When Canpac Marine Services started as a small commercial diving operation in October 2018, they had three people and a whole lot of ocean in front of them. Today, it employs around 150 people, operates a fleet of vessels, including a 348-foot ship that sails internationally, and has seen considerable revenue growth.
That kind of growth doesn’t happen by accident. It takes the right team, the right tools, and the right partners behind the scenes. For National Small Business Week, we’re proud to spotlight Canpac Marine Services as a reminder that Canada’s small businesses are doing extraordinary things, even 6,000 metres below the surface!
About the Business: Where Engineering Meets the Deep
Canpac Marine Services is a British Columbia-based marine services company specializing in commercial diving, submarine cable laying, ROV (remotely operated vehicle) operations, and marine construction. Operating up and down Canada’s west coast and increasingly around the world, Canpac’s teams recover vessels, repair underwater infrastructure, inspect and lay submarine fibre-optic cables, and carry out construction projects that most people don’t even know exist.
Their fleet includes specialized dive boats ranging from 32 to 36 feet, cable barges carrying up to 250 kilometres of fibre optic cable, and deep-water ROVs capable of diving to 6,000 metres, deeper than the Titanic rests on the ocean floor. Last summer, one of their large ships repaired a major fibre optic cable damaged by icebergs off the coast of Alaska.
The Origin Story: A Family Betting on Themselves
The business Robert Anderson and his son acquired had roots going back decades. It began as a commercial dive company called Campac Divers, built over more than 40 years by a single entrepreneur on the west coast of British Columbia.
Bob’s son joined the company as a commercial diver and earned the trust and respect of its owner over time. After the business had been sold to a larger operator, the parent company was eventually acquired by a European consortium that wanted everything except the high-risk diving division. As a result, Robert’s son was offered the opportunity to purchase it.
They said yes. What began in October 2018 as a three-person operation quickly scaled, growing to around 150 employees in just a few years.
The Challenge: Running a Complex Operation with a Lean IT Team
Running a company that operates ships, dive boats, and specialized equipment worldwide is logistically complex, and its IT footprint mirrors that complexity. Canpac’s team deals with connectivity on vessels at sea, massive video archives of every dive, constant cybersecurity threats, and the need to share real-time data with clients across time zones.
What makes it even more demanding is that only two people are managing it all.
“There’s one other person, and I, who look after the IT for everyone, and that includes the IT on our ships, our dive boats, and dive trailers,” says Robert Anderson, Company Security Officer. “You can imagine what that involves.”
On top of the operational pressure, cybersecurity is a constant concern. As a company that works with government bodies like Transport Canada and global insurers such as Lloyd’s of London, Canpac receives regular briefings on emerging cyber threats. “We’re being beset by constant attacks,” Robert explains. “People are trying to break in and get ideas of what’s going on.”
For a lean IT operation facing enterprise-level risks, going at it alone simply wasn’t an option.
The Solution: Trusted Partners, Security & the Right Equipment
Around 2020, Canpac turned to HostPapa to help manage its digital infrastructure. They started with a handful of Microsoft 365 licenses and have since scaled to over 50, one for each member of their core team. This included SharePoint, which has become a pillar of how they run the business.
“Every dive we do, and we do close to a thousand dives a year, every diver has cameras and sound, and we record 100% of that, and it’s all on SharePoint,” Robert explains. After a project wraps up, clients can access high-definition video footage of the work, whether it’s inspecting a submerged pipeline, examining a dam, or documenting an underwater fault line for a research university.
The Microsoft 365 suite also plays a key role in Canpac’s cybersecurity posture. Moving to the premier version across all computers has reduced reliance on third-party antivirus tools and simplified protection. Combined with Defender and Entra for identity management, the setup gives a two-person IT team the level of security typically associated with a much larger department.
Source: Canpac Marine Services
When issues do come up, HostPapa’s 24/7 support is there. “I’d say maybe 20 to 30 times a year we use the help lines, and the responsiveness has always been top-notch,” Robert says. And on the rare occasions when something needed to be escalated urgently, the team came through. “Once you guys knew the importance of it, you put the resources in place to make it happen.”
The Results: Confidence to Grow, Freedom to Focus
Canpac’s rapid growth has required increasingly robust digital infrastructure to support its expanding operations. What began as a small business website has evolved into a critical asset, helping the company showcase its expertise, fleet, and capabilities to clients worldwide.
As Canpac continues to pursue international opportunities, its online presence plays a growing role in building trust and opening doors, something Canpac’s team is already looking to refine further.
Rather than building a large internal IT function, Canpac has taken a lean approach, relying on external support to manage its systems efficiently. That decision allows the team to stay focused on scaling the business without getting bogged down in day-to-day technical management.
The result is a sharper operational focus. With the technical backbone in place, Robert and his team can focus on what Canpac does best: Delivering specialized, mission-critical services that keep infrastructure running, islands connected, and ocean floors explored.
Advice for Other Small Business Owners
Robert Anderson’s experience growing Canpac through volatile conditions (a global pandemic, geopolitical trade disruption, and rapidly evolving technology) has given him a clear-eyed perspective on what it takes to sustain a small business.
Embrace collaboration tools for your clients. SharePoint and the ability to share video and data with customers directly have become a differentiator for Canpac. “The ability to share information with your customers, and utilizing the tools of SharePoint, is very strong,” Robert says.
Don’t let security feel like a burden. Two-factor authentication, robust identity management, and a trusted security partner aren’t optional extras anymore. “Get rid of it as a fear and bring it in as a tool,” Robert advises. “Offset it.”
Outsource what you can trust. For a growing company, trying to manage its IT, web hosting, and Microsoft licensing in-house may cost more than it saves in time, while increasing risk and distraction. Find a partner you trust, and let them handle it.
Focus on your people and your customers. Through every challenge, Robert comes back to the same foundation. “Our customers are the most important part to us. Long-term customer relationships are critical. And our people are your number one asset.”
HostPapa is proud to support Canadian small businesses like Canpac Marine Services that are ready to take their digital presence to the next level with a web hosting foundation you can count on. Discover other small business success stories like Canpac Marine Services’ with our National Small Business Week Spotlight series.
