and the applications within there . As we transitioned into the era of cloud and SaaS services , the focus became more about migrating people onto those types of platforms . Digital Transformation was the buzzword at the time and now that people have done a lot of that , the next big thing has become AI and how our business is going to leverage the advantage that that could potentially offer . As we move into the AI era , attention turns to the data itself ; where it resides and how secure it is as well as how to monetise that data by connecting it to different service providers .
I always talk about data centres as being like a house that ' s full of these amazing businesses all doing different things . There are end-users and lots of service providers , so the concept of the ecosystem is about being able to plug those different service providers together . Compared to 20 years ago where we had these huge SIs who were the supply chain , they did everything for everybody in it , we ’ ve now moved away from that by having lots of really niche specialist service providers . But they can ' t survive in isolation ; they need to connect with other people in the value chain to ultimately drive those solutions .
In summary , a collaborative ecosystem is about us providing the fabric of that digital ecosystem so all the different service providers can deliver on the different parts of the value chain and securely connect each other through our digital infrastructure .
How are collaborative ecosystems an essential component of a digital economy ?
We ' ve talked about the benefit of digital ecosystems and the nature of plugging people together ; I ' m hugely passionate about the kind of opportunity that offers at a regional level across the UK .
Traditionally , around 80 % of the data centres that exist in the UK are in the South . To address this imbalance , we are trying to democratise access so our portfolio of data centres are spread across the UK . We ' re aiming to build regional ecosystems that can allow people across the UK to connect at a local level .
This encourages regional digital economies – a massively important part of our future and something that when you talk to the Chamber of Commerce about their areas of interest , we find we must consider how they can leverage this AI opportunity for their region . We need to make sure regional ecosystems exist so that regional businesses can connect more easily . In doing that , you ' re balancing out where the opportunity lies and encouraging more people to enter that digital economy .
If you lay the foundations , create the opportunity and attract people in , not only do those businesses thrive from being more connected , but so does the region . This then leads
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