As data center engineers and ICT professionals brace for the demands of new technologies such as 5G, edge computing, artificial intelligence (AI) and the continuing growth of software-defined networking (SDN) across the enterprise landscape, they need to prepare data center infrastructure and cabling to support these initiatives while ensuring scalability and flexibility.
5G promises lightning-fast speeds, no lag time, and increased densities — a critical piece to make autonomous vehicles and smart cities a reality. So, why aren’t cars driving themselves yet? The answer is that even though the technology needed to transmit the data exists, there’s not enough power to get it there. Integrating distributed power to high-speed communications and IT nodes seems like a logical fix to the problem. This is valid in concept, but not so easy to implement. Because distributed power combines multiple renewable sources to provide flexible, efficient electricity, it can be somewhat difficult to match generation and consumption.
In the midst of edge computing and the growing role of edge data centers, a practice has emerged that frequently goes by its acronym, CORD. CORD stands for central office rearchitected as a data center. In a CORD deployment, a service provider uses an existing facility that has served as a central office. In some cases, these facilities now serve as headends for the service providers’ microwave towers or land lines.
Edge computing represents the next challenge to data center and infrastructure engineers. Why? Data centers have grown so big that, now, highly distributed, small deployments are preferred in many cases. The low-latency requirement for new technologies means that 5G deployments on the edge will be the next wave of new facility builds.
In any type of computing environment, the housing, protection and management of network connections is essential for uptime and performance. The methods for providing that protection and management, as well as the products and technologies for doing so, can vary significantly depending on the computing environment in which they will reside. This article looks at options for cabling and network-equipment housing, protection, and management in different environments.
Just a few years ago, many expected all the Internet of Things (IoT) to move to the cloud—and much of the consumer-connected IoT indeed lives there—but one of the key basics of designing and building enterprise-scale IoT solutions is to make a balanced use of edge and cloud computing. Compared to cloud-only solutions, blended solutions that incorporate edge can alleviate latency, increase scalability, and enhance access to information so that better, faster decisions can be made, and enterprises can become more agile as a result.
In its outlook for 2020, R&M has identified 8 key trends spanning across public, data center and local area networks.These include: Convergence, Single Pair Ethernet vs. Field Bus, Leveraging FTTX, WDM and Blown Microfiber, Leveraging 5G, Greater Importance of the Edge, High Density Data Centers, and Automated Infrastructure Management in Data Centers.
Increasingly, applications at the network edge—Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, machine-to-machine communications and the like—are generating tremendous amounts of data. Many such applications demand ultra-reliable low-latency (mid, single-digit millisecond) performance. The challenges of coping with this growing flood of data—to and from the edge—are keeping data center managers awake at night. Here’s what we know.
Edge sites are typically smaller than traditional data centers, requiring far less physical space, and often turning up in places that weren’t originally designed for IT networks. Edge computing racks often are deployed in closets or repurposed rooms in hospitals, schools, or even military sites in the middle of the desert. Key elements are: Monitoring, building in redundancies, securing the edge, closed-loop cooling systems, protection against the elements, and more.
The 2020 State of the Edge Report estimates that over $700 billion (€631 billion) in cumulative CAPEX will be spent within the next decade on edge IT infrastructure and data centre facilities.
