DataCentreNews UK - Specialist news for cloud & data centre decision-makers
Story image
Flexential and EdgeMicro partner to trial edge projects
Wed, 23rd Jan 2019
FYI, this story is more than a year old

If analysts and all the hype is to be believed, edge computing is set to be a major part of future IT.

In light of this, provider of hybrid IT data center solutions Flexential has partnered with edge colocation specialist EdgeMicro to support live testing of the latter's micro data center pilot project.

Flexential asserts the partnership will benefit both companies as they work to establish the required connectivity to support the edge ecosystem prior to a large-scale deployment.

The pilot is to be conducted in the industry's first edge computing test lab, which is housed in EdgeMicro's purpose-built data center conveniently located adjacently to Flexential's Englewood facility in South Denver.

According to the two companies, the goal of the pilot is to tether far-edge data centers to near-edge data centers to then demonstrate the value that improved latency can deliver for today's consumers and AI/IoT applications present now and in the future.

"The results we have achieved so far are very encouraging," says EdgeMicro vice president and general manager Martin Capurro.

"The companies we have partnered with have devoted considerable resources to developing their edge computing strategies, and can see the immediate value here. The need for this technology is very real, and these pilot programs are bringing us one step closer to an official rollout, the shape and scale of which will have a major impact felt throughout the industry."

As Capurro mentioned, the tests being conducted by the company are being supported by a number of other prominent technology companies like Akamai and StackPath, while the test environment is being supported Flexential and other key EdgeMicro partners.

"We are proud to join a project that has united many of the brightest minds in the edge industry," says Flexential network strategy vice president Tim Parker.

“The bold vision for the edge exhibited by the companies involved will change the way the internet works. Tethering near-edge and far-edge data centers is the future of edge computing, and when these projects come out of the lab the participating companies will be prepared to implement their edge computing strategies with confidence."