Cantono’s origins go back to 1992, with the founding of iRevolution. From the outset, iRevolution concentrated on providing a range of IT services. From 1997 onwards it focussed increasingly on managed and hosted services, opening its first data-centre in 1999.
In 2003, iRevolution became part of the Hamsard Group which was founded in 2002 to bring together companies with a strong technology base devoted to providing innovative business solutions. In 2005, Hamsard was quoted on the AIM division of the London Stock Exchange.
In 2006, Hamsard took the strategic decision to focus specifically on managed services as the area offering the best potential to serve our clients.
Accordingly, the company made three strategic acquisitions of companies offering complementary technologies.
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Blue River Systems, specialising in such areas as managed broadband and managed firewalls
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NSA Solutions, with a portfolio of managed and hosted services, including email, web site management, and managed Blackberry.
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The Managed Services division of CSF, a company which was also founded in the early 1990s, and which had been providing a portfolio of managed services since 2002.
All four companies have been integrated into a single business and commercial entity.
In order to underline the increased strategic focus on managed services, Hamsard was renamed Cantono in March 2007. The CEO of Cantono, Eamus Halpin, was an original founder of iRevolution The Chairman, Mike Northall, was previously Managing Director of CSF. The leadership of Cantono thus provides an unusual level of continuity.
In August 2007, Cantono announced that it had raised major additional funds for the acquisition of new, high-quality data centre space.