Intelligent Data Centres Issue 14 | Page 18

DATA CENTRE PREDICTIONS The Edge and 5G 1. Ashraf Yehia, Managing Director – Middle East, Eaton is important to data centre operators in two ways: 1. Will the adoption of renewable energy by the grid operator make the grid less stable and therefore increase the chance of outages? 2. Can my large data centre stored energy be used to provide these ancillary services, thereby providing a new revenue stream and de-risking my primary power? Energy Transition therefore causes the data operator to rethink and potentially transform their electrical infrastructure into a power network with new functionality. 18 Issue 14 We will start to understand what Edge Computing is and what it isn’t. Over the past few years, there has been a continuous hyped conversation around the subject but a huge gap in knowledge around how Edge will function remains. Often the phrases Edge compute, cloud Edge, Edge data centre, are all treated as equivalent and interchangeable terms – but in reality, they are not. The concept that there will be a proliferation of discrete mini/micro cloud data centres at a neighbourhood level will hit a cold reality. There are entire countries, let alone cities, without the presence of hyperscale cloud data centres and they are no less sophisticated in their IT needs than others. The reason being the well-placed use of colocation data centres, fixed-line and mobile broadband networks. Off the back of 5G, the telecommunications industry is ideally placed to produce and support Edge Computing into the fabric of their networks – either independently or with cloud/data centre partners. 2. Device Edge compute is different from traditional Edge Computing. Some IoT architectures may require a connection to a centralised point for data processing or data storage. Others will take a different approach where data is generated and processed all at the source. The second approach addresses latency directly, so lower network latency and bandwidth is possible. This approach is adequately handled IN THE END, IF WE PRIORITISE RENEWABLE ENERGY AND DECARBONISE ELECTRICITY, CONSUMERS DON’T HAVE TO FEEL DIGITAL GUILT. www.intelligentdatacentres.com