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7 Questions to Ask an Edge Computing Provider

Edge computing is now well established as an opportunity to drive innovation by putting compute resources closer to where they are needed. From manufacturers who are applying edge computing on the factory floor to monitor machine data and inspect outputs or a chain of retail stores that have deployed edge-based solutions to run their critical applications, the appetite for edge computing is growing by the day.

One of the first and most important steps for any edge journey begins with finding the right solution vendor. There are now dozens of vendors who offer some flavor of edge functionality – but as is the case with any enterprise technology, you’ll need to be able to read through the marketing fluff to determine which capabilities matter most to your specific use case. What follows are just a few questions that should be part of every evaluation along with a brief explanation as to why they’re important.

1. How resilient is your edge solution? What type of automated failover capabilities does the edge solution possess?

For most edge deployments, skilled IT staff are typically not on-site to troubleshoot issues when they arise. This is especially true for organizations that maintain numerous remote branch offices where technical resources are in short supply. The resilience of a prospective edge solution should be considered as a core selection criteria so you’ll want to ask several questions about how a prospective vendor ensures availability in the event of a disruptive event. A mature edge solution should be able to demonstrate how their systems can automatically failover to another node and minimize downtime in the event of a disruption.

2. What type of software do you use to manage the edge systems and what type of automation capabilities does your solution possess?

A robust edge computing solution is more than just an integrated stack of compute, networking and storage equipment (and few so-called edge vendors meet this minimum standard!). What makes edge truly deliver value, lies in the ability to intelligently orchestrate these infrastructure components as a unified whole so that your edge systems can quickly adapt to evolving conditions. The software that keeps these systems running is like the cerebral cortex of your edge network and a mature edge solution should also include built-in automation capabilities that can successfully mitigate small issues before they cascade into a full-blown outage. Beyond evaluating the intelligence of a prospective edge solution, you should also be mindful of its usability. If the software is too complex then usage will be limited to those select individuals who fully understand it. Finally, any worthy edge solution provider should be able to provide a live demonstration of their software’s capabilities. Even better, they should offer a free trial version of their edge solution to help you evaluate it in your real-world environment.

3. Are there any additional licensing fees for virtual machines?

Before you can sell your leadership team on an edge computing solution, you’ll need to understand the fully loaded costs of the infrastructure you’re buying. Imagine purchasing a new car only to find out that at the end of every year that you need to pay additional fees to fully utilize all of its capabilities? Therefore it’s important to consider all of the costs – for instance, do you need an additional license for a hypervisor like VMware or for advanced virtualization features like software defined storage? Do you need to purchase additional tools to remotely monitor remote hardware and software (i.e. VMWare vCenter or other cloud based management tools). You can read more about the hidden costs of VMware in this CRN interview with Scale Computing CEO, Jeff Ready.

4. How will maintenance and upgrades of remote devices and systems be handled?

The ease in which you can maintain your edge infrastructure should also be a key consideration when evaluating a potential solution. By their very nature, edge systems exist and operate in remote locations. This might mean a remote office far away from headquarters or it could be something even more extreme such as a freighter in the middle of the ocean. And because trained IT staff won’t be available to maintain and update these systems, it’s imperative that you understand the time and effort that will be required to keep your edge deployment up-to-date and fully operational. For organizations that have deployed edge to multiple different locations, it’s also important to assess an edge vendor’s ability to centrally deploy new functional and security updates across their estate and whether they are able to roll these out in a non-disruptive fashion.

5. How easily does your edge solution integrate with different cloud environments?

While many in the industry believe that the edge and the cloud are in fierce competition with one another, the reality is that there is a role and function for both and they should ideally complement each other. As the authors of this FCC whitepaper write, “instead of being in competition with each other, forward-looking organizations, and even many public cloud service providers, are beginning to consider how to selectively employ both.” A mature edge provider should be able to demonstrate integrations with the major public cloud providers including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Microsoft Azure, and IBM Cloud and should also be able to seamlessly run VMs in container environments such as Kubernetes and Docker.

6. How much training does your solution typically require for staff to be productive?

Every new solution that is introduced into your environment represents another layer of potential complexity. And while every tool will require some degree of training for the individuals tasked with managing your edge environment, the complexity of some tools will require significantly more time and effort than others. Because your IT staff already has too much on their plate, you don’t want them to have to spend days or weeks working to get certified on a new system. The most feature-rich edge solutions should pay as much attention to the usability and intuitiveness of their platform as they do to their capabilities matrix.

7. Can we speak to other customers in our industry who have deployed your edge solution?

Finally and perhaps most important of all, before making a final decision about a particular edge provider, you’ll want to speak to other businesses in your industry and their firsthand experience with a particular vendor as their insights can help identify potential issues and questions to ask by getting the unvarnished truth from other technology professionals who have actually applied the technology. Peer-review sites like Gartner Peer Insights, Spiceworks, TechValidate and TrustRadius also provide an essential lens into the real-world application of edge technologies and should be part of any due diligence process before making a final purchase decision.

About Version 2 Limited
Version 2 Limited is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company develops and distributes IT products for Internet and IP-based networks, including communication systems, Internet software, security, network, and media products. Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 Limited offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.

About Scale Computing
Scale Computing is a leader in edge computing, virtualization, and hyperconverged solutions. Scale Computing HC3 software eliminates the need for traditional virtualization software, disaster recovery software, servers, and shared storage, replacing these with a fully integrated, highly available system for running applications. Using patented HyperCore™ technology, the HC3 self-healing platform automatically identifies, mitigates, and corrects infrastructure problems in real-time, enabling applications to achieve maximum uptime. When ease-of-use, high availability, and TCO matter, Scale Computing HC3 is the ideal infrastructure platform. Read what our customers have to say on Gartner Peer Insights, Spiceworks, TechValidate and TrustRadius.

