Economy Minister Edwina Hart officially unveiled Alert Logic’s new state-of-the-art European HQ and Security Operations Centre in Cardiff yesterday and said their investment would reinforce the region’s reputation as a prime location for the Trust and Security sector.
Alert Logic, which is headquartered in Houston, is a leading provider of Security-as-a-Service for the cloud and its new UK centre is based in the heart of Central Cardiff Enterprise Zone in the Welsh Government’s Capital Quarter offices, while its UK datacentre is in Newport.
Alert Logic’s new centre is now fully operational; the company has already recruited 49 highly skilled operatives of the 130 jobs planned over the next two years.
Speaking at the opening the Minister said: “I am delighted to welcome Alert Logic to Wales and the technology and expertise they bring. They are a very valued addition to the growing cluster of companies operating in this highly specialist area in Wales.
“Alert Logic could have established their new Security Operations Centre anywhere but chose Wales because of the available skills base and support available. The opening of their new European headquarters today is excellent news and sends out a strong message that Wales is indeed the most secure place in the UK to establish a technology business.”
The Minister added that the South Wales region particularly has a high concentration of innovative companies and academic expertise in the Trust and Security sector including homeland security, cyber security, counter terrorism and major event security. Earlier this week CGI announced it was creating 620 jobs in Bridgend with many of the posts involved in cyber security operations.
The region is recognised as the prime location for both R&D and the commercialisation of security and defence products and services.
The investment, backed by £1.15m business finance from the Welsh Government, will enable the company to expand into the European, Middle East and African markets.
CEO Gray Hall said:” The opening of our new European SOC, coupled with our recently launched UK datacentre, enables us to be closer to our growing number of European customers and deliver them continuous protection and deep security and compliance insights, regardless of where their IT resides, be it in the cloud, on-premises or in a hybrid environment.”
David Howorth, Vice President EMEA said:” Since our initial decision to invest in Wales back in April, we have continued to be impressed with the level of support we have received from the Welsh Government in helping us to establish our operations in the UK.
“The fact we have been able to attract and recruit such a large number of highly skilled employees since its initial inception seven months ago to being fully operational is testament to the ambitions of the Welsh Government and the surrounding universities, to cement the region as a UK hub for cyber security.”
With the combination of highly qualified onsite security analysts and Alert Logic’s market-leading technology, the SOC transforms raw security event data into actionable incidents, providing a valuable perspective on global threat activity that dramatically increases the security and compliance posture of any organisation. The Alert Logic Research team will scour various sources of intelligence and analyse multiple threat intelligence feeds in order to deliver comprehensive security content to the Alert Logic Cloud.