The days of dominant, monolithic, central data centers are waning— the evidence in the industry seems to be showing.

That’s driven in part, at least, by the emergence of IIoT and IoT deployments, which are creating terabytes of data that are not always suited to sending through networks to a central point.

It’s become apparent in recent years that many applications at the network edge are best either kept entirely localized or at least keeping data processing local and connecting to central facilities only when data has been parsed, or filtered, or even entirely processed.

Applications that require low latencies, either machine-to-machine or machine-to-human, mean that there needs to be significant compute, storage, and network facilities at the edge. With the addition of new-generation software abstraction