5 Reasons Why Scale Computing HC3 is the Perfect Edge Computing Infrastructure

The key drivers for edge computing.

Edge computing allows applications to run outside of the data center or cloud, close to where they are used and data is generated. Though edge environments are supported by some form of centralized processing, running applications locally, on-premises solves many of the intrinsic challenges of data center and cloud computing.

Data Explosion: More devices generating vast amounts of data.

IoT devices, video systems and environmental sensors are just some of the many technologies saturating our physical spaces. These devices generate massive amounts of data, much of which has value when it can be properly collected and analyzed. But bandwidth isn’t free and transferring all that data to the cloud for processing is both impractical and cost-prohibitive. Edge computing allows all this rich data to be collected and processed locally.

Resiliency: Having applications available when they are needed.

Reliable connectivity is key when applications are running from a centralized location. Whether it’s a complete outage, occasional drop or simply high error rates, any interruption is bound to affect the availability and performance of applications relying on that connection. Running applications locally means they can continue to operate as expected, even without a connection to the cloud or data center.

Latency: The impact of network distance and congestion on application response time.

Information takes time to travel across a network. The longer it takes, the more it impacts end-to-end processing times. Expectations for application response times vary from one application, and organization, to the next. However, the more an application experience benefits from a real-time response, the more important it is to remove distance as a factor. Edge computing brings applications closer to where they are used, reducing lag time and improving efficiency.

Regulation: Protecting privacy and maintaining data sovereignty.

Complying with data security and privacy regulations is both serious and non-trivial. The risk of interception and potential for regulatory non-compliance increases every time data is moved. By definition, the cloud is a fuzzy place, making it difficult to know exactly where data is and where it has been. The more data can be collected and processed on-site, the simpler maintaining compliance becomes.

How Scale Computing HC3 Edge is answering your needs.

1. HC3 Edge is right sized and edge ready.

Scale Computing HC3 Edge meets the definition of edge-ready, right-sized computing. Unlike competitive alternatives, it is not adapted from infrastructure solutions built for another purpose. It has been optimized for non-stop computing in uncontrolled, non-IT environments. Everything that can operate autonomously, does. Everything that can be fixed automatically, is. The architecture makes the platform so lightweight it utilizes a fraction of the resources of other solutions. Simply put, HC3 Edge lets you run the most applications on the smallest hardware with the most reliability and least amount of effort.

2. We remove the barriers to edge computing.

Large-scale, on-premises, distributed infrastructure deployments are the definition of an IT nightmare. Siloed, point solutions each supporting a unique application. Complex virtual environments modeled after those found in the data center. Systems that require skilled onsite support personnel. Architectures that inflate costs and underutilize resources. HC3 Edge replaces all of that with a powerful, cost-effective platform that makes edge computing easier than ever and is unmatched for reliability and availability.

3. We bring a cloud-like experience to on-premises computing.

Most of the infrastructure available for edge computing was not designed for the unique needs of the edge. Edge infrastructure should extend the best elements of both the cloud and data center to local, on-premises computing. Centralized management and monitoring with cloud-like orchestration brings the simplicity of the cloud to the world of edge computing.

4. We deliver the lowest TCO and highest ROI.

With Scale Computing HC3 Edge you eliminate cots from your application infrastructure every step of the way—purchase, deployment, management and maintenance. At the same time you maximize application uptime, use compute resources more efficiently and drastically improve IT team productivity. Add it up and you will see why Scale Computing is the only solution you can bank on.

5. We are recognized as a leader in the industry.

Scale Computing is recognized across the industry by experts such as Gartner, Forbes and IDC. We appeared in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Hyperconverged Infrastructure Software the year it was first introduced and every year since. Our edge capabilities set us apart from our competitors in this market and year after year our award-winning solution is recognized for product excellence.

About Version 2 Limited
Version 2 Limited is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company develops and distributes IT products for Internet and IP-based networks, including communication systems, Internet software, security, network, and media products. Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 Limited offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.

About Scale Computing
Scale Computing is a leader in edge computing, virtualization, and hyperconverged solutions. Scale Computing HC3 software eliminates the need for traditional virtualization software, disaster recovery software, servers, and shared storage, replacing these with a fully integrated, highly available system for running applications. Using patented HyperCore™ technology, the HC3 self-healing platform automatically identifies, mitigates, and corrects infrastructure problems in real-time, enabling applications to achieve maximum uptime. When ease-of-use, high availability, and TCO matter, Scale Computing HC3 is the ideal infrastructure platform. Read what our customers have to say on Gartner Peer Insights, Spiceworks, TechValidate and TrustRadius.

2022 Scale Computing scale computing news

5 Edge Computing Predictions for 2022

It’s that time of year again where we look into our crystal ball and issue our prognostications for the year ahead for what we think the future of the edge computing marketplace might have in store. To compile this list, we canvassed our in-house experts and consulted with customers and partners about the trends they see shaping the edge marketplace in 2022.

1. Edge computing will unite IT and OT to drive industrial transformation

Industries like manufacturing rely upon a variety of operational technologies (OT) systems to monitor and control devices and workflows in their environment — everything from simple temperature sensors to advanced industrial control systems. As these old school industries begin to fully embrace IIoT devices, they must figure out how to leverage all of the data that these systems generate without burdening their existing networks. As Rob High of IBM noted in our recent Spiceworks video meetup, “most IoT equipment these days now includes some kind of general purpose compute embedded in the device itself – we’re seeing this with everything from cameras to industrial robots.” Edge computing enables data to be collected and processed closer to where it’s being generated so it can be immediately put to use. Scale Customers like Harrison Steel are using edge-based systems today on the factory floor, collecting data thousands of times per second to keep their precision machinery properly calibrated. We have no doubt that the coming year will see this trend accelerate further as other industries embrace edge systems so they can bridge the IT/OT gap.

