DURHAM – Cloud tech firm Nasuni calls Boston home but the firm has big plans for its newly opened office in Durham. In fact, one top exec expects to hear from workers who might want to transfer to Bull City from Beantown since winter weather is a lot kinder.

In an exclusive Q&A with WRAL TechWire, Nasuni Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer Scott Dussault laid out the firm’s plans to recruit and hire aggressively, add additional personnel, and become an active corporate citizen. Nasuni announced the expansion Tuesday.

The interview:

  • Why Durham? What other regions were considered for the expansion?

Scott Dussault

Other regions weren’t really considered.  We were already working with some very gifted developers in the Research Triangle who we subsequently brought into Nasuni.  We were also very familiar with the area from our work with partners, including IBM and Nutanix.

Originally, we planned to open a smaller office, but when a partner let us know of space that was available, we saw an opportunity to acquire more space than we need right now, but that provides us with the room we will need to expand our engineer and technical support teams as we continue to grow.

  • What factors were most important in the expansion decision?

The Triangle has a long track record of fostering disruptive technology company and providers of standard-setting enterprise solutions.  At Nasuni we’re always looking for innovators, as well as professionals who are comfortable working with mission-critical enterprise technologies.  Durham offers an exceptional talent pool for professionals that address those needs.

  • In what areas will you be hiring?

We’re planning to increase the size of engineering team by 60 percent over the course of the next year and we are hiring engineers, developers and technical support professionals who not only are comfortable working with mission-critical applications but who naturally strive to provide exceptional customer service.

  • Are any teams or individuals from the Boston office moving to the new office? 

That remains to be seen, but given some of our New England winters, it’s a question that will come up.  Regardless, there will be a lot of collaboration, both via our video conferencing infrastructure and through in-person visits and exchanges between our headquarters and Durham.

  • How will the company play a role in this community, and how will you recruit in the area?

Nasuni

We do a lot of organic, internal promotion – we pride ourselves on maintaining a veteran team with significant institutional knowledge – but we certainly see the area’s exceptional colleges and universities as a great source of talent we will bring into the company.  As a rule, though, we don’t have a dedicated college recruiting program that strives to bring in a new class of employees each year.

We also look forward to being an active corporate citizen.  As a company, we encourage employees to support the community and the charitable concerns that are important to them.  We’ll continue to do that in Durham by providing our employees with the time and freedom they need to make a difference – just as we do in Boston.

  • What else is important to know about the expansion?

Nasuni’s growth reflects the ability we give organizations of all kinds to address their file-related challenges once and for all.  Nasuni Cloud File Services enable our customers to take advantage of the economy and scale of public or private cloud object storage, provide the centralized control the most stringent IT departments need and deliver the high-performance and immediate access to files their users want.

Boston-based cloud services provider opens office in Durham, is hiring