THE EDGE there are a few key areas where we ’ re driving improvements .
We ’ re highly focused on the challenges of what ’ s going on inside the white space for those colocation providers I mentioned . For example , how do you manage the complexity of the capacity constraints , cooling , power and all the classic things that DCIM 2.0 did , but also make it more open and available to their clients ? When you look at the CIO and some of the challenges of hybrid infrastructure , we know there are a couple of things that we want to do better .
Kevin Brown , Schneider Electric ’ s Senior Vice President of EcoStruxure Solutions ,
Why are Edge deployments now considered as mission critical and why is a new capability of software tools required for this type of infrastructure ?
We think of Edge as anything that ’ s outside of the traditional data centre – it could be , for example , a wiring closet or server room . It requires a whole different toolset to manage these distributed environments as it ’ s unlikely there ’ s any dedicated staff on-site to deal with any issues that arise , unlike in a classical data centre .
As an example , if you consider a retail organisation with 2,000 geographically dispersed stores , if something goes wrong it ’ s a lot more challenging . How do you secure those locations – both physically and in terms of cybersecurity ? You don ’ t have the same controls you do in a classical data centre , but you still need to apply those best practices .
To do that , you need to use technology and take a proactive approach . We ’ ve done a lot of work with developing algorithms to help predict failures on the systems but , even still , if a failure is predicted , who will address that ? It might be that there are partners to work with . These distributed environments and hybrid IT infrastructures create a new set of challenges that we don ’ t yet have all the answers to , but it ’ s important to treat it in the same way as a classical data centre .
Can you introduce us to EcoStruxure and how it is modernising IT infrastructure ?
EcoStruxure is an overall architecture across all our different businesses , but in my segment , we ’ re focused on IT and
We want to use AI and Machine Learning as that ’ s a way to manage this complex infrastructure . We also want to provide more flexibility in deployment options and to be more modular in nature to deal with new capabilities and scale . Those are just a couple of things we ’ re driving on to make these tools even more flexible and meet the challenges of this complex environment .
How is Schneider Electric ensuring a smooth process for the integration of EcoStruxure IT ?
We recognise it ’ s not just about selling a package of software – it ’ s about ensuring the business outcome the customer is looking for . We have our base set of technology and capabilities and then we need to identify what the customer really needs and how we can provide the integration and custom projects that meet those requirements .
Some colocation customers have customised reports and portals that they want to provide their customers with to help give them a unique experience and we need to assist with that .
We identified this a few years ago and invested in building a global team so we can provide these services in different geographic locations as customers expand and scale .
What makes our approach unique is that we recognise the need for integration and we have global expertise – this is demonstrating success and we ’ re excited about the position we ’ re in . �
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