2. New applications and use cases will fuel adoption of edge computing

Practically overnight, the global pandemic shifted how we work and businesses had to quickly adapt to connect their remote workforce to the applications they rely on to stay productive. If we learned anything from this experience, it’s that where applications are hosted matters a lot. In response, we’ve seen an influx of new hybrid-based computing models such as metro-based data centers that have been built in close proximity to where businesses and users live. As a result, forward-thinking IT leaders are taking a more thoughtful approach to their application portfolio by considering the trade-offs of latency, network throughput, resiliency and privacy issues. As new use cases and applications emerge, we anticipate that new hybrid edge models will evolve alongside of them that promise greater flexibility and resilience.

3. Orchestrated edge systems will become a viable public cloud alternative

Public cloud services such as AWS, Azure and GCP have completely transformed how IT services are managed and delivered. As Scale Computing’s founder Jeff Ready is fond of saying, “the cloud just means someone else’s data center” and while the cloud certainly has its advantages, it’s not without its shortcomings. Which is why we are poised to see new paradigms emerge by which businesses can essentially build their own systems with similar capabilities of public cloud infrastructure, but intended to be run at the edge of the network. By clustering together fleets of autonomously managed edge computing platforms and distributing them close to where users live, organizations will be able to benefit from cloud-like convenience without having to compromise on performance.

4. Edge innovations such as zero touch provisioning will ease the IT staffing crisis

According to a recent Gartner report, businesses think that talent shortage is the biggest barrier to the adoption of 64% of new technologies, compared to just 4% in 2020. This means that in many cases, IT leaders hoping to deploy a new technology solution might choose to instead delay an important initiative until they have the requisite skilled IT resources in place. But what if you didn’t need to have dedicated IT staff at every remote or branch office location to keep the IT ship upright? Zero touch provisioning, which enables a centralized IT staff to remotely deploy and manage their edge-based systems from a single console, promises to be a game changer in enabling resource-strapped organizations to remotely administer their systems without having to hire additional specialized IT workers.

5. Edge-enabled computer vision will create new opportunities beyond surveillance

Digital video surveillance systems are another aspect of operational technology that live primarily at the network edge. These systems generate massive amounts of data that typically require localized infrastructure due to bandwidth constraints. While most of these systems are used primarily for surveillance and loss prevention today, we expect to see a number of industries — most notably in the retail and manufacturing sectors — begin to layer AI-based computer vision technologies on top of these systems to deliver new capabilities that will improve their operational efficiency and responsiveness. From applying computer vision to track inventory in real-time to using video analytics to generate visual heatmaps to enhance the in-store shopping experience, these types of innovations will require a fast and flexible edge-based infrastructure to realize their full potential.

While no one can say with any certainty what the future will bring, the one thing that we can count on is that for businesses to thrive, they will need to embrace technologies that will enable them to quickly adapt to changing market conditions. To see how edge computing can help you better prepare for an uncertain future, learn more about how Scale Computing is enabling the next generation of edge computing by downloading this informative Gorilla Guide.

About Version 2 Limited
Version 2 Limited is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company develops and distributes IT products for Internet and IP-based networks, including communication systems, Internet software, security, network, and media products. Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 Limited offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.

About Scale Computing
Scale Computing is a leader in edge computing, virtualization, and hyperconverged solutions. Scale Computing HC3 software eliminates the need for traditional virtualization software, disaster recovery software, servers, and shared storage, replacing these with a fully integrated, highly available system for running applications. Using patented HyperCore™ technology, the HC3 self-healing platform automatically identifies, mitigates, and corrects infrastructure problems in real-time, enabling applications to achieve maximum uptime. When ease-of-use, high availability, and TCO matter, Scale Computing HC3 is the ideal infrastructure platform. Read what our customers have to say on Gartner Peer Insights, Spiceworks, TechValidate and TrustRadius.

2022 Scale Computing scale computing news

Top 5 Requirements for a Successful Edge Deployment

Earlier this year, Scale Computing published “The Gorilla Guide to: Enabling IT at the Edge” a jargon-free guide designed to help IT leaders and practitioners understand the fundamental principles of edge computing and offers practical guidance as to how to get started on your edge journey. One of the most commented upon chapters was in Chapter 2, The Top 5 Requirements for a Successful Edge Deployment.

Edge computing deployments have unique constraints that are significantly different from the ones with which typical data center deployments contend. After all, by definition, edge deployments are away from normal support services, far from the sanitized data center, and deeply enmeshed in the real work of the organization where they must deliver high value without disrupting other business activities.

Here is what we believe are the top five requirements for a successful edge deployment:

1. Modest Physical Footprint

Some vendors just sell standard data center equipment for edge use without accounting for the less-than-perfect environment that may be encountered there. For example, data center gear designed to work when provided with the highest quality cooling can suddenly develop reliability issues when located in a poorly ventilated storage space at an edge installation.That’s why it’s vital that edge equipment should be conceived from the start for that purpose, with sufficient ruggedness built in to handle the wider range of issues that are typical at the edge — whether that edge is the shop floor, a warehouse, or somewhere in a retail establishment. Edge components and systems need to be thought of as “universal” products that can be deployed when and where they’re needed, with few limitations, and made appropriately secure in any given environment.

