Implementing edge computing

Simon Michie at Pulsant explains how businesses must slice through cloud sprawl to implement edge computing

 

Flexibility, cost control, security – there are many reasons why the mass migration of data and software-based business tools to the cloud continues unabated.

 

For most businesses, this means hybrid cloud, using the storage and computing power of big-name vendors alongside deployment in on-premises or private cloud data centres. Analysts at Gartner estimate three-quarters of medium-sized or large companies have already adopted a hybrid or multi-cloud strategy.

 

There are many advantages to this approach. In a hybrid infrastructure, an organisation can prioritise workloads and choose the location that best suits its applications and business priorities.

 

Some business applications still work best on-prem or in a private cloud, for example. A hybrid cloud strategy allows businesses to use more traditional workloads in a cost-effective and easy-to-use, while simultaneously advancing the implementation of newer, revenue-generating applications.

 

Hybrid cloud also allows businesses to use applications specific to individual vendors without entrapment by vendor lock-in. A company adopting a hybrid strategy avoids being held to ransom by a single provider or being compelled to adapt to vendor-mandated changes in technology or operational practices.

 

Data sovereignty is also a major consideration for many businesses. Hybrid cloud enables these businesses to keep their data in the right location for compliance purposes. In addition, organisations that are cautious about security and feel unable to entrust their most sensitive data to the public cloud also gain reassurance from the hybrid approach, keeping such information under lock and key on-prem.

 

 

Difficulties in cloud management

Yet nothing in IT is entirely pain-free, and unsurprisingly, as organisations spread their data and workloads across different vendors and their own data centres, it all becomes difficult to manage. The very flexibility and cost-reduction that organisations seek from the cloud are at risk. It is easy for companies to lose sight of where data and workloads are and the charges they are racking up through complicated fee structures.

 

It is understandable if dynamic organisations, contemplating all the advantages of edge computing, start to fear these headaches could become more intense. Edge is about overcoming the disadvantages of location, moving data and workloads closer to where businesses want to use them. It provides high-bandwidth, low latency access to data that advanced analytics and artificial intelligence applications depend on. If, for example, a business wants to use artificial intelligence solutions to process data from thousands of sensors in a remote oil and gas extraction and refining complex, edge is the answer.

 

As well as underpinning applications in the Internet of Things and major advances in automated industrial production, edge is the technology that enables consumers anywhere to participate in multi-player gaming. It is based on a network of regional edge data centres and the rollout of 5G, which combine to remove the connectivity speed problems associated with being away from the major cloud vendors’ hubs. In the UK that brings major advantages for any business outside the M25.

 

This potentially adds to the infrastructure complications of hybrid cloud management and could discourage companies from fully benefiting from a major evolution in technology. It is easy to believe such a complex set of environments could be difficult to manage and optimise, causing significant inefficiencies and costs.

 

Many companies, after all, lack in-house skills and expertise and are inundated by approaches from different vendors.

 

 

Overcoming the challenges of hybrid-plus-edge

The hyperscale cloud providers have sought to address the challenges of managing hybrid cloud by providing their own tools, but their involvement in edge computing is in its infancy, which limits their effectiveness. This is no reason for businesses using hybrid cloud to resile from edge computing, however.

 

It is already possible for edge providers to reduce the complexity of this architecture through easy-to-manage, Software Defined Networking technology which enables organisations to control connections and routing through a self-service portal or even fully integrated APIs.

 

Software-defined networking in a wide area network (SD-WAN) enables businesses to configure networks to recognise priority applications automatically so there are no problems with network speed. They can also save themselves a huge amount of time in trouble-shooting, reconfiguring and updating multiple devices with the push of a button.

 

Just as importantly, edge platforms in the UK now provide their own tools that act as a “single pane of glass” across hybrid and edge infrastructure. This enables businesses to optimise cost and use of assets wherever they are.

 

The benefits are significant. Businesses obtain a consistent, holistic view of their deployments and the details of their cost, enabling them to shift and adapt workloads for maximum operational efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Each application and edge instance is visible as is real-time usage of cloud resources.  Analytical capabilities proffer insights that constantly improve efficiency.

 

One often-overlooked aspect of cloud spending, for example, comprises the substantial data egress fees businesses incur when they pull data back out of the cloud. Traditional direct connectivity can be costly due to long-term contracts and static bandwidth fees based on maximum throughput. This is the kind of cost a next-generation cloud management platform enables a business to control more effectively.

 

 

New edge capabilities

The upshot of having such a single pane of glass management tool is that companies gain complete control of hybrid and edge infrastructure on a day-to-day basis, resolving the inevitable challenges more quickly. This gives them the flexibility in resource use to achieve high levels of organisational agility.

 

They can spin workloads up and down in relation to demand, avoiding the dangers of over-spend without risk of being under-resourced for surges in demand or new opportunities. And of course, it means they can implement the new high-powered, transformational technologies and applications made possible by edge computing.

 

Every business in the cloud wants to get the most bang for its buck, and those eager for the advances of edge computing are no exception. The advent of a new generation of cloud management platforms means every organisation with complex cloud architecture can run close to its configured performance limit without imperilling the performance of its applications.

 

There is no longer any reason for businesses with hybrid cloud architecture to fear that edge computing will be anything other than transformational.

 

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Simon Michie is CTO at Pulsant

 

Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com