Even as we conquer one technology and discover all the different ways we can bend it to our will, another comes along and the cycle begins anew. For today’s enterprises edge computing represents a great leap forward in data processing.

In this article, we’ll offer a high-level overview of the edge, explain why your enterprise should take advantage of the benefits of edge computing, and three tips to help you get your edge strategy started.

What Is Edge Computing?

Understanding exactly what the edge encompasses is the first step to devising your own edge strategy. That said, the definition of edge computing is a bit nebulous, with organizations often defining exactly what constitutes as “the edge” based on their own computing environments and their specific organizations.

That said, the fundamental principle of edge computing remains the same: Bringing computation and data storage closer to the sources of data, which is turns speeds up processing time and improves data-related productivity.

In a recent report commissioned by Dell, the technology was described as:

“Edge computing” is a term that encompasses a broad array of execution venues, including devices and equipment with embedded compute, adjacent computing devices that augment compute-constrained endpoints, gateways to legacy equipment, and proximate compute resources in closets, cages and within the network operator infrastructure. Edge computing also includes hyperconverged infrastructure that integrates and virtualizes key components of IT infrastructure including storage, networking and compute.”

The bottom line is that while the exact definition and application of the edge can differ, enterprises are all searching for the same things when they utilize it: increased agility, productivity, and a reduction in the time spent processing data before it can be properly utilized.

Why Your Enterprise Needs To Embrace Edge Computing

Now that we’ve explained what the edge is, let’s delve into why enterprises are so keen on employing their own edge strategies.

Some of the motivation can be attributed to seeking a competitive advantage, the same reason any new technology is adopted once it’s been proven to be effective.

Other reasons enterprises are seeking out edge computing are the specific benefits offered by the edge.

As shared by Dell, these benefits include:

• Reduced latency – Through edge computing, the latency inherent to physical distance can be overcome.
• Bandwidth conservation – The locations that need the edge the most often have limited WAN bandwidth. By processing data locally, enterprises can extract the maximum business value from it.
• Operational technology (OT) connectivity – Enterprises in some industries require specific compute devices in order to acquire data and pass control information. Edge computing can help support the needs of these businesses.
• Business process availability – Critical tasks undertaken at the edge need to be able to continue even during network outages or other crisis situations. Edge computing can ensure that these locations, whether a factory, retail location, or hospital, can continue to operate even during outages.
• Data sovereignty – Depending on the industry and location, the movement of some types of data may be restricted. Edge computing can help enterprises overcome these restrictions and still leverage the data produced.

3 Tips for Building Your Edge Computing Strategy

Once it’s decided that an enterprise should move forward in adopting an edge strategy, the next step to plot the path forward. Like any other technology, adopting it without a proper plan in place can reduce the technology’s effectiveness in the long-term. So, what do enterprises need to keep in mind for their edge strategy?

1. Plan your strategy around your specific business goals. Every enterprise is different and edge strategies are not one size fits all. Keep your specific targeted business outcomes in mind when designing your strategy and you can ensure that your edge strategy will drive your business forward.
2. Be efficient when designing your infrastructure. The edge is all about consolidating and looking for opportunities to save on resources to improve agility and productivity. By integrating your data streams, your edge infrastructure can also take advantage of the existing edge data.
3. Keep the future in mind. Your edge strategy shouldn’t just be planned for the here and now, it should also take the future into consideration. Consider what the growth of your enterprise will mean for your edge strategy and plan accordingly. Planning now will pay dividends down the line.

Do You Need Help on Your Journey to the Edge?

is committed to helping enterprises transform the way they do business. To support this, Dell offers a broad range of applicable for a variety of industries and that can meet the unique requirements of your enterprise. The best part? You can leverage WEI’s expertise across Dell’s portfolio of infrastructure solutions to help determine the best solution for your business. WEI is here to help set you up for success with your edge computing strategy.

NEXT STEPS: Adoption of hyperconverged infrastructure solutions are on the rise as more and more enterprise businesses see the benefits first hand. Check out our tech brief below that features several of the reasons our customers choose VxRail for HCI. (No forms required!)

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The threat landscape is ever evolving, and today’s enterprises face more cybersecurity challenges than ever. Between the rise of cloud computing, increased utilization of internet of things (IoT) devices, and the distributed nature of today’s workforces, the attack surface has never been larger.

To keep ahead of cybercriminals and ensure data is secured, enterprises need security that’s built-in at the foundational level of the digital environment, not tacked-on later.

Common challenges for server security

While virtualization has become increasingly important for enterprise success, it has also created additional avenues for attack. In terms of server security, the fewer physical servers an organization has, the more important it is that each of those servers is secure. If an attack is successful, the fallout is much more severe in these scenarios than times past.

The bottom line is that as enterprises prioritize digital transformation efforts and more and more data is kept in fewer physical locations, protecting that data becomes mission critical.

For this reason, has prioritized cyber resiliency when designing its servers. Dell EMC has identified the following as key to providing data center security.

