NEIL CAWSE
NETWORKS
But we weren’ t impacted,” Neil states.“ Our primary cloud provider is Google Cloud Platform. We use AWS too, but we’ ve always believed in a multi-cloud strategy for exactly this reason, resilience.”
The approach mirrors the multihoming strategies employed in core telecommunications networks to ensure availability. In the context of fleet management, the cloud platform acts as the SDN controller, pushing policy updates and firmware to the edge devices while ingesting telemetry.
“ Ten or 15 years ago, if telematics went down, it wasn’ t the end of the world. You could fix it by the next day. Today, everything runs through the cloud; uptime, reliability and security are non-negotiable,” Neil says.
Resilience incurs operational costs. The need to replicate data across the Google Cloud Platform and secondary providers increases storage costs. Furthermore, data movement between these environments triggers egress fees. These are charges levied by cloud providers when packets leave their infrastructure.
Neil notes the financial implications of the architecture.“ Multi-cloud comes at a cost, but the alternative is worse,” he says. He critiques the pricing models of the hyperscalers.“ Those have always felt manipulative,” Neil states.“ It’ s about creating vendor lock-in. The good news is the industry pushed back and we’ ve seen reductions or waivers. But the risk of cloud concentration remains.”
NEIL CAWSE
TITLE: FOUNDER AND CEO COMPANY: GEOTAB INDUSTRY: TELEMATICS
Neil Cawse, Geotab’ s founder and CEO, is an engineer and entrepreneur. Establishing Geotab in 2000, he built a global telematics leader, leveraging AI and data to drive fleet innovation and sustainability.
Such independence allows the telematics provider to shift workloads in response to geopolitical factors or technical performance requirements.
Geotab secures the data plane with private APN tunnelling The connectivity layer relies on separating hardware from identity. Geotab utilises eSIM and Multi-IMSI( International Mobile Subscriber Identity) technologies to virtualise the subscriber module. The device holds multiple carrier profiles in firmware. It can dynamically switch between network providers – such as Telefonica, AT & T or Rogers – based on signal quality
70 January 2026