Data group making its mark

WANdisco has been awarded the Made in Sheffield® mark for its uberSVN product, which was designed, developed and is now hosted in the city.

The company is headquartered in California, but in 2008 chose Sheffield for its European headquarters. It now employs nearly 30 people in the city.

David Richards, chief executive, said: “We take great pride in the fact that WANdisco has been awarded the Mark for uberSVN and that Sheffield is promoting the 21st century diversity and excellence of companies based here.

“I was born and bred in Sheffield, with a family heritage in the steel industry so of course this means a means a lot to me.”

The California-based company described the product as a platform for its open source software management system, Subversion, which is used by millions of companies around the world.

Customers include AT&T, Intel, Honda, Nokia and Motorola.

Mr Richards has said that his data replication services “make the internet work faster by making the data closer to the person that is accessing it”.

The Made in Sheffield mark has been protected by law since 1624.

Charles Turner, chairman of the awarding body, said: “WANdisco’s product engineering team in Sheffield is an excellent example of the innovation and skills helping Sheffield City Region to succeed globally across many different industry sectors.”

He said the award highlighted the strength of Sheffield’s credentials in engineering.

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