Bermuda’s largest information technology company just got bigger. Applied Computer Technologies has acquired cloud and technology services firm Ignition Bermuda Ltd.

The deal consolidates two of the island’s significant cloud services providers under the ACT umbrella.

All Bermuda technical and management staff at Ignition have been offered post-merger positions.

It is a “good news story for Bermuda,” said David Bart, chief executive officer of ACT.

“There are no perceived redundancies. Everyone has been offered a position in the merger.”

He said the joining of the companies was driven by market conditions, adding: “It is a natural progression to where the market is. There is some symmetry and it tied in with our move into the cloud space.”

Last year the company invested close to a million dollars as it created and tested a fully structured cloud service, known as ACT CloudOne, that is hosted in Bermuda.

In January, Mr Bart said cloud computing was the future for ACT.

With the merger he believes the company can further speed up its growth and presence in the cloud space.

“It’s an opportunity for us to advance and it establishes us as the leader in the market,” he said, noting that Ignition was an early adapter to the world of cloud computing services.

The merger involves Ignition Bermuda’s core technology platform. Graham Pearson, president and CEO of Ignition, said the deal would be good for clients with the Ignition teams continuing their work with more business depth.

He explained that leading up to the deal Ignition had reached a crossroads. “We had to decide whether to follow the GRC side (governance, risk and compliance) or continue the cloud business,” he said.

Ignition has been in the managed cloud platform and disaster recovery arena for more than a decade.

Mr Pearson has reassured clients of Ignition that: “Essentially it will be business as usual but with much needed additional resources and the combined entity of Ignition and ACT will provide clients with access to more skills, products, services and the largest IT support organisation in the region.”

He will continue to run Paragon GRC Solutions, which is a Bermudian-headquartered company offering software and consulting services, with a focus on offshore governance, risk and compliance. Its team and partners service Bermuda and other offshore markets, including the Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, Caymans, and the Channel Islands.

Meanwhile ACT, which has offices in Par-la-Ville Road, will see its employee count rise to around 60 as a result of the merger.

Mr Bart said: “We are very excited to be bringing our established and successful service methodology to the Ignition customer base.

“By acquiring Ignition we are poised to leverage our recent investment in cloud technology and provide the island with the only true offshore cloud infrastructure where data can reliably and safely be stored.”

ACT has been in business for 33 years and was initially a reseller of Compaq and Hewlett Packard computers before moving into systems integration and service and engineering in the early 2000s.

Regarding the merger, Mr Bart added: “It reinforces our commitment to ensuring Bermuda has all of the core technologies required to support the global landscape of our customer base.”

He said ACT will, following the merger with Ignition, have the ability to support solutions in multiple jurisdictions, including the US, Canada, the Caribbean and Britain.

ACT has a website at http://www.act.bm/. Paragon GRC has a website at http://www.paragongrc.com/