The Tribune

By NATARIO MCKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

A BAHAMAS-based cloud computing company is hoping to “cash in” on the growth in offshore data storage and leverage its services to international firms, telling Tribune Business it was “fully equipped” to meet their needs.

Ryan Austin, project manager at CloudCarib, said the company had recently obtained a new VMware validation - VMware VCloud Powered status - for offshore cloud data centres, which placed the company and the Bahamas “on the map” for offshore cloud hosting.

This development, he said, meant international companies could now run their servers or host a subset of servers in the Bahamas.

“That’s huge because with the whole Eric Snowden-NSA controversy, many offshore companies are looking for ways to store their data, although that’s not something they’re broadcasting,” Mr Austin said.

“We have seen growth in the offshore data storage industry because of policies in certain jurisdictions and countries, particularly European countries, which want to store their data outside the US.

“They’re looking at places like the Bahamas that are known to have data protection policies and laws.”

Mr Austin said that having obtained this latest validation, the company was hoping to cash in on international firms, particularly those who may already have a Bahamas base of operations.

“They can see the Bahamas and CloudCarib as an option so they can store their data in this jurisdiction. It would be like second home. They know that the data protection is here, and if anything needs to be physically touched they already have staff here,” added Mr Austin.

“We continue to push to get these certifications. We have the exact same certifications that much larger cloud providers in the US have, although we are a smaller company. We are fully equipped with the offshore offering to deal with our client’s requests. Even in the Caribbean we are the only offshore cloud provider powered by VMware.”

Mr Austin said the company’s website has been receiving numerous hits since the announcement of its latest validation, but he noted that Bahamian response has been slow, though expected.

Mr Austin, though unable to quantify the growth, said CloudCarib had seen noticeable expansion year-over-year.

Cloud Carib, a Microsoft BizSpark start-up, has a core focus on infrastructure and application virtualisation. The company offers personal service to all clients and customers.