Operations | Monitoring | ITSM | DevOps | Cloud

The Foundations of the Future report recently commissioned by techUK, and developed by Henham Strategy, raises many points for consideration. It is an important attempt at quantifying the UK’s data centre assets. As a sector, the UK data centre industry is worth £4.7 billion in Gross Value Added (GVA) annually, supporting 43,500 jobs and contributing £640 million in tax revenue to the exchequer.

Economically speaking, scale-ups deliver far greater value than their size suggests. Whilst they make up just 1% of SME firms, the ‘sub-sector’ accounts for 8% of SME employment and 22% of SME turnover. Nearly 1 million people are employed in scale-up companies and these businesses have a combined turnover of almost £500 billion. Scotland has just over 2,100 scale-ups, with a pipeline of another 1,000. The current turnover of these organisations totals just over £41bn.

Scotland has a strong historical record in seeking out and supporting data centre investment. The Green Datacentres and Digital Connectivity: Vision and Action plan is already four years old. However, time has not dampened enthusiasm. The renewed interest in data centre investment that has followed encouraging comments from Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, has spread across the UK.

In an era where modern commerce is inseparable from technology, digital transformation has become crucial for businesses to survive and thrive in all markets. Scotland has led the way in understanding the impact of this shift. In August 2023, the Independent Expert Group (IEG) on Unlocking the Value of Data delivered its report to the Digital Directorate, covering private sector use of public sector personal data.

The 2023 National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) report into the UK legal sector warns that a failure to: “maintain appropriate cyber security measures… can have exceptionally negative consequences for a legal practice and its clients". Current figures cite that 65% of UK law firms have been victims of cyber incidents . Elsewhere, another report revealed that 72% - almost three-quarters - of UK-headquartered law firms have at least one employee password on the dark web.

Since the 2011 Scottish Digital Strategy, Scotland's political and economic commitment to the technology industry has been consistent and substantial. The 2020 Scottish Technology Ecosystem Review and the subsequent TechScaler startup programme are great examples of this dedication at work today. Edinburgh's vital role in these plans has been equally long-standing.

As part of Pulsant’s commitment to make a positive difference to our environment, we recently pushed ourselves forwards in value chain engagement and brought together a cohort of SME suppliers for a series of in-person decarbonisation workshops. In association with sustainability specialists SLR Consulting, our investment in these sessions supported our suppliers in understanding the landscape of decarbonisation and establishing their own action plans.

With a reputation for traditional reliance on extensive paperwork and detailed documentation, the legal industry is known for its slower adoption of technology. However, with well-established processes, reliable data sources, and often significant budgets, the profession has the ability for transformative innovation, but it comes with challenges. A recent report from the Law Society suggests ‘an indifference toward technological advancement among many legal professionals.

Edge computing vs cloud computing: what's best for your business? Finding the best approach for your business can take some trial and error, as well as some time researching how each technology and digital infrastructure choice can support your business goals. When choosing between cloud and edge computing, you will need to know what they are, what the differences between the two are, and how each can strengthen your business's operations in its own way.

For anyone researching ‘on-premise vs. colocation,’ the results soon become repetitive. Google, AI, and YouTube all return similar material on the pros and cons of each option. Some even include public cloud as a consideration. Yet they all reach exactly the same conclusion: that as a business, you need to figure out what is right for you. Whilst the advice is sound, it is also limited. How exactly can a business assess which infrastructure option is right for them?