Irish software company Fort Technologies is to create 10 new jobs as part of a new €1.36m investment supported by Enterprise Ireland. The company is collaborating with DataSolutions to deliver its new cloud service SilverLine.
The cloud business management software company is hiring 10 people to support its export and Irish market development plans.
The company has committed €1.36m investment to software development and marketing since its founding in 2008, including the latest round of €260,000 from Enterprise Ireland and private equity investors.
Fort’s MyWorld is an integrated cloud business management system designed to make it easy for data centres and other traditional ICT services providers to sell, support and automate the rollout and management of cloud services for businesses.
Today also sees the opening of the Fort Technology powered SilverLine, which is a new service from DataSolutions, which will see a portfolio of cloud services delivered to end customers through an innovative IT channel model that complements the traditional structure of the IT service industry.
The 10 new jobs being created by Fort Technologies will be filled by the end of 2012 and will bring the total number employed by the company to 20.
The jobs will be in the areas of software development, engineering, sales and marketing and will be mainly based at its new headquarters in Citywest, Co Dublin.
Fort Technologies recently opened a UK business development office and this will be followed by further international openings as its sales expand into other markets.
The company is currently developing substantial new business opportunities with data centres and cloud infrastructure providers in Israel, the Nordics, North America and South Africa.
Fort Technologies was founded in 2008 in response to the demands from the traditional IT service provider channel for a way to sell, deliver and manage an entire cloud offering to multiple customers from a single interface.
A whirlwind from start-up to selling software
“From development to commercialisation it has been a whirlwind,” Gerry Murray, chief executive officer, Fort Technologies, explained.
“We already have 90 service providers on the platform supporting hundreds of end customers, which I believe demonstrates the truly disruptive innovation that we believe will change the way the market delivers cloud services.
“With our unique approach and highly intuitive software, 40 minutes is all it takes to design, price and deliver a cloud service to a new customer. We believe that this beats anything else on the market and it is this ease of set-up which makes this such a compelling model for service providers and end customers.
“We are very excited about the DataSolutions SilverLine venture, as we believe that this is a great way to expedite our business development through Ireland’s most respected value-added IT distributor.”
Fort Technologies was shortlisted for Irish Software Association Awards 2010 for most promising new software company and most significant technical innovation.
A safer way to the cloud
Michael O’Hara, managing director of Data Solutions, which today launched SilverLine for Irish businesses, commented: “It is all about finding a safer way to the cloud for both the end user and the Irish channel.
End users are able to work with their existing hands-on IT service provider who understand the end customer’s business and can safely migrate back-office IT infrastructure and applications into the cloud at a pace that suits them.
“We enable IT channel providers to deliver a top quality cloud service to end customers and retain that direct relationship that customers trust. Critically, all data is stored in Ireland, which ensures regulatory compliance and optimised application performance.”
Photo: Michael O’Hara, managing director of Data Solutions and Gerry Murray, chief executive officer, Fort Technologies
