Our digital lives are built on data, which just keeps growing. But even though a huge amount of data drives it all, we want our systems, for both personal and work use, to be super-responsive—far more than they are today. One of the biggest problems in delivering a real-time digital world is the latency encountered when every click of a button sends data thousands of miles to a cloud or centralized data center to be processed. To cut that latency, we need to increase processing on edge infrastructure that is physically closer to the user.
Modern edge infrastructure is essential. It supports wired and wireless connections, which is critical to improved user experiences and business outcomes. Wired networks with high-speed fiber optics connecting premises and metro edge locations close to digital interactions is complemented by wireless networks using higher-speed 5G technology to improve mobile experiences. This infrastructure supports the connection of remote sensors and internet of things (IoT) devices. For example, smart traffic management will be enabled by an array of thousands of sensors in cars, roadways and other physical infrastructure. Each sensor will generate terabytes of data related to speed, direction and other attributes in real time.
Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of use cases on the near horizon will demand next-generation edge infrastructure. Their imminent arrival is causing many businesses to look for partners that can, right now, provide the edge infrastructure for future use cases. Few of those businesses will attempt to build their own, given the geographic dispersion, management demands and substantial integration tasks involved.
Choosing the right partner for edge infrastructure requires looking more deeply than performance characteristics. Your edge network partner must provide security, resiliency, data backup and network storage, scalability, management and agility. Choosing a partner that has all the enterprise-grade features and capabilities needed in those six key areas today will help you sidestep setbacks that could arise in the future. Such capabilities are the foundation of the essential edge infrastructure that will drive digital business success.
In addition to the capabilities needed at the edge, another important point to consider is how your edge infrastructure will be connected to the world. Although much digital work will be done locally, it is important that the edge have a reliable, secure, high-speed connection to and across the broader network. As the amount of data and processing occurring on the edge increases, the network that connects to and from the edge must be capable of supporting the increased demand.
Trend Report: The Edge Compute Imperative
This paper highlights business requirements and use cases driving the adoption of “edge compute” infrastructure, platforms, software and services based on a Lumen-sponsored April 2021 Quadrant Strategies survey.
Download NowMeeting the requirements of the data-driven world starts with highly performant and available edge infrastructure. Two industry leaders, Lumen and Intel, are committed to delivering next-generation edge infrastructure that meets all the demands, current and future, of business. Lumen’s edge infrastructure has broad geographic coverage, with more than 45 highly performant and capable edge nodes. These are connected to Lumen’s high-capacity global fiber network, which reduces latency to 5 milliseconds or less—delivering real-time capabilities. These nodes will provide all the performance necessary to support data-driven applications and workloads, using 3rd Gen Xeon® processors and other highly performant infrastructure components from Intel to deliver the reliability, scalability and overall performance manufacturing companies need.
Lumen and Intel provide the edge platform that can support the consumer, AR/VR, artificial intelligence, IoT and robotics applications that will be common in just a few short years. For more information, please go to Lumen.com/edge.
