How Expedient Is Shaping The Future Of Edge Computing

The University of Phoenix once faced a myriad of IT challenges: outdated infrastructure, technical debt, and annual data center costs upwards of $1.7 million. The online university’s previous attempts to switch to a hyperscale cloud failed due to the complexity of modernizing old applications and workloads.

Their story took a better turn when the university adopted Expedient Enterprise Cloud and started migrating its most challenging workload. Their success enabled a more efficient and cost-effective digital transformation which replaced technical debt with modern solutions.

Addressing Edge Computing Challenges

Many organizations require access to nearby computing resources to maintain smooth operations. The primary obstacle that enterprises encounter is providing these on-site services at remote locations.

The University of Phoenix's experience reflects the common business challenges of today: the need for a consistent managed service across multiple locations, including the cloud. However, proximity-based applications often struggle with connectivity and latency issues. For that reason, edge computing is essential, which brings us to Expedient.

Most of the time, businesses resort to do-it-yourself approaches to save on costs. This has been the traditional solution to edge computing. This causes several issues, including:

• Increased Costs: Setting up these solutions involves shipping, configuring, and maintaining systems. This is expensive and comes with logistical challenges, especially in a period where many IT teams are struggling to fill personnel as solutions grow more complicated. 
• Hardware Update Complications: These solutions often require frequent hardware updates. This adds to the complexity and expenses over time as technology evolves. As with many customers who partner with WEI for Expedient solutions, it is often too late when they realize the impressive cost savings and hassle-free subscription method as opposed to being locked into unfriendly multi-year contracts.
• Ongoing Support: Traditional methods find it difficult to handle ongoing hardware support, monitoring, patch management, and unexpected repairs. This leaves organizations struggling to keep their systems running smoothly. WEI can help your enterprise with ongoing support and training to empower difference-making upskilling.
• Scalability Challenges: Scaling these solutions across different locations is a significant challenge. It’s not easy to adapt them to various environments and needs.

While a DIY approach might be tempting, this method often costs businesses more money in the long-run.

Solving Key Challenges With Expedient Edge

The transformation we referenced early on with University of Phoenix proves solutions like Expedient Edge and Enterprise Cloud effectively virtualizes existing applications and workloads. With this solution, the university streamlined operations, cut costs, and reduced their owned hardware from 100 servers to seven.

How will you know if your enterprise is ready to embrace edge computing? Have you already explored this option? We recommend that you consider this solution if your business requires:

• A cost-friendly cloud model
• Workload management and support
• Integrated storage and networking
• Resilience to internet connectivity issues
• An adaptable solution for various networking conditions

Expedient Edge, a fully-managed VMware-powered infrastructure, offers timely assistance by providing the following services:

1. Consistent Management: Unifying and elevating the level of services through a cloud-based management platform, ensuring a consistent and reliable experience at a fraction of the cost.
2. Improved Connectivity: Allowing apps to run independently of internet connectivity to ensure seamless operations no matter where they are deployed.
3. Fully Managed VMware Infrastructure: The solution boasts a fully managed VMware infrastructure, ensuring clients have a robust and reliable foundation for their workloads. And did we mention that Expedient deploys the world’s largest VMware clouds just an hour away from WEI in Boston, MA?  

Expedient Edge also meets the increasing demand for a cloud operating model while providing a wide range of features. This makes it a significant choice for organizations in search of dependable and flexible IT solutions.

The Future Of Edge

Companies now understand the need to invest heavily in edge computing, and this trend is expected to continue over the next 5 years. A recent S&P Global report in March reveals that companies anticipate increased edge budgets in 2023, with a focus on security, automation, and orchestration software investments. Moreover, this technology is not ideal for just one industry, but many where traditional IT is not suitable. This plays into the favor of manufacturing as the edge appliance can fits just about anywhere – a closet, factory floor, or anywhere that cooling conditions are not ideal. 

 Additionally, one-third of the respondents plan to increase short-term edge spending according to a recent 451 Research survey, with variations based on region, company size, and industry. This uptick is fueled by tech updates, heightened security, and growing data center needs.

With a feature-rich offering, Expedient Edge is an excellent choice for organizations seeking reliable, adaptable IT solutions.

Contact our experts at WEI to learn more about edge computing and discover how Expedient’s host of solutions could potentially benefit your business. The future of computing is here. By embracing this transformation, your organization will remain at the forefront of innovation and competitiveness in the digital era.

Next steps: The blueprint for an effective ransomware protection strategy starts with maximizing the resources you already have. WEI can help explain how in our free tech brief.