Enterprises are embracing AI and other innovative technologies to transform operations at the edge, unlocking unprecedented value from their data. This digital transformation is sweeping across all sectors, reshaping how products are manufactured and distributed.
Industry 4.0, for instance, sees manufacturers integrating the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), AI/ML, real-time analytics and automation to enhance operational performance and maintain a competitive edge. Retailers are also leveraging edge technology to revolutionize in-store experiences, using AI to create engaging customer interactions like never before.
Edge technology’s role in IT strategies is increasingly crucial. Research shows that 42% of customers have already made edge a core component of their IT plans, utilizing it for various applications that deliver substantial value.
How the Edge Differs From Cloud
It involves placing infrastructure and workloads near the data source, enabling rapid, low-latency responses without resorting to centralized cloud or data center processing. Edge locations are diverse, ranging from factory floors and retail stores to oil fields, airports, crossroads, autonomous vehicles and cell towers.
The edge operates quite differently from cloud environments, which are typically centralized. In contrast, the edge is characterized by highly distributed infrastructure across numerous sites. While cloud environments are homogenous, edge environments are heterogeneous, encompassing a variety of IT and IoT endpoints. The edge also lacks the robust IT administrative and security presence found in centralized cloud environments, making distributed management a critical challenge.
What Makes the Edge a Complex Environment
Many businesses face significant complexity at the edge, with 56% of their time spent addressing these challenges.
Designing, integrating, deploying, scaling and managing edge estates is complex, particularly due to environmental and hardware diversity. Operational technology (OT) workloads at the edge must support both traditional and AI applications, ensuring stability, security and high availability for “edge-native” applications.
In distributed edge deployments, such as those found in retail outlets and distribution centers, security and efficient systems management become paramount concerns. The attack surface of an organization expands dramatically, necessitating zero-trust security principles from the supply chain to the production floor. Managing these distributed systems without onsite technical personnel must be straightforward, scalable, and easily maintainable. Systems should be zero-touch, activated with minimal on-site setup, and secure operations must be centrally monitored and reported.
Dell addresses this complexity through its Dell Native Edge Platform—a secure orchestration and management platform that significantly enhances security and simplifies the management of diverse edge sites.
A Thoughtful Design is Essential
A thoughtful design aligns with business objectives, drives revenue growth, enhances performance and security and promotes scalability. By reducing the total cost of ownership and increasing ROI, a well-designed edge estate becomes a strategic asset.
Crafting a modern edge estate requires a team of experts with extensive knowledge across multiple domains, including edge, security, IT, IoT, virtualization and applications. Recognizing that not all customers possess this expertise, Dell offers its Infrastructure and Application Design Services to bridge this gap, providing tailored solutions – anchored around Dell NativeEdge – that meet specific needs of customers.
The Dell NativeEdge platform supports validated applications, enabling swift design and delivery of customized solutions for a variety of use cases.
NativeEdge Blueprints, a key feature of the platform, are a recipe for an edge solution that includes application settings, infrastructure resources, network configurations, custom workflows, and scripts based on TOSCA standard. NativeEdge Blueprints automate the orchestration and deployment of validated applications across the entire edge estate, streamlining processes and accelerating time to value.
Introducing Dell Services for NativeEdge Blueprints
While NativeEdge Blueprints allow customers to seamlessly deploy Dell validated applications to a large number of edge locations using a single command, many customers own custom applications or need customization on Dell validated applications.
Our NativeEdge Blueprints services experts will design and develop custom blueprints for Dell validated and customer-owned applications, optimized for effortless deployment via the Dell NativeEdge platform.
Confidently Own Your Digital Transformation Journey
As a global technology leader, Dell is committed to partnering with customers to design next-generation edge solutions.
Our comprehensive edge services portfolio spans advisory, design, deployment, support, management and security, providing customers with confidence in their digital transformation journey.
We’re excited to offer these new services to support our customers at every stage of their edge journey. Contact your sales representative today to learn how these innovative solutions can benefit your organization.
Dennis Kurian is a Senior Product Manager for Dell Technologies. In his current role, he is responsible for productizing, launching and maintaining innovative Edge services. Dennis has spent 25+ years in the technology industry, most of which working specifically in edge, cloud, hyperconverged infrastructure, 5G telco, networking, and unified communication as a service space. He has a MBA from Cornell University, and Masters in Computer Science and Bachelors in Electrical Engineering from University of Texas at Dallas.