Netrality’s Data Center News Digest

Welcome to the first installment of Netrality’s Data Center News Digest – a curated roundup of the most important news, events, and provoking thought leadership from the data center world. This Digest will be delivered to you via our blog and email twice every month. Enjoy!

February 20, 2018

Monica Alleven, Fierce Wireless

Since edge computing is a key element to AT&T’s 5G strategy, the telco launched its first test zone for edge applications at its AT&T Foundry innovation center. This announcement represents the industry shift toward edge computing to better user experience. Moving data over 5G networks – AT&T’s ultimate goal – speeds up processing times, which is key as the connected world gets increasingly flooded with IoT data.

February 5, 2018

Christopher Tozzi, Data Center Knowledge

Cisco recently announced its latest Global Cloud Index, identifying trends that are set to shape the future of cloud computing through 2021. One key finding is that IoT data needs to start shifting towards hyperscale data centers to accommodate increasingly large amounts of data. The industry is already seeing this trend develop with data centers in the US turning toward a more scalable solution.

Tom Nolle, Tech Target

Tom Nolle explains why 5G support for IoT is going to be more of a pain than a panacea. It’s the next and greatest challenge for telecom, due to security concerns, the need for full network virtualization, and the difficulty of processing IoT events. An increase in IoT events requires a shorter feedback loop and minimal network latency. Converging elements of the cloud, in combination with edge computing, is how telecom will ultimately get to the next level and prepare for the arrival of 5G.

Cliff Federspiel, Data Center Dynamics

Cliff Federspiel, CTO of Vigilent – one of the leading cooling systems providers – offers a highly informative take on the critical role of edge data centers – data centers that must be located in urban areas for latency purposes, in his recent Data Center Dynamics article. Read on to learn how IoT, cloud and machine learning have converged to give rise to remote, automated and intelligent data center hubs, why and how data center and infrastructure monitoring are becoming more sophisticated and predictive, and so does maintenance.

Drew Robb, Data Center Knowledge

This article dispels the notion that AI technology is ready to completely automate data centers, and offers some practical AI implementations to improve operations. These include automated conversation systems (smart customer service apps, or intelligent and automated help desks), machine learning (for easier monitoring of the various causes of storage traffic congestion), and AI-powered infrastructure (to deliver more robust data center infrastructure, by incorporating GPUs and other accelerator hardware). Drew foresees data centers beginning to distribute and store data at the edge – or closer to the edge – to accommodate the need for immediate processing. Data centers that are located in the center of cities have an advantage – close proximity to the source of the data more easily facilitates interconnected edge computing.

Jordan Novet

Apple announced it will increase spending on data centers over the next five years. The company’s announcement represents the growth of Apple’s web services, which have begun to surpass products like the iPhone in revenue growth, and an opportunity to become less dependent on public cloud providers. Moving away from public cloud providers and investing in data centers – whether it be owning a data center, or partnering with an interconnected colocation provider – is increasingly being seen as a core growth approach for hybrid infrastructure delivery for latency-sensitive and data driven companies.

January 17, 2018

Bill Kleyman, Data Center Knowledge

In this article the author outlines five trends to watch out for in 2018. One key takeaway is that reliance on data centers will continue to grow as a result of trends in edge and hybrid cloud. Increasingly, organizations are finding that public cloud services are not enough and a more decentralized approach – one that places data closer to its source – will better accommodate the increased volume of data for today’s digital businesses.

May Lee