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E+T Magazine

Daniel Beers, senior vice president of global data centre operations at Ardent Data Centers – a global developer of data centre environments for high performance computing and part of the Northern Data Group – addresses why in our AI world businesses should choose to access external computing power via the cloud rather than invest in on-site infrastructure.

The age-old argument of buying versus leasing has plagued organisations for centuries. From the decision to rent an office rather than purchasing the building, to hiring seasonal workers instead of permanent staff, even to signing up for a monthly rather than annual Adobe Photoshop subscription – everyday business is flush with dilemmas regarding the permanence of places, products and services.

Often there’s no clear-cut answer: leaders must consider factors such as payback time, storage space and control over the asset. But in the age of AI, with the technology progressing at a never-before-seen rate, buying participatory tools outright...

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Parents

  • If I was looking tor access to AI cloud computing in today's political environment, I would first and foremost demand to know where my data was being physically stored and a guarantee that it would not be off loaded to another location, without my prior permission.

    The contract would also identify the imposition of very heavy penalties for failure to request permission for any location change.

    Peter Brooks

    Palm Bay 

      

Comment

  • If I was looking tor access to AI cloud computing in today's political environment, I would first and foremost demand to know where my data was being physically stored and a guarantee that it would not be off loaded to another location, without my prior permission.

    The contract would also identify the imposition of very heavy penalties for failure to request permission for any location change.

    Peter Brooks

    Palm Bay 

      

Children
  • in reply to Peter Brooks

    Although I agree with the above, one of the more interesting things to consider is what "storing data" means.

    Technically, data is temporarily stored as it is routed from source to the eventual destination. Given the nature of the internet, I don't believe that its possible to guarantee the route that data takes in all cases, predict yes.

    But yes, if I brought space on a server in Manchester (as I actually have), I would not like to find that the data on that server has suddenly moved to another location, and especially not one outside the UK jurisdiction.

    However, I haven't run a ping test or tracert on my server in a very long time. So, it could have been moved for all I know... (reputable hosting company, so exceedingly unlikely)

  • in reply to Mark Tickner

    Hello Mark:

    Are you going to run a ping test or tracert on your server?

    Peter Brooks

    Palm Bay  

  • in reply to Peter Brooks

    I wasn't going to, but I thought I might as well. The problem is, how do you interpret the data?

    I can use one of the many IP Address geolocation services, and they tell me the server is in Manchester (as expected) but that relies on the information they have been accurate.

    Taking the ping time, that states 15-16ms. In theory (at the speed of light) the data could easily get to Moscow in that time. However, the data it takes for data to get somewhere is much more complicated. It is going to pass through a series of routers on its way, which will slow the data slightly.

    Tracert tells me there are actually 6 hops to the destination. Most of the time is spent making its way to my ISP's connection to the wider internet, with about 1-2ms to get the data to Manchester. Looks reasonable.

    And data can get held up in firewalls and such like.

    From experience, I know the ping is about 70ms to Michigan, US.

  • in reply to Mark Tickner

    Hello Mark:

    That might be a good question to put on this IET engX  site ":How does one find out the specific location of ones current AI cloud  server ?"

    Peter Brooks

    Palm Bay 

  • in reply to Mark Tickner

    Hello Mark:

    I got hold of the E+T editor (Tim Fryer) to try and get me the e-mail of Daniel Beers. Daniel apparently works out of Chicago. Ardent is owned by Northern Data Group in Frankfurt Germany.

    I now am waiting for a direct contact e-mail message from Daniel.

    It seems to me that when the IET publishes an article written by a third party (like this one) it should also supply contact information on the author, like most research papers.

    I might make this suggestion to my contact at Redactive.

    Peter Brooks

    Palm Bay 

     

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