Data Center Edge Survey by Vertiv Reveals Four Edge Archetypes

Physical infrastructure may not be the first thing that comes to mind when noodling over your business strategy. Yet your power, cooling and enclosure equipment all collectively work together to support your computers, which in turn host the countless applications you rely on every single day. Strategic decision-making regarding your physical infrastructure hasn't always been necessary. A recent Data Center Edge Survey by Vertiv, however, has proven to the data center industry that these decisions are even more important at the edge, given that many deployments are in locations requiring additional support and protection.

So what does that mean for you? Reading, interpreting and understanding the results of surveys like these will help you learn how to navigate edge infrastructure. Because, trust me, we know it can be complicated. With more than one definition of edge floating around, each industry has the opportunity to take their own broad and varied approach.

 

With that being said, enterprises are continuing to explore and be challenged by edge computing deployments. People like you are having to make educated choices based on the value of their existing infrastructure, while also purchasing investments to support tomorrow's demand.

Continue reading to learn about some of the archetypal use cases that appeared in what Vertiv reported.

 

 

Vertiv Edge experts, in conjunction with an independent firm, gathered a diverse group of professionals to report on their own edge activity throughout various interview sessions. The final report has provided a taxonomy for categorizing edge use cases while defining four distinct edge infrastructure models:

1. Data Intensive

2. Human-Latency Sensitive

3. Machine-to-Machine-Latency Sensitive

4. Life Critical

This framework was developed alongside a wide range of industry practitioners, data center experts, solution providers and industry bodies across Smart City, Healthcare, Manufacturing and Retail applications. 

 

Edge Archetype One: Data Intensive

• High-definition content delivery

• Data-intensive video streaming

• The smart home

The smart home, for example, must be able to support multiple data-intensive devices and systems at the same time, including entertainment, HVAC systems, and security.

 

Edge Archetype Two: Human Latency Sensitive

• E-commerce

• Payment processing

• Natural language processing

• Smart retail

Edge Archetype Three: Machine-to-Machine Latency Sensitive

 

This edge archetype describes the use cases where services are optimized for machine-to-machine consumption.

 

Examples of Machine-to-Machine Latency Sensitive use cases included: 

• Automated financial transactions (commodities and stock trading) 

• Smart grid technology (electrical distribution network)

• Smart security systems

Edge Archetype Four: Life Critical