In this interview with DIGIT, Mike Hoy, CTO of Pulsant, discusses the growing shift towards private cloud solutions, the importance of data sovereignty, and how decentralised infrastructure is enabling AI innovation.
The cloud revolution transformed the way businesses operate, enabling unprecedented scalability, innovation, and cost efficiency. Over the past decade, companies of all sizes flocked to public cloud platforms, lured by the promise of lower costs and faster time-to-market.
Plenty of startups have thrived in this environment – many of the apps and digital services you use on a daily basis likely would have never got off the ground if they couldn’t leverage cloud-native architectures to scale rapidly. Enterprises, too, embraced “cloud-first” strategies, migrating entire infrastructures to public cloud providers.
However, as the dust settles on the great cloud migration, a new trend is emerging: the repatriation of workloads back to private and on-premises systems in a bid to control costs and navigate the ever more opaque tapestry of regulation and compliance that businesses and organisations have to operate in.
For many, the cost piece of that argument can’t be overstated – worldwide end-user spending on public cloud services is forecast to total around £572 billion in 2025, up from around £471 billion in 2024, according to Gartner. This, along with headaches such as vendor lock-in, and the complexities of managing data across multiple regions is contributing to shifting sentiment.
Cloud sprawl – the unchecked growth of cloud workloads – has led to skyrocketing expenses. At the same time, stringent data sovereignty regulations in Europe are forcing organisations to rethink where and how they store and process data.
The result?
A growing backlash against the all-in cloud approach and a shift towards hybrid strategies that combine public cloud, private cloud, and on-premises infrastructure.
This shift is not just about cost control, it’s about regaining sovereignty over critical data and workloads.
For Scottish businesses, this trend is particularly relevant. With data sovereignty becoming a top priority, many of our best and brightest organisations are seeking infrastructure solutions that offer control, compliance, and security without sacrificing scalability or innovation.
Enter Pulsant, a leading edge infrastructure provider, which recently launched Pulsant Private Cloud to address these very challenges.
Designed to support rising digital sovereignty requirements, Pulsant Private Cloud combines UK-owned data centres, a private network backbone, and enterprise-grade infrastructure to deliver a secure, resilient, and cost-effective alternative to public cloud.
With this in mind, DIGIT spoke to Mike Hoy, CTO of Pulsant, to discuss the growing shift towards private cloud solutions, the importance of data sovereignty, and how decentralised infrastructure is enabling businesses to innovate while maintaining control over their critical data.
The Great Cloud Repatriation
The shifting tides that come along with the proliferation of popular technology informs the cyclical nature of its adoption, according to Hoy – and this is readily apparent with cloud.
“When you’ve got a new technology, it tends to centralise,” Hoy explains.
“The big players put their weight behind it and move it forward. But as that becomes mainstream and needs start changing as businesses seek to optimise how they’re using the technology, you start to see the needle move back again.”
This decentralisation, he argues, is not surprising but rather a natural progression in the industry.
The shift towards private cloud solutions is driven by two key factors: cost assurance and data control. Hoy notes that while public cloud platforms offer scalability, they often come with unpredictable costs.
“As platforms grow, their cost base grows too,” he says. “Uncontrolled costs or unexpected increases make it difficult to manage your platform expenses.”
According to Hoy, private cloud offers businesses the ability to lock in multi-year deals with much more predictable costs, providing a level of financial stability that public cloud platforms often lack.
Moreover, private cloud solutions address growing concerns around data sovereignty and security.
“Do I really want to give all my private data to a hyperscaler where I don’t have that surety?” Hoy asks.
The Pulsant Private Cloud, built on UK-based data centres and networks – with one of the three centres being based in Edinburgh – offers businesses the assurance that their data remains within the UK.
“We can give you guarantees about where your data is going to flow,” says Hoy.
“You know where your data is, you know the size and scale of the platform, and you can build on top of that without surprises.”
Pulsant’s private cloud offering is designed to bring enterprise-level infrastructure to mid-market businesses and managed service providers (MSPs).
“We’re happy to make the investments in infrastructure,” Hoy explains. “We can bring enterprise-level equipment to smaller businesses that might not otherwise have access to it.”
