How Mainstream turned internal alignment into market momentum

Mainstream is a cloud-native technology company that has been building its expertise in cloud infrastructure since 2005.

Over two decades, the company has grown into one of the leading cloud providers in the Southeast Europe region, with:

100+ cloud & system engineers
Data centre ecosystem spanning 6 countries
200+ enterprise customers

In recent years, accelerating digital adoption, the rise of cloud-native startups, and the increasing convergence of cloud with AI have fundamentally shifted customer expectations. Public cloud, once viewed as a niche within a niche, has become a critical growth area. At the same time, Mainstream found itself in a unique position: balancing a mature, successful private cloud business with an emerging public cloud practice.

To capitalise on the opportunity ahead, and to align the organisation around a clear path forward, AWS partnered with align.me to help Mainstream to capitalise on the public cloud opportunity.

SNAPSHOT:

Founded: 2005
Industry: IT Services & Consulting
Size: 100+
Key challenge: Cloud strategy & differentiation
align.me services: GTM design & support

The challenge

Mainstream's challenge wasn't capability, it was clarity.

Despite strong technical expertise and a mature private cloud practice, the business faced a set of increasingly complex strategic challenges as they related to this new opportunity:

A broad, self-competing portfolio: Covering private, public, and hybrid cloud meant Mainstream was often competing with itself, making it difficult to define where to focus and how to differentiate.
A maturing private cloud vs. emerging public cloud opportunity: While private cloud was well-established, public cloud (particularly AWS) represented a high-growth but less-defined area of the business.
A “niche within a niche” positioning problem: Public cloud services were harder to articulate and differentiate beyond certifications, with many competitors offering similar certifications and technical capabilities.
Rapid market evolution:
- Customers becoming more sophisticated
- Rise of cloud-native startups
- Increasing shift from private to public cloud
- Cloud increasingly tied to AI and innovation
Internal misalignment across teams: Sales, marketing, and technical functions held different perspectives and didn’t share direction on priorities. Previous strategy efforts had struggled to cut through the noise, leaving the business with many viable options but no clear, agreed path forward.

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For the first time, we had all the key stakeholders of the company, sit together and really cross-reference our own unique perspectives. We have tried this before, and we’ve been trying for years, but the PTP finally helped us achieve a clear direction that cut through the noise. We now feel completely internally aligned.

Tamara Dutina, Public Cloud Manager, Mainstream

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The strategy

To step back from day-to-day execution and bring clarity to their next phase of growth, Mainstream worked with align.me through the AWS-sponsored Partner Transformation Program (PTP).

PTP is a structured growth program designed to help AWS partners align their go-to-market strategy, sharpen positioning, and build a clear, actionable 3-year plan to accelerate cloud growth. Delivered through align.me’s Funnel Camp™ methodology, the program brings together key stakeholders to work on the business – not just in it.

To date, more than 600 growth businesses from 50 countries have participated, achieving on average a doubling of pipeline after 12 months.

For Mainstream, the timing was critical.

“We had all the ingredients, but not the recipe” – Tamara Dutina – Public Cloud Manager, Mainstream

Across a series of structured workshops, align.me brought together Mainstream’s key leaders from across sales, marketing, delivery, and technical teams, pushing them to answer fundamental questions:

Where we’re strong & where we need to tighten up
Why are we doing this
What are we really good at
Why do customers really engage with us
What do we really deliver
Why are we successful in projects
What are our growth ambitions

Looking ahead

While Mainstream is still in the early stages of executing its new strategy, Tamara described some of the immediate impacts of the PTP:

1

Full internal alignment across leadership: For the first time, sales, marketing, delivery, and technical teams were aligned around a shared direction and set of priorities.
2

Clarity on where to focus: The team left with a clear understanding of which opportunities to pursue, and which to deprioritise, reducing internal noise and accelerating decision-making.
3

A structured, actionable growth plan: Strategy was translated into practical next steps, establishing a 3-year execution plan with defined ownership across the organisation.
4

Improved confidence and momentum: With a clear path forward, the team regained confidence in their direction and ability to execute.
5

Stronger cross-functional collaboration: The process established a new way of working, bringing teams together to align, challenge assumptions, and move forward as one.

"Having the fresh perspective from align.me helped us reignite the spark that we already had." – Tamara Dutina – Public Cloud Manager, Mainstream

With clarity across both strategy and execution, the business is now positioned to accelerate its public cloud growth with confidence.

A follow-up review is planned in 6–12 months to measure the full commercial impact of the program.

"We can now see the big picture, the micro tactics, and every task in between. Everyone has their own parts." – Tamara Dutina – Public Cloud Manager, Mainstream