Grow your business
even in uncertain times with these 5 simple steps
GROWTH POINT 1
Process your data faster for a competitive edge
Edge computing can help improve application performance by reducing the time it takes for data to travel from the source to the cloud and back. With edge computing, data is processed locally, and only relevant data is sent to the cloud. This reduction in the latency between data source and compute, improves the speed of data processing delivering faster performance.
For applications where user experience is latency critical, such as security video, gaming, digital healthcare, autonomous operations, or real time analytics, decisions can be made faster and with greater levels of insight. By identifying workloads that are latency sensitive and locating them in edge data centres, rather than public cloud, performance improvements can be used to deliver valuable commercial advantage.
GROWTH POINT 2
Reduce costs
and improve performance
With the increase in remote work, online meetings, and video conferencing, bandwidth and network transit costs are now critical to business performance. Moving data over long distances can be expensive. Managing bandwidth over multiple interconnections can be tricky. Costs can rapidly spiral and performance drop.
Edge computing can help reduce these costs by processing data closer to the source. This means that instead of sending large amounts of data, over long distance connections to the cloud for processing, it can be processed locally at an edge colocation facility. Edge data centres have access to multiple local and international carriers, plus private interconnection options that can help reduce costs and improve connectivity performance.
GROWTH POINT 3
Makes life harder for hackers by increasing security
Edge computing can help enhance security by reducing the attack surface and avoiding costly cyber incidents. Instead of sending all data from applications to the cloud for processing, edge computing allows for processing to be done locally with only essential data traveling to the cloud.
This reduces the number of attack vectors that hackers can use to gain access to the data. Processing sensitive data locally, in edge data centres, means that businesses have more direct control over who has access to it.
GROWTH POINT 4
Take charge of cloud costs
By using the data you need
As many IT teams are discovering, Public Cloud computing can be more expensive in the long term than was first anticipated. Rising costs from cloud suppliers often include the egress and ingress charges for data storage as well as costs for transiting large data volumes over public networks. Increased use of video and high-resolution image data in applications, coupled with a drive towards greater levels of data analytics and the expansion in connected devices, all contribute to inflated costs.
Edge compute can help through locating workloads locally so that large data sets don’t have to travel long distances. Edge data centres can provide a lower cost long term solution for data that is large in size, or requires frequent accessing. Placing data in the cloud can be free but getting it back is almost always costly. Storing the minimum of data in the public cloud, running only bust compute capacity and test/dev workloads there, will control costs. Where edge providers offer private interconnection options these can be used to improve performance without incurring public network connectivity charges.
GROWTH POINT 5
Prepare for the worst and experience the best
A growing business can be vulnerable to unforeseen cyber events and keeping the intellectual property, code and applications needed to maintain the business secure, can be the difference between success and failure, should the worst happen. By processing data locally, businesses can continue to operate even if there are disruptions to the cloud.
This means that businesses can continue to function even if there are internet outages or other disruptions. By using an edge colocation facility, businesses can create an air-gapped copy of their environment, physically separated from the public cloud, guaranteeing continuity in the worst scenario.
Conclusions
Edge compute can deliver performance advantages and costs savings for growing businesses. An awareness of the benefits of a colocation facility located close to population centres, high connected to local and international networks and with contractual terms that allow flexibility in expansion can give scaling businesses… the edge.