Welcome to The Circuit series. Meet our next interviewee:
At a time when the global tech industry is at both its toughest period and an age of unmatched technological advancement, simply understanding the challenges impacted businesses is hard, let alone overcoming them.
In this exclusive interview with UKTN, Stephen Kelly, a veteran of the global tech industry, discusses how businesses today are facing an unprecedented era of disruption, how having a plan to recover from failure and disaster is non-negotiable, how the UK can move on from its reliance on the US for tech and more.
Currently serving as the chief executive of Cirata (formerly WANdisco), a London-listed firm specialising in data management, Kelly has held many prominent roles crossing the public and private sector. From the CEO of Sage to the chairperson for Tech Nation, from an executive at Oracle to a stint as the chief operating officer of the UK Civil Service, Kelly has seen decades of advancements and headwinds in the industry.
What do you see as the biggest challenge facing UK businesses today?
From where I’m sitting, the biggest challenge is navigating the unprecedented level of disruption across AI, geopolitics and trade, all while staying in control. For UK businesses, this means taking control over data, infrastructure and, ultimately, the long-term trajectory of our entire economic sector in an increasingly complex world.
UK businesses are now operating in a world where data is their most valuable asset, yet much of the infrastructure that stores or processes that data sits overseas. This creates substantial economic and regulatory risks, with global technologies no longer acting as neutral services but powerful tools for geopolitical leverage.
At the same time, companies are facing mounting pressure to modernise quickly with AI and cloud capabilities, initiatives that maintain a profoundly high failure rate for large enterprises.
While this is partially down to the surrounding technology infrastructure, including poor-quality, siloed data, and incompatibility with legacy systems, it is also due to the growing tension between moving fast with innovation, establishing genuine business use cases, and managing risk in the current environment.
Getting that balance right is the defining challenge, ensuring that innovation does not come at the expense of autonomy and someone else overseas controlling the ‘kill switch’.
What is the most important lesson you’ve learnt about leadership during challenging times?
‘Hope’ that everything runs according to plan has never been a tenable strategy, but even more so today. Business leaders must acknowledge the realities of running a company in the current economic and political environment.
From cyberattacks to supply chain disruptions to geopolitical headwinds, we must all shift to addressing weaknesses head-on and implement robust strategies to withstand these pressures. So, the most important lesson I’ve learnt is that planning to overcome failure is completely non-negotiable.
This is particularly true in the current cyber threat landscape. While public memory of incidents that cost billions remains dangerously short, high-profile attacks against JLR, M&S, Co-op and others just months ago showed us that no one is exempt from the threat of such disasters. Therefore, no one is pardoned from requiring a clear disaster recovery plan.
Without disaster recovery and active risk management, companies are exposed to an existential crisis. This must include real-time backups of critical data to minimise downtime, which could spell the difference between an attack costing millions or billions.
As CEO of a FTSE100 company, having been subject to a serious cyber-attack a decade ago, I never want to see Execs suffer the pain, anxiety and stress that I lived through.
Beyond high-level strategy, clarity beats charisma when it comes to team leadership. In difficult periods, people do not need noise; they need direction, and to understand what matters, what does not, and what success looks like.
As always, leaders give away the credit and shine the spotlight on the team when things go well and take responsibility and the bullets when times are tough and things go bad.
How can the UK business sector reduce its over-reliance on US technology and establish its own sovereignty?
First and foremost, we need to be honest about the true scale of the issue. We have sleepwalked into what could become a crisis in the new world order.
Essential services that power our economy, such as hyperscale cloud, data platforms, and AI tooling, are overwhelmingly US-dominated.
This dominance is not a matter of chance, but the strategic outcome of sustained industrial investment, winning mentality and global tech domination.
While reducing reliance does not mean retreating from global markets, there is still a pressing need to build capabilities here in the UK and across Europe to safeguard our digital future.
There are three levers. One is procurement, tapping into the huge buying power of large enterprises and the government. If even a modest percentage of their spending is directed towards innovative British technology firms, the funding landscape completely changes overnight.
Today, sadly, in the private sector, there seems to be ‘tall poppy syndrome’ where companies like Cirata find it easier to win in the US with the biggest US consumer companies rather than with UK companies. Large British enterprises have developed a drug addiction to US tech at the expense of home-grown innovation and UK tech growth.
The second is standards and interoperability. If data can move freely and securely across platforms, organisations aren’t locked in with US providers that may later leave them vulnerable to disruption.
The third is capital, ensuring that pension funds, private and institutional investors back British ventures, particularly in high-potential sectors like Deeptech, for the long term rather than pushing for quick exits.
The bottom line is that sovereignty is not about protectionism and domestic growth, but about resilience and strategic choice.
How can the government work better with enterprises for the benefit of all?
Governments and enterprises need to move away from transactional relationships and dependence on the US toward deeper, intelligent partnerships that support UK tech growth.
The UK has a vibrant startup ecosystem, particularly with four of the world’s top 10 universities, and balanced regulatory frameworks, but its impact is too often stifled by highly fragmented procurement and funding.
When I was the chief operating officer at the British Government, we increased spending on UK technology from 6% to 25%, representing an additional £9bn investment in UK SME tech firms per annum.
This fuelled UK productivity, job creation and boosted investment in the UK. Disappointingly, UK government procurement support for British tech businesses has gone backwards since then, and the dependence on Big Tech is greater than ever.
Now is the time for the UK government to take a more coordinated approach, aligning industrial strategy, skills investment and public-sector procurement around a clear goal: making Britain a leader in data infrastructure and AI.
The government can also serve as a crucial anchor customer within this, just as it did during my tenure as Government COO.
When the public sector backs British technology at scale, it sends a powerful signal to global markets that catalyses investment. Private sector investment follows. However, trust and speed will be paramount; if procurement cycles take years, the innovation–and the opportunity– will simply move elsewhere.
What made you choose to take on your role at Cirata, and what does the future look like for the company?
I was drawn to Cirata because of both its mission, challenge and its timing. The business occupies a critical gap in the market, where enterprises are sitting on vast, complex data estates that simply cannot be leveraged. Cirata operates at the nexus of the AI and data explosion.
While data gravity often tethers companies to ageing infrastructure, the dual demands of AI and compliance are forcing a move toward modernisation. Cirata sits at the intersection of those forces of opportunity.
The potential is unparalleled. As governments and enterprises think more seriously about data sovereignty, portability and hybrid cloud strategies, the need for trusted migration, modernisation and integration capability grows.
The future for Cirata is about becoming the industry standard for complex data orchestration, while proudly being a British technology company on the global stage. If the next decade is defined by who controls data and who can move it safely and freely, we intend to be at the centre of that story.