This includes VMware capabilities, which have become increasingly expensive for some organisations due to recent changes by Broadcom.
“We can make VMware accessible again for businesses that were frozen out by cost increases,” he adds.
Data Sovereignty & The Importance of Locality and Control
Data sovereignty has become a critical issue for businesses, particularly in the wake of increasing regulatory scrutiny and the need for compliance with local data protection laws.
Hoy acknowledges the complexity of the issue but simplifies it by focusing on three key aspects: processing, moving, and storing data.
“You want to know where that’s happening,” he says.
“If I give my data to a hyperscaler with a global network, how do I know it’s not leaving the UK or Scotland? I don’t.”
Pulsant’s private cloud platform, built on UK-owned infrastructure, offers businesses the confidence that their data remains within the country.
“We can show you our network, we can show you the fibre that runs around the UK,” Hoy explains.
“The data will stay within the UK.”
This level of control is particularly important for businesses that need to comply with data protection regulations or tender for contracts that require data sovereignty guarantees.
The company’s platform also offers flexibility for businesses operating across multiple sites.
“We’ve chosen to put Pulsant Private Cloud in three regions across the UK: Scotland, the North East of England, and the South of England,” Hoy says.
“This allows businesses to replicate data across regions while maintaining control over where it is stored and how it is accessed.
“You’re always going to strike a balance between security and flexibility,” he adds, “but with us, you’re in control of what that looks like.”
Can Private Cloud Engender Innovation in AI?
Recent analysis from Canalys found that spending on global cloud infrastructure services rose 20% last year, up from around £211bn in 2023, to around £254bn in 2024.
A key driver for the growth was undoubtedly the expansion of AI models, which significantly accelerated cloud adoption, noted the research firm.
As AI continues to transform industries – for better or worse – Hoy sees private cloud playing a crucial role in enabling innovation.
“AI will follow the same pattern as cloud,” he predicts.
“We’re seeing lots of generative AI running on big, hungry servers in central locations, but the reality is that to get real business benefit, you’ll need to decentralise.”
This means bringing AI capabilities closer to the data, ensuring low latency and maintaining control over sensitive information.
Pulsant’s PlatformEDGE, which encompasses its data centre facilities, cloud infrastructure, and network infrastructure, provides a secure environment for businesses to experiment with AI, according to Hoy.
He says: “We’re looking at how we can engage with organisations on an ‘AI in a box’ concept,”
By partnering with vendors like Cisco and HPE, Pulsant aims to provide businesses with dedicated hardware and infrastructure to build their own AI inference platforms.
“You can bring your data analysts and business owners together in a sandbox environment,” he says. “You’re not giving your data up to an AI chatbot or engine somewhere else. You’re building your own solution on your private data.”
This approach not only enhances security, but also engenders innovation by allowing businesses to leverage their own data in new ways.
“Why don’t you go and build your own inference platform, take the benefits of the language models that have been trained out there, but set that to work on your private data?” Hoy suggests.
“PlatformEDGE can enable that conversation to happen in a way that you can’t get anywhere else at the moment.”
However, Hoy cautions that businesses must also focus on data quality and governance as they adopt AI technologies.
“AI is very much dependent on the information you feed in,” he says.
“If we don’t invest in the right people to monitor the output, that’s where the risk really is.”
Essentially, the Pulsant Private Cloud and PlatformEDGE offerings are designed to address the key challenges facing businesses today: cost control, data sovereignty, and the need for innovation.
By providing a decentralised, UK-based infrastructure, Pulsant enables businesses to maintain control over their data while accessing enterprise-level capabilities.
“We’re not trying to give you all the answers,” Hoy says.
“What we’re trying to do is build an ecosystem where businesses can come together, share data securely, and innovate in ways that make a real difference.”
As the demand for private data storage continues to skyrocket, Hoy believes that businesses must prioritise their network infrastructure to support AI and other emerging technologies.
“The network is the foundational piece that brings everything together,” he says. “If you’re going to access your data quickly and securely, you need to have the right network in place.”
“We’re very open about bringing together UK businesses – whether they’re a provider or a consumer, I think something like PlatformEDGE is a great solution for allowing that innovation and selection to happen.”
Source: DIGIT