After St. Joseph tech firm acquisition, Online Tech expands to KC

Ann Arbor-based Online Tech has acquired a St. Joseph, Mo. cloud firm, paving the way for its expansion into Kansas City.

The cloud security company announced Thursday that it purchased St. Joseph-based Echo Cloud, which provides colocation and cloud hosting services.

Echo Cloud CEO Bill Severn said he’s pleased to be joining the Online Tech team.

“I believe the values we hold match Online Tech’s very well, and I think this will be a great partnership moving forward,” Severn said in a release. “Online Tech has been a leader in compliance for many years,I’m pleased we can now offer HIPAA- or PCI-compliant data hosting to our existing customers here in Kansas City.”

Allowing for easier service management, Severn added that the companies will combine their existing services into Online Tech’s client platform. Wanting to tap the Kansas City market, Online Tech was interested in Echo Cloud for its ability to grow in the Midwest.

With offices in Michigan and Indiana, CEO of Online Tech CEO Yan Ness is excited to expand the firm’s product line.

“I’m very pleased with this deal,” Ness said in a release. “We really like the Kansas City market. There’s lots of demand that we think is underserved, and this is a great opportunity to provide companies in the area with our secure, compliant hybrid IT services.”

Severn, who declined to disclose the amount of the acquisition, will no longer serve as CEO for Echo Cloud, but will stay on the board of directors for Online Tech. The firm will maintain its offices in St. Joseph, Mo.