Work from anywhere: how to operate at the Edge

Work from Anywhere Tech Talk Series

Episode 1: The Intelligent Edge

Content sponsored by Intel and Dell Technologies

Dell Technologies introduces another five-episode Work from Anywhere Tech Talk Series, that tackles the latest Tech Trends in South Africa, and the globe. The series also looks at the products that can be used to digitalise businesses in the current, rapidly changing market conditions they find themselves in. The series takes viewers through an informative journey looking at how organisations can take advantage of market conditions to benefit themselves and their customers.

Join Jonathan Ryall, client solutions field product manager at Dell Technologies South Africa in the first episode of the “Work from Anywhere Tech Talk Series” as he delves into “The Intelligent Edge” with Tony Bartlett, director data centre compute at Dell Technologies, South Africa. The pair discuss how organisations, across industries, are looking to the Edge to improve agility and customer experiences.

But what exactly is the “Intelligent Edge” and what sort of benefits can it bring to organisations who are increasingly needing to be agile to adapt, and ultimately survive?

Bartlett explains that the Edge is essentially where business happens or transacts, so if you think of a retailer, that is the shop floor, if you think of a factory, the Edge is the factory floor. A more complex example could also be a mine, where the Edge could be underground, where the actual mining is taking place.

Looking to what the “Intelligent Edge” is and how it can be used to transform business is where technology comes into play, where the physical and digital world intersect. Bartlett explains that the Intelligent Edge is where data is analysed at the Edge location (i.e. where the data is generated like the shop floor for example) and “solutions” are developed at the site where the data is generated.

The data that is generated can be analysed to obtain insights, new market opportunities and innovative ideas in order to start making the right decision in near real-time.

So what type of data should be analysed at the Edge and what type of data should be analysed in a traditional data centre? Bartlett explains that organisation’s need to understand what kind of data is being generated. He also points out that in the future most data will not be analysed in a data centre, but rather at the Edge due to reduced latency and the need for quick data analytics. This can result in cost reductions as well as mitigate business risk. He delves into more practical examples about how this could play out where quick response times are an imperative.

With change being a constant, businesses need to operate at the Edge where they can “generate actionable insights, digitalise their business processes and even transform their customer experiences”.

Jonathan also takes viewers through the Optiplex Ultra Desktop, the world’s most compatible, fully modular zero-footprint desktop solution that offers swappable elements for ultimate flexibility and performance.