Bulutistan, Turkey’s fastest-growing technology company, continues to work towards achieving the goal of always doing better for Turkey’s IT sector, and showcased its strong partnership with its stakeholders at the “Bulutistan Customer Summit 2023” event.
At the summit, which was attended by about 400 sector representatives serving Turkey’s IT industry, the digitalization initiative of our country’s 100th anniversary of the Republic was discussed. Bulutistan Turkey General Manager Gökhan Gençtürk, who delivered the opening speech at the event where Bulutistan’s near-term goals were announced, stated that they are stepping closer towards becoming a unicorn. Bulutistan CEO Begim Başlıgil mentioned that they aim to be present in 22 cities in 7 countries by the end of 2023.
As a Turkish company that produces its own software and solutions and has a strong R&D infrastructure, Bulutistan is growing. With the “Bulutistan Customer Summit 2023”, which they initiated to celebrate the Republic’s 100th anniversary and which will become a tradition, Bulutistan brought together the Turkish IT sector. The event, where the future of the IT industry was discussed and attended by nearly 400 sector representatives, was held at Wyndham Grand Istanbul Kalamış Marina. Bulutistan CEO Begim Başlıgil, Bulutistan Turkey General Manager Gökhan Gençtürk, Istanbul Topkapı University Rector and economist Prof. Dr. Emre Alkin, and President of the Association of Information Technology and Services Companies (TUBİSAD) Levent Kızıltan were among the speakers. Speaking as a guest speaker at the event, Bulutistan CEO Begim Başlıgil stated that they aim to be present in 22 cities in 7 countries by the end of 2023, while Bulutistan Turkey General Manager Gökhan Gençtürk mentioned that they are stepping closer towards becoming a unicorn.
The Bulutistan Customer Summit 2023 ended with the customer award ceremony, which was presented in 9 categories, and will be a tradition for Bulutistan.
“As Bulutistan, we have grown threefold compared to last year.”
The General Manager of Bulutistan Turkey, Gökhan Gençtürk, who delivered the opening speech of the event, shared the development of Bulutistan since its establishment 8 years ago. Stating that 2022 was a milestone for them and they achieved many important successes, Gençtürk said, “As Turkey’s fastest-growing technology company and one of Europe’s fastest-growing 20 companies, we have been able to triple our revenue in dollar terms in 2022, implement a special finance community cloud infrastructure for the finance sector, increase our number of employees by 120%, increase our number of business partners by 350%, and triple our infrastructure investments. In addition, we established our operations team’s new campus in the Bilişim Vadisi. Our goals are very high both domestically and internationally. At the end of this beautiful year, I was fortunate enough to take over the flag from our dear CEO, Begim Başlıgil, as of March. In this sense, I am very happy and proud. Because it is very important for me to be able to perform this duty in Bulutistan, which I was only in the idea stage 8 years ago.”
Stating that their biggest goal is to become a unicorn, Gençtürk said, “We are a domestic capital company that wants to be a unicorn, and this is our top priority. We want to be Turkey’s pride in our industry by achieving this success. We cannot do this alone; we will achieve this success with our business partners. Today, with our team of 125 experts, we serve 500 out of Turkey’s largest 1000 companies through 6 different data centers in 3 different geographies, and Turkey’s 20 largest holdings work with us.”
Drawing attention to the fact that world-renowned service providers can offer the goal of keeping Turkey’s data in Turkey through their infrastructure, Gençtürk stated that “Bulutistan has evolved into a different place since its inception. We can now call it a localized hybrid cloud platform or cloud ecosystem, rather than just a cloud platform. Within this ecosystem, we have services offered through our business partners’ cloud infrastructure. As a mission, we collaborate with hyper-scale brands that are both our competitors and business partners. One of the most significant handicaps of our sector is the problem of keeping Turkey’s data in Turkey. While our customers want to keep their data here, they also want to access the services of hyper-scale cloud service providers. We have made this possible through the partnerships and investments we have made as Bulutistan,” he explained. Gençtürk also emphasized that their collaboration with IBM was a significant example of this, stating that they provide their customers with an infrastructure on the IBM Cloud that will keep their data in Turkey.
“We produce different services for the dynamics and expectations of different sectors.”
Gençtürk also explained the other parts of the ecosystem as follows: “We have made the first financial community cloud infrastructure investment in Turkey for the finance sector and its players. Compliance with the BRSA and the Central Bank was essential here. We have obtained all necessary approvals in this regard. Another service we offer within the ecosystem is our SAP Cloud platform. The number of customers benefiting from this platform has increased by 70 percent in the last five years. We are currently continuing our services as the leader in this area with over 50 percent market share in Turkey. Another community cloud we have created is the retail community cloud we invested in specifically for the retail sector. We have seen that the needs and dynamics of sectors are very different from each other as Bulutistan. Performance expectations are also very different outside of regulations. We are making investments by taking this into account and constantly improving ourselves.”
“Our priority has always been our customers’ needs.”
Begim Başlıgil, CEO of Bulutistan, has emphasized since the founding day of the company that their priority has always been their customers’ needs. “The first question we asked ourselves was, ‘What will we do differently and why should our customers choose Bulutistan?’ We took a reverse approach and focused on the question ‘What shouldn’t we do?’ instead of ‘What should we do?’,” said Başlıgil and continued, “Firstly, we should never ask our customers for commitments and we should not bind them with contracts. Secondly, we should not be closed; we should be transparent when our customers entrust us with their data and share information immediately. Thirdly, we should not shy away from taking responsibility. We thought we should not just say ‘It’s not our fault’ even if the problem did not originate from us, but instead be a real solution partner. Finally, we should not be unpredictable; we should not make last-minute maneuvers or scare our customers with prices.” Başlıgil added, “We have been keeping this promise for 8 years now.”
Başlıgil also talked about the global expansion of Bulutistan and said, “We opened our CIS region in 2022 and started our globalization journey with great force. Today, one out of every ten holdings in Azerbaijan works with us. In addition, we are opening our MENA headquarters in Dubai. The UK is also coming this year. Our goal by the end of 2023 is to be present in 22 cities in 7 countries. As you can see, our dream of establishing an international Turkish brand is very big and strong.”
“Artificial intelligence will dominate the IT industry and many other sectors.”
The President of the Turkish Informatics Industry Association (TUBISAD), Levent Kızıltan, who made statements about the information technology sector in Turkey, stated that there has been a huge change in the world of information technology, saying: “When we look at the 2021 figures in the information technology sector in Turkey, we see that everything developed very rapidly and the market closed at around 26 billion dollars, which is 260 billion TL with last year’s exchange rate. We estimate that the market in 2022 is around 400 billion TL in Turkish lira. Due to inflation and exchange rates, the information technology market has declined somewhat, but this is not unique to Turkey; it is being compared with other countries in the world at this scale. We are now facing an incredible change, and this change is artificial intelligence. We will see that many things have changed with artificial intelligence and that the process in daily life has gone in a different direction. Instead of explaining the technologies to decision makers in the industry, if we show them business solutions, the change in both industry and the economy can be much faster.”
“Digitization also means democracy.”
Prof. Dr. Emre Alkin, the rector of Istanbul Topkapı University and an economist, emphasized the importance of digitalization for our country, stating that “Bulutistan (Cloudland) is taking on a huge responsibility because digitalization also means democracy. Digitalization provides equal opportunities in areas such as finance, so a very democratic work is being done here.” He also emphasized that the income levels of the earthquake-prone provinces before the earthquake were not even close to the Turkish average, and more than just building is necessary for the development of these regions. Prof. Dr. Alkin concluded his words as follows: “We cannot develop these regions by building 500 thousand houses and making highways. We need digitalization, we need to establish digital infrastructure, we need sports, health, education, art, and culture. If we do not do these, brain drain is inevitable.”
At the Bulutistan Customer Summit 2023, in which significant technology companies in Turkey participate as stakeholders; Arista/Network Exclusive, Veritas, İnspur, Norm Digital, and Atlas Space were Platinum Sponsors, while Tecron Gold, Netsmart, and ICT Teknoloji were Gold Sponsors. Rigosis Information Systems, Rasyona, Equinix, and Easy-IT companies participated as Silver Sponsors.
At the awards ceremony held at the end of the event, Zorlu Holding, Boyner, Turkon Holding, Çalık Holding, Demirören Holding, Futurence, Kale Holding, İste Gelsin, Kale Clamp Mavi, Bizim Toptan, Flo, Agesa, Ulusal Faktoring, HDI Sigorta, Abdi İbrahim, Global Yatırım Holding, Kale Kilit, Endeksa, Ay Yapım, SabancıDx, Arabam.com, Eren Perakende, Uludağ İçecek, AGEAS, and Yıldız Holding were presented with awards in 9 different categories.