2. Affordable but Effective

For the many industries that operate remote sites, ranging from finance and retail to manufacturing and so-called Remote Office Branch Office (ROBO), there’s a need for reliable computing to support their business applications and operational technologies. But none of these scenarios can afford large, dedicated spaces or complexity. Edge adopters must consider the size of the actual equipment and its requirements for access space, air flow, cabling, and so forth. So, smaller and more compact equipment generally helps drive flexibility because it allows more freedom to choose deployment locations and makes it less likely a deployment will disrupt other activities. It typically also implies less onerous cooling and power needs. It is worth noting that compact form factors can also be helpful for enhancing physical security. For example, a smaller form factor means equipment can be secured and ceiling mounted for example, where it becomes harder to tamper with.

3. Resilient and Survivable

Edge computing is no place for daintiness: It’s where real work gets done, some of it dirty, messy, hot, and noisy. So, in addition to needing only a basic physical environment and simple power and connectivity, prudent adopters make sure the edge setup (hardware and software) is designed to be failure resistant, able to recover from many problems autonomously, to protect data, and to maintain operations in almost any circumstance. Edge equipment needs to be ready to handle that kind of stress without generating performance issues. Furthermore, autonomy should be part of the basics — delivering no-nonsense reboots and allowing most other maintenance tasks to be initiated remotely.

4. Simplified Resource Additions (Scale Out) and Hardware Replacement

Edge environments are very dynamic with new applications being deployed regularly and data volumes growing exponentially creating new demands on edge infrastructure. It’s critical that infrastructure is designed to accommodate that growth and expand and upgrade the edge micro-datacenter with new resources and applications as easily as the initial edge deployment. Failure to plan for expansion of the edge environment can lead to expensive forklift upgrades or multiple independent islands of infrastructure to manage, with all the complexity and cost associated with that kind of choice.

5. Repeatable, with Zero-Touch Provisioning

Edge systems should take a standardized approach requiring little or no customization and minimal skills in installation. When possible, edge should offer or embrace infrastructure as code (IaC), which simplifies change control. Repeatability means that service and support is standardized so staff doesn’t need to research each installation before responding to a problem but, instead, can count on using a consistent approach and methodology. Management must not require specialized IT staff on site; upgrades and infrastructure scaling must be non-disruptive; the foundation must be self-healing; and IT specialists must be able to manage the entire edge fleet seamlessly at scale. Finally, look for zero-touch provisioning. This is a device-configuration process that can be operated automatically and eliminates most of the burden on IT administrators when setting up, maintaining, or upgrading an edge system

About Version 2 Limited
Version 2 Limited is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company develops and distributes IT products for Internet and IP-based networks, including communication systems, Internet software, security, network, and media products. Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 Limited offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.

About Scale Computing
Scale Computing is a leader in edge computing, virtualization, and hyperconverged solutions. Scale Computing HC3 software eliminates the need for traditional virtualization software, disaster recovery software, servers, and shared storage, replacing these with a fully integrated, highly available system for running applications. Using patented HyperCore™ technology, the HC3 self-healing platform automatically identifies, mitigates, and corrects infrastructure problems in real-time, enabling applications to achieve maximum uptime. When ease-of-use, high availability, and TCO matter, Scale Computing HC3 is the ideal infrastructure platform. Read what our customers have to say on Gartner Peer Insights, Spiceworks, TechValidate and TrustRadius.

2022 Scale Computing scale computing news

How Application Management Needs are Driving Edge Computing

Last month, Scale Computing’s CEO and co-founder Jeff Ready joined up with Rob High, IBM Fellow, VP, CTO IBM Network and Edge Computing for a video meetup with Spiceworks.

This past Summer, Scale Computing and IBM announced a collaboration to help organizations adopt an edge computing strategy designed to enable them to move data and applications seamlessly across hybrid cloud environments, from private data centers to the edge.

In this informative and wide-ranging conversation, Jeff and Rob explore some of the trends driving the edge computing market — from the proliferation of connected devices generating voluminous amounts of data and the need to have greater application resiliency to ensuring compliance with an ever evolving regulatory environment — it’s no longer a question of ‘if’ edge computing will transform how we work and live, but when.

What follows are some of the highlights from their conversation. You can watch the video meetup in its entirety here.

What impact has the abrupt shift to remote work had on the edge computing market?

Jeff Ready (JR): First, it’s probably worth defining what we mean by edge computing which we can sum up as simply any place that you’re going to run a mission critical application that’s outside of the data center so the edge just means not in the data center. What’s happened through the pandemic is all of a sudden you have to run these applications in all sorts of different places.

The big challenge here is that the ‘edge’ by that definition just has some fundamental differences from the data center where you have redundant internet connectivity and reliable power and when something breaks, someone can walk into a room and fix it relatively quickly. But what if I have to do that same task across 500 locations and those locations are only online sometimes? This problem of horizontal scalability in which you have to replicate infrastructure tasks across a lot of locations is a serious issue and an area where we’re seeing a lot of very interesting use cases, especially in industries like manufacturing where for instance, industrial robots are generating tons of data.

Gartner says that today less than 10% of all data is generated at the edge, or outside of a data center but over the next four years, they expect 75% of the data to be generated at edge locations, which is a radical shift. This is the big wave that’s coming.

Rob High (RH): Much of what we’ve been talking about lies within the context of knowledge workers where our place of work has traditionally been the office. However, the vast majority of businesses are not about housing knowledge workers – they’re about running factories and retail stores and distribution centers. These businesses are fundamentally physical. And so when we think about the edge, we ought to be thinking about those kinds of places almost as much, if not more than remote office workers.

There’s not only a tremendous amount of data being generated at these locations and all that data is being used to make decisions. And the question becomes, how much data is being generated and how much are we having to transmit across the network? What’s the cost of that transfer? The latency of that transfer? What privacy issues are they being exposed to? All these places where there is an opportunity to take advantage of not only the increased volume of data but to do that locally so we can make better and faster decisions.

