www.managedITmag.co.uk 5 NEWS continued... limiting their ability to scale AI operations. Companies building and running the most computeintensive workloads are the most likely to look beyond the UK when economics tighten, with 32% of AI-first businesses saying they would consider moving workloads overseas due to power costs, compared to 18% of enterprise organisations. The US is the most attractive location for new AI cluster capacity, followed by India (62%), Eastern Europe (58%), Western Europe (45%) and the Nordics (44%). CUDO Compute commissioned the research to coincide with the launch of its Land, Power, Compute Report, which highlights the extent to which access to land, affordable energy and scalable compute, or the lack of it, is constraining the growth of physical AI infrastructure in the UK. CUDO Compute CEO Matt Hawkins said: “AI sovereignty is being hotly discussed as a priority for UK organisations, but it only works if the infrastructure exists to support it. What we are seeing is a growing tension between where businesses want to run AI and where they actually can. AI is not abstract software. It is physical infrastructure that depends on power, land, cooling and grid access. When those constraints tighten, economics take over. If it is cheaper or easier to run workloads elsewhere, they will move, regardless of sovereignty ambitions.” He added: “Right now, every UK boardroom is talking about AI, but almost nobody is talking about the infrastructure needed to power it. Until we close that gap, there will continue to be a disconnect between policy, ambition and reality. The countries that solve this first will shape the future of AI, and the UK still has a window to lead, but it needs to act quickly.” Founded in Bournemouth, CUDO Compute designs, builds and operates high-performance GPU infrastructure across secure, compliant and renewablepowered data centres in the UK and Europe, delivering fully managed, enterprise-grade GPU clusters for training and inference environments. https://www.cudocompute.com/landpower-compute Stonesthro and Cornerstone collaborate on micro-edge computing PoC StonesThro, a UK-based edge cloud specialist, and Cornerstone, a UK mobile infrastructure services provider, have successfully completed a micro-edge computing Proof of Concept (PoC) that points the way to a distributed, green and secure alternative to traditional cloud and on-premises solutions. The trials, conducted across sites in Southampton, Solihull and Milton Keynes, show that high-performance data centre technology deployed directly into external infrastructure environments can deliver sub10ms latency, essential for many IoT applications such as drone and autonomous vehicle technology, while significantly reducing the carbon footprint of AI and data processing. Gregg Mearing, CTO of Stonesthro, said: “This PoC proves that it is entirely possible to take the compute power usually locked away in massive warehouses and deploy it in the regions where it is actually needed and can make a noticeable societal difference. It’s about making the cloud local, sovereign and sustainable.” Following the success of their PoC, which married Stonesthro’s edge cloud expertise and bespoke hardware/software combination with Cornerstone’s mobile infrastructure capabilities, the two partners are now working on their next 10 to 20 sites, with a vision to scale to a thousand sites nationally. Mearing said: “A core objective of our mission is to address the AI power requirement challenge. Traditional data centres are often clustered south of Watford, requiring massive power transmission from the North of the UK. The National Grid consumes approximately 8% of all power generated just by moving it across the country. By moving compute to the micro-edge and the regions closer to where power is generated, we can eliminate that transmission waste.” He added: “Furthermore, our partnership uses existing infrastructure and more efficient cooling processes, avoiding the carbon cost of laying new cables for ‘Big Data’ centres.” www.Stonesthro.co.uk www.cornerstone.network Poor WiFi limiting benefits of full-fibre Businesses are losing an average of 11 hours a week to connectivity issues, despite growing access to full fibre, reveals new research from Zen Internet. The main culprit for 49% of the 500 small businesses surveyed is poor WiFi within business premises. On average, businesses experience WiFi disruption 13 times a month, with more than six in 10 encountering problems two to three days a week and 6% facing issues every day. Nearly four in 10 (39%) say they have lost revenue and missed sales opportunities as a result. Jon Nowell, Managing Director of Zen’s Business Division, said: “Full fibre rollout is transforming UK connectivity, but speed alone isn’t enough. If WiFi inside the building can’t keep up, businesses won’t see the benefit. Reliable in-premises connectivity is now essential infrastructure for organisations.” Zen Internet carried out the research to promote its new WiFi solution for small businesses. Eero Business delivers reliable, consistent coverage across offices, retail spaces and hospitality venues through a combination of high-performance fibre, intelligent mesh WiFi and business features like guest networks, security and network controls managed through an app. zen.co.uk/business Matt Hawkins Gregg Mearing
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