DigiGuard sells up to Iron Mountain

DigiGuard, a local provider of data protection services, has been acquired by US storage vendor Iron Mountain, for an undisclosed sum.

Macgregor Thompson, founder of DigiGuard said he was looking to sell the company due to familiy pressure to step back from the business. The company has been in operations since 1997.

“We are a local provider of offsite data storage and IT risk mitigation. I decided to sell the business because of the pressures involved with running your own company,” he said.

“A sales agent approached Iron Mountain, who bought us up because its other local acquisition, Pickfords only supplied record storage and not data storage.”

Although Thompson has decided to sell the company, he will remain with Iron Mountain and lead the expansion efforts in A/NZ

“I have decided to become an employee instead of a business owner. However Iron Mountain has given me the autonomy and the capital to expand the business,” he said.

There are no current plans to change DigiGuard’s name, although Thompson said rebranding will occur at some stage later down the track.

“We have no plans as yet to change the way we currently hire sub-contractors to provide data protection services to our direct customer base,” he said.

However the company will look into establishing a channel base through Iron Mountain’s channel partners, said Thompson.

“We will also be looking at expanding our 50 staff members in our Melbourne and Sydney office with more hires later on,” said Thompson.

Thompson believes Iron Mountain’s expansion in Australia was a part of a global strategy to supply products to its US-based customers with local branches.

“What we are seeing with our acquisition and Pickfords in December 2005, multi-nationals like Iron Mountain have realised their US customers, with local offices need consistent products to ensure compliancy with US regulations,” said Thompson.