Schneider Electric: Life at the Edge

By 2021, at least 60 pc of global 2000 companies will actively monitor and manage EX, and utilize EX as the key differentiator to build and maintain B2B and B2C relationships. Creating a platform for transformation revolves around the enterprise engagements (OT) and the ecosystem engagements (CX).

At the Schneider Electric event in Singapore, Nikhil Pathak, VP Strategy, International, Secure Power Division, Schneider Electric said that by 2025, 75pc of the data will be processed at the edge, as per Gartner. Edge is at the core of the transformation.

Schneider digitally transforming energy
Dave Johnson, Executive VP, Secure Power Division said that Schneider Electric is leading the digital transformation of energy management and automation. 40pc of business devoted to commercial, industrial and residential buildings, 14 pc data centers and networks, 29 pc to industry, 10 pc infrastructure, and 7 pc utilities. Today, we are focusing on edge IT. The industry, especially, the enterprises, faces a challenge. Digital transformation affects us all. We need to do things differently at the edge. An edge location is a computing enclosure/space/facility geographically dispersed.

All edge environments have consistent challenges. Poor resiliency, lack of remote monitoring and management, lack of standardization and integration, etc. We need integrated systems, cloud-based architecture and ecosystem of partners. Integrated systems simply deployment and management at the edge with increased resiliency. Cloud-based management architecture provides remote visibility and data-driven insights for edge environments. Our cloud-based management architecture for the edge is the EcoStruxure IT.

EcoStruxure IT creates a platform for delivering lifecycle services. We have 5,500 trained partners, 6 regional service bureaus, etc. We have 185k+ connected devices. An ecosystem of partners is required to deliver complete edge solutions.

Specialty Grocer is an example. It sought to update the IT and inventory systems. It had to reduce the IT equipment footprint. We helped them achieve these goals.

Glenn Duncan, Associate Research Director, APeJ Datacenter, IDC, added that presently, there are six global infrastructure trends. Smartphones allow pervasiveness, multicloud and platforms bring complexity, convergence brings simplicity, there is software defined automation and management, AI and ML bring intelligence, and IoT brings the edge into play.

By 2021, at least 60 pc of global 2000 companies will actively monitor and manage EX, and utilize EX as the key differentiator to build and maintain B2B and B2C relationships. Creating a platform for transformation revolves around the enterprise engagements (OT) and the ecosystem engagements (CX).

Delivering and managing digital services at the edge will be a major job for IT departments. Edge IT is driven by the confluence of SD hyperconverged and pay-as-you-go. The key opportunity will be enabling delivery of SaaS innovation at the edge. The edge is the intermediate location between the core (cloud and/or traditional datacenters) and the connected edge devices (eg, IoT sensors).

Dave Johnson, Executive VP,  Schneider Electric

Evolving edge computing maturity -- as of 2018, 60 pc had no edge strategy. 20 pc were focused on improving security. 14 pc were focused on content delivery at the edge, and data processing at the edge.

How do the enterprises plan to support IT services at the edge in 2019? 54 pc said they will build more datacenters. 50 pc said they will deploy IT equipment in close proximity to where it's needed. 47 pc will use a colocation provider. 25 pc will use prefabricated, containerized datacenters.

As an eg., in Japan, 43 pc said that they will have edge locations at large office buildings, 23 pc each in purpose-built facilities and factories, etc. Edge computing and IoT use cases are prevalent in retail - Thailand and Japan. It is available in banking, at DBS Bank, in India and Indonesia. It has found use in smart healthcare in Taiwan.

IDC Futurescape, worldwide datacenter 2019 predictions said that by 2022, 40 pc of enterprises will have doubled their IT asset spending in edge locations and nearby colocation facilities, vs. core datacenters to deliver digital services to local users and things. 22 pc of Americas analyze the IoT data after collection, which is 28 pc for Europe and 30 pc worldwide. 29 pc each across worldwide and APAC are looking at new edge to apportion the compute and storage resources.

As for hyperconverged systems, there will be 33 pc CAGR growth in APeJ. Benefits include utilization of resources, IT staff productivity, and application development cycle. Barriers are single point of failure system, single vendor lock-in, and upfront costs are not justifiable.

Infrastructure drivers for applications at the edge were improve security at 41 pc, improve reliability/availability at 39 pc, modernize infrastructure and low cost at 31 pc each.

Reasons for edge infrastructure pain points and barriers are overall cost of deployment at 25 pc, security concers at 23 pc, lack of skills internally at 22 pc, and concern about tech stability/capability at 21 pc.

Enterprises are increasingly challenged to operate like SPs internally. They will require help to:
* Dynamic and secure delivery of connectivity
* Data exploitation, control and security
* Resource usage and optimization
* Migration planning across multiple core, edge and cloud options.

Managed SPs will play key role in supporting the edge transformation. There is need for autonomous and smart infrastructure.