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EDGE DATA CENTRES
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By Clive Partridge , Technical Manager IT Infrastructure , Rittal
www . rittal . com
Edge data centres bringing data closer for the next generation of processing and storage
There are a number of major trends and technologies that are currently reshaping the IT market and changing the requirements for IT infrastructure . These include the IoT , smart devices , driverless vehicles , cryptocurrency data mining , artificial intelligence , Internet shopping , content streaming and online gaming to name but a few .
IT infrastructure requirements must now accommodate greater demands for :
• Low latency , local data processing and high autonomy of infrastructure
• System-wide security
• High bandwidth
Added to this , there are industry-specific requirements , such as the need for particularly high physical protection in harsh manufacturing environments . For these reasons , we are seeing local IT resources – placing computing resources at the perimeter of a given network – to become more widely deployed . This deployment has been dubbed edge computing , and it ensures that latency is low ( packet round trips of less than 100ms , with 25ms being desirable ), thus making data readily available to a growing number of applications .
Edge thereby flips the computing paradigm , pushing computing and data closer to end-users and , in response , IT vendors are developing some innovative solutions which are tailored to sector needs .
Speed on the edge This rise of edge computing is expected to be fast and immediate . Gartner , for example , predicts that 50 % of all data will be processed in an edge environment by 2022 , compared to just 10 % today . In its research paper , ‘ The Edge will eat the Cloud ’, the organisation predicts that the cloud won ’ t die out , but that its role will shift , and that edge computing will have a massive impact on the IT infrastructure market .
The focus for edge is typically on the immediate processing capacity required at the source of data ; making it as fast and secure as possible . For example , in ‘ smart ’ Internet grocery distribution centres , robot sensors and actuators continuously relay information on the status of processes and infrastructure . This forms the basis for innovative services such as alerts , predictive maintenance , and machine self-optimisation , delivered by the company ’ s IT department in real time . For this to happen , and for rapid responses to events and anomalies , it ’ s critical to have low latency between production and the IT infrastructure . A cloud data centre could struggle to support these scenarios .
Turnkey edge data centre solutions With all this in mind , many vendors are introducing edge data centre solutions : an end to end product with standardised , preconfigured IT infrastructure which can be implemented rapidly and cost-effectively – paving the way for Industry 4.0 applications . For clients , the main features of a universal edge solution are :
• Global reach and off-the-shelf availability
• Highest quality , well-engineered solutions , supporting globally accepted standards
• Maximum flexibility with highly scalable options
Depending on the scale of the application , an edge data centre could comprise :
• A single self-contained rack with power and cooling
• A rack suite of multiple racks , typically up to 10 , with power and cooling
• A containerised solution with power , cooling , and fire suppression
• Moreover , to safeguard critical components from heat , dust and dirt in industrial environments , it needs to be possible to implement in a self-contained , high-availability room
Some vendors are now combining typical ‘ as-a-service ’ offerings providing complete , one-stop solutions for those enterprises , regardless of size , that don ’ t want to manage their own systems .
Edge applications by sector Edge is widely predicted to be transformative in a range of sectors where fast processing speeds of high volumes of data are critical . Examples include manufacturing , financial services , transport and healthcare .
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