Edge Computing: Everything a Channel Partner Needs to know

For Lynchpin Media | IntelligentTechChannels’s Magazine, Edgar Lauresta, Channel Account Manager from VAD Technologies, joint the latest Editor’s Industry Experts Q&A to discuss “What is the state of the Edge Computing channel market in MEA?”
​Edge computing is a distributed information technology (IT) architecture in which client data is processed at the periphery of the network, as close to the originating source as possible. Data is the lifeblood of modern business, providing valuable business insight and supporting real-time control over critical business processes and operations.

The Editor’s Industry Experts Q&A will explore how channel partners can help their end user customers to prudently process data at the periphery of the network, secure it and glean valuable business insights to give their organisations the competitive edge.
 
Please read here Edgar’s complete Interview with Editor Manda Banda:
 
1. What is the state of the Edge Computing channel market in MEA?

Edge Computing is growing fast worldwide and in the MEA region. From a channel perspective, there are still some steps to make. As Edge Computing became a hot market segment 2-3 years ago, most channel partners kept selling what they have been selling into the datacenter as well. As a result, implementation and on-going management did not change either. Solutions like VMware and Hyper-V, originally designed for the datacenter, are experienced as too difficult to install and complex to manage due to the lack of knowledgeable IT resources on the edge. So, as the market grows, there are still many challenges to overcome.
 
2. Why is Edge Computing important and why should it matter to channel partners?

More and more data is generated at the edge. This requires other, easier to manage IT infrastructure on the factory floor, in hotels, on a ship or at any other location where mission critical data runs outside the core datacenter. AI and AR pickup fast on the edge and latency is simply not allowing these and many other applications to run in the cloud. Solutions specifically designed for the edge overcome the complexity and cost of traditional IT infrastructure solutions. The edge is a landscape with new players like Scale Computing who specifically designed solutions for the edge. Adopting these new solutions brings new opportunities for channel partners.
With an estimated $176 billion market in 2022 according to IDC, Edge Computing is double the size of compute and storage spend by service providers. Channel partners can benefit from the growing number of opportunities at the edge to complement their IT infrastructure solutions.
 
3. What are the Edge Computing use cases and examples?

Manufacturing, retail, the maritime and hospitality industry are just a few samples of industries with tremendous opportunities.
Retailers cannot afford that their POS systems is down due to a slow or non-available internet connection. They can close the store in such a situation losing thousands of dollars revenue. With an edge computing infrastructure, the high availability of the latest generation hyperconverged solutions requires just a few GBs of memory and a processor core, while allowing cost effective implementation of a reliable, low TCO platform. Such platforms are needed to support existing and new applications like smart mirrors.
In the maritime sector, system availability on the edge (read on a ship) is even more important. You cannot send an engineer to a ship to repair something and the crew lacks the knowledge to do so. More and more ship managers run a high available hyperconverged infrastructure so they are sure their key applications, like the Planned Maintenance System (PMS), stay available 24/7.
The cost to install PCL data collection systems on the factory floor is often very expensive, being provided by traditional industrial players. New innovative datacenters in a box with 3 servers and a hyperconverged platform also introduced new price points, making these systems very attractive for installation on the factory floor to support Operational Technology (OT).  
 
4. What are the benefits of Edge Computing and how should channel partners pitch to customers?

Edge Computing means running applications local and to collect and analyze data where it is generated. If implemented in a high available setup, costly unplanned system downtime at the edge is minimized. The advantages of edge computing should be pitched as

• Easier to install and manage if in combination with the right infrastructure platforms
• Low TCO
• High available, minimizing unplanned downtime risk
• No dependency on an internet connection
• High speed

 
5. What are the challenges channel partners are encountering with Edge Computing?
Not being able to provide price points required by the market using current/traditional vendors. Handling the edge as a datacenter solution sends the wrong message and complicates things, whereas the edge requires the opposite.
 
6. How should channel partners develop a cohesive strategy when implementing Edge Computing?
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• Understanding the requirement differences of the edge versus the datacenter and based on these differences offer a solution set that is fit to serve the needs for this market segment.
• Find, learn and market solutions that are specifically designed for the edge utilizing low code and as such require low resources that are easy to install and manage. No matter if you talk about 15 ships or 800 stores.
• Provide return on investment (ROI) calculations. The costs are multiplied at the edge. So, a bit more memory, 4 hour longer installation, half a day training, 50% saving ongoing management hours to name but a few, must be multiplied with the number of locations. Suddenly you talk about hundreds of thousands more investment and ongoing costs.

 
The Full Magazine of IntelligentTechChannels can be found online here:
https://magazine.intelligenttechchannels.com/intelligent-tech-channels-issue-52/