1. Built-in vs. bolted-on security

As previously stated, security must be included in the overall design of the server to offer comprehensive protection. To this end, Dell EMC builds protection into the server architecture, ensuring security from server deployment to retirement.

2. Security by design

Comprehensive server security shouldn’t just stop attacks, it should also include the functionality to determine when an attack has succeeded and provide data recovery. Dell EMC’s PowerEdge servers feature its powerful hardware root of trust, which provides security by authenticating BIOS and firmware during the server boot process.

3. Server integrity from silicon to system

Whenever issues threaten your environment, whether they be a cybersecurity attack or software bugs, they must be identified and dealt with quickly to minimize their impact. Dell EMC’s , integrated into the PowerEdge servers, continuously monitors the system and sends alerts regarding changes to configuration parameters across the environment.

4. Rapid recovery

As previously mentioned, comprehensive server security includes the tools for rapid recovery. Dell’s PowerEdge servers include built-in automatic recovery, which will restore the server to a trusted state in the event of a cyberattack, even if the attack is made directly against the BIOS, firmware, signed drivers, or any signed components.

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Three requirements for your path to security

The requirements for comprehensive server security can be broken down into three categories: protect, detect, and recover. Dell’s PowerEdge server offers a number of features and key components that deliver security in these key areas.

1. Protect

When it comes to protection, Dell EMC utilizes the aforementioned hardware root of trust, as well as cryptographically signed firmware which enforces a secure platform environment. Self-encrypted disks (SEDs) are utilized to protect data at rest and the iDRAC offers agent-free management that ensures server security throughout the environment.

2. Detect

In terms of detection, Dell EMC employs physical intrusion detection to identify any physical tampering of servers, as well as drift detection, which offers continuous detection of configuration and firmware changes. Dell’s PowerEdge servers also log every event and provide alerts, including recommended actions in the event of an issue, further ensuring end-to-end server security.

3. Recover

Ensuring that data can be recovered in the event of an incident is just as important as preventing it in the first place. To this end, Dell EMC PowerEdge servers offer seamless recovery to a protected BIOS image after a security breach or other event. Automatic restoration of server configuration after hardware updates or replacement is also offered, reducing time and resources spent on administration during upgrades.

Through Dell EMC’s security-centric infrastructure, enterprise can improve the cyber resiliency of their infrastructure, make data more available, and improve productivity throughout the enterprise.

Are you looking to improve your server security?

Whatever your enterprise’s specific situation, Dell EMC can deliver the protection you need to keep your data safe. Through the Dell EMC PowerEdge server portfolio, enterprises can simplify management and reduce costs, while ensuring end-to-end data protection, attack detection, and data recovery.

Next Steps: Dell EMC VxRail also comes out of the box with built-in security thanks to their PowerEdge server. VxRail has also been a leading hyperconverged system for enterprises across all industries, and for several good reasons, 10 of them in fact! Find out why IT leaders turn to VxRail to achieve their data center modernization goals in our tech brief below, “Top 10 Reasons Why Customers Choose VxRail.”

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For IT, 2021 will be all about polishing and refining the strategies rapidly put in place to facilitate the employee exodus from the campus to the home. , once the exception, have become the new status quo. As the dust settles, many enterprises may find this temporary solution is now a permanent expectation.

Enterprise leaders would be wise to accept this change and pivot accordingly. For CIOs and their IT teams, this means taking a rocky remote infrastructure and turning it into a polished system that can provide the performance and availability employees expect, without compromising cybersecurity and data protection.

Why are remote workforces hard to secure?

As a direct result of the unique challenges of 2020, enterprises have an unprecedented lack of control over data. There have never been more remote workers, more employees utilizing personal devices, or more distributed data than what enterprises are seeing today.

Between ensuring compliance, combating the rise of “shadow IT,” and keeping up with the strain created by quickly implemented, hurriedly constructed, and often expensive remote solutions, it’s no wonder many IT teams are feeling overwhelmed.

This is the situation IT sees on a good day. What about when disaster strikes and whether due to a cyberattack or technology failure, data needs to be recovered and restored?

To keep business moving forward and set remote workers up for success, IT needs an integrated solution that, with a single management platform, offers backup and disaster recovery, intelligent storage, data protection for every device, and direct communication with solution experts when needed.

Ensure data protection with Dell EMC VxRail

To combat the challenges of securing data for remote workforces and offer all the functionality IT needs under one banner, and have collaborated to present VxRail, the easiest and fastest way to implement a high-performance virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solution.

Built with hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) at its core, VxRail was created to hold steady under VDI’s I/O-intensive workloads and handle extreme burst conditions created when users log on and off. With market-leading second-generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors, virtualization, VMware vSAN software-defined storage, servers, and more, VxRail is a steady and comprehensive foundation for VDI.

On the data protection side of things, VxRail features highly redundant architecture, integrated Dell EMC data protection software, and nondisruptive updates, keeping data safe without interrupting productivity. In the event of a data emergency, VxRail integrates with , offering quick operational recovery from disaster.

Best of all, it automates lifecycle management and boosts infrastructure security through VxRail’s HCI System Software and offers a simplified remote management experience for IT.

