Manchester is the number one technology city in the UK, outside of London[1]. It has a digital economy worth more than £5bn and is aiming to hit £7bn by 2029, with more than 10,000 digital and tech-based companies in the city[2].
However, as a region, the northwest tracks below the national average for forecasted annual economic growth for the next three years[3].
Likewise, Edinburgh is the number five tech city in the UK[4] (and number one in terms of AI-readiness[5]), with more than 2,500 digital companies and home to the UK’s first next-generation supercomputer.
But again, Scotland lags behind the anticipated national economic growth[6], and even more acutely, the south of Scotland reports less progression than the Scottish average[7].
Beyond boundaries
These common patterns demonstrate a pressing need to grow regional, digital economies beyond the focused clusters of cities. The ability to collaborate across local boundaries, connecting businesses throughout entire counties and beyond, is critical for this growth.
Pulsant is committed to improving the infrastructure that underpins digital business success and economic growth for every region in the UK. Our partnership with the London Internet Exchange (LINX) at its regional hub LINX Manchester via our facility in Old Trafford, and having the LINX Scotland regional interconnection hub based at Pulsant South Gyle, enable regional businesses evolve their network, using the power of peering.
LINX and the power of peering
Peering simply means two networks can connect and exchange traffic directly, without having to pay a third party to carry that traffic across the Internet. For these linked companies, ISPs, and other service providers that form the very fabric of digital infrastructure, peering means more cost-effective transitbetter control of traffic, improved network performance and more redundancy and bandwidth.
As the UK’s leading peering community, LINX has over 950 members, including major cloud, data communications, telecommunications, financial, and enterprise companies in more than 85 countries. As a neutral, not for profit organisation, LINX has become the very fabric of growth for many businesses across the UK.
As Mike Hellers, product development manager at LINX points out: “Organisations that connect into the LINX Manchester community benefit from meeting a range of key networks and keeping their online traffic local, lowering latency and costs, and increasing overall data control. In addition, the LINX presence in Pulsant Manchester provides businesses with a suite of interconnection services including private VLANs, closed user groups and the Microsoft Azure Peering Service (MAPS). This service provides a direct connection to any public Microsoft cloud service, including Azure, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Dynamics 365, or any other Microsoft service accessible via the public internet.”
Mark Turner, chief commercial office at Pulsant explains: “Following the upgrade of our facilities in Manchester, we can now expand the benefits of our membership of LINX to businesses throughout the northwest. Peering has become a sophisticated array of options for organisations, but the consistent benefits of improved control, increased cost-effectiveness and robust performance are well established in the minds of infrastructure leaders.
“This is especially true amongst the high-growth companies and scale-ups throughout the northwest that are set to push the region forward. If we are going to create truly vibrant and active economies throughout entire regions, businesses need access to fast, cost-effective connectivity, be it in a city skyscraper or village office.”
[1] See CBRE_20Tech_20Cities_20Report_.pdf