Based on a survey of more than 1,000 global IT professionals and decision makers, a comprehensive exploration of edge computing deployment drivers, challenges, and solutions to enhance enterprise resilience and connectivity for secure, reliable, and sustainable digital-first operations;
Based on a survey of more than 1,000 global IT professionals and decision makers, a comprehensive exploration of edge computing deployment drivers, challenges, and solutions to enhance enterprise resilience and connectivity for secure, reliable, and sustainable digital-first operations;
Edge computing is the key technology to realize digital-first interconnected operation.
Digital operation transformation is faced with many challenges such as design, planning, construction and maintenance technology, which requires professional operation and maintenance personnel and effective management of large-scale edge infrastructure.
High resilience, security, sustainable resources, remote software and digital services solutions, and trusted partners contribute to successful deployment of edge computing.
Beijing, China, May 27, 2022 - Schneider Electric, a global expert in digital transformation in energy management and automation, today announced the results of its research based on IDC's White paper "Connected Operations with Edge Computing." The white paper is based on an in-depth survey of more than 1,000 IT and operations professionals in industry, healthcare, education and other verticals, as well as a series of in-depth interviews with industrial companies in the United States, China, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, India and Ireland, among others. Companies range in size from 100 to more than 1,000 employees. Based on insights shared by respondents on edge investments, challenges businesses face in edge deployment, ongoing investment dilemmas, and strategic recommendations for edge computing development, the white paper aims to highlight the key role edge computing plays in driving digital transformation.
Chris Hanley, senior vice president, Commercial Operations and Global Channels, Edge Computing Business Strategy, Schneider Electric, said: "Digital technology is a critical part of the company's commitment to helping customers create new, quality experiences that drive operational efficiency, safety and sustainability. "This white paper explores the critical role of edge computing and edge deployment in enabling digital-first, connected operations, and how IT professionals and decision makers can build future-proof edge computing capabilities for connected, secure, reliable, resilient, and sustainable remote operations."
Edge computing is one of the main technical supports of digital-first strategy. Cybersecurity systems are the most common use case for edge infrastructure, such as monitoring operational networks locally, storing and processing operational data, and sending it to the cloud. When respondents were asked why they chose to invest in edge computing to handle workloads, "enhancing network security" (50 percent) and "improving system resilience and reliability" (44 percent) were the top factors. However, in the process of edge deployment, enterprises still inevitably need to overcome challenges to ensure the high resilience and reliability of their edge infrastructure and its connected operations. Despite the huge potential of edge computing, connectivity instability and power outages are some of its biggest impediments. In the survey, 32 percent of respondents said they had experienced a "broken or slow connection," and 31 percent said they had experienced a "power outage or power surge lasting more than 60 seconds" during edge deployments.
Enterprises may face the following challenges when implementing digital-first connected operations:
Security: Physical security and network security are the focus of the interconnection process, so there is an urgent need to customize systems and processes for new operating models. Once connected in the cloud, businesses can improve existing use cases and build new use cases based on operational data. This kind of data helps to enhance internal collaboration and support remote operations, thereby increasing employee efficiency and improving the resilience of enterprise remote operations capabilities;
Employee skills: To cope with a variety of technological environments, employees need to have the appropriate skills and be able to coordinate within the organization to drive technological change, which requires collaboration with new ecosystem partners, both internal and external;
Reliability: Enterprises can support more local operational functions remotely through edge connectivity, and reliability becomes a key issue.
Jennifer Cooke, research director of Edge Strategy at IDC, said: "Resilient edge resources are fundamental to moving towards digital-first, connected operations, and to avoid technical failures, business leaders need to develop strategies to address connectivity and security issues, as well as ensure employees have the skills to maintain the resilience of edge infrastructure to better meet the future needs of edge deployments."
In the transformation of digital connected operations, enterprises need to have the corresponding edge computing capabilities:
Resilient, secure and sustainable power and connectivity resources: Adopt resilient power and connectivity resources in the early stages of edge computing planning to reduce the risk of enterprise downtime;
Remote monitoring and management of large-scale edge resources: Long-term management of facilities is a common challenge, so enterprises should ensure that their edge resources have the ability to continuously remote monitoring and autonomous operation;
Reliable partners who provide the necessary skills: Companies with economic or space constraints can provide industry best practices and services with the help of partners, who often anticipate problems before they occur. In addition, finding a partner with a commitment to sustainability is equally critical, with 82% of the survey respondents citing sustainability commitment as an important criterion for selecting edge solutions providers.
As a trusted partner and complete solution provider, Schneider Electric works closely with its customers to develop strategic plans to ensure the resilience, security and sustainability of connections at the edge design, deployment and management stages:
Build resilient, secure, connected and sustainable physical infrastructure solutions for any marginal environment for a smooth and orderly connected world;
EcoStruxure™ IT, a cloud-based monitoring and management platform, provides remote visibility, including security, data-based insights and recommendations, reporting capabilities and digital services capabilities.
Build a complete ecosystem of IT technology alliances, a global network of experienced channel partners and service engineers, and compliant design tools.
