As enterprises deal with a new workforce in the pandemic that is evolving to be that of a hybrid remote and office environment, while at the same time continue their push for digital and technological transformation, the adoption of edge computing is a vital piece of infrastructure for the next generation enterprise.
IDC predicts that by 2023, over 50% of new enterprise IT infrastructure deployed will be at the edge rather than corporate data centres. The Global Interconnection Index Volume 4, a market study by Equinix, predicts that Asia-Pacific will lead global interconnection bandwidth growth at 47% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2019 to 2023.
These predictions underscore a major trend: companies are seeking out interconnected hubs within vendor-neutral colocation data centres that can bring together dense network, cloud and business ecosystems and edge computing services in one place.
Cloud is becoming an edge destination
Hybrid multicloud infrastructures at the edge are powering the growth of digital infrastructures. Rather than depending on multi-hop, latency-ridden routing to major metro Cloud Service Provider (CSP) locations, companies are moving their IT infrastructures to the edge, where private and public clouds can be proximate to users, applications and data. By 2025, it is predicted that Asia-Pacific will account for the growth of edge computing at 35.5% CAGR.
Edge servers play the critical role of intermediary processing node and integrator between hyperscale cloud or enterprise-owned data centres, of which ultimately connects to a diverse set of people, devices and workloads needed to deliver on outcomes.
Edge computing is processing new workloads
For companies to deliver the best quality of service (QoS) between users and applications, they need to put computing resources close at hand to reduce latency. This also requires greater edge computing to support growing dynamic digital edge workloads, such as unified communications and collaboration, and application of the internet of things (IoT). On top of enabling a low-latency environment, bringing storage and processing closer to the source of data generation can also address concerns such as bandwidth, data privacy and autonomy.
The value of colocation
Though the physical reach of global data centres is what initially attracts many enterprises, it is the essential on-demand access to network, cloud/Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and edge services ecosystems that helps them create new value for their business and their customers. With the increased physical presence of hyperscale CSPs in the region driving adoption, Asia-Pacific’s data centre colocation market is expected to have revenue growth of close to 8% CAGR across 2019 to 2025.
The following are a few examples of how enterprise users and their partners work together to enable a wide range of digital services by integrating colocation, cloud and edge computing on a global interconnection platform solution.
Fast access to unified communications and collaboration (UCC)
With millions of remote workers, communities and families sheltered in place, cloud-based UCC solutions such as Cisco Webex, Microsoft Teams/Skype and Zoom are keeping people connected by seamlessly scaling out their IT operations from data centres around the world. By rapidly provisioning higher capacity bandwidth and services, and harnessing private IP peering these providers can see a delivery improvement of a higher QoS to their users in hours and days, rather than weeks or months.
Global distributed digital security
Enterprises want to be able to harness the advantages of distributed computing and not be the subject of cyber compromise. Security providers are expanding their customers’ security perimeters to encompass hybrid on-premises and colocation data centres, private and public cloud environments at the edge via the interconnection services that scale hybrid deployments with speed and agility. By distributing corporate security services and compliance policies, businesses gain greater control and manageability where the most users and data reside, as well as where the most likely entry points for cybersecurity are exposed.
Direct connectivity to multi-cloud with end to end encryption and dynamic routing via SD-WAN virtual edge or gateway also enables private data exchange between cloud-based databases and application to be accessed securely by global edge locations.
IoT anywhere
IoT data is being created from every corner of the globe and requires single-digit latency to be effective for new digital applications such as autonomous vehicles and telehealth. Deploying IoT on a global scale and managing the massive exchange of IoT data requires local presence and fast access to cloud and edge computing services that transfers data efficiently via interconnection.
Using globally interconnected networks, enterprises can efficiently collect and distribute IoT data across different networks and clouds, accelerate IoT deployments, and deliver greater business insights to customers via high-speed low-latency private interconnection.
Interconnection pulls it all together
For enterprises to quickly deploy distributed colocation data centre, hybrid multi-cloud and edge computing infrastructures effectively, they need proximate, high-speed, low-latency private interconnection. Digital leaders should look towards building a framework to map the benefits of edge to business to align on goals, prevent development silos and rally buy in to maximize the chances of a successful implementation that drives results.
