Published 26 Oct 2022

Location, location, colocation

By, Robin Ferris Solutions Architect
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Cloud’s dirty secret – it’s not a real place

You might think that colocation has been replaced by the cloud. But that’s only true in marketing terms. The reality is that colocation and the role it plays in modern edge computing has never been more important or more required. Believe it or not, cloud computing doesn’t happen in the actual sky – it happens in a data centre. And knowing where that data centre is, and how fast it links to your network and the internet, can be challenging with hyperscalers.

That’s not to say that hyperscalers, do not have a role in most organisations’ infrastructure. But to maintain a competitive advantage you need more control over where your applications and data reside. That means knowing where the servers that you rely on are. And you need to know how you are linking to that data centre – and how that data centre is linking to national and international networks and the hyperscalers.

Keep IT local, sustainable, and efficient

The benefits of colocation are just as relevant now as ever. It improves resilience if you’re not relying on one building, one power supply and one internet link. It has operational benefits in improved efficiency, likely environmental improvements, and a lower carbon footprint, and shifting spending from capital expenditure to operational expenditure. Let’s be blunt – at Pulsant we build and run data centres all day long – that’s why we are good at doing it efficiently and cost-effectively.

Building your cloud infrastructure around a data centre you have access to means you can measure performance at every step and retain control over your whole infrastructure’s performance. And a local data centre means your staff still have physical access to your machines if required.

Don’t dismiss hyperscalers, or think they can answer every question

The hyperscale providers are brilliant at exactly that – hyperscaling. If your business has short-lived but hugely demanding compute or storage peaks – like a retailer with a massive Christmas peak – then there is no better solution. But if your compute demands are more predictable, then it often makes sense to not use a hyperscaler. Having your own colocation means you can measure, optimise, and improve performance. Because comparing the performance of the big providers is almost impossible in a meaningful way.

Having your own colocation also removes any concerns or ambiguities about data sovereignty that you, or your clients, may have.

Just as importantly it gives you full visibility over your entire network. This means you’ve got everything you need to run it as efficiently as possible but also the data to make the right decisions about improving it and innovating.

Pulsant Edge Computing Platform

That’s where we come in. Pulsant has a network of data centres across the United Kingdom with state-of-the-art, low-cost, fast, and resilient connections. We can get to 95 per cent of the UK population with less than 10 milliseconds of latency – quick enough to support most time-sensitive applications – while removing all the headaches of running, securing and cooling your own data centre. And we can do all of that within easy reach of your office or existing data centre, even if you’re not in London or the M4 corridor.

As customers begin to take advantage of edge computing, we’re seeing even more demand for distributed data centres. We can run the hard work of processing and analysing edge-created data where it is found without creating massive network loads moving it to the centre and then back to where it is consumed.

Wherever you are in the country we have the low latency network, the data centres, and the skills to look after your IT infrastructure so that you can spend time looking after your business and thinking about the future.

Find out more about Colocation services with Pulsant.