You Don’t Have to Settle for Less at the Edge
We have two points of clarification for the Data Center Frontier article published on July 3, 2019, titled “The Interconnected World Places New Demands on Data Center Infrastructure: Are You Prepared?”
- The author asked the right question and we wholeheartedly agree that the IoT world is stretching the network to the edge. Yet, we think it’s important to point out that it’s not only possible to locate an environmentally controlled facility at the edge, it’s exactly what modular data centers are designed to enable.
Getting closer to the end user now requires smaller sites, with a design that is very quickly deployed, and versatile. With a modular data center, you can install pre-configured data blocks anywhere and place as many of them across a geographic area as needed versus a one-off, large installation. It’s a great way to add that extra computing power if you’re a hospital trying to serve hard-to-reach rural areas with remote patient diagnostics and care services.
Operational sameness is where you can really gain efficiencies and drive down costs. If you have 1,000 modular data centers located wherever you need them with the best power usage effectiveness and energy efficiency, you’re maximizing your ROI. Makes sense, right?
- The second point made in the Data Center Frontier article that we’d like to clarify ─ networks at the edge ARE administered or overseen daily – it’s just done through the use of software. Each module provides data-driven insights for secure, wherever-you-go visibility. That means you can collect as much data as you want in real-time and make smart decisions on how to change the data center itself or just use its assets in a wise way.
IoT will continue to be a significant growth driver for edge computing, requiring a range of capabilities, with low latency. The need to process data near where it’s being generated – close to the ‘things” – is why modular data centers were created. Protecting, securing, and controlling your equipment in an IoT-driven world doesn’t need to be a challenge. The data center module industry has already solved this problem with software-controlled modules. You don’t have to settle for less at the edge.
