Why Cloud Computing is Requiring us to Rethink Resiliency at the Edge
Published on 19 Jun 2021
How data centers are set up and operate is changing rapidly. Growth of Internet of Things (IOT), higher volumes of digital traffic and data, and a significant increase in the use of cloud applications and technology are some of the trends that have altered the landscape of data centers. Earlier key applications and technologies would be stored on-premise at an organization's own data center. Today, many of these critical applications are stored in cloud data centers. There are still some applications that are kept on-premise, due to regulatory requirements, company culture, latency, and other reasons. However, much of the technology being used by businesses today is stored and run in the cloud.
The point at which the business-owned network connects with a third-party network is referred to as an edge. There can be several boundaries in a hybrid network depending on who owns the underlying network equipment. The adoption of cloud technologies has created a much wider network perimeter. IOT devices that connect to networks, and increasing use of mobile devices, means that there are mode edges in an organization's network. In order to ensure that resources are always connected to critical business applications, latency is low, and the network is secure, businesses need to invest in edge computing.
See also: The Drivers and Benefits of Edge Computing
Types of data centers being used today
Organizations today have adopted what is referred to as a 'hybrid' cloud environment in this white paper by Schneider Electric. For the purpose of this white paper, a hybrid environment consists of a mix of three types of data centers:
- A Centralized cloud data center
- Regional medium to large data centers
- Locallized, smaller on-premise data centers
Even though on-premise data centers have a much smaller footprint these days, they are still very critical. In fact, as only essential technologies and data are kept on-premise the criticality of on-premise data centers has increased even more. Most edge data centers today are not well designed and this can lead to expensive downtime. Businesses need to have a systematic approach to evaluate and understand the availability at all data centers that are part of a hybrid environment. This will help ensure that money is spent on equipment that will provide the greatest ROI.
Download this white paper to learn more about the common practices in each of the data center types mentioned above and how the expectations of availability have changed. The white paper proposes a method that can be used to evaluate the level of resiliency required for edge data centers. It also provides best practices that should be followed when implementing micro data centers on the edge. Subscribe to Whitepapers.online for resources to improve your network architecture.
