The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

A Bahamas-based cloud services provider yesterday said its planned Latin American expansion is just two years away.

Scott MacKenzie, Cloud Carib's chief executive, told Tribune Business that being named in the top 10 managed service providers in the world is a signal The Bahamas is “moving in the right direction" when it comes to embracing technology and digitisation.

Speaking to the development of cloud services in the Caribbean, and the role that Cloud Carib will play, he added that the company plans to continue its regional expansion followed by a “push into Latin America within the next 12 to 24 months".

Cloud Carib already has a presence in 12 other Caribbean countries prior to “pivoting” into the Latin American market, and will continue to focus on clients in the public sector, banking and healthcare as it continues to court new markets..

Mr MacKenzie said: “From a competition perspective, as companies compete, they strive for increasing their profile globally and you have to do that through industry confirmation.

“So as an example, Cloud Carib is CSA (Cloud Security Alliance) star level two and CSA star trusted cloud, so we are one of only six companies worldwide - along with companies like Amazon and Oracle - so that tells customers we have the highest security thresholds worldwide, measured by industry experts.”

Cloud Carib anticipates that its high global ranking as a managed cloud services provider will translate into customer growth. Mr MacKenzie explained that the company's “sovereign cloud services” does not mean it is solely focused on public sector clients despite most of its customers being Caribbean governments.

“Sovereign cloud means we basically supply the same types of services as Amazon and AWS (Amazon Web Services) and stuff, but we do it inside the jurisdiction for the protection of the population of those countries,” he said.

“So this means your data is located in your country, and if there’s any judicial issues you can go directly to your local courts and it’s within your remit. If your data is in the US that increases the complexity for you as a citizen to protect your personally identifiable information.”