Like a Chesapeake thunderhead charging up the bay, Cloudforce  is making waves, moving fast, and taking the cloud computing world by storm. And while this revolutionary Inc. 5000 company  may be known as “The Swiss-Army Knife of the Microsoft Cloud,” its headquarters is a lot closer to home, overlooking the soaring Capital Wheel in Maryland’s gleaming National Harbor.

Cloudforce is the latest Maryland Marketing Partnership (MMP) Business Champion, and with good reason. With a force of 50 on staff, Cloudforce punches well above its weight. Customers of its cloud computing and consulting services include luminaries like NASA, the federal departments of Agriculture, Commerce, and Health and Human Services, as well as JBG Smith Properties, and REI Systems. That’s part of the reason Cloudforce has more than doubled in size, growing 205 percent, in just three years. How have they done it? In the best Maryland tradition, with great people and great customer service.

“We’re in the trust business,” says Husein Sharaf, a Washington Business Journal 2021 ‘Forty Under Forty'  honoree who serves as president, chief technology officer, and founder of Cloudforce. “Our customers can go any which way they want, and they choose to come back to us because we’ve built that trust with them.”

Building that trust starts with the right people, and finding those people is why Sharaf moved Cloudforce from Northern Virginia to Maryland.

Sharaf cites the state’s world-class university system and deep talent pool as big drivers for choosing Maryland. And developing and retaining that uniquely talented workforce is another Cloudforce hallmark. A big part of that lies in Cloudforce’s premiere location in beautiful National Harbor which, along with a supportive, growth-oriented corporate climate, earned them a spot on Washington Business Journal’s “Best Places to Work 2022” list .

Proximity to forward thinking, innovative clients both public and private was another strong motivator. “We pick companies that we believe in their mission and we help them navigate their way,” said Sharaf, noting Maryland’s fantastic quality of life made the move even easier, adding, “Now, I walk to work.”

So what’s next for Cloudforce? “If you were to ask our staff,” says Sharaf, “they’d say we’re going to take over the world, but we’ll keep growing responsibly.” And there’s still a lot of room to grow. Cloudforce’s expansive National Harbor headquarters will allow them to add staff and footprint to take on new roles, and industry’s move to the cloud is just beginning.

“This boom to get everything to the cloud, it’s really just the tip of the iceberg,” he says. “There’s so much left to do, it’s easily going to keep us growing for the next seven to 10 years.” With companies like Cloudforce choosing Maryland, the future sure looks bright.

Cloudforce is a partner with the Maryland Marketing Partnership. Learn more about the partnership here .