Edge has many different stakeholders, applications, and needs, and this is especially true in distributed retail environments. This episode of Utilizing Edge features Simon Gamble of Mako Networks talking with Brian Chambers and Stephen Foskett about the complexities of technology at the retail edge. The key according to Gamble is segmentation of brands, franchisees, and technical applications. In some cases a single location might even include multiple separate companies or tenants under the same roof. Video, sensors, IoT, and location-based services are coming to retail locations as well, and some of these leverage outside service providers as well. Although sharing infrastructure is desirable, segmentation and security is key. Retail edge environments are increasingly complicated, but there are many ways to consolidate, converge, and standardize to make them practical to implement.

Calyptia is an enterprise observability platform based on Fluent Bit, a lightweight data collector and forwarder. The platform aims to help customers extract more value from their data by filtering noisy data, routing it to the right location, and removing redundant data. By providing real-time alerts and advanced business logic in pipelines, Calyptia simplifies observability, allowing customers to be more productive and efficient.

Edge environments were historically very specialized, but virtualization and cloud technology is enabling companies to deploy commodity platforms at the edge. This episode of Utilizing Edge features Raghu Vatte of ZEDEDA discussing this commoditization with Alastair Cooke and Stephen Foskett. Although the transition is still getting started, standard compute platforms are rapidly being exploited at edge locations, from warehouses to retail to industrial. Even is some specialized hardware is still needed, a unified platform can increasingly absorb a majority of applications at the edge. Another factor contributing to commoditization is the standardization of application requirements, with most now virtualized or containerized with standards developing for I/O and shared hardware resources.

In the three years since reporting financial metrics Google’s cloud business has announced they have turned a profit. Their offerings under this umbrella include Google Cloud Platform and Google Workspace. These two products now account for 10 percent of parent company Alphabet’s total revenue. Buried in an SEC filing is news that Google will extend the estimated useful life of its servers and networking equipment to 6 years. While this is phrased as financial engineering, it also reflects a change in how Google, and other hyperscalers, will purchase and buy servers. What are the ramifications of this change? Does this mean the cloud business will remain a priority for Google going forward?

Although the Utilizing Edge podcast dives deep into the topic of edge computing, it’s worth considering the topic from other perspectives. This episode of the On-Premise IT podcast features Andy Banta, Jim Jones, and Gina Rosenthal discussing the reality of edge with Stephen Foskett, host of Utilizing Edge. After a quick consideration of the various devices that could be considered edge, from mobile phones to 5G base stations to software to Intel NUCs, we discuss the requirements and demands of edge computing. But there are many similarities with datacenter and cloud, including virtual machines and containers, Kubernetes and firewalls, hyper-converged infrastructure and SD-WAN.

Although the technology is roughly similar to datacenter or cloud, the unique challenges of edge computing require new approaches to storage, networking, orchestration, deployment, and more. We were kicking off a new season of Utilizing Tech focused on edge computing, featuring Alastair Cooke and Brian Chambers as co-hosts along with Stephen Foskett. One of the key differences for edge computing is the strictly constrained resources there as well as the massive scale. What we now call edge has existed for decades but the proprietary hardware previously used has been largely replaced by commodity and internet-connected systems that inherit technologies like virtualization, containerization, and hyperconvergence. Businesses and consumers expect more interactivity and capability in retail, restaurants, and hospitality environments, and the IoT revolution is strongly affecting manufacturing, military, and industrial settings. But what is the edge really, and how do we deliver services there? That’s the question we hope to answer in this season of Utilizing Edge.

China is reportedly blocking multiple mergers and is now investigating Micron for an unspecified cybersecurity concern. Delays include Intel’s acquisition of Tower Semiconductor, Maxlinear’s purchase of Silicon Motion, Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware, and Microsoft’s bid for Activision Blizzard, as well as the long-delay in Cisco’s acquisition of Acacia and the called-off purchase of NXP by Qualcomm which we reported on previously. The latest move against Micron seems designed to antagonize rather than investigate any real cybersecurity flaws at the memory provider. What’s going on here?

Storage systems and databases are becoming increasingly alike. In this episode of On-Premise IT Podcast recorded at the recent Storage Field Day event in California, delegates – Glenn Dekhayser, Jim Czuprynski and Denny Cherry, join host Stephen Foskett, to chew over this. In what ways are storage platforms and databases alike? Are they only different in the way they store data, or is the distinction purely based on the IT personas using them? Watch the panel explore the ins and outs of modern arrays and databases, and dissect into why, despite their likeness, the two exist side by side. Learn how databases and storage platforms treat data differently. Hear them list down the properties that separate the two.

We’re wrapping up this season of Utilizing Tech by asking the key question: Why would a system architect choose to utilize CXL in their designs? This episode of Utilizing CXL features Stephen Foskett, Nathan Bennett, and Craig Rodgers discussing the practical prospects and benefits of CXL.

This special episode of the On-Premise IT podcast includes Storage Field Day 25 delegates Ray Lucchesi, Andy Banta, and Rohan Puri considering the current state of enterprise storage, from the datacenter to the cloud.