Since the cloud is everywhere, why not just go full cloud?

JR: There are a number of reasons why some of these applications are running out at the edge. On a practical level, it just makes more sense – think of a point of sale system in a retail store. You could run it in a cloud but in most retail stores, the internet is one of the least reliable components within that environment. The point of sale system is pretty critical obviously and it’s often linked to an EBT system, which is the food stamp system. And if both systems go down there are two compounding problems.

If cash registers are running slow people will abandon their shopping carts which is bad in its own right. If there are refrigerated items in that cart, by law they can’t be put back onto the shelves and that’s typically the most expensive stuff. The other thing is that if the EBT system goes down, by Federal law in the US, the food is now free so they’re losing money there as well. An hour of downtime across their stores can quickly result in hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue.

Then there’s the issue of latency which comes down to a physics problem of moving packets of data 2,000 miles away to a data center. Until we can figure out how to go faster than the speed of light, the only solution is to move the decision-making closer. Finally there’s the issue of data privacy regulations which we haven’t seen as much here in the US as we are in Europe but will likely become more of an issue in the near future. For instance, there was recently a story in the news in Australia in which a convenience store had a kiosk where you could take a survey and it took a picture of you at the beginning and end of the survey to help the retailer gauge a consumer’s facial expressions. They then sent those images to the Azure cloud to process but that was a big no-no as sending that image with personal data to the cloud is against the law.

We’re moving to a true hybrid kind of world. In this context, hybrid simply means run the application where it makes the most sense to run the applications – whether it’s cloud, at the edge, or in a traditional data center, shouldn’t really matter.

RH: It’s important to remember that the edge is not just one thing. There are multiple potential tiers where you can locate compute which might be in a server in a retail store or on the factory floor. Most IoT equipment these days now includes some kind of general purpose compute embedded in the device itself – we’re seeing this with everything from cameras to industrial robots.

That becomes important to think about as on the other end you’ve got a number of Metro hosting environments, basically data centers located in metropolitan areas where the majority of businesses and users live. So it lives in between because it’s an edge to the data center. So now we can back to the line of business and understand the application requirements and choices about where it makes the most sense to place these applications considering the trade-offs of latency, network throughput, resiliency and privacy issues that they might care about. And it’s not going to be a one-size fits all approach.

We’re moving to a true hybrid kind of world. In this context, hybrid simply means run the application where it makes the most sense to run the applications – whether it’s cloud, at the edge, or in a traditional data center, shouldn’t really matter.

Can you tell us about the partnership between Scale Computing and IBM? How will the combination of your solutions really help some organizations out?

JR: The magic of the Scale Computing platform is in its self-healing capabilities. The challenge as it relates to edge and on-premise computing often comes down to manageability. What the Scale Computing platform does is lets you manage thousands of sites just as easily as a single site, all through a centralized portal. You can see exactly what’s going on, deploy an application to multiple sites at once, update the application, or spin up new locations. Take for example the grocery store chain I was talking about earlier. They don’t have to send a tech on-site when to deploy a new cluster. Someone can just literally plug it in and it will automatically reach back out to the management portal, download configuration files and applications and report back when it’s done. Our goal is to really simplify the management while maintaining that high availability.

The IBM edge application manager is the tool that allows you to manage these applications in the cloud, whether it’s a Kubernetes app or a legacy virtual machine, and deploy them to the location of your choice – whether that’s on-premises, on AWS, or the IBM cloud.

RH: The beauty of this partnership is that we both share this common understanding of the edge marketplace and the needs that are there – particularly, the need to get the right software to the right place at the right time. Scale Computing has been working on this for VM-based applications and we’ve been concentrating on that problem for containerized applications. And so we just brought those two things together and now the Scale Computing platform, you can do both. You can manage both your VM-based applications and your containers as an application from a single, centralized control point. There’s no need for IT specialists to be present at a remote location to manage this process.

Any parting thoughts?

JR: I think there is a natural inclination to think that edge computing is only suitable for a large enterprise or some big deployment. And that is just not the case. It certainly applies there, right? I mean, an 8,000 store deployment is one thing. But then, I’ve got a manufacturing customer that’s just a single location. It’s a large factory that has got about a dozen different edge computing deployments. There are a lot more use cases out there than you might naturally think of

RH: The cost of delaying the automation process far exceeds the cost of actually just putting the automation in place, even for the first one and getting to know it from day one and organizing your practices and processes around using the automation system for managing these edge environments.

About Version 2 Limited
Version 2 Limited is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company develops and distributes IT products for Internet and IP-based networks, including communication systems, Internet software, security, network, and media products. Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 Limited offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.

About Scale Computing
Scale Computing is a leader in edge computing, virtualization, and hyperconverged solutions. Scale Computing HC3 software eliminates the need for traditional virtualization software, disaster recovery software, servers, and shared storage, replacing these with a fully integrated, highly available system for running applications. Using patented HyperCore™ technology, the HC3 self-healing platform automatically identifies, mitigates, and corrects infrastructure problems in real-time, enabling applications to achieve maximum uptime. When ease-of-use, high availability, and TCO matter, Scale Computing HC3 is the ideal infrastructure platform. Read what our customers have to say on Gartner Peer Insights, Spiceworks, TechValidate and TrustRadius.

Scale Computing scale computing news 2021

Industry on The Edge: 3 Use Cases That Show How Industry is Putting Edge Computing to Work Today

Industry watchers have signaled Edge Computing as one of the major IT trends to watch over the next decade. What many people don’t fully appreciate is that Edge Computing is not yet one more over-hyped, future-state technology, but rather something that is being embraced in a number of industries today. And perhaps most surprisingly, it’s being embraced in many staid ‘old-school’ industries such as steel manufacturing, brick-and-mortar retailers, and even container shipping that one might not typically associate with the bleeding-edge.

