A new data firm entered the Virgin Islands’ market this week, offering data replication and disaster recovery, information and communication technology management, and hosted and cloud services to offshore and onshore clientele.
The business, which plans to roll out services in the coming months, is a joint venture between Vincent Wheatley, special projects officer and sister island coordinator in the Deputy Governor’s Office; Richard Paverd, founder of the Delaware based-InterContinental Technology; and Ajit George, former Nail Bay managing director.
At a reception Monday evening, VI firm O’Neal Webster and London-based Osiris Financial Management announced they had signed up as the start-up venture’s first clients.
Mr. Wheatley, who has an undergraduate degree in computer science, said the business would bring cutting-edge information technology services to the territory. “What is exciting … is that we hope to provide a world-class service that not only attracts BVI-based clients but also clients based throughout the world, who see the need to have a secure location far away from their own usual place of business,” Mr. Wheatley said.
Speaking on Tuesday, Mr. Paverd said he believes the venture will appeal to clients who want a secure site to store data, or want to have a data presence in the VI.
“If you are looking for data privacy, if you are looking for keeping your information secure, anyone on the technology side of things can trace back any transaction,” he said.
Storage locations
The company already has external storage locations in Canada — which Mr. Paverd said has better data privacy laws than the United States or the United Kingdom — and is looking to expand to Panama. “One of the advantages is that [Panama] is outside the hurricane zone, which is important to us, when people are concerned about disaster recovery and data redundancy,” he said.
Panama, like the VI, has similar data security aspects and no explicit legislation that allows government agencies to access private data, Mr. Paverd said. This may make the VI, like Panama, an attractive destination for data storage, he explained.
Premier Ralph O’Neal, who welcomed the company to the territory, said partnerships between VIslanders and expatriates are crucial for the territory’s development. “It is true that it takes a little while to prime the pump, but that is a very important cog in the wheel of development,” he said.