As digital transformation is changing business models, organizations need to leverage real-time intelligence to create and deliver value. Further, next-generation workloads and applications are dependent on extensive near-real-time computation. The large volume of data generated needs to be effectively processed and stored to maximize value.

This fundamental change in being able to acquire, analyze, and leverage real-time data, augmented with Mega Trends, such as IoT adoption, 5G roll-outs, data sovereignty implementation as well as the adoption of online and video content, are forcing organizations to revisit the IT architecture. The emerging IT architecture is characterized by a relatively more decentralized infrastructure environment involving the deployment of computing and storage resources closer to the source of data origin or user.

Organizations are rapidly leveraging edge data centers and edge computing architectures to shift workloads closer to the data source or point of consumption. These edge data centers are relatively smaller facilities and may be deployed closer to point of data generation source, non-metro or hyper-scale markets, or to connect regions in a hub-and-spoke model.

As each enterprise is unique in its industry requirements, use case, and IT architecture, the edge architecture may also be unique. Organizations will need to define the business strategy, expected outcomes, and data priorities effectively to transform into the edge. They will need the flexibility to select from edge locations and services those that align best to support their strategic outcomes. Enterprises will seek service providers that partner with them in edge adoption and have the vision to deliver scalable, agile, flexible, and secure edge data centers in desired locations.

While edge data centers offer the potential of overcoming challenges associated with latency, cost, and bandwidth for near-real-time processing, it is not an alternative to the cloud, centralized colocation, or hyper-scale data centers. An IT infrastructure landscape with data centers linked to the digital edge will be the way forward in building digital organizations and delivering seamless digital experiences to end-users.

With this changing information and technologies (ICT) landscape, third-party data center service providers must realign their strategy and build business models that bring storage and compute infrastructure closer to end-users. It is expected that service providers that can demonstrate a strong vision for edge, augmented with a portfolio of services for managing it, will gain an advantage over the competitors.

Author: Nishchal Khorana