Cloud services firm Ignition has made investments in its Bermuda platform amid rising demand for its services.

The company said yesterday that it would also be moving one Level 3 engineer from its Canadian operations in Halifax to Bermuda to help keep up with the resurgence in demand for offshore private hosting solutions.

Ignition group chief executive officer Graham Pearson said the pick-up in business, after several years of decline in the Island’s technology sector, was occurring against a backdrop of renewed optimism — and technology investment.

“Even before the America’s Cup announcement, we were seeing more positive signs,” Mr Pearson told The Royal Gazette. “During the past six to eight months, we’ve been seeing people loosening the purse strings and feeling better about things.

“Since the America’s Cup announcement, the tide of positivity has been rising and people are feeling good about the Island, good about themselves and good about their businesses.”

Mr Pearson believes that the key factors driving boosting demand for Ignition’s services are a growing appreciation of the benefits of cloud services among companies large and small, as well as improvements in the Island’s technology infrastructure.

“The big difference these days is that the question is no longer, ‘Should I move to the cloud?’” Mr Pearson said. “Now it’s, ‘I know I have to move to the cloud, so how do I do it?’

“Also, there is now a good infrastructure in Bermuda. There are two or three local loops providing high bandwidth at affordable prices.”

Many companies specifically wanted to store data in Bermuda in order to keep them offshore, Mr Pearson added, rather than expose themselves to the risk of storing it onshore.

“Out of every ten inquiries, I would estimate that eight want to keep their data offshore, one is okay with it going to Canada and one doesn’t care where it goes,” Mr Pearson said.

While many businesses are drawn to cloud services by IT cost savings and the freeing of their own IT staff to focus on strategic issues rather than dealing with day-to-day matters, the biggest concern is usually security, Mr Pearson said.

Many of Ignition’s clients prefer using a “private cloud” rather than a shared platform.

Mr Pearson has been based in the Cayman Islands for some time, but recently returned to Bermuda to oversee the growth the Island is seeing. Ignition also has operations in Jamaica, Trinidad and Canada. The group employs 80 people (plus a number of contractors), including 20 in Bermuda.

The cloud computing sector is a global growth story and offers great opportunities for Bermudians, according to Mr Pearson. He intends to work with Bermuda College to advise on how it can help offer the educational options to enable students to enter the industry.