, a rarity in the IT ecosystem. Amarnath attributes this loyalty to a culture that values growth, fair remuneration, continuous learning, and genuine care. “If you take care of your people, they will take care of your customers”—a philosophy that has guided LDS through every phase of technological change, from on-prem servers to the era of cloud and now generative AI.

Partnerships have been equally crucial. Over the years, LDS has maintained strong relationships with OEMs, with Crayon playing an instrumental role—especially in its AWS business. Crayon’s pre-sales, post-sales, GTM support, and regular training have helped LDS grow a base of 100+ cloud customers and strengthen its position in the market.

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E-SOFT: FROM LICENSING EXPERTISE TO A VALUE-DRIVEN CLOUD PARTNER

“CRAYON IDENTIFIED THE GAPS TRADITIONAL DISTRIBUTORS IGNORED — BRINGING REAL VALUE, SPEED, AND TECHNICAL STRENGTH THAT HELPED US WIN.”

RAJNIKANT DAS
FOUNDER, 
E-SOFT

For Rajnikant Das, founder of E-Soft, entrepreneurship wasn’t a childhood plan but a journey born from resilience and adaptability. Coming from a service-class family, Rajnikant initially aspired to pursue engineering or management like many of his peers. When early academic goals didn’t materialize, he redirected his path—studying economics, completing his MBA, and entering the IT world just as the software ecosystem in India was taking shape. His early exposure to Microsoft’s OEM and licensing business gave him a deep understanding of compliance and software asset management at a time when few partners knew its importance. In 2003, he founded E-Soft with a simple but sharp differentiation: mastering the complexity of licensing. At a time when most partners focused on hardware and networking, E-Soft carved a niche by bringing clarity to licensing programs and compliance, quickly scaling to double- digit Microsoft business within a few years. As technology shifted, the company expanded into backup, storage, security, and later cloud services.

Rajnikant credits Crayon as a catalyst in this transition. Unlike traditional distributors, Crayon brought real pre-sales, technical depth, and GTM support—helping E-Soft win deals, respond faster to customers, and adopt AWS with confidence. The combination of Crayon’s value-added approach and AWS’s global trust has enabled E-Soft to stay relevant and competitive in a rapidly maturing market.

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MAGNAMIOUS SYSTEMS: BUILDING LONGEVITY THROUGH ADAPTABILITY AND STRONG ECOSYSTEMS

“IN THE CLOUD WORLD, NO DISTRIBUTOR ADDS VALUE LIKE CRAYON—THEY’VE BEEN PIVOTAL IN EVERY MAJOR MIGRATION WE’VE UNDERTAKEN.”

JITEN MEHTA
DIRECTOR, 
MAGNAMIOUS SYSTEMS

For Jiten Mehta, Director of Magnamious Systems, the company’s 36-year journey has been defined by resilience, reinvention, and a deep understanding of the IT ecosystem. Founded in 1989—when computers had barely entered the mainstream—the company has witnessed every major shift in the industry, from the rise of Microsoft and IBM to the Y2K wave, the dot-com boom, and today’s cloud-driven world. Despite the constant churn, Magnamious has managed to stay “fit and growing,” as Jiten puts it, building a business that now spans nearly four decades.

Jiten credits this longevity to two core principles: adopting niche technologies early and putting people first. Whether it was MDR in 2021 or other emerging technologies, Magnamious always embraced innovations ahead of the curve—helping the company win new logos even when adding customers became increasingly difficult. Equally important has been the focus on employees and customer relationships, with some clients staying with the company for over 20 years.

A crucial part of their success, Jiten notes, is the strength of the broader ecosystem. The partner–OEM–distributor relationship functions as a triangle—each side essential, each dependent on the other. In this dynamic, Crayon has played a pivotal role. From AWS expertise and migration support to technical enablement and GTM guidance, Crayon has consistently acted as a true value-added distributor, helping Magnamious navigate complex cloud transitions and unlock new opportunities.

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CONCLUSION

The conversations with these ten partners underscore one defining truth: cloud growth is no longer a solo journey—it thrives through empowered ecosystems. Each organisation we spoke to has a different story, a different customer base, and a different business DNA. Yet they converge on a common belief: with the right support structure, the cloud becomes a platform for endless possibility. Crayon’s partner-first enablement—ranging from architectural guidance and cost governance to sales acceleration and capability development—has been instrumental in turning those possibilities into tangible outcomes.

What emerges from these stories is a portrait of an industry in motion. These companies aren’t merely implementing cloud solutions; they are shaping how Indian enterprises think about agility, resilience, and scale. Their collaboration with AWS amplifies this impact, giving them the global infrastructure, security, and innovation backbone needed to meet the rising expectations of customers across sectors.

As India continues its rapid digital shift, the role of partners becomes even more crucial. The journeys showcased in this series are more than business milestones—they are signals of where the industry is headed. With committed partners, strong alliances, and a shared vision for cloud-led transformation, the next decade of India’s technology landscape promises to be one defined by greater collaboration, deeper innovation, and unmatched growth momentum.