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Artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and the Internet of Things (IoT) aren’t new – they’ve been impacting and shaping enterprise strategy for years. Now though, as their use accelerates, businesses are left with vast amounts of data that need to be collected, processed, and analyzed. Without doing so, businesses will be left with unorganized, unusable piles of data that will hamper the ability to innovate, digitally transform, and ultimately serve customers.
To improve scalability, enhance business continuity, and accelerate automation, businesses are beginning to re-evaluate the benefits offered by both cloud computing and edge computing. This is especially pertinent in response to our evolving reality mid-pandemic, as employees across nearly every industry work in an increasingly distributed fashion.
Even without the influence of COVID-19 as a forcing function, these two technologies are seeing a massive upswing. It’s estimated that 75% of enterprise-generated data will be stored, processed, and acted upon at the edge. On the other hand, as today’s data center industry continues to rapidly transform from businesses that build and manage their own facilities to hyperscale models, the need for data centers and cloud resources has skyrocketed. In fact, Cisco estimated that by next year alone, hyperscale data centers will represent 53% of all installed data center servers.
Is There a Need to Choose Between Investing in Cloud or Edge?
Both cloud and edge computing are having a significant impact on the IT industry, but do companies need to choose whether they invest in one over the other? Not necessarily: Both support a data center’s ability to quickly adapt and support current and future demand being driven by IoT and the proliferation of data.
Hyperscale cloud providers like AWS, Microsoft, and Google are playing a key part in meeting growing networking and performance demands. As businesses expand their use of emerging technology such as AI or machine learning, cloud providers will play an essential role in reducing the complexity that comes with managing the environments needed to support today’s digital business. For example, cloud-based tools enable data center managers to reduce operating expenses, maximize uptime, and automate workflows. By relying more heavily on cloud-based architectures, teams can remotely manage data center locations and collaborate more effectively by sharing information from different locations and systems into one central interface. This visibility leads to improved efficiency in how enterprises identify and resolve potential issues that affect downtime and hinder the ability to realize digital business goals.
At the same time, edge computing has emerged as one of the most important trends in recent years – it plays an essential role in how data centers are managed to optimally support the businesses they serve. The increase in our use of bandwidth-intensive content and data are stretching our infrastructure, and consequently, computing power and storage is being pushed toward the network edge, closer to the source of data. As a result, new forms of edge computing are becoming more popular: 5G is forcing telcos to meet skyrocketing demand for connectivity and capacity. In response, the telco edge is emerging as a new edge computing frontier to support technology and digital innovation.
With cloud-based solutions, teams can collect and analyze massive amounts of data, plus remotely monitor and manage sites, scale systems, and perform better with predictive capabilities. Edge computing, on the other hand, is proving to be the link needed for supporting connectivity to cloud services, and the computing, analytics, and storage needed for today’s data processing needs. For example, as businesses such as restaurants, clothing retailers, insurers and more turn their attention to improving the user experience through technology, edge is a key enabler for helping enterprises meet local computing requirements brought on by the use of AI, machine learning, or IoT. Ultimately, cloud and edge computing make a greater positive impact when businesses utilize them together.
Investing Smart to Drive Better Business Performance
Today’s enterprises are facing decreasing IT budgets, yet the urgency to upgrade and expand technology has never been more evident than it is now. Technology enhancements can help augment human capabilities; however, a majority of organizations are operating legacy environments, which can present a daunting challenge when it comes to implementing technology that is cloud- and edge-enabled.
When evaluating where and how to make these tech investments, enterprises should focus on the areas that will drive better business performance, quickly. To start, IT leaders should understand where the solution fits within their current ecosystem, what considerations should be taken into account when deploying it within their current environment, and how it will start to make an impact on current systems and processes.
For example, success today will rely heavily on the ability for businesses to stay relevant to customers and their needs. This is particularly important now given how the global COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically – and rapidly – increased our reliance on virtual technologies to support remote work. To remain competitive, businesses must embrace virtual capabilities, not only to keep their own employees engaged, but to ensure they are providing customers with services when and how they need it. With the right cloud- and edge-enabled backbone, businesses will have the flexibility needed to scale their virtual offerings to meet customer demand.
By pinpointing a solution’s impact on specific areas of an enterprise first, businesses can prove return on investment, integrate more solutions, and scale for the future. More importantly, they’ll gain buy-in from stakeholders within the business to build support for future investments that harness the power of cloud and edge to help them improve business performance and realize their digital transformation goals.