The term ‘Edge Computing’ simply refers to the paradigm of bringing computation and data storage closer to the location where it’s needed as a way to improve response times and mitigate bandwidth constraints. A new generation of Edge Computing platforms can literally be held in the palm of your hand, can be placed practically anywhere since they have no special cooling or power requirements, and can be easily scaled by simply connecting them into clusters to quickly bring more compute and storage resources online as needed.

Back to the Future

Edge Computing represents another swing of the pendulum in the decades-long journey that has shaped the way IT resources are consumed and delivered – from the highly centralized mainframe computing paradigm to distributed models of client-server and the Cloud and now, we are seeing organizations shift the heavy lifting of compute and storage back on-site.

According to a September 2020 forecast report by IDC, the worldwide Edge computing market will reach $250.6 billion in 2024 while Gartner predicts that by 2025, three-quarters of enterprise-generated data will be created and processed at the edge – outside a traditional centralized data center or cloud (up from just 10% in 2018)

There are a number of reasons why we are seeing a renewed interest in moving IT systems closer to home base. Among the most salient benefits, Edge offers greater resiliency, flexibility, and simplified management. And as more businesses introduce new IoT devices and sensors into their environment that produce a high volume of data, the ability to process and feed this data back into local systems can be a major driver of innovation.

Three Edge Use Cases in the Real World

What follows are three use cases from the manufacturing, retail, and shipping industries that showcase how they are applying Edge Computing to not just simplify and improve the efficiency of the IT operations, but also show how Edge is enabling innovation.

1. Manufacturing at the Edge: Uniting Atoms and Bits in Real-Time

While the manufacturing industry has readily embraced automation and other technologies to boost productivity and improve efficiency, many manufacturers continue to struggle under the weight of having to manage complex and unwieldy systems. However, the extreme simplicity of a hyperconverged infrastructure makes it most beneficial in use cases where IT staff is limited – which is often the case for the tens of thousands of small and mid-sized manufacturing businesses operating across the U.S. And many are now investing in the Edge to optimize the performance of their plant machinery.

One needs to look no further than Harrison Steel, an Indiana-based manufacturer of engineered steel castings. Founded over a century ago, Harrison is an industrial manufacturer that operates several massive electric arc furnaces alongside other precision machinery across more than 650,000 square feet of its sprawling factory floor. Because their facility is so large, networking these machines together was cost prohibitive, forcing their IT staff to spend a good portion of their day transferring machine data back on USB drives for analysis. With a small cluster of hyperconverged machines, they were able to put a system in the middle of their shop floor and collect all of this machine data at regular intervals to keep their systems and machines fully calibrated.

2. Retail at the Edge: When Downtime is Not an Option

Traditional retailers across all categories are under increasing pressure to apply technology that improves the customer experience and most importantly, . Unfortunately, the legacy IT architecture typically found in brick-and-mortar – Point of Sale terminals, servers that collect transactions and track inventory — is often rigid, convoluted, and slow.

Jerry’s Foods, a regional chain of 50 retail, grocery, liquor and hardware stores, is one example of how traditional retail is being transformed by the Edge. With 50 storefronts dispersed across three states and no IT staff available within their store locations, the complexity of their IT systems had become a source of persistent disruption that was negatively impacting their customer’s experience. With a centralized IT staff of five supporting all of their branch stores, the majority of their time was spent remotely troubleshooting issues. Implementing an Edge computing strategy has enabled them to deploy hyperconverged clusters within each store, improving the reliability of their existing systems, allowing them to be managed remotely, and in the event of a disruption, seamlessly failover to keep critical applications online.

3. The Edge at Sea: An Extreme Edge Scenario

The global shipping industry represents one of the most important links in the global supply chain, transporting roughly 90 percent of the world’s goods from port to port on a daily basis. While the ships themselves are towering husks of steel and diesel – IT and the specialized applications that they run, are the orchestration engine that make it all work.

Until only recently, once a ship left port, it was more or less isolated from communication with resources at shore. And since these ships are limited by connectivity and don’t typically have an IT expert aboard, when a pivotal IT component goes offline on a ship hundreds of miles from shore, redundancy and resiliency become all the more critical.

Telford Offshore, an international offshore service provider to the oil and gas industry, operates a fleet of vessels that require 24/7 availability — and must do so in some of the world’s most extreme environments. Without reliable Internet connectivity, Telford’s IT leadership understood that significant cost and operational efficiencies would be realized by unifying their IT infrastructure into a single appliance and could be stationed on each individual vessel in its expanding fleet. Now if there is a system failure, they don’t need to spend tens of thousands of dollars to fly an IT support staff to swap out a simple part.

Technology innovations continue to make our world smaller, more connected, and consequently, more vulnerable to disruption when one of those links becomes disconnected. As demonstrated by some of the examples above, bringing converged infrastructure back to local operating environments where more and more data is being generated, and making it easier and more cost-effective to manage, is creating a wealth of new opportunities for innovation. And unlike so many other over-hyped technologies, it’s already here.

About Version 2 Limited
Version 2 Limited is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company develops and distributes IT products for Internet and IP-based networks, including communication systems, Internet software, security, network, and media products. Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 Limited offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.

