CloudWave, which jumped into No. 15 on the 2025 MSP 501, owes its success to a laser focus on healthcare. While many MSPs have healthcare customers, the Marlborough, MA-based CloudWave is completely dedicated to that market.

“I think we've amassed a team with probably more healthcare experience in the MSP space than just about anyone that we stack up against,” CloudWave CEO Erik Littlejohn said. “We typically run across folks who have more of a horizontal orientation, or maybe more of a regional or geographic focus. So I think that's a key differentiator for us, having that focus and breadth of experience in this space. That's really the DNA of our business. It’s not only our customers, but our employees and their experience.”

CloudWave delivers integrated cloud, IT, and security solutions across the entire healthcare IT ecosystem. The MSP hosts and secures Electronic Health Record (EHR) platforms and software applications, protects medical devices, manages backup and disaster recovery, and delivers comprehensive advisory services.

Littlejohn was Chief Administrative Officer for the Perot Systems Healthcare Solutions Group for 13 years. After Dell acquired Perot, Littlejohn and about a dozen colleagues moved to CloudWave, then known as Park Place International, in 2013. The MSP re-branded as CloudWave in 2016. Littlejohn became CEO in 2020 after holding the VP of technology integration and CFO roles.

“We were a band of folks that worked together for a while and built some of the first managed hosted solutions in the space, and looked at this as an opportunity to reboot this legacy VAR business into a managed services and cloud-first company,” he said. “I joke now looking back that I don't think anyone sets out to become an MSP. The mindset was ‘this business model is changing, and we don't want to be a VAR as we go forward.’ So we really had an instinct to develop managed services and bring those to market.”

Erik Littlejohn

Littlejohn said CloudWave’s recurring revenue has jumped from around 15% of total revenue when he started at the company to close to 85% now. CloudWave has grown organically and through acquisitions to about 350 customers and 170 employees. Littlejohn said the MSP adds around 20 to 30 customers a year. He doesn’t see that pace slowing, given today’s healthcare landscape.

“There's still a significant number of hospitals in the US that remain on-premises, and given the evolving complexity and security challenges, they're going to adapt or adopt cloud and managed service solutions at a brisker pace as we move forward,” Littlejohn said. “So I think that'll be an acceleration. And obviously, an acceleration of the cyber threats and the need to adopt AI solutions are just happening at a faster pace.”

Cybersecurity for Healthcare Remains big Opportunity for CloudWave

Because of those accelerating threats, security services make a big part of CloudWave’s business.

“Unfortunately, that's a real need that continues, so what we've tried to do is provide end-to-end solutions so that we can get in on the front end with a customer,” Littlejohn said. “We provide assessments that help them strengthen their cybersecurity posture. We can provide managed services to help them on a day-to-day basis, 24/7. We help them respond to those threats, and in some cases, unfortunately, help them respond with recovery operations and/or consulting in the aftermath of cyber events.”

He said the biggest challenge for CloudWave in 2025 is helping customers adopt AI in a smart, compliant, and safe manner.”

Looking ahead, he said “we expect that we'll be on the leading edge in helping to leverage solutions with healthcare workflows and agentic models that are healthcare-specific and compliant.”