How hyperconverged infrastructure is revolutionizing edge computing

Although cloud computing is often considered a driver of agility and efficiency, it hasn’t always benefited smaller businesses and large enterprises with remote sites. Small businesses face high costs, a lack of technical expertise and security concerns. While it offers many advantages for centralized organizations, it presents challenges for those with dispersed locations. It can be difficult to ensure consistent and reliable network connectivity, maintain data security and compliance across several locations and integrate cloud services with existing on-premises systems. This is where HCI technology can help.

The Cloud Challenge   

Although cloud technology has advanced significantly, managing and securing data at the edge is still a challenge for organizations of all sizes. Some businesses have adopted a cloud-first strategy, foregoing onsite IT systems entirely. Consequently, many are experiencing issues with overly expensive cloud contracts, unreliable services and performance problems that impact their real-time, mission-critical applications at these smaller edge sites. 

Oftentimes, customers must choose whether to assume responsibility for key components of their infrastructure onsite and manage their servers and software locally. While this approach may enhance uptime reliability, it’s not necessarily cost-effective or straightforward to implement. Space constraints at smaller sites, particularly those at the edge, can limit the availability of physical resources necessary to maintain a robust data center infrastructure. Additionally, the scarcity of local IT expertise can pose a challenge, and employing trained personnel on-site for administration and security tasks can significantly increase operational costs. 

The Expanding Edge   

Geographically dispersed industries such as retail, manufacturing, energy and healthcare have faced difficulties with edge computing. These sectors rely on time-sensitive data for real-time decision-making, efficiency and optimizing essential supply chains. As a result, sites at the edge have experienced challenges with unreliable cloud performance and latency. 

The data being generated at these edge sites is becoming increasingly time-sensitive, necessitating the deployment of local AI engines to facilitate near-instant decision-making. The delay associated with sending data to a cloud for AI processing is no longer acceptable. Enterprises require reliable and cost-effective processing solutions to provide the fastest and most responsive services to their customers. The edge is expanding to meet this new demand. 

According to research from IDC, global spending on edge computing is projected to reach $232 billion in 2024, which is a 15% increase over 2023. This figure is expected to grow to nearly $350 billion by 2027, indicating continued growth in this market.   

The Challenge of Overprovisioning   

Incorporating a full-stack HCI at the edge as part of your cloud strategy can significantly enhance operational efficiency. An HCI integrates computing, networking and storage resources into a cohesive datacenter architecture, and unlike traditional architectures that require specialized hardware and software for each function, a modern HCI approach uses virtualization to minimize server requirements while maintaining performance. This is the most effective way to deliver a solution comparable to enterprise-class infrastructure. 

An HCI runs applications and securely stores data remotely while connecting to the cloud and data center as needed. It also has flexible, modular features, a welcome improvement to the over-engineered solutions of the past. 

Modern HCI solution’s key performance differentiator is the fact that they are purpose-built from inception and specifically designed for smaller sites. They facilitate seamless connectivity between edge-based solutions and cloud or data center infrastructures despite differing architectures.  

Advantages of HCI at the Edge   

These flexible and lightweight infrastructures require only two servers to achieve high availability instead of the typical three or more. This reduces costs without compromising reliability or uptime. Additionally, failover typically occurs within 30 seconds, ensuring data integrity and continuity of operations. Reducing server requirements also diminishes the physical space needed for high performance, making HCI ideal for environments with limited space. 

Another significant advantage is simplicity. HCI providers have made considerable efforts to reduce complexity by designing solutions that are easy to set up and manage remotely. IT generalists can handle installation, eliminating the need for specialized expertise. These systems can typically be deployed in less than an hour, minimizing disruption to daily operations and enabling new sites or applications to become operational promptly. 

Today’s HCI offerings present a viable alternative for edge computing, allowing seamless integration with existing cloud and data center technologies. By optimizing resource allocation and enabling rapid deployment in remote locations, HCI solutions are precisely engineered to meet the stringent performance and availability requirements of distributed environments, providing an efficient solution for those operating on the edge. 

About the Author:

Bruce Kornfeld is an experienced technology executive who has held leadership roles in both product and marketing throughout his career in the storage, server, networking and security industries. He joined StorMagic in 2017, and serves as chief product officer, where he is responsible for all aspects of product management, engineering and corporate communications for the company. Prior to joining StorMagic, Bruce held marketing and product leadership positions at Compellent, Dell and NCR. He helped Compellent grow its revenue from $9M to more than $150M, which led to its IPO and eventual sale to Dell for $960M, and prior to that was instrumental in building and growing Dell’s first storage division to over $1 billion.

Article Topics

cloud computing  |  data centers  |  edge  |  edge computing  |  HCI  |  hyperconverged infrastructure  |  StorMagic