Operations | Monitoring | ITSM | DevOps | Cloud

2025 was a tough year for businesses, with slow growth, high costs, cyber risks and geopolitical uncertainties all contributing to a challenging climate. More than ever, businesses must innovate to survive and grow, and digital infrastructure will play a key role in 2026. Last year I predicted a pivotal year for cloud strategy, with repatriation gaining momentum due to shifting legislative, geopolitical, and technological pressures. This trend has accelerated, with a growing focus on data sovereignty.

Imagine sending a letter to your neighbour across the street, only for it to be routed through London or even Amsterdam before landing in their letterbox. This is effectively what happens to much of Scotland’s internet traffic. Despite physical proximity between users, businesses and services, digital data is frequently sent on needlessly long journeys, often leaving the country before reaching its destination.

Compliance requirements and rising risk standards have raised the stakes for data centre security. Without assurance that facilities can resist disruption and protect data, organisations face increased exposure to audit failure, downtime, and reputational damage. For executives and auditors, data centre security is part of wider governance and risk management. Oversight means confirming that physical safeguards, environmental systems, and compliance frameworks are in place and can be trusted.

Managing IT for Witherslack Group does keep me up at night sometimes. Keeping our data secure is an ongoing challenge. When I say our data is sensitive, I mean a breach could genuinely destroy lives. We care for some of the UK's most vulnerable children: young people who have experienced sexual exploitation, kids whose parents cannot know their location, children from backgrounds most people could not imagine.

Since the publication of the inaugural AI Sector Study in 2022, the UK’s AI ecosystem has grown to include more than 5,800 companies – an 85% increase over the past two years. AI revenue is now £23.9 billion, and the sector employs more than 86,000 people. To put that in context, it’s bigger than the UK gambling sector – on both counts. Digital infrastructure is the foundation of this new economy.

Pulsant recently pledged to slash its carbon and other emissions as part of a thorough review of the entire business. Our goal is to halve all emissions by 2030 and achieve Net Zero by 2050 at the latest. This will require a continued and sustained effort. To be effective we will need to understand our connections to bring all our suppliers, vendors, clients, and of course our people, with us. Our ambition will be validated in accordance with the Science Based Targets Initiatives’ Net Zero Standard.

“As the UK’s hybrid cloud specialist we are already helping clients reduce their environmental impact by ensuring the most efficient use of their technology infrastructure. I am really proud that this pledge to shift to Net Zero takes us, and our clients, to the next stage on this vital journey.” – Rob Coupland, CEO, Pulsant Pulsant is promising to achieve Net Zero by 2050, and earlier, if possible.