Ed O'Brien

Cloud Practice Director

Ed O’Brien joined Sopra Steria in June 2024, bringing with him nearly three decades of experience in technology, with the past 15 years dedicated to public cloud. His career spans professional services, telecoms, online gaming and financial services, where he has successfully led large scale cloud transformation initiatives across highly regulated industries.

As Cloud Practice Director, Ed leads Sopra Steria’s cloud solutions in the UK, including the cloud governance assessment utilising AI. He is passionate about helping clients unlock value faster, reduce risk and gain clarity across their cloud environments.

Guided by a simple principle of shortening the time to value, he is committed to enabling clients to gain insights quickly, act with confidence and stay in control of their digital journeys.

Ed enjoys playing five a side football, watching his favourite team Liverpool, mountain biking and being anywhere outdoors with his wife and four children.

Latest Publication

Latest Publications

When Cloud centres of excellence become the bottleneck

Ed O'Brien

Why Cloud Centres of Excellence struggle at scale, and how shifting from manual reviews to automated, embedded control via a unified control plane enables faster, safer and more confident cloud delivery.

Cloud transformation has a control problem, not a technology problem

Ed O'Brien

Cloud transformation has reached a control inflection point. A Unified Control Plane enables governed workflows, embedding AI to scale change without increasing cost or risk.

Cloud governance assessment: speed, savings and security for your cloud estate

Ed O'Brien

Cloud adoption is accelerating, but without governance it can lead to rising costs, risks and inefficiencies. Our AI-powered Cloud Governance Assessment provides rapid insights across cost, security, performance and sustainability — helping organisations build visibility, resilience and long-term value from cloud.

Getting the foundations right: why fundamentals matter for the public sector cloud journey

Ed O'Brien

The drive to modernise the public sector has never been stronger. Yet the lesson from DigiGov was clear: cloud innovation only delivers long-term value when it’s grounded in the right foundations.