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  • BeyondTrust expands its Nova Scotia presence steps away from the ocean

BeyondTrust expands its Nova Scotia presence steps away from the ocean

Thursday, September 27, 2018

A global cybersecurity company, BeyondTrust is the leader in Privilege-Centric Security, offering the most seamless approach to preventing privilege-related data breaches. 

On July 10, 2018, BeyondTrust announced an expansion in Halifax for technical support and account management functions.

We met with David Allen, Vice President of Engineering, to discuss BeyondTrust’s growth plans for Nova Scotia.


Q: Why is Halifax the right place for BeyondTrust?

A: We’ve chosen to build up the technical side of our company in Halifax. BeyondTrust's head office is in Phoenix, Arizona, with additional offices in California, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia. We knew we could build a skilled technical team in Halifax for software engineering - such as programming, architecting, designing, testing, and documenting - as well as technical support and technical account management. 

It was important for us to build up a single technical centre because, based on past experience, we have had a lot of success with people being co-located. Rather than having teams scattered around the world, we wanted to have a single technical centre and Halifax was very attractive for a number of reasons. 

"We find it very easy to fill positions here, which is awesome. We have the universities, of course, providing us with a lot of upcoming graduates and co-op students, which hopefully will turn into hires."

Cost would also be a factor. We've looked at a number of other areas. Halifax is, frankly, very cost competitive for North America, which is great. It's also in an excellent time zone, so it gives us support coverage across the US and into Europe.

SEE ALSO: SPOTLIGHT ON BEYONDTRUST

Q: What aspects of the ecosystem are you excited to tap into? 

A: We're really hoping to expend a lot more effort reaching out to the community in general, especially the academic community. We’ve been meeting with the various universities in the city – not only for filling positions and recruiting co-op students, but also to help guide curriculum and focus.

Halifax has a steady software engineering and technical community. Hiring for us is typically not a problem, and we've always loved hiring through reference. I started to notice our workforce was maturing as we went along, which is great for experience but it’s also important to get some new blood and fresh ideas in here. That's where the universities have really helped out. We have had a lot of success getting co-op students and then bringing them on board full-time once they're finished with their studies. 

We have engaged with master's programs to investigate research and development opportunities, rather than just our traditional product development focus. We're in the early stages of various outreach efforts, and it's going to be an exciting year.

RELATED: EY OPENS GLOBAL CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE IN HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA

Q: What is the best thing about doing business in Halifax? 

A: It's our location in the city... our office is right on the waterfront. Halifax is large enough so there's always something to do, but not so large that you spend most of the day sitting in traffic commuting to and from the office. It's great to be able to get outside and walk around the waterfront. Even in the winter, as the weather is mild in comparison with the rest of Canada.

"You can go from a phone meeting to actually standing on the edge of the ocean within 10 minutes."

Discover the benefits of Living, Working and Playing in Nova Scotia

Q: What other areas or jurisdictions would be considered for BeyondTrust’s growth and expansion?

A: In the software industry, the pressure is always to make use of outsourcing. We have looked at facilities in countries such as China, India, Romania, and Ukraine. That's very attractive to budgets because of the low costs. However, in terms of building up a team that's productive and efficient - if you have a product you're really trying to build and move forward - you can't beat a place like Halifax. There are no time zone differences, there are no language barriers. There is a very skilled, educated, and engaged workforce.

"Over the years we've actually brought back approximately 40 outsourced positions to Halifax."

We started as eEye Digital Security and were acquired by BeyondTrust in 2012. Outsourcing was their original model. We took a look at it and decided it didn’t really meet our development goals, so we worked hard to bring all of those positions back here.


Atlantic Canada is gaining recognition for its cybersecurity talent, resulting in a young, globally connected cybersecurity cluster in Nova Scotia. Other key companies in this space include Secure State Cyber, GoSecure, Bulletproof Solutions, and Track Group Analytics.