Who we are

Back in 1999, Imraan was 15 and absolutely mad about online gaming. The problem? The servers available for him and his mates were rubbish—laggy, unreliable, and frankly not good enough for serious Counter Strike sessions (see where the name came from now?).

So, being a proper tech-savvy teenager, he decided to do something about it. Along with some friends, he borrowed his parents credit cards to set up his own low-latency servers. They worked brilliantly, and pretty soon other gamers were asking if they could use them too.

What started as a solution to a personal problem quickly became something much bigger. Word spread, and before long, Burstfire was hosting the largest community of Counter Strike clans in Europe. Not bad for a teenager's side project!

As the dot-com boom exploded and the internet became essential for business, something interesting happened. Companies started realising they needed the same thing gamers had been demanding all along—fast, reliable, always-on servers.

The skills that made Burstfire brilliant for gaming turned out to be exactly what businesses needed too. So we pivoted, applying all that knowledge about performance and reliability to help companies run their operations smoothly.

Over the years, as businesses needed more and more from their technology, we kept expanding our services. One thing led to another, and eventually we found ourselves in the MSP space—not because we set out to become an MSP, but because it was the natural evolution of helping businesses with their technology needs.

In 2016, Ant joined the team with a slightly different background. He'd been the IT person at a local accountancy firm in Essex, and had spent his time there figuring out how to make their systems work better and faster. Basically, he was the person who looked at clunky processes and thought "there's got to be a better way to do this."

When Ant joined Burstfire, he brought that same approach—how can we make this smoother for our customers? He started by implementing proper ticketing systems, creating automations, and generally trying to make the customer service experience less painful and more helpful.

From there, Ant got involved in all sorts of customer and business development projects—integrating systems, streamlining processes, and most importantly, standardising our services so every customer gets the same high-quality experience, regardless of which engineer they're working with.

These days, Ant focuses on maintaining customer relationships and constantly improving how we deliver our services. Because brilliant technology is only half the story - how you experience that technology matters just as much.

Here's the thing that really drives us: cybercrime is now a trillion-dollar industry. Let that sink in for a moment.

We live in a world where the difference between having a thriving business and losing everything can literally come down to one click from one employee on one dodgy email. That's terrifying when you think about it.

But here's the problem: Business owners are brilliant at what they do—whether that's running a law firm, manufacturing widgets, or providing professional services. They shouldn't have to become cybersecurity experts on top of everything else. Technology moves so fast that it's virtually impossible to run a business in your chosen field AND stay up to date on every emerging threat and security trend.

That's where we come in. We've been living and breathing technology for over two decades. We've seen how the threats have evolved, how businesses have adapted, and what actually works in the real world (not just in theory).

Our job is simple: Keep your business safe so you can focus on what you do best.

We grew up with technology. Imraan has been working in IT since he was 15 and Ant since he was 17—not because they studied it in university, but because they were solving real problems with real technology. That's over 40 years between them of hands-on experience watching technology evolve.

We understand business operations. Ant's background in streamlining business processes means we don't just throw technology at problems—we understand how your business actually works and how technology should fit into that.

Security isn't an afterthought for us. While other IT companies bolt security onto their existing services, we built our entire approach around keeping businesses safe first.

We're proper local. We're not a massive corporation with call centres overseas. We're a UK business helping other UK businesses, and we understand the unique challenges you face.

We care about the experience. Technology should make your life easier, not more complicated. Every system, every process, every interaction we design is focused on making your experience as smooth as possible.

Twenty-five years on from those first gaming servers, we're still the same company that believes technology should work brilliantly and not cause headaches. The scale might be different, but the principle remains the same: if something isn't working as well as it should, let's fix it.

We've helped businesses across the UK strengthen their security, streamline their operations, and actually start enjoying their relationship with technology instead of dreading it.

The best part? We're still learning, still improving, and still genuinely excited about helping businesses like yours succeed. Because at the end of the day, your success is our success.

Curious about the people behind Burstfire? Head over to our leadership team page to get to know us a bit better. Or if you'd like to understand more about what drives our approach to business, check out our values.

Want to see how our story might help write your business's next chapter? We'd love to have a chat about what you're trying to achieve and how we might be able to help.