At Manchester Digital, we regularly shine a light on our members to understand more about their roles and their work within Greater Manchester’s digital and technology community. This week, we’re speaking with Colin Peckham, LINX Interconnection Specialist at LINX, who is reflecting back on Digital Infrastructure North 26 (DIN 26), which took place back in May.
What made Digital Infrastructure North a valuable event for you personally and for LINX?
Strengthening our leadership in the UK and building on our role as the UK’s leading Internet Exchange but also expanding our presence in key regions with important partnerships is embedded into the LINX strategy for the coming years. This event was a perfect platform to bring this message to a wider audience. LINX has a firm belief that our robust infrastructure could benefit many other organisations looking for a secure platform for fast and secure data exchange.
From a personal perspective I’ve seen a strong willingness from the northern community to collaborate for the good of the region and its digital greatness. Having an event that brought together many like-minded people willing to participate and help shape the digital future of the north was great to see. I believe that Manchester and the North has a large part to play in the decentralisation from just being a country reliant on London for its infrastructure. It was good to see and hear I wasn’t alone in this opinion.
What stood out most from the conversations you had on the day?
It was really refreshing to hear how much work had already started and was ongoing outside of the areas I’d normally operate in. This gave me renewed hope and belief in what we are trying to do in the North and that the Digital Infrastructure North forum had a place and a part to play.
Were there any common themes coming through around digital infrastructure, connectivity, or the future needs of the region?
You can’t avoid mentioning the major discussion point around AI and that was a topic discussed numerous times including a very interesting presentation around regional AI. With government and enterprise initiatives tailoring systems to local data, laws, and infrastructural needs it highlighted more and more how much local infrastructure would become more key. This also leads to the second very hot topic which was around data sovereignty. Not just where your data sits but also how it moves. There was a lot of emphasis on ESG initiatives and how some of the existing good work could be built upon. From a LINX perspective this is exactly the problem an Internet Exchange like LINX solves by keeping traffic secure and local.
How important are events like this in bringing together different parts of the ecosystem to learn from each other?
In my opinion they are key to the avoidance of siloed progress. It is clear to see there is a lot of good work going on but without a bringing together of the different parts of the ecosystem there is no shared learn or aggregated growth.
What did the event tell you about the scale of ambition and momentum building across Manchester and the North?
It reaffirmed that my personal beliefs and experiences were shared and also that community led development is happening all around. If we have a way to bring that together where possible it can only be a good thing.
It is no surprise that LINX Manchester surpassed 1Tbps of peak traffic on the exchange recently, the momentum is definitely building.
Were there any examples or discussions from the day that you found especially interesting or encouraging?
As mentioned earlier I was encouraged by the presentation around regional AI having a place. I was also encouraged by the initiatives like Digital Sands in Blackpool.
What would you like to see happen next to build on the momentum from the event?
Discussions are already happening around next steps. I’d love to see a bigger DIN in 2027 with some deliverables and updates from what we have started.
I guess it’s ‘watch this space’!
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