The expansion into edge computing is intended to serve the internet of things (IoT) and driverless cars market, CEO Carl Grivner told Capacity.
“The strategy is not fully fleshed out but we are aiming to have this in 60 days,” said Grivner – a timing that would put the target date at the end of January 2019.
Colt is likely to follow this by trying out edge strategies “in four or five different locations”, he said, “in both Asia and Europe”. Tokyo would be “well placed” for a trial for autonomous vehicles, he said, “but we have not determined that yet”.
Colt is considering the merits of both acquisition and organic, in-house development as ways of expanding into edge services, he added. But Grivner acknowledged that there are few edge companies for sale. “If you’re in the edge market it’s no time to sell.”
The company is already working on the IoT and driverless car markets via “a lot of custom work, with fibre builds into data centres. People are putting infrastructure in place for 2019 and 2020.”
Meanwhile Colt is planning expansion into South Korea, where it already has a partnership with Koscom, a financial IT provider. “We are looking for additional capacity in Japan and we continue to build aggressively there and in Singapore,” said Grivner. “We are looking at other locations in Asia, yet to be announced.”
Do these plans include Malaysia? “Probably not,” he said. India? “I think you’ll see some news from us.”
