Investing in Edge Data Centers

Edge data centers are key components of a mobile network. Since they process data closer to the user, the customer experience is greatly enhanced. As the need for low latency applications intensifies, edge computers are becoming more prominent; however, they must be managed carefully in terms of capacity and connectivity. Redundancy needs to be managed on both the logical and fiber layers. Edge data centers must also be carefully managed from a space, power, and cooling perspective. Core connectivity between these geographically dispersed data centers must be rock solid. Any problems with an edge data center directly impacts the large volume of connected towers. As 4G and 5G spreads, the huge core data center sites for the virtualized applications and services will be distributed across several core data center sites and edge data center sites.

Oftentimes with edge data centers, challenges arise when it comes to determining which systems have been affected during an outage. Since edge data centers typically don’t host a large amount of redundant hardware due to space, power and cost concerns, a minor system failure has the potential to have an enormous impact on service availability. Unfortunately, it takes more time than usual to repair system failures in edge data centers as these sites are often unattended. In order to ensure the user experience remains unaffected, it is important that each NFVI at the edge of the network is available.

That being said, applications and services should be portable between edge data centers and centralized data centers. Edge data centers need a common deployment and management environment across centralized and edge cloud infrastructure. With all physical, logical, and virtual resources managed in one central data repository, edge data centers would be able to better understand the impact of a loss of a virtualized service by being able to associate the service with the physical infrastructure and understanding the associations and connections. As there will be many VNFs from several suppliers executed on the different NFVI platforms dispersed across core and edge data center sites, it’s pivotal to implement a vendor-agnostic hybrid resource and capacity management solution to have all of the relevant information available for both operation and planning purposes.    

Future Proof Your OSS/BSS

Overall, transforming into a digital service provider enables the rapid launch and fulfillment of new products and services, helps to ensure service quality, and reduces operating costs. To achieve this transformation, network operators must have a holistic view of assets and resources. An integrated software solution for hybrid resource management can provide this holistic view by delivering and maintaining an accurate and up-to-date inventory of all physical, logical and virtual network and service resources.

By managing all assets used in the production of services via a single, dynamically updated repository that integrates with key systems, providers will have the right information and tools necessary to support not only existing networks, but also networks of the future as they undergo digital transformation. The resulting transparency is the hallmark of a modern infrastructure. This visibility enables providers to convert emerging opportunities into revenue, maximize the use of network resources, and make confident decisions about how to plan, build, deploy, and manage the business.