NHS Scotland’s track and trace system utilises Microsoft Azure

People eating together in a in restaurant.

NHS Scotland has teamed up with Microsoft to develop a new COVID-19 track and trace system as coronavirus-related restrictions begin to ease.

The solution uses QR codes that, when scanned with a device, take the user to a secure Government website where they can submit their name and contact details. An app has also been created that enables people to save their details for ease of use in future.

Restrictions put in place to combat the spread of coronavirus are beginning...

18 May 2021 | Data Centres

Why green data centres are the key to driving sustainable strategies

As we become more environmentally conscious as a society, it is of paramount importance that we push for more sustainable business practices.

For the average individual, being more sustainable may amount to taking on more eco-friendly habits, such as recycling and reducing water consumption, or investing in electric or hybrid vehicles. It’s all about the small adjustments that will amount to bigger results in the long run.

For businesses and more specifically larger...

4 May 2021 | Data Centres

Google Cloud opens Warsaw region in first step to central and eastern Europe expansion

Google Cloud's cloud data centre region in Warsaw, Poland is now open for business - 18 months after it was first announced.

The opening marks Google Cloud's 25th location worldwide, and the first cloud region in central and eastern Europe.

Partnership details were first unveiled in September 2019 as Google aligned with Poland's national cloud operator, Chmura Krajowa. The announcement today (April 14), made at a virtual press conference in keeping with the times,...

14 April 2021 | Data Centres

Cloud service revenue ‘finally dwarfs’ enterprise data centre spending in 2020

2020 saw enterprise spending on cloud infrastructure services 'dwarf' that of data centre hardware and software, according to the latest note from Synergy Research.

Enterprise cloud infrastructure spend continued to 'ramp up aggressively' last year - in part driven by the need for remote working with the Covid-19 pandemic - to hit almost $130 billion (£93.3bn). In comparison, enterprise spending on data centre hardware and software fell by 6%, to less than $90bn.

2019...

19 March 2021 | Data Centres

Google Cloud discloses carbon performance for data centre zones to help inform customers

Google Cloud has continued its climate push by declaring how clean its data centre regions are - so customers can understand where to invest.

The hyperscaler had made a 24/7 carbon-free commitment back in September, promising to run its business on carbon-free energy everywhere by 2030. The commitment was described by Google as its 'most ambitious energy goal yet', with the company having become fully carbon neutral for the first time in 2017.

The carbon data shared for...

18 March 2021 | Data Centres

OVH Strasbourg data centre destroyed by fire, customers told to activate DR

Updated OVHcloud has declared a 'major incident' at one of its Strasbourg (SBG2) data centres, with the company confirming a fire and telling customers to activate their disaster recovery (DR) plans.

Octave Klaba, founder of OVH, confirmed in a tweet that 'everybody [was] safe', and that damage examination and reports in the SBG1, SBG3 and SBG4 sites remained ongoing.

An update was posted on the OVH dashboard at 2342 UTC which read: "We have detected a degradation in...

10 March 2021 | Data Centres

How data centre products can build synergies with the public cloud

Today’s competitive digital enterprise needs innovative technology to drive organisational agility, resilience, and powerful decision-making. The cloud has risen as a great enabler of modern enterprise.

Once seen merely as a cheap storage location, the cloud has now become central to almost all organisational aspects and transformation endeavours of large and small organisations alike. Almost all organisations are now aware of how they can create better value with the cloud and stay...

25 February 2021 | Data Centres

The changing face of colocation: Winds of change – and new challenges

Arguably the roots of the ‘colocation’ market can be traced back 20 or more years ago to the original dot com boom era. This created demand from eCommerce businesses and ISPs for a more cost-effective way of the housing of their growing ‘server farms’ and the idea of sharing secure IT spaces with others was born.

These days colocation is maturing - and based on our own experience at Vantage Data Centers - the needs of colocation customers have evolved. The value...

23 February 2021 | Data Centres

How the hybrid cloud is key to enterprise AI infrastructure strategies

The wheel, steam engine and the internet created revolutionary jumps in the way people work and play. Today, artificial intelligence is reshaping science, business and personal interactions with equal magnitude. In every industry, including agriculture, healthcare, customer service, finance, manufacturing, retail and more, companies are quickly adopting AI to ensure they’re not left behind during this tectonic shift.

AI workloads have unique requirements, including strategic...

18 February 2021 | Data Centres

Colocation on the edge: Why regional data centres and hybrid cloud can maximise performance

A year or so ago there were over 500 hyperscale data centre in existence worldwide and a further 170 or more in the pipeline, according to Synergy Research. But the explosion in cloud adoption – public and private – is not only driving demand for hyperscale data centres. Fuelled by the IoT and the arrival of 5G, the ongoing decentralisation of the cloud is also contributing hugely to the growing shift towards distributed ‘edge’ computing.

Edge cloud environments are now...

15 February 2021 | Data Centres