Yes, you too can secure your remote workforce with Dell EMC VxRail

Whatever your enterprise’s specific situation, Dell EMC VxRail can deliver the protection you need to keep your data safe, regardless of where your employees are physically located. Through the Dell Technologies extended client, server, storage, and data protection portfolio, enterprises can simplify management and reduce costs. Ask the experts at WEI for a demo and get the conversation started. We can help you understand how VxRail fits in your environment and develop a phased approach that ensures you see value and improvements every step of the way. Contact us to start a conversation!

Next Steps: Find out why enterprise IT Leaders run their business on Dell EMC VxRail in our tech brief, “Top Ten reasons Why Customers Choose VxRail” Click Below to start reading!

The post How To Overcome Data Protection Challenges For Remote Workforces appeared first on IT Solutions Provider - IT Consulting - Technology Solutions.

IT leaders are investing more time and research into understanding which hyperconverged solution is right for their businesses. We can certainly understand why hyperconvergence is getting the spotlight. The promise of tightly integrated data center components that simplify day-to-day operations, improve IT agility, and speed up infrastructure deployments sounds like the right solution for this time in the IT world.

Colm Keegan, Senior Analyst at , recently wrote a white paper, “Hyperconverged Transformation: Getting the Software-Defined Data Center Right,” which provides a detailed look into how hyperconverged infrastructure and hyperconvergence can be best employed at your organization. In that paper, ESG’s research found that:

70% of IT respondents indicated a plan to invest in HCI over the next 24 months.

The report also included extensive information about DellEMC’s VxRail hyperconverged solution. We covered several highlights from that report in this post.

What is Hyperconverged Infrastructure?

Hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) is the next generation of data center virtualization. This model of technology infrastructure is driven by software, and all components, such as networking, storage, compute, and hardware resources are all tightly integrated. They are self-contained within individual nodes which are then grouped together to become accessible, flexible, and resilient.

Take a closer look at VxRail

A first-generation solution, the VSPEX BLUE HCI software, unfortunately had a few pain points. To fix these shortcomings, and EMC VCE designed VxRail, a hyperconverged appliance offering designed to help organizations with mid-sized data centers that operate in several remote locations help to meet these diverse virtualized computing requirements. VxRail employs tight integration with vSphere 6.0 and Virtual SAN 6.1, so administrators can continue with the same management tools that they are regularly utilizing to manage a holistic, software-defined data center stack of virtualized computing, storage, and networking resources. VxRail offers organizations many hyperconverged infrastructure benefits.

5 Benefits of the VxRail Appliance for the SDDC

1. Flexible Configuration Options
   In order to solve common issues with the original VSPEX BLUE offering, the VxRail Appliance creates a cost-effective and highly scalable hyperconverged solution that provides flexible configuration and deployment options. Luckily, VSPEX BLUE customers wanting to integrate their existing environment into the new VxRail Appliance configuration can do so at no charge.
2. Optimized Performance
   By integrating with vSphere 6.0 and Virtual SAN 6.1, the VxRail Appliance is highly scalable, allowing organizations to configure with a mix of flash and hard disk drives, or an all-flash array. This allows flexibility for a wide variety of application workloads, from virtual desktops to end-user file sharing and business applications. It also multiplies the performance by two, due to the software updates.
3. All-Flash Hyperconverged Appliance
   ESG noted that many organizations are opting to deploy all-flash appliances as a way to provide the highest levels of performance for all critical applications. Besides improving the overall performance of the data center, all-flash arrays can potentially enable businesses to operate more VMs in the small capacity, which improves ROI on virtual infrastructure investments and helps drive the bottom line.
4. More Efficient Storage
   Want to make your more efficient? Because of its in-line data deduplication, the VxRail Appliance can provide up to 50 percent storage savings. As ESG puts it, “Optimized for all flash array configurations, VxRail’s data deduplication services can help extend the life of flash investments and reduce flash storage consumption. This is especially important in application environments where there is a high degree of data commonality. Virtual machine and virtual desktop images, for example, often contain much of the same operating system data, boot files, etc. But without deduplication, these images and all their requisite data have to be protected on persistent storage.”
5. Automated Performance Management
   
   Being able to manage all data center performance at the touch of a button is what makes hyperconverged infrastructure so desirable. According to Colm Keegan, “VMware and VCE are enabling virtualized workload performance automation on the VxRail Appliance, through virtual machine quality-of-service (QoS) policies. VxRail Appliance administrators will be able to assign application performance policies at a VM level to ensure that business-critical application performance remains consistent.”

DellEMC’s VxRail is a sophisticated piece of technology that works to overcome many of the hyperconverged infrastructure challenges commonly surrounding similar technologies.

NEXT STEPS: While these are some of the benefits of the VxRail solution, you may be interested in learning more about why this hyperconverged solution is receiving high market adoption. Read our tech brief, “Top Reasons Why Customers Choose VxRail” to learn more.

Sources:
1: https://www.dellemc.com/resources/en-us/asset/analyst-reports/tco-vxrail-v-vsan-readynode.pdf

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