Intelligent Data Centres Issue 13 | Page 22

INDUSTRY INTELLIGENCE POWERED BY THE DCA Only Edge networks can provide the high connectivity and low latency required by the IoT to meet users’ expectations and demands for instant access to content and services. Edge Computing will be able to handle more than a traditional network with many more transactions per second over many more locations and architectures, but how and when will this infrastructure be delivered? Conclusion can be better managed in an Edge environment. The data is often governed by local legislation and now that it can be held in smaller data centres closer to the point of use it becomes easier to meet the legal requirements in the local region. The fact that half of our respondents believe Edge Computing will be the biggest driver of new data centres, tallies with our own convictions. We believe that the Edge of the network will continue to be at the epicentre of Data security One of the major factors that needs to be considered is data centre security, with cyberattacks increasing in both frequency and scale. Problems originating from the physical infrastructure have also been found to be behind outages in recent years. Some experts have suggested that Edge Computing potentially represents a soft underbelly for cybersecurity. For some, the use of the word ‘Edge’ has allowed users to assume the security of these systems is not as important as local or cloud systems. However, moving forward, clients will be expecting significant investment in security and Disaster Recovery processes as well as the physical maintenance and security of these localised data centres. Investment in telecoms Another key consideration is that the increasing adoption of Edge and cloud- based infrastructure for both social and business use is also placing greater demands on the distribution network in terms of latency, bandwidth and capacity. Stephen Whatling, Chairman at Business Critical Solutions Our summer report, which is available to download from our website, also highlights this issue with three-quarters of respondents agreeing that the telecoms industry needed to provide this investment. Less than 2% of all those surveyed believed that the current infrastructure would be able to support the current predictions of growth in data. This is likely cause for concern. The need for power Similarly, these new data centres will need power. The thousands of servers across all connected countries will need to be located and designed with energy in mind. It is perhaps worth noting too that countries which can’t support the wider network demands will quickly fall behind in the race to realise the value of AI and AR. The opportunity The increase in data over the next five years will place a lot of pressure on the telecoms network. It is the telecoms industry that will need to continue to invest and upgrade capacity to ensure that the infrastructure supports the growing demand for data flows to and from the Edge and the cloud. 22 Issue 13 There is no doubt that massive increase in the data that is available from billions of devices and the rise of AI is both an opportunity and a challenge for businesses. Companies that can handle the scale, analyse the data and monetise its true value will have a real advantage. www.intelligentdatacentres.com