About Scale Computing
Scale Computing is a leader in edge computing, virtualization, and hyperconverged solutions. Scale Computing HC3 software eliminates the need for traditional virtualization software, disaster recovery software, servers, and shared storage, replacing these with a fully integrated, highly available system for running applications. Using patented HyperCore™ technology, the HC3 self-healing platform automatically identifies, mitigates, and corrects infrastructure problems in real-time, enabling applications to achieve maximum uptime. When ease-of-use, high availability, and TCO matter, Scale Computing HC3 is the ideal infrastructure platform. Read what our customers have to say on Gartner Peer Insights, Spiceworks, TechValidate and TrustRadius.

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Scale Computing Customer Edge Data Center Project Named a Finalist in 2021 DCD>Awards

INDIANAPOLIS – December 7, 2021 – Scale Computing, a market leader in edge computing, virtualization, and hyperconverged solutions, today announced that Data Center Dynamics has named the company’s work with Ahold Delhaize NV and Econocom Products & Solutions as a finalist in the 2021 DCD>Awards, in the Edge Data Center Project of the Year category.

According to DCD, the edge is now moving from the era of promise to the era of delivery. Driven by higher standards of connectivity and increasing sophistication of systems and hardware, the Edge Data Center Project of the Year award category seeks to feature how edge is evolving and diversifying while redefining the opportunities that technology can represent.

Ahold Delhaize, a world-leading food retailer with 6,700 stores worldwide, needed a complete infrastructure refresh to replace aging hardware. They wanted a simple, cost effective edge computing solution with easy deployment. At phase one, Delhaize implemented Scale Computing HC3 Edge platform on Lenovo ThinkSystem SR250 and Scale Computing HE150 servers in their 800 stores in Belgium and Luxembourg. By doing so, Delhaize reduced management time by 75% and improved recovery time by 99.9%. Scale Computing HC3 Edge provides a comprehensive system that automates the overall IT management, saving organizations time, money, and resources. Delhaize experienced no downtime in any store where HC3 Edge is implemented.

Alongside simplified management, Scale Computing’s HC3 also offers a comprehensive range of recovery and Data Protection features which have enabled Delhaize to improve disaster recovery. With snapshots, replication and regular back up testing, the HC3 Edge platform also offers business continuity.

Technology is everywhere, and it’s increasingly important that edge computing be able to support applications anytime, anywhere

“Technology is everywhere, and it’s increasingly important that edge computing be able to support applications anytime, anywhere,” said Jeff Ready, CEO and co-founder of Scale Computing. “Edge computing plays a critical role in the retail industry’s IT innovation and digital transformation strategies. Made for the IT infrastructure demands of retail stores, HC3 Edge is a powerful, all-in-one software platform designed for running applications at the edge, and we’re thrilled that our work with Delhaize was named a finalist in the DCD Awards.”

This announcement comes on the heels of other recent industry recognition, including:

Scale Computing’s HC3 Video Surveillance named a winner for the 2021 CRN Tech Innovator Awards in the Edge Computing category.
Scale Computing named on CRN’s 2021 Edge Computing 100 list.
Winner in both the Edge Computing category and the Converged/ HyperConverged Infrastructure category, of the 2021 CRN Annual Report Card (ARC) Awards. This is the third consecutive year Scale Computing has been recognized as a CRN ARC Award winner.
Scale Computing HC3 received two TrustRadius 2021 Top Rated Awards, in Hyperconverged Infrastructure and Server Virtualization.
Scale Computing received a 5-Star rating in CRN’s 2021 Partner Program Guide.
Scale Computing’s HE150 was named to SearchStorage’s 2020 Storage Products of the Year.

An independent panel of judges reviewed hundreds of entries submitted from 35 different countries across 6 continents. Winners will be announced on December 8 at the 15th annual awards ceremony in London and broadcast live worldwide.

CyberLink’s facial recognition engine FaceMe® to power LILIN’s connected devices, providing businesses with contactless access control management and visitor analytics

TAIPEI, TAIWAN – July 28 2020 – CyberLink Corp. (5203.TW), a pioneer in AI and facial recognition technologies, today announced it has formed a partnership with surveillance solution provider LILIN, leveraging new facial recognition technologies to create comprehensive smart security and retail solutions. CyberLink will license its FaceMe® facial recognition engine to LILIN, powering its NAV Facial Recognition Recorder, creating an all-in-one smart security, data analysis and warning solution.

With the combined technologies, LILIN’s connected video devices can provide businesses with a series of contactless solutions, such as granting verified personnel access to restricted areas within offices, factories or residential buildings through an opt-in photo identification system. The new offering can also provide retailers and hospitality operators with anonymized customer demographics to better understand their customer experience, such as identifying trending emotions patrons may feel when engaged in specific activities or visiting certain areas of a venue.

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to develop across the globe, CyberLink’s and LILIN’s joint facial recognition system uniquely provides businesses seeking contactless solutions the underlying technology to reduce the need for people to touch highly shared surfaces by replacing key cards or PIN passwords with biometric data.

“If there was ever a field worthy of continued research and innovation, it’s security,” said Dr. Jau Huang, CEO of CyberLink. “Without a doubt, LILIN is a global leader and manufacturer of IoT devices, and CyberLink is a worldwide pioneer developing facial recognition applications for connected devices. Together, we are setting a new standard for what makes a place secure by bringing to market new technologies that make our customers safer, and our businesses smarter.”

“LILIN has many years of smart security experience, providing insight into the market’s needs for creating a comprehensive intelligent security solution. LILIN is pleased to partner with CyberLink and integrates FaceMe® into our facial recognition system to strengthen smart retail, smart healthcare, smart factory, and smart business applications. Through continued efforts, I believe that LILIN will provide the most advanced total security solution for global customers.” said Mr. C.C. Hsu, LILIN’s President.

