WANdisco grows its NI centre with £7m investment and 33 jobs

Pictured (L-R) are George McKinney, Invest NI's Director of Technology & Services; and David Richards, CEO of WANdisco.

Live Data company WANdisco is investing over £7million in Research and Development (R&D), a new skills programme and the creation of 33 jobs as part of plans to increase capabilities at its Belfast software development centre.

WANdisco is a leading provider of live data migration and replication solutions that enable global organisations to accelerate their digital transformation in the cloud. The company’s patented Live Data Platform allows customers to automate the migration of their on-premises data to the cloud without business risk or operational downtime, accelerating time-to-value from months or years to a matter of days.

George McKinney, Invest Northern Ireland’s Director of Technology & Services, said: “Over 70% of inward investors reinvest in Northern Ireland, and I am delighted that WANdisco is continuing this trend. The Department for the Economy’s 10X Vision lays out an ambitious plan to ensure that innovation is at the forefront of future thinking in our region. WANdisco is a great example of a company that recognises this, showing that investing in innovation can lead to long-term commercial benefits, including job creation and increased external sales.

“We’ve been working with WANdisco for almost a decade, providing business advice and R&D support to help it grow its Northern Ireland base. This support is clearly reaping significant benefits for the company and the Northern Ireland economy. The 33 jobs will contribute almost £1.6million in annual salaries to the local economy once they are all in place.” 

WANdisco employs over 180 people globally, with joint headquarters in San Ramon, California and Sheffield, England and offices in Belfast, Newcastle upon Tyne, China, Japan, Australia and South Korea.

Invest NI has offered the company £953,024 of support towards R&D, skills development and the creation of 33 jobs. Job opportunities include software engineers, user acceptance testers, customer success executives, and managerial roles. Recruitment is underway with 3 of the jobs in place.

David Richards, CEO of WANdisco, said: “The skills of our Belfast team combined with Invest NI’s R&D support initially helped us to develop our Live Data Platform which has performed well in markets across Europe and the US. With this new £7million investment, we plan to increase the platform’s functionality to integrate it with international cloud service providers and create 33 jobs. This will pivot our appeal to new global customers. 

“Alongside R&D, we are investing in our Northern Ireland team and their skills with a new training programme. The programme will support the team to upskill in the areas of cloud technology, management and sales. The R&D project will also create an additional 11 roles which will see our headcount double in Northern Ireland over the next three years.” 

In recognition of WANdisco’s commitment to innovation, it has been awarded a Gold Level Innovator Certificate from Innovate NI.

Invest NI is committed to driving innovation in Northern Ireland and is a proud partner of Innovate NI, a Department for the Economy programme, helping local businesses innovate successfully. For further information, visit www.innovateni.com 

Invest NI’s R&D support is part financed by the European Regional Development Fund under the EU Investment for Growth and Jobs Programme 2014–2020.

This support is part funded by the Department for Economy Economic Recovery Action Plan.