An Interview with Rob Davies, Sales & Marketing Director of Pulsant
Let’s be honest – while there are a lot of cloud vendors out there all promising the best service, highest performing solution and most outstanding capabilities, the reality is that not all of the marketing talk is a true reflection of what can be delivered. It takes time and considerable effort to wade through the offerings in the market and selecting the most appropriate solution is often not simply about the solution itself but the resources, expertise and credentials of the vendor.
What differentiates Pulsant from the rest of the market?
It’s not just one thing. I think it is a combination of our core strengths, such as our flexible approach to developing an outcome for our customers, our resources from our ten data centres and 10G core network to our owned and managed cloud platforms, and our accreditations like the Royal Warrant, being HPCloud Agile, ISO 27001, PCI DSS and now STAR**.
I believe our most important differentiator is the fact that we invest in the best people. The Pulsant team is dedicated, knowledgeable and works towards the same objective, which is to deliver what our clients need in the best way possible focusing on the quality of that delivery.
Why do you regard your data centres as a strength?
Not only do we own 10 data centres strategically located throughout the UK, we also own the 10G network that connects them together. As one of the largest regional data centre players in the UK market we recognise that our data centre network addresses the requirements of many IT departments and companies that want to be physically close to their IT assets.
The Pulsant team is dedicated, knowledgeable and works towards the same objective, which is to deliver what our clients need…
Speed of access, service and location are therefore important to them and are all issues that are answered by our network. We recently made a £1.5M investment in refreshing our core network infrastructure and we’re now running the latest Cisco routing and switching fabric designed to offer scalability and deliver new services into the future.
From a cloud provider perspective, being able to offer services in multiple UK locations, connected by a high speed resilient network is critical in the delivery of a robust solution and competing in this market.
What bandwidth connectivity options to you offer?
When it comes to connectivity the options can be endless, we own the dedicated 10G core network that connects our sites, and we offer competitive IP transit, or Internet services, in and out of our data centres, and content delivery networks. We have partnerships in place with all the key network carriers centres so that our customers can select their vendor of choice. This provides our clients with the connectivity they require in, out and between our data centres and whatever size they need.
Why do you consider flexibility to be a core strength?
It sounds pretty straight forward, but often customers don’t know exactly what they want or need…
Our approach is to create solutions around what our clients want, be it technical or commercial, and it is through our flexibility and consultative approach that this is accomplished. We believe that there’s no one-size-fits-all model, and ensuring our customers get the best, most appropriate solution is key. This involves assisting in determining the requirements, expectations and objectives and then offering advice as to which solutions would be suited to address those needs. It sounds pretty straight forward, but often customers don’t know exactly what they want or need – and the fact that we can customise solutions based on our resources and expertise means that we are able to deliver a better service. This approach also works if the customer wants to use Pulsant solutions with their existing partners – we’re able to dovetail into that effectively.
Why were you awarded a Royal Warrant?
We’ve been providing managed hosting and cloud services to the Royal Household for over five years…
We’ve been providing managed hosting and cloud services to the Royal Household for over five years and were awarded the Royal Warrant this year. It was given in recognition of the continuous exceptional service that we deliver to the Royal Household – it’s important to note that not all suppliers achieve this. It fully complements our other accreditations, including our ISO rating, PCI DSS, IL2 and IL3 level security, and further reinforces our reputation as a trusted and secure provider in managing sensitive customer data.
When did you become an HPCloud Agile partner and why?
We’ve been an official HPCloud Agile partner for two years and saw this opportunity as an excellent way of using the world-class HP hardware platform to deliver our cloud platform. HP is a great brand and a recognised sign of quality and we felt that in terms of technology and innovation it aligned with and underpinned our drive to offer an enterprise-class outcome to customers.
And while being part of this programme does not set us apart on its own, we feel that our scale, UK presence, customers, facilities, the innovation and use of our cloud platform and data centre capacity, does differentiate us.
Every customer is equal
In essence we own the entire supply chain and in this way we can manage whatever outcome our clients want – whether they want a complete solution from network connectivity and data centre services, to if they want to make use of our colocation services on their own network. We have a vast array of clients across industries and sizes, who trust us with their mission-critical data. Though the level of service may vary, the fact remains that within our systems we manage the availability and security of that data for them.