There is simply no question that our society is becoming ever more dependent on data usage. Enterprises need access to various forms of constantly updated information to help them achieve their business goals, while industrial sites must be able to analyse such information in order to make their operations more efficient. Also, a greater emphasis on cloud services is now being witnessed, with the increasing popularity of telecommuting, as well as collaboration between people in different geographic locations, only adding further to this. On top of all that, there are the changing demands of the general public to consider, with mobile subscribers wanting instant availability to an array of different services via their smartphones.
As a consequence of this, data centre facilities are destined to become even more valued in the years ahead. At the same time, it should be noted that there is a shift underway in the topologies being employed here. Over the course of the next few years, a much larger proportion of computing and data storage resources will need to be situated at the edge - rather than everything tending to be centralised like it is now.
This is the motivation behind micro data centres – scaled-down versions of the larger facilities that we are more familiar with. These can be situated much closer to where the action is, so that edge computing tasks may be undertaken. As we will see, there are various operational advantages resulting from this.
The Emergence of Edge Computing
There are several dynamics driving migration towards the edge. Among these are:
- Mobile subscribers wanting to play immersive games or experience AR/VR apps (without lag issues)
- Industrial systems needing to be able to deal with situations that could otherwise put staff in danger or have severe cost implications in as short a timeframe as possible
- The move to higher levels of vehicle autonomy in the years ahead (and the need to support safety-critical functions)
Analyst firm Gartner predicts that by 2025, at least 75% of enterprise-generated data will be created/processed outside of traditional centralised data centres or cloud operations, with a considerable amount of workloads being executed at the edge. Fuelled by this, the global edge computing market is going to experience a 38.9% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between now and 2030, according to Grand View Research.
Through edge computing, it will be possible for a plethora of benefits to be derived across a broad range of different sectors. These include:
- Placing greater autonomy where it is actually most needed, thereby accelerating responsiveness
- Reducing network congestion - as fewer data needs to be passed through network infrastructure back to a centralised point
- Heightened security - since fewer data transmissions over such networks will significantly lower vulnerability to malicious third-party attacks
- Greater scalability - with an edge-based approach making it easier and more cost-effective to add extra resources than having to do so at a large-scale data centre facility
Overcoming the Associated Technical Difficulties
Though this all appears to be very positive, having data centre operations situated at the edge will present challenges. Acute constraints will be placed upon deployed equipment that were simply not applicable to large, centralised sites (in terms of power consumption, available space, budget, etc). There could also be limited site accessibility to factor in (impacting maintenance work).
As with centralised facilities, edge-located data centres must have an assured supply of electricity, so that the integrity of the data that they store is fully assured. Various issues might potentially pose a threat here. These include power outages, surges on transmission lines, and possibly even lightning strikes. The installation of an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) is therefore essential.
Next, an effective thermal management strategy has to be defined (the need for this being accentuated by the density with which hardware must be packed together in micro data centre installations). Depending on the amount of heat being generated, there are various methodologies that can be used here. Then there is the matter of having adequate data connectivity in place.
There is an undoubted need to keep both initial financial outlay involved and ongoing operational expenses down, as well as remaining aligned with environmental guidelines. To address increasing edge-based data centre deployment activity, RS offers a wide variety of different hardware, software, and test solutions from a broad array of relevant supply partners.