CyberLink and LILIN will host a webinar titled “Facial Recognition x Smart Security

Empowering Smart AIoT Applications”” on August 13, 2020 from 14:00-15:00 (GMT+8/Taipei time), further describing the many use cases enabled through the new product offering. For detailed event information and a registration link, please visit: https://is.gd/SfXQ7l

FaceMe’s® edge-based architecture empowers powerful, efficient processing, and higher levels of security compared to Cloud-based solutions. It supports more than 10 operating systems, including Windows, Android, iOS, and various Linux distributions such as Ubuntu x86, Ubuntu ARM, RedHat, CentOS, Yocto, Debian and JetPack. FaceMe’s® high accuracy, flexibility and security makes it the leading facial recognition engine available on the market today, and it is one of the world’s most accurate engines as deemed by the global standard NIST Facial Recognition Vendor Test.

About Version 2 Limited
Version 2 Limited is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company develops and distributes IT products for Internet and IP-based networks, including communication systems, Internet software, security, network, and media products. Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 Limited offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.

About CyberLink
Founded in 1996, CyberLink Corp. (5203.TW) is the world leader in multimedia software and AI facial recognition technology. CyberLink addresses the demands of consumer, commercial and education markets through a wide range of solutions, covering digital content creation, multimedia playback, video conferencing, live casting, mobile applications and AI facial recognition. CyberLink has shipped several hundred million copies of its multimedia software and apps, including the award-winning PowerDirector, PhotoDirector, and PowerDVD. With years of research in the fields of artificial intelligence and facial recognition, CyberLink has developed the FaceMe® Facial Recognition Engine. Powered by deep learning algorithms, FaceMe® delivers the reliable, high-precision, and real-time facial recognition that is critical to AIoT applications such as smart retail, smart security, and surveillance, smart city and smart home. For more information about CyberLink, please visit the official website at www.cyberlink.com

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Scale Computing Recognized on the 2021 CRN Edge Computing 100 List

INDIANAPOLIS – November 8, 2021 – Scale Computing, a market leader in edge computing, virtualization, and hyperconverged solutions, announced today that CRN®, a brand of The Channel Company, has named Scale Computing to its 2021 Edge Computing 100 list.

With the rising importance of business intelligence and data analytics, the ability to quickly collect and process that data is becoming a key differentiator for businesses of all sizes. At the same time, the need to expand corporate networks to encompass larger numbers of remote and hybrid workers makes securing the edge even more critical.

“IT leaders require the ability to run applications and process data outside centralized data centers or public cloud, at the edge of their network, closest to where that data is created and utilized. We understand these needs and have created solutions to centrally monitor and manage hundreds or even thousands of distributed edge deployments in today’s complex infrastructure environments,” said Jeff Ready, CEO and co-founder of Scale Computing. “We are very proud of the innovations we’ve made in technology, products, and partnerships that have positioned us as a leader. This recognition by CRN is a testament to the fact that we are dedicated to the channel and continue to deliver innovative, highly available, highly scalable, and simple solutions.”

Today’s companies require simple, affordable and easy-to-deploy IT infrastructure solutions to meet complex infrastructure environments and support a wide range of modern and legacy applications — both in the datacenter and at the edge. Scale Computing expanded its Edge Computing offerings earlier this year by introducing HC3 video surveillance and security solutions, optimized to consolidate video storage, video management, access control and analytics workloads. Scale Computing’s video surveillance offers autonomous self healing, providing hands-off resiliency to keep VMS recorders running and maintain access to previously recorded data even when hardware components fail.

Scale Computing’s award-winning HC3 Edge series enables on-premises edge computing with high availability and disaster recovery at remote locations at an affordable entry level cost. All edge models can be deployed quickly, managed locally or remotely, and can self-heal almost instantly.

The second-annual CRN Edge Computing 100 list spotlights the vendors leading the way in providing channel partners with the technology needed to build next-generation, intelligent edge solutions that ultimately bring data collection and processing closer to users. The categories include Edge Hardware, Software and Services; IoT and 5G Edge Services; and Security.

“CRN’s 2021 Edge Computing 100 list returns this year to recognize the leaders bringing the technology required for channel partners to build unique edge solutions that empower businesses to work better and smarter,” said Blaine Raddon, CEO of The Channel Company. “The contributions of these innovators continue to pave the way for the IT channel to deliver bold, progressive, and trusted offerings to its customers.”

The contributions of these innovators continue to pave the way for the IT channel to deliver bold, progressive, and trusted offerings to its customers.

CRN editors compiled the 2021 Edge Computing 100 list based on a variety of criteria, including feedback from solution providers during the year regarding the company’s impact on the market, the company’s overall influence on the channel, and the types of technology and services it makes available to partners. This recognition follows the ARC awards Scale Computing won this summer from CRN®, a brand of The Channel Company, in both the Edge Computing category and the Hyperconverged Infrastructure category. The company also swept all of the subcategories including Product Innovation, Support, Partnership, and Managed & Cloud Services in both Edge Computing and Hyperconverged Infrastructure.

CRN editors compiled the 2021 Edge Computing 100 list based on a variety of criteria, including feedback from solution providers during the year regarding the company’s impact on the market, the company’s overall influence on the channel, and the types of technology and services it makes available to partners. This recognition follows the ARC awards Scale Computing won this summer from CRN®, a brand of The Channel Company, had named Scale Computing a winner of the 2021 CRN Annual Report (ARC) Awards in both the Edge Computing category and the Hyperconverged Infrastructure category. This was the third consecutive year Scale Computing has been recognized as a CRN ARC Award winner. The company also swept all of the subcategories including Product Innovation, Support, Partnership, and Managed & Cloud Services in both Edge Computing and Hyperconverged Infrastructure.

The 2021 Edge Computing 100 list will be featured in a special November issue of CRN Magazine and online at www.crn.com/edge100.