The concept of cloud computing is catching on as Bermuda’s largest real estate agency moves over to the new technology.Coldwell Banker Bermuda Realty, located on Par-la-Ville Road, is now using cloud services to outsource their computer server needs to local hosting provider, QuoVadis, which launched their SecureCentre hosting facility in central Hamilton in late 2010.According to Gavin Dent, CEO of QuoVadis Services, the Hamilton-based real estate company has always been computer savvy.“Bermuda Realty have always been on top of technology they were the first local agency to grasp the Internet and have extensive software to help manage their real estate business, which ranges from property rental and sales, to property management, to land surveying and valuations,” he said. “This required a large investment in computer hardware and ‘computer room’ expenses, with the constant pressure to expand and upgrade. By moving to the cloud, they turn this unpredictable upfront cost into a routine monthly subscription.”In order to reduce costs of buying in-house hardware and maintaining a data centre, Bermuda Realty’s president, Brian Madeiros, along with his IT consultants, CCS Group, decided to move to the cloud.“Bermuda Realty has a long tradition of developing innovative services for the local real estate sector,” said Mr Madeiros. “This has led to a considerable investment in IT infrastructure. By moving to cloud hosting, we have made the conscious decision to focus our resources on the real estate services at the heart of our business, and to outsource the underlying technology platforms to IT specialists like CCS and QuoVadis.”CCS and QuoVadis are providing both production and disaster recovery hosting for Bermuda Realty’s server environments, as well as virtual desktops for all employees.Bermuda Realty will now operate on virtual desktops where a user’s software and files are not tied to an individual desktop computer, instead operating from QuoVadis’s private cloud server. Now Bermuda Realty employees will be able to access their computer desktop from any computer when securely connected to the cloud.“Bermuda Realty were looking for a highly available, high performance solution for their servers as well as the ability for employees to securely access their work from anywhere at any time,” said Kory Logan, product development manager of CCS. “Based on these requirements, we felt that hosted services with virtual desktops powered by the QuoVadis platform would be the most effective and economical solution for Bermuda Realty.”According to CCS, in a time when companies are trimming costs, cloud hosting can be an economical solution.“In this economic environment, many local companies are paying particular attention to their in-house costs of supporting and operating IT infrastructure, said Ian Cook, general manager of CCS. “At the same time, they have concerns about hosting their IT overseas for jurisdiction or support reasons. Working with the QuoVadis ‘Infrastructure on Demand’ platform, CCS can create solutions that leverage the power of cloud computing but are customised to local company requirements and are backed up by experienced Bermuda support teams.”