Pipeline’s Network Evolution Issue: Unlocking the Edge

When it comes to what’s trending in the data center and telecom business, Pipeline is a go-to source. The industry publication recently released its Network Evolution issue, which examines various topics around how data centers and enterprises can work together to evolve business IT networks to better serve growing demands for bandwidth. Our own Eric Watko, Vice President, Innovation Product Line Management, lent his expertise to the respected publication for the issue. Pipeline published an article by Watko, which details how edge data centers are the natural next step for enterprises who want to unleash more network capabilities.

The full article is available in the Network Evolution issue. We’ve also got a few highlights from the article for you.

5G Drives Network Evolution

The article titled Network Evolution: Planning for Future Possibilities With Edge begins by encouraging enterprises to prepare their network today for increased elasticity, so they can adequately realize the potential of 5G and the Internet of Things (IoT) applications. Preparing now will present exciting opportunities to increase business efficiency and create new business in the immediate term. 5G is driving network evolution. Networks are becoming more distributed, bringing data closer to where it is consumed and/or generated, to increase efficiency. The migration to the “edge” is here.

Edge collocation is growing in popularity, because of the increased benefits of locating data closer to where it’s generated and/or consumed. The rise of 5G, which enables faster data transmission, is creating a greater need for the edge; and, with the rise of data-intensive applications, like the aforementioned IoT applications, demand for edge data centers is also growing. With more aggregation points at edge data centers around the U.S., users can transmit data faster—ideal for low-latency applications.

5G also comes with a corresponding boost in demand for bandwidth. 5G delivers more content at a faster rate, but the promise of more comes with the need for a robust distributed infrastructure system. The growing edge data center market is helping to meet this demand by putting compute power closer to end-users at the edge, which facilitates processing data faster. However, for 5G to truly become ubiquitous, a distributed network architecture must be adopted.

What’s Next for the Edge?

Next, the article examines how the edge will continue to be a key next step in network progression. Many small- to medium-sized businesses are already experiencing the many benefits that come with edge collocation, including network elasticity and reliability. In addition to network elasticity, which enables seamless changing demands of networks, benefits of the edge are vast and include:

• Scalability to grow with the business
• Accessibility
• Enhanced disaster recovery with network redundancy
• Increased data security and privacy

The distributed network architecture is inevitable, especially for businesses that want to maintain flexibility amid growing network demands. Planning for the shift and having the edge in place will help to future proof and safeguard critical business assets—the network and data. When advanced, low-latency applications are ubiquitous, enterprises that are prepared, with critical infrastructure in place, will have one leg up on their competition.

Who Can Benefit From the Edge?

Finally, the article touches on who stands to gain from the evolving edge collocation model. A variety of small- and medium-sized enterprises, with a rising need for data storage, can benefit from it, including healthcare facilities, manufacturing companies, hospitality venues, transportation, and many more.

With six Edge Data Centers strategically positioned throughout the U.S., American Tower is well poised to deliver edge advantages to companies nationwide. When you work with American Tower for your edge needs, you gain access to our state-of-the-art Edge Data Center facilities, plus our Metro Data Centers in Atlanta and Orlando.

Read the full article in Pipeline on how the edge will take enterprise networks to the next level or contact us to learn more.