At Manchester Digital, we like to interview our members to find out a bit more about what they do and their work in the Greater Manchester digital and technology sphere. This week we're speaking with Nav Uppal, Chief Digital Officer at Pulsant.
Please introduce yourself..
Nav Uppal, Chief Digital Officer at Pulsant. Nav is a proud Northerner, born in Huddersfield, and has been living and working in and around the region for more than thirty years. He’s passionate about digital transformation based upon the simplification and improvement of business processes for clients and colleagues, and has worked on major transformation projects for companies, including The Co-op, International Personal Finance and Morrisons. Over the years he has witnessed first-hand how the North has grown into a tech powerhouse and recently has seen how Pulsant have become part of that growing momentum.
What does Pulsant do?
Pulsant is the UK's edge infrastructure provider, delivering colocation, connectivity and compute services for regional enterprises. Founded in 1995, it has almost 30 years of experience working with regional businesses to achieve their digital ambitions.
Across the UK. regional enterprises and service providers use Pulsant’s platformEDGE infrastructure to build, connect and deploy the applications they need to innovate and grow. Previously, technology success required a focus on London, but over time significant investment and innovation has seen that focus shift and I believe we are now seeing cities like Manchester get on the front foot and gain the investment they need to continue that growth trajectory.
We are unique as a business due to our UK-wide network of twelve strategically located edge data centres, interconnected through a low latency network fabric that allows clients access to cloud, connectivity and compute services across the UK and beyond. Our platform puts 95% of the UK population within reach of businesses seeking to capitalise on the growth potential from new technologies, including AI and IoT.
What do you enjoy most about working at Pulsant?
Our people, I think we've got a great set of people who want the best for our clients, and also the best for Pulsant. Everyone's willing to go above and beyond to ensure that clients succeed. I believe that, and our product offering, which is all about getting our infrastructure supporting regional business across the whole of the UK, positions us strongly to be the right partner to support businesses that now need more flexibility from their technology investments.
Equally, having sales and support teams located in each region is a good ethos, as we truly understand what's important and can more easily be part of the client journey.
Looking back, Covid placed a real emphasis on digital infrastructure and the need for improved data access from any location. We were on the front foot during that transition, as our business was already focused on providing that local digital infrastructure access those businesses were demanding; regional access is something we continue to prioritise as our recent investments in Rotherham and Manchester have shown.
What would you consider to be Pulsant’s biggest achievements over the last 12 months?
Our continued focus on investment in our edge infrastructure platform to support businesses looking to deploy new applications and services at the edge, or securely extend hybrid infrastructure to improve performance.
Added to that, our investment in our regional data centres over the last twelve months ensures we are well placed to deliver the colocation, compute, and connectivity services that clients demand to grow their businesses successfully. With the dawn of AI and other new technologies, faster access to data and a more agile technology platforms have become central to businesses looking to benefit from these new high-growth market opportunities.
Continuing to expand our platformEDGE network will ensure we can continue to support the growing business demand for more flexible, secure, sustainable digital infrastructure solutions in Manchester and other cities across the UK.
What technology trends and innovations are you excited about in 2024?
It has to be the future potential of AI. What it currently offers is useful, but it has yet to become a business game changer, despite all the media hype. Today businesses are working out what the right use cases for AI are to deliver real value add and grappling to understand the infrastructure required to support the increased compute and connectivity needed to implement it. I believe the move towards locating infrastructure closer to users, or at the edge as its sometimes called, can deliver the platform these new AI implementations need.
For Pulsant as a business, it’s an exciting time to be working with clients as they create these new solutions and explore where and how they store and manage their data to meet those AI data demands. We are already talking to customers in areas, including gaming and healthcare, where that focus on place and data residency is crucial.
What excites you most about joining the Manchester digital community?
The collaboration. Every business should look at communities like Manchester Digital as a real opportunity to be part of the local debate. It’s important to me to work with like-minded businesses who want to make a difference in the local community. It’s about listening and learning from each other to understand more about the role digital infrastructure can truly play in supporting local business communities to thrive, not just survive. We are moving into an age where that collaborative mentality is perceived as a real value-add to regional business growth. I think Manchester Digital is an excellent opportunity to be part of building that ecosystem in and around Manchester.
Thank you Nav!
Learn more about Pulsant here.
