Colocationthe foundation of Cloud 2.0

Q Please can you provide some brief background on the company

to date?

A We (Source #sourceplc) began in 2010 primarily as a Level 3
European Reseller. We have grown to around £3m recurring
annual revenue and aim to cement our position as the ‘go-to’
colocation provider for the UK Channel.
Q What have been the key milestones?

A 2010 – Level 3 European Reseller
2012 – DCS Magazine Professional of the Year
2012 – Digital Realty Colocation Provider
2013 – IL3/Official Services Launched
2013 – DCS Magazine DataCentre Distributor of the Year
2014 – Headline sponsors DCS Awards
2015 – Headline sponsors DCS Awards
Q What are Source’s main USPs that distinguish the company in
what’s a crowded marketplace?

A We do not compete with our Customers!
Our customers (cloud and managed service providers and IT
resellers) provide enterprise grade cloud, managed and
ancillary services, we don’t!. We simply provide the very best
UK data centre environments supported by diverse, resilient
network infrastructure allowing Source customers to
concentrate on their services without the threat of their suppliers
competing to win their Customers.
Q How many data centres do you have right now, and what is their
status (ie full, plenty of capacity etc.)?

A Source have three key facilities with the addition of
Manchester in Q3 2015. Wedeliver colocation options
throughout the UK with specific focus on our own
facilities based in London, Redhill (Surrey), Farnborough
(Hampshire) andManchester (Trafford) although we provide
colocation solutions across the portfolios of Level 3 and Digital
Realty.
Q And you also offer Data Centre as a Service?

A We offer the most flexible level of services to meet our
Customers requirements. Source were one of the first providers
of truly flexible datacentre as a service(sdcaas) providing
metered, burstable usage with no commitment and monthly
agreements.
Q Can you tell us a little bit about Source’s various customer
offerings, covering issues such as installation, connectivity, telco
services etc.?

A Source remove the hassle of managing various telcos and DC
providers. Under our 5x9s SLA (achieving 100%!) we cover
each of the elements for you, all services are professionally
project managed to completion and we provide datacentre and
network services within 24 hours when required.
Q And we can’t ignore issues such as security and energy
efficiency?

A Source owned facilities operate at the most efficient end of the
PUE spectrum from just 1.25PUE meaning your power spend is
on Compute power and not air-conditioning!

Security is covered by the facility operators and is available to
IL4/Confidential level as standard. Each Source facility benefts
from pin, card and biometric entry systems together with being
accredited to ISO27001 and PCI/DSS compliant. Source
operates a strict White List entry policy.
Q Contract flexibility (increased) seems to be a major issue right
now. What’s Source’s take on this?

A Source are proud of being the UK’s most flexible provider,
delivering short-term solutions without commitment to contract
lengths of 10 years+. We are keen to ensure our contract
provides significant value for our Customers and work with each
to agree the most effective way forward – often our customer
re-brand our contracts to ensure end-to-end parity.
Q How does the Cloud revolution impact on Source as a
business?

A Cloud and hosted services are what our customers provide and
therefore paramount to Source’s continued success. The cloud
lives and breathes within our facilities, service providers such
as Ubuntu, Capita and Imtech operate their solutions from
within our sites helping them deliver 100% availability.
Q For example, are you under pressure to/do you already offer
some managed services?

A We are the Cloud Providers provider!
We do not and will never deliver managed or cloud services, we
are simply the UK Channel’s home, offering them the
opportunity to benefit from the Country’s leading data centre
environments without the commitment or capacity restraints
that come by dealing direct with the Landlords.
Q Or do you think that colos and service providers should not be
competing (certainly not in the same facility!)?

A Why would a service provider take their valuable customers to a competitor? If you are providing back-up as a service for example, why would you go to a data centre provider that also offers it?

Source provide a safe, non-competitive environment for Service providers. We assist them with facility tours, RFP responses and support them in their client bid– we don’t bite the hand that feeds us!
Q Indeed, what is Source’s relationship with service providers in general?

A Service providers are our Customers! We work closely with all
our customers, often assisting with marketing campaigns, open
days, customer tours and events. We provide sales training for
their team and add value to their solutions bids.
Q And you have a link with pan-European distributor, Arrow ECS –
what does this offer and how do you see it developing in the
future?

A Source help Arrow ECS’ Customers build data centre and
hosted solutions, seehttp://www.arrowecs.co.uk/Solutions/
DCIM-Solutions/Source-Colocation
We are there to support ArrowECS Customers with their first
entry to data centre environments, upgrading or upscaling.
Q Are there any other partnerships on the horizon?

A Yes…
Q What about the Software-Defined Era – is this having an impact
on your business?

A Source simply provide the raw data centre infrastructure – even
the software defined environments live somewhere! We see
these developments as opportunity for us to ensure they are
housed within the highest quality facilities, such as Digital
Realty.
Q And we can’t ignore the Internet of Things?!

A As more and more ‘things’ are connected we are seeing the
usage of HSIP dramatically increase. We see a minimum of
100% growth in our Internet demand annually and don’t see this
dropping in the mid-term.
Q More generally, the 451 Group has predicted a ‘seismic shift’
in the colo space – how do you see this playing out in terms of
the numbers of players remaining and the types of services they
offer?

A “Colocation continues to be the bedrock for much of Cloud
2.0,” says Katie Broderick, research director, 451 Research.
“The global colocation market is the physical (facilities
and networking) underpinning of both enterprises’ off-premises
computing, and hosting and cloud service providers’ value-add
services.”

I couldn’t agree more! We are seeing more and more demand
from cloud service providers and as we are within the market
leading facilities, Digital Realty, we are best placed to meet
these immediate and future needs.
Q What are your ambitions/plans for Source over the next 12-18
months?

A Source plan to continue our planned growth, we will be
launching our Manchester facility towards the end of 2015
together with expansion of our ever popularDigital
Redhill facility.
Q Any other comments?

A Remember to check whether your chosen data centre partner competes with your service…

Find out more at www.sourceplc.com