Guest article

Ely & East Cambs area news

Meet DCI

Having worked closely with the Cambridgeshire Chambers of Commerce for some time we have kindly been invited to write a short piece to explain who we are, what we do, and why we chose to base ourselves in Cambridge.

The company was founded by a small group of individuals who had spent many years working with large enterprise organisations designing and implementing cost-effective technology strategies saving clients many millions of pounds. We then decided it was time to create DCI and use our knowledge for the benefit of clients no matter what their size, and today we work with everyone from hyperscalers to one-man start-ups. Based in Cambridge, today we offer a number of complimentary services to local businesses, such as: cloud (private and public), colocation, IT consultancy, and even a TechHub and coworking space where businesses and individuals can work, network with likeminded individuals, meet technology partners, and even host events in our large event space, all within the same building. Some of you may have attended the Chambers’ “Return to the Workplace Networking” event we hosted on 20 May and have already seen the space if you had a tour of the building. Sadly, the TechHub and coworking space has been closed since the start of lockdown but we will be reopening very soon. Whilst expanding into other parts of the UK we decided to base ourselves in Cambridge due to the number of technology startups in the area. We’ve spent many years working with large enterprise organisations, however working with smaller, more agile, organisations is what truly excites us. We know the challenges faced by start-ups, we were once one ourselves, and we believe we can add real value working with infant companies, guiding them on their journey to success, providing support, introducing technology partners and investors, and of course leveraging our expertise to address the technical issues start-ups often overlook only to realise they can’t scale as their company starts to grow! Basing ourselves in Cambridge was certainly the right move for us, we’ve had the pleasure of meeting some great people and worked with some exciting clients as a result. Our colocation offering is the only one of its kind in the area and offers full Tier 3 resilience and security. With resilient power and connectivity, on-site power generation and fuel for seven days, we can keep your business up and running no matter what happens to the national grid. In addition, our on-site power generation supports the entire building, including the TechHub and coworking office space, so you really can keep the lights on whilst others suffer the consequences of a power cut. Our cloud offering is the jewel in the DCI crown. Cloud can come with painful hidden costs as many have discovered all too late! Unlike other cloud providers we can fix costs rather than hitting customers with unexpected retrospective bills. We work closely with clients to fully understand their business and requirements and provide a concierge service working closely with them during the onboarding process ensuring they aren’t purchasing more than they need whilst also having the flexibility to scale up or down in order to react to demand. Our list of cloud offering is comprehensive, including: Virtual Data Centre, PaaS, IaaS, DRaaS, cloud backup, Kubernetes, Containers, SD WAN, virtualised 5G, HPC, and of course extensive security features, including Microsoft 365 antivirus and backup! We are constantly adding new features ensuring we’re able to provide clients with the latest technologies and maintain interoperability with other clouds. Unlike other cloud operators we work with our clients to develop the solutions they require, for example an AI client recently required a non-standard Kubernetes implementation, we developed the required features and today they are a very happy customer with a cloud solution that works the way they need it to! Lastly, there is our R&D arm. As a company we love to innovate, whether cloud functionality, 5G, edge, or solutions to increase IT density and energy efficiency. For example, we currently have a solution which allows us to install 60 Intel CPU’s in a single 2U rack mountable chassis! Each micro server is the same size as a credit card, requires no AC cooling, and is ruggedised making them ideal for both high density data centre and edge solutions.

We’ve also developed solutions for liquid cooling IT rather than using air, the result being approximately 70 per cent reduction in energy consumption, the ability to repurpose the waste heat, and greatly increased IT density.