Colt Technology Services expands Network as a Service platform reach

Colt Technology Services has published the latest in a series of enhancements to its award-winning Network as a Service (NaaS) platform, Colt On Demand, with an additional 130,000 locations served by dedicated fibre (FTTX) in the UK, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Poland, accessible through the platform. This bolsters the 32,000 Colt connected buildings, 1,100 data centres and 275 Cloud points of presence already accessible to customers through Colt On Demand – in addition to millions of locations delivered via carrier partners in over 180 locations - offering businesses greater scale, speed and security.

The enhancement supports a move to greater automation for Colt and its customers. It brings businesses greater choice, flexibility and cost control, while the energy efficiency gained from consumption-based networks can help contribute to businesses’ power-saving goals

In addition, a new user interface to Colt’s On Demand platform has made it even easier for businesses to navigate and support their geographic expansion plans through the platform, so they can quickly flex their bandwidth requirements to meet business demand and respond to changing market dynamics. Colt’s NaaS service, Colt On Demand, has secured more than thirty industry awards since its inception, with six recent wins - including the NaaS Global Service Provider of the Year - at the MEF NaaS Excellence Awards 2024.

Peter Coppens, VP Infrastructure and Connectivity solutions, Colt Technology Services said, “We pioneered Network as a Service over seven years ago. Since then, our multi award-winning On Demand platform has connected thousands of businesses to sites across the world, and we’ve refined and enhanced the platform based on their experiences. The latest customer-driven changes are the most significant yet, giving businesses access to five times as many locations as before, providing unrivalled scale and improving automation. This is the beginning of a new era of NaaS, and once again, Colt is leading the charge.”

The enhancements come as IT leaders face new pressures, including measuring and forecasting the impact of AI on their digital infrastructure as well as driving down carbon emissions across the network. In Colt’s recent research of 1500 CIOs, 58% said they are using more on demand or NaaS features as a result of the growth in AI usage. 81% of respondents in the study highlighted the positive impact of NaaS on their carbon reduction goals, with almost 30% citing it as a direct contributor to carbon reduction.

The new locations are offered via Colt’s ecosystem of best-of-breed partners, with an additional 20,000 locations expected to be available through the platform by the end of the year, bringing the total to more than 180,000, of which 32,000 are ‘on net’, connected to Colt’s own digital infrastructure. As well as benefit from the scale and reach, businesses selecting Colt’s on net locations benefit from real-time quoting, ordering and delivery, and in-life real time flexing.