Research firm Gartner projects that enterprise-generated data from outside of traditional cloud computing centers could increase to upwards of 75 percent by 2022.
In order to keep up with this data shift created by digital transformation initiatives, organizations will begin to look into solutions that can handle these new demands and provide necessary real-time insights, without negating current data center initiatives. This unique list of criteria creates the perfect environment for edge computing to become a key factor in any data center innovation equation.
With an increase in big data workloads and rise in real-time computing, traditional cloud computing architectures need to evolve to a more decentralized approach that processes data at or near the source. Not only could edge computing provide this capability, but it has the potential to increase data computing efficiencies and promote the further implementation of emerging technologies.
This, ultimately, could enable enterprises to scale operations, increase data security and reduce overall cost. As a result, in the next year we can expect to see edge computing become an integral part of enterprise data center strategies.
Increasing Insights with Edge Computing
With an edge computing solution, enterprises will be able to process data by the device itself or by a local server rather than being transmitted to a traditional data center environment. This form of computation reduces latency time and minimizes bandwidth usage lowering overall cost.
Edge computing also provides a layer of security for sensitive data critical for today’s data center operations by reducing the need for public cloud use. Due to the increased demand for real-time data processing and the emergence of more than 7.5 billion connected devices used in enterprises by 2020, companies will increasingly begin to add edge elements to its current data center infrastructure.
Expanding Solutions Marketplace
Due to increasing demand, solution providers are recognizing the need to expand data center service offerings to include edge capabilities as many enterprises look to modernize their infrastructure through digital transformation initiatives. Without the need to perform analysis in the cloud or on-premise data center, companies can receive actionable insights on time sensitive applications using minimal network latencies.
One method to capture and analyze this data is through the use of micro data centers that drive new levels of actionable intelligence at the edge while another is expanding traditional data center operations to include edge computing capabilities. Organizations undergoing these digital transformation efforts will rely on the real-time insights from edge computing for the rapid deployment of new processes and models.
Widespread Industry Impact
Nearly every industry could benefit from integrating edge capabilities into data center initiatives, with some examples being healthcare or industrial manufacturing. Modern healthcare includes a wide range of wearable IoT devices like sensors and monitors which store data on the person and needs to be constantly transmitted to doctors and physicians – especially during emergencies.
Through edge computing, medical professionals can gain real-time access to patient data and makes it possible to better diagnose problems and monitor patient health over long periods of time. In industrial manufacturing, edge computing allows manufacturers to gather data and gain insights for predictive maintenance and energy efficiency.
With this data, companies can reduce costs and energy consumption while maintaining better reliability to ensure production meets consumer demands.
While traditional data centers will remain the core computing power for enterprises, we’ll begin to see edge computing technology become integral into data center strategies in 2019. Whether this means integrating a solution into current operations or small data centers built for edge analytics, the next year will be the year enterprises live on the “edge.”
