Bulutistan, Turkey's fastest growing technology company, continues to work with the goal of always achieving better for the Turkish IT industry and demonstrated its strong cooperation with its stakeholders in the "Bulutistan Customer Summit 2023" event. At the summit, which was held with the participation of approximately 400 industry representatives serving Turkey's IT sector, the digitalization attack of our country at the 100th anniversary of the republic was discussed. Bulutistan CEO Begim Başlıgil, who made the opening speech at the event where Bulutistan's near-term goals were announced, stated that they aim to be in 7 countries and 22 cities by the end of 2023. Turkey General Manager Gökhan Gençtürk stated that they are progressing step by step towards becoming a unicorn;

Bulutistan, which produces its own software and solutions and grows as a Turkish company with strong R&D hardware, brought together Turkey's IT sector with the "Bulutistan Customer Summit 2023", which will become a traditional event launched on the 100th anniversary of the republic. Bulutistan CEO Begim Başlıgil, Bulutistan Turkey General Manager Gökhan Gençtürk, Istanbul Topkapı University Rector and economist Prof. Dr. Emre Alkin, Rector of Istanbul Topkapı University and economist, and Levent Kızıltan, President of the Informatics Industrialists Association (TUBİSAD) took part as speakers at the event held at Wyndham Grand Istanbul Kalamış Marina with the participation of nearly 400 industry representatives and where the future of the IT industry was discussed. In the event where Bulutistan's near-term goals were announced, Bulutistan CEO Begim Başlıgil stated that they aim to be in 22 cities in 7 countries by the end of 2023; Bulutistan Turkey General Manager Gökhan Gençtürk stated that they are progressing step by step towards becoming a unicorn.
Bulutistan Customer Summit 2023 ended with the customer awards ceremony, which Bulutistan will make traditional and which was given in 9 categories this year.

"Our priority has always been the needs of our customers"

Begim Başlıgil, CEO of Bulutistan, who underlined that Bulutistan's priorities have always been the needs of its customers since the day it was founded, said: "The first question we asked ourselves was; 'What will we do differently and why should our customers prefer Bulutistan?' While searching for the answer to this, we followed a reverse method and we focused on the question 'What should we not do?' not 'What should we do?" and continued his words as follows: "First of all, we said that we should never ask for commitments from our customers, we should never bind them with contracts. Secondly, we should not be closed; we should be transparent when our customers entrust us with their data, we should share the information immediately. Thirdly, we said that we should not avoid taking responsibility; whether the problem is caused by us or not, we should not say that it is not us, we should be a real solution partner. And finally, we should not be unpredictable; we should not make last minute maneuvers, we should not scare our customers about the price. We have been keeping this promise for 8 years."

"Our 2023 year-end target is to be in 22 cities in 7 countries"

Speaking about Bulutistan's global expansion, Başlıgil said: "We opened our CIS region in 2022 and started our globalization journey with great strength. Today, one of the 10 holdings in Azerbaijan works with us. In addition, we are opening our MENA headquarters in Dubai. The UK is also coming this year. Our 2023 year-end target 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."

"As Bulutistan, we grew 3 times compared to last year"

Bulutistan Turkey General Manager Gökhan Gençtürk shared how Bulutistan has developed since its establishment 8 years ago. Stating that 2022 was a milestone for them and that they have achieved many important achievements, Gençtürk said, "As Turkey's fastest growing technology company and one of the 20 fastest growing companies in Europe, we managed to triple in dollar terms in 2022, to implement the finance community cloud infrastructure specific to the finance sector, to increase our number of employees by 120 percent, to increase our number of business partners by 350 percent and to increase the infrastructure investments we offer by 3 times. In addition, we established the new campus of our operations team in the Informatics Valley. Our targets are very high both in Turkey and abroad. At the end of this beautiful year, I was fortunate enough to take over the flag from our beloved CEO Begim Başlıgil in March. In this sense, I am very happy and proud because it is very important for me to perform this duty today in Bulutistan, where I was at the idea stage 8 years ago."

"Our biggest dream is to be a unicorn"

Stating that their biggest goal is to become a unicorn, Gençtürk said, "We are a domestic capital company that wants to become a unicorn and this is one of our goals. We want to be the pride of Turkey in our sector by achieving this success. We cannot do this alone, we will realize this success together with our business partners. Today, with our expert staff of 125 people, we serve 500 of Turkey's largest 1000 companies in 3 different geographies through 6 different data centers and Turkey's 20 largest holdings work with us."

Pointing out that Bulutistan's goal of keeping Turkey's data in Turkey can be offered with the infrastructure of world giant service provider companies, Gençtürk said; "Bulutistan has evolved to a different place from the day it was first established. It is no longer just a cloud platform, but Turkey's localized hybrid cloud platform, so we can call it a cloud ecosystem. Within this ecosystem; we have services offered by our business partners over the cloud infrastructure. As a mission, we only cooperate with hyper-scale brands that are our competitors and our business partners at the same time. One of the most important handicaps of our industry 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 hyperscale cloud service providers. The collaborations and investments we have made as Bulutistan make this possible." Pointing out that their cooperation with IBM is an important example of this, Gençtürk stated that they offer their customers an infrastructure through IBM Cloud so that their data will remain in Turkey.

"We produce different services for the dynamics and expectations of different sectors"

Gençtürk explained the other parts of the ecosystem as follows: "For the finance sector and its players, we made a finance community cloud infrastructure investment for the first time in Turkey. The important thing here was compliance with the BRSA and the Central Bank. Another service we offer within the ecosystem is our SAP Cloud platform. In the last 5 years, the number of our customers utilizing this platform has increased to 70 percent. With a market share of more than 50 percent in Turkey, we continue our services as the leader in this field. Another community cloud we have created is the retail community cloud, which we have invested in the retail sector. As Bulutistan, we have seen that the needs and dynamics of the sectors are very different from each other. Apart from regulations, performance expectations are also very different. We make investments and continuously improve ourselves by taking this into consideration."

"Artificial intelligence will dominate IT and many other sectors"

Making statements about the IT sector in Turkey, Levent Kızıltan, President of the Turkish Informatics Industrialists Association (TUBİSAD), stated that there is a huge change in the IT world and said, "When we look at the data of 2021 in the IT sector in Turkey, we see that the figures are as follows; everything developed very quickly and the market closed at about 26 billion dollars, that is, 260 billion TL at last year's exchange rate. In 2022, we estimate that the market is around 400 billion TL in Turkish lira. Due to inflation and exchange rates, the IT market has declined slightly; however, this is not something unique to Turkey, this scaling is done by comparing with other countries around the world. After this, we are facing an incredible change and this change is artificial intelligence. With artificial intelligence, we will see many things change and the process in daily life will go in a different direction. If we show business solutions to the decision-makers working in the industry instead of explaining technologies, the change in the industry and the industry can be much faster."

"Digitalization also means democracy"

Noting that digitalization is very important for our country, Prof. Dr. Emre Alkin, Rector of Istanbul Topkapı University and economist, said, "Bulutistan is taking on a huge responsibility, because digitalization also means democracy. Digitalization provides equality of opportunity in matters such as finance, so a very democratic work is being done here."
Prof. Dr. Alkin emphasized that the provinces in the earthquake zone are not even close to Turkey's average when looking at the pre-earthquake income status research, and that much more than building buildings is necessary for the development of these regions: "We cannot develop these regions by building 500 thousand houses and highways; we need digitalization, we need to build digital infrastructures, we need sports, health, education, art and culture. If we don't do these, brain drain is inevitable."

At Bulutistan Customer Summit 2023, where Turkey's important technology companies are stakeholders; Arista/Network Exclusive, Veritas, Inspur, Norm Digital, Norm Digital and Atlas Space Platinum; Tecron Gold, Netsmart, ICT Technology Gold; Rigosis Information Systems, Rasyona, Equinix and Easy-IT companies took part as Silver Sponsors.

At the award 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 Investment Holding, Kale Kilit, Endeksa, Ay Yapım, SabancıDx, Arabam.com, Eren Retail, Uludağ İçecek, AGEAS and Yıldız Holding were presented awards in 9 different categories.