60% of our new hires will be from India: Ensono’s CEO

Ensono, a managed services provider, is marking its 10th anniversary with rapid global expansion and a strong focus on India, now its largest talent hub. With 60% of its business in mainframe services and the rest in cloud, Ensono is capitalising on a growing demand for modernisation amid a global skills shortage.

During his latest visit to India, chief executive officer Jeff VonDeylen spoke to TechCircle about the journey so far, India plans, and future growth prospects for this Illinois-based firm. Edited excerpts:

Ensono just celebrated its 10th anniversary. How has the company evolved since its founding, especially in India?

We marked our 10th year this August. In 2018, we acquired Wipro’s data center business, which at the time was about a $200 million operation, mostly in the US, with a smaller presence in Europe. Anywhere Wipro had hosted data centre services, they decided to divest, and we acquired those facilities. That included several data centers in the US, Germany, and Singapore, along with the clients running mainframe systems as well as distributed or private cloud infrastructure in those locations.

The acquisition also brought over about 350 India-based employees (of the total 900), dedicated to serving those clients. This marked our first significant India-based employee group. At the time, we were already planning to expand into a global service model, with a ‘follow-the-sun’ delivery approach between the US and India. Unlike other US companies that take a build-operate-transfer (BOT) approach, we gained a ready-made, skilled team from day one.

Since then, our India team has grown from 350 to just under 2,000 people, supporting our operations worldwide. Out of our total workforce of 3,800, a little more than half are now based in India.

Ensono today is a managed services provider with just over $1 billion in annual revenue. Back in 2018, when we made the Wipro acquisition, we were at $450 million. That’s more than doubling in size over the past several years. About 10% of our revenue comes from subcontracted work where Wipro owns the client relationship. We’re also a go-to mainframe partner for other Indian firms like Infosys and Tech Mahindra.

How are you planning to grow in India?

India is our largest talent hub and will keep growing faster than any other location. We target 10–15% annual revenue growth, and our talent base will expand at roughly the same pace. About 60% of new hires will be in India.

We don’t currently provide services within India itself. Our go-to-market teams are primarily based in the US, with a smaller presence in the UK. About 85% of our business comes from US-based clients, though many of those organisations have substantial operations in India.

For now, our market focus has been the US and UK. But looking ahead over the next five years, geographic expansion will be an important factor in reaching our long-term objectives. We are evaluating which new markets make the most sense for us, and any decision will align closely with the industry verticals we serve.

Financial services and insurance are two of our largest sectors, and both have strong market presence in India. That makes India, along with other select markets outside the US and Europe, a compelling option as we consider our next stage of growth.

How is the business split today between mainframe and cloud services?

About 60% of our work is supporting applications on mainframes. The other 40% is focused on private or public cloud, often for the same clients. Our mission is to help organisations optimise, modernise, and manage applications across all three environments.

How do you see the mainframe market today?

When we look at the mainframe market as a whole, we estimate that roughly 50% is currently outsourced, with the other half still managed in-house by clients. In the US alone, that represents about a $12 billion market opportunity. Globally, it is likely double that, given the number of countries where the mainframe remains a core platform, particularly within IBM’s installed base.

Mainframe remains the engine room for many of our clients, particularly in financial services, insurance, and manufacturing. For some, 60–80% of their revenue flows through their mainframe systems, making it one of the most critical parts of their business. That also means there’s a vast amount of valuable data locked within these platforms.

This leaves substantial room for growth, especially as organisations face an aging workforce and a shortage of mainframe skills. Many clients who have traditionally managed these environments themselves are now seeking partners like us to bridge that gap.

The competitive landscape is concentrated: four major providers, Kyndryl, DXC, Atos, and Ensono, hold about 75% of the outsourced mainframe market. In the US, we believe we’re the second-largest provider; globally, we are likely third, roughly on par with DXC in size, with Kyndryl leading after its spin-out from IBM.

Tell us more about your skilling initiative through Mainframe Academy.

The purpose of our Mainframe Academy is to provide structured training and development for new and mid-career talent. For those coming straight out of school, the program starts with foundational training, and our retention rate for these associates is exceptionally high; over the past five years, more than 90% of those who started in the Academy are still with the company, with most continuing to work in mainframe support. Many join without prior knowledge of mainframes, but once trained and developed, they discover a career path they find both exciting and rewarding. 

One of the unique attractions of working here is the breadth of opportunities—whether it’s supporting mainframe applications, working in private or public cloud environments, or contributing as a developer to application migration and cloud-native projects. We don’t lock people into mainframe roles; instead, we offer a variety of career paths across the company.

Your last major acquisition was of ExperSolve in 2022. What’s the M&A philosophy going forward?

Historically, we’ve completed five or six acquisitions aimed at building capabilities. The ExperSolve acquisition strengthened our modernisation expertise, including converting COBOL applications into Java, while our cloud-focused acquisitions enabled us to develop and deploy cloud-native applications on platforms such as Azure and AWS, giving clients a path to migrate certain mainframe applications to the public cloud when appropriate. 

Our M&A approach has been to combine the best of our modernisation capabilities with our digital expertise. Looking ahead, we will continue to pursue acquisitions that enhance our capabilities, but we are also exploring geographic expansion into large mainframe markets such as Japan or Canada, where smaller local players could offer consolidation opportunities. Additionally, we remain open to scale plays, potentially acquiring business units from larger companies that see mainframe infrastructure support as non-core—similar to Wipro’s divestment in 2018.

What’s next for Ensono?

We recently marked over four years under KKR’s ownership, and today we have a unique structure where both KKR and all of our associates are owners of the company, a factor we believe contributes to our strong retention rates.

Given that we’re private equity-owned, we recognise that a transaction is likely at some point, and we anticipate that it could occur within the next 24 months. The most probable scenario is a sale to another financial investor, though we’re keeping all options open. We would welcome a more favorable IPO environment, particularly for growth-oriented technology companies, as that could present another viable path.

From my perspective, our strong growth trajectory and well-defined strategy would be highly attractive to another financial buyer. In the meantime, our focus remains squarely on executing our growth plans and delivering results. If we continue to do what we do best, we are confident the ownership outcome will take care of itself."