Edge Use Cases Must Start with the Business
Technology “hype” sometimes serves as a justification for companies that are afraid to be left behind by their peers. We saw this with cloud infrastructure, as countless companies shifted from data centers to the cloud without well-defined use cases. Many were ultimately disappointed that they were paying more without any real benefits. Likewise, organizations that race to transition to edge computing and networking could face similar fates.
The only way to validate a potential move to the edge is to start with the business. Technology should facilitate, rather than justify, the strategy you define. How do you know if your use case merits the edge? There are a few high-level questions worth asking, and you should only make the move if the answer to all of them is “yes.” Once you’ve justified the move, there are a few critical steps for making the transition to edge a reality.
1. Is your policy centrally managed? Unlike both traditional data centers and the cloud, edge decouples policy creation and execution. As a result, it aligns well with use cases for which a central authority determines policy and then sends it to multiple edge sites that each execute that policy in a unique, context-driven way. For example, many fast-food restaurant chains operate on this model, where the central authority is the corporation, and each edge is an individual franchise. If policy is not centrally managed, then the effort required to prepare and operate at each edge location outweighs any potential benefits.
2. Is your use case fully remote and autonomous?A valid edge use case requires operations at the edge to continue even when no connection to central infrastructure is active. You will not derive substantial benefit from the edge if you need to move data centrally to store, process, and make decisions for the edge. Notably, while this means the edge is an excellent fit for many manufacturing scenarios, it also disqualifies some use cases that might initially seem like logical cases to implement edge technology. These include retail chains with no flexibility in implementing centrally dictated protocols and mobile apps that rely on centrally located servers.
3. Does your use case apply to the same edge in each instance? The benefits of the edge depend on central infrastructure only needing to issue one set of instructions across the edge. However, suppose each edge is distinct and requires a new set of instructions. In that case, there is no efficiency improvement tied to moving to the edge, as needing to instruct each edge separately is prohibitively time-consuming.
