High throughput, low latency, network availability, reliability, and security have always been top priorities in data centers, but the recent wave of technological advances — autonomous cars, augmented reality, 5G, and all other connected objects of the Internet of Things (IoT) — are taking those priorities to a new level and bringing new challenges to IT systems administrators and data centers managers.
In order to successfully host and deliver services on a global scale, and to ensure real-time data to the enduser, data centers are having to spread their networks to the edge, closer to the devices where that data is processed. These edge locations can be anywhere from warehouses, oilfields and mines, commercial areas, roadsides, and manufacturing floors — a big difference from the environmentally controlled data center environment IT systems administrators are used to.