According to the market research company IDC over 64 zettabytes (= 64 billion gigabytes) of data produced and replicated – a new record. Most of the information is now generated outside the classic data center and at least some of it has to be processed locally. It is therefore no wonder that companies according to IDC forecasts will install over 50 percent of their IT infrastructure at the edge and no longer in the data center by 2023. Last year it was only ten percent.
According to the IT specialist Dell Above all, users of edge initiatives hope for more operational efficiency, a better user experience, new income, more security and more sustainable development. The following application scenarios in particular play a role:
- Connection of branches and branch offices: It often makes sense to provide decentralized IT services in distributed branches in order to save bandwidth and reduce latency. In particularly sensitive areas, legal regulations or internal compliance requirements can also make on-site data processing necessary.
- Control of factories and other industrial facilities: Until a few years ago, operational technology (OT) for production control and automation was largely separate from corporate IT. The solutions used were usually based on proprietary systems that were incompatible with standard IT protocols. In order to be able to use the advantages of new technologies and delivery models such as artificial intelligence and cloud computing in industry as well, OT and IT are growing ever closer together, which is leading to an increased demand for computing power in the factory floor.
- Internet of Things (IoT): According to the market research company IoT Analytics, the number of connected things will increase in 2021 alone increased by nine percent and is now more than twelve billion devices worldwide. IoT data is the fastest growing area in total data growth. In order to save bandwidth, this enormous amount of information has to be filtered and pre-analyzed at the edge. If devices and machines are to be controlled in real time, transmission latency also plays a role.
- Retail trade: Video cameras, RFID chips (Radio Frequency Identification), digital cash registers, WLAN and Bluetooth beacons – a large number of data sources are available to retailers today. With their help, retailers can optimize goods procurement and pricing, improve the customer experience and achieve significant increases in efficiency. In order to minimize latency and bandwidth costs, they are increasingly using edge solutions.
What hardware must be able to do for edge applications
Depending on the area of application, the requirements for servers, clients and other edge hardware differ. In Branches and branch offices there is usually a lack of competent IT staff. Therefore, the focus is primarily on simple installation, configuration and operation. Services like ProDeploy Enterprise from Dell Technolohies make it possible, for example, to install and configure hardware and system software remotely, so that no IT experts are required on site. On the basis of the PowerEdge XR servers, hyper-converged architectures can be developed that combine computing power, storage and network in a compact, easy-to-use device and which are therefore easy to install and operate on the edge.
In Factories and other industrial equipment it is primarily harsh environmental conditions such as moisture, dust, vibrations and electromagnetic waves that place special demands on the hardware. Servers for this purpose must therefore be particularly robust and shielded. the PowerEdge RXSeries from Dell Technologies offers an extended operating temperature tolerance of 5 ° to 55 ° C for this purpose and can be equipped with a case filter to protect against dust.
in the Internet of Things the first thing is to collect and consolidate the data from many sensors. Dell Technologies did this for you Edge gateways which, thanks to their robust design and a large number of inputs and outputs, can aggregate data at the network edge and make it available for analysis. They are specified for an operating temperature range of -30 ° to 70 ° C and, thanks to their industrial form factor, can be installed outdoors, in factories or in air conditioning.
the retail trade usually has to struggle with limited space, scarce IT staff and suboptimal operating conditions. Retailers also need a lot of performance in order to be able to cope with the high volume of transactions and sufficient storage capacity for the large amounts of data that are already generated in the warehouse. Here, too, the Dell EMC PowerEdge XR12 Server the best conditionsto meet these requirements. With only two height units and a depth of 463 mm, it can be stored in a space-saving manner. Up to four accelerators and up to 92 TB storage capacity ensure sufficient performance and storage reserves.
Conclusion: Edge is an essential part of every data strategy
Whether factory hall, vehicle or branch – today data is generated almost everywhere and in large quantities. Purely central processing in data centers or cloud resources is often not possible and not desirable due to latency, bandwidth, cost and security reasons. On-site processing at the “edge” is therefore also becoming a competitive factor for small and medium-sized companies. Above all, they need flexible technologies with which they can start small and expand quickly. With his Solutions for SMEs Dell Technologies offers a comprehensive portfolio that not only facilitates entry into edge computing, but also enables the seamless integration of local resources into a comprehensive data strategy.