Edge computing environments: what you need to know

The saying goes: "If you're not on the edge, you're taking up too much space". And compute itself is now moving to the edge, forcing datacentre operators to wring the last drops of productivity from their infrastructure, ahead of a future supporting multi-sensor internet of things (IoT) devices over 5G for machine learning, and even artificial intelligence (AI). Jennifer Cooke, research director of cloud-to-edge datacentre trends at IDC, says datacentre operators need to start thinking about how many systems they will need to roll out, and the people they will need to support them. "Cost becomes the prohibitive factor," she says. Edge will take different forms.