Pulsant who are backed by Bridgepoint Development Capital started their buying blitzkrieg with Lumison Ltd, of whom I was an employee, about two years ago, swiftly adding Bluesquare Data then Dedipower to their portfolio. Within a matter of weeks the management of the organisation had been moved to Reading, and to be frank, the heart ripped out of Lumison, a once proud Scottish company.
Following a financial restructuring a couple of years ago, Scolocate were pretty much owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland, whom, as Data Centres were obviously not part of their core business, were eager to sell.
There is obviously money to be made in Data Centres, collocation, managed hosting etc. as it seems that these facilitiess are now being snapped up by people solely interested in short term ownership with sell on profit at the end of the period, and managed by people who have no feel for the industry, or the people who work their.
Whilst all press releases state that the 26 or so people who are employed by Scolocate, which incidentally was another of my jobs from 2000 to 2005, are safe, I somehow sadly doubt that. I fervently hope that they don't rip the heart and soul out of Scolocate too.
That appears only to leave Iomart and to a lesser extent, Brightsolid (formerly Scotland Online) as the last of the true Scottish Data Centres.
