While there is much hype about the “edge revolution,” the reality today is that the migration to edge computing is more of an evolution. Organizations are expanding their use of edge computing, but they are doing so in a controlled and managed way that is driving a gradual transition from the legacy edge to the purpose-built edge.

This is not to say that the changes occurring are not significant. This shift in IT resources to the edge and the cloud is significant and could have widespread implications for the ability to support new applications, create new customer experiences, and effectively manage limited IT resources. In this context, the pace of change documented by the survey seems to appropriately balance the desire to capitalize on emerging use cases while minimizing disruption to operations.

The survey does raise some concerns about whether organizations can effectively support edge computing sites that achieve the level of availability emerging use cases may require.

Thermal management practices, in particular, must evolve to account for the higher power requirements of current and future sites. Relying on comfort cooling for sites above 2 kW has proven inadequate, as these systems lack the precision, capacity, and reliability IT systems require. Greater use of precision cooling technologies, which have adapted to the growth in edge computing through edge-specific designs, will be required to deliver the availability operators expect from their edge sites.

Management practices also need to mature. Secure remote access and monitoring technologies are well established and provide visibility into, and control over, edge infrastructure and IT systems. They enable early warning of potential issues, such as heat build-up, and enable remote troubleshooting of IT systems. These systems also create the foundation for applying predictive maintenance to the edge computing sites supporting emerging use cases, which was the most popular edge use case identified by this survey.