CloudThat: Empowering the Global Workforce through Pioneer Cloud Training and Consulting
In 2006, Bhavesh Goswami was a "lowly software developer" at Amazon, working on a secret project that would eventually become AWS (Amazon Web Services). His skip-level manager was none other than Andy Jassy, the current CEO of Amazon. When he returned to India in 2011, he found a market completely oblivious to the cloud revolution. That realization sparked the birth of CloudThat, India's first cloud training and consulting firm, which has since trained hundreds of thousands of professionals and scaled to a 500-person global powerhouse.
Goswami's journey is a masterclass in market evangelism and agile innovation. From running a one-man army—handling everything from Google Ads to creating lab content—to becoming a multi-cloud partner for AWS, Microsoft, and Google, he has navigated the shifting tides of technology for over a decade. Today, CloudThat stands at the forefront of the next frontier: Generative AI and Data Analytics, proving that in the world of technology, only the paranoid (and the prepared) survive.
The Speed of Cloud Innovation
When AWS started, it had only 6 or 7 services. By 2011, that number grew to 35. Last year alone, AWS released 150 new services or major features during its re:Invent conference. This accelerating pace of innovation is why specialized training is no longer optional—it's a requirement for survival in the modern IT landscape.
The Early Days: Evangelizing an Invisible Industry
When Bhavesh moved back to India, even the large Global System Integrators (GSIs) were oblivious to the public cloud. "They were still on the periphery... trying to sell their own kind of private cloud instead of embracing AWS," Goswami recalls. AWS didn't even have an office in India—the nearest one was in Singapore.
Recognizing the massive knowledge gap, Bhavesh launched CloudThat in 2012. Initially, he was a one-man army. He would run Google Ads to generate leads, call those leads himself to convert them, and then act as the lead instructor for the training sessions. "I was the one who created the content, I was the one who created the labs. To my surprise, four people paid for the first session, and I thought, 'Oh shoot, now I have to train them!'"
"Entrepreneurship pulls you in all directions as a person. It stretches you like a rubber band—you drive sales, marketing, accounting, and operations all in one day. That's where the growth comes—you surprise yourself with what you're capable of."
The TCS Breakthrough: Scaling to the Thousands
The turning point for CloudThat came in 2013. Bhavesh and a salesperson were called into a meeting at TCS (Tata Consultancy Services). After a rigorous "grilling" on their curriculum and lab capabilities, the TCS leadership dropped a bombshell: they wanted to train 1,000 people in just two and a half months.
"At that time, we had trained maybe 150 people total," Goswami explains. "Suddenly, I'm sitting in the largest IT company, and they are trusting me to train their first batch of cloud guys." For the next few months, Bhavesh lived out of a suitcase, traveling across India to train teams in Chennai, Bangalore, and beyond. This contract established CloudThat's credibility as a pathbreaker capable of high-scale enterprise fulfillment.
The CloudThat Evolution Roadmap
- 2012: Launched India's first AWS training program.
- 2013: Scaled operations through massive enterprise contracts (TCS).
- 2014: Became the first in India to offer Microsoft Azure trainings.
- 2015-2016: Navigated the entry of competitors (Upgrad, Simplilearn) by restructuring marketing and sales.
- Current: Multi-cloud partner (AWS, Microsoft, Google, VMware) with 500+ employees.
Surviving the "Supply-Side" Trap
Success brought its own set of challenges. Between 2013 and 2015, CloudThat's biggest problem was supply, not demand. "We didn't have to worry about the demand side... the leads were coming in organically from referrals," Goswami says. This led to a plateau where growth slowed to just 3-4% in one year.
Recognizing the mistake of ignoring marketing while demand was high, Bhavesh doubled down on building a robust marketing and sales engine. Instead of just fulfilling incoming orders, they built a proactive team that could go out and "bring business" from the market. This restructuring allowed the company to regain its momentum and maintain its 11-year streak of profitability.
A Decade of Cloud Excellence
- Profitability: Profitable every single year for 11 consecutive years.
- Team Size: 500+ dedicated professionals.
- AWS Recognition: Recipient of the "Think Big" Partner award.
- Microsoft Recognition: Honored as the Asia Superstar for Microsoft Learning.
- Pathbreaker Status: First to launch AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud training in India.
Future-Proofing: The Blue Ocean of GenAI
As cloud technology matures, Bhavesh is already looking toward the next "Blue Ocean." He notes that large companies often wait for a market to mature before introducing a course because they need "lack to lack" scale. CloudThat's advantage is its agility.
"Whenever something new comes, we quickly create a course, we quickly launch it, we quickly are talking about it," he explains. This is currently happening with Generative AI. By blogging, writing articles for major publications like Hindustan Times, and integrating GenAI into their consulting GTMs (Go-to-Markets), CloudThat ensures it remains at the absolute forefront of technology.
Founder's Wisdom: The Paranoid Entrepreneur
Embrace Self-Doubt: "Only the paranoid survive." Self-doubt is an asset that keeps you looking at your business viability and potential threats.
Agility is Your Moat: Don't wait for others to rest on a technology. Grab the opportunities in the "white space" before it becomes a Red Ocean.
The Accidental Advantage: You don't always need a master plan. Sometimes, the best businesses happen organically through hustle and being present.
The Meaning of the "Rubber Band" Stretch
For Bhavesh Goswami, entrepreneurship is not a "walk in the park"—it is a grueling but rewarding process of personal growth. He describes the experience as being "stretched from all directions" like a rubber band. From surprising yourself by correcting your CA on accounting clauses to mastering global marketing strategies, the growth comes from the struggle.
"I'm an accidental entrepreneur," he reflects. "I didn't have a master plan... I just knew I wanted to be back in India. But after a while, you start enjoying it because it really pulls you in all directions and shows you What You're Made Of." As CloudThat continues to empower the global workforce, it stands as a testament to the power of returning home, finding a gap, and having the courage to fill it.
About the Guest
Bhavesh Goswami is the Founder of CloudThat. A cloud industry pioneer, Bhavesh was one of the early members of the AWS team at Amazon in the US, where he worked on the initial launch of Amazon S3. He later worked at Microsoft before returning to India in 2011 to launch CloudThat. He holds a Masters in Computer Science from the University of South Florida. Under his leadership, CloudThat has become a globally recognized leader in cloud training and consulting, earning numerous awards from AWS, Microsoft, and Google for its contributions to the technology ecosystem.
CloudThat is a leading global cloud training and consulting firm. As an authorized partner for AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and VMware, the company provides end-to-end solutions for cloud adoption, migration, and workforce upskilling. With a team of over 500 professionals, CloudThat serves mid-market and enterprise clients across the globe, helping them leverage the power of cloud, data analytics, and Generative AI.