Civo: from the Ofcom cloud report to data sovereignty

14

pieces of coverage around Ofcom's cloud report, five of them in national outlets

28

pieces of coverage for Civo's data sovereignty research, across three press releases

2nd

in Gemini's brand rankings for data sovereignty by the end of July 2025, behind only SAP

The brief

Civo is a cloud native provider built for developers, offering Kubernetes clusters, GPU compute and supporting services. It competes with AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, and it argues for a fairer cloud market in which organisations keep control of their data. Resonance's role has been to make sure that argument is heard at the moments when the market is paying attention.

2023: Ofcom's cloud market study

Ofcom's market study asked whether the UK public cloud market worked for customers. Its interim findings in April 2023 criticised the hyperscalers for limiting competition through their billing practices. The final report would decide whether AWS, Google Cloud and Azure were referred to the Competition and Markets Authority.

The UK cloud sector had waited six months for the report and every stakeholder wanted a say, so Resonance offered journalists a distinct angle in Civo, a smaller provider taking on the Silicon Valley giants, and timed its media relations to stand out.

1. Run-upCivo is pitched to journalists who covered the interim findings and Big Tech competition, with a view on every possible outcome
2. Run-upThe commentary lands 13 pieces, including TechCrunch, The Guardian, the Daily Mail, This Is Money, Yahoo News and The Register
3. Report dayAn early start phoning newsrooms and journalists working to tight deadlines
4. Report dayA live interview on BBC Radio 4's Today programme

2025: data sovereignty

In July 2025 Microsoft admitted it could not guarantee data sovereignty to customers in France if the Trump administration demanded access to their data. Civo had long championed sovereign cloud, and Resonance had already run a sovereignty research campaign for it, including a whitepaper Resonance wrote.

1. July 2025Microsoft's admission is reported
2. Within hoursResonance drafts and places commentary from Civo's leadership in tier-one outlets, arguing that sovereign cloud is most important in times of geopolitical uncertainty and industry consolidation
3. ResultEight tier-one pieces, including a letter in the Financial Times and a feature in Forbes
4. End of JulyCivo ranks second only to SAP in Gemini's brand rankings for data sovereignty, ahead of larger companies such as Rackspace

The research gave journalists data to go deeper and kept the story running beyond the news cycle. Across three press releases it earned 28 pieces of coverage in titles including The Register, Computer Weekly, TechRadar Pro and IT Pro.

“Thanks to Resonance, we were able to drive huge momentum for our brand on cloud sovereignty. We were impressed by the impact of the press coverage we achieved, appearing in well known publications and building great relationships with key journalists. This has also directly helped generate opportunities for our business, setting the stage nicely for Civo to become the de facto thought leader on cloud and sovereignty.”

Ricky Law, Chief Marketing Officer, Civo