The edge: A term that can conjure images of the musical group U2’s guitarist or bring to mind the phrase “A Flat Earth.” These days however, the edge is a place where much of the work of the Internet of Things (IoT) is heading; in coming years, the amount of work being done there will boggle the mind. Keeping edge sites up and running will require more power as well as a cool and stable environment, as these data centers will not be a conventional facility but will be in a corner, in a closet, or just about any other environment you could think of. This article is intended to bring you up to speed on operational trends for edge environments, and how it and they apply to the greater data center marketplace.
Over the last few years and especially the last few months, this term, the edge, has become part of our daily vernacular. But what does it truly mean? How do we differentiate it from conventional data centers? Solving these new challenges is and will continue to be a work in progress, it must be … as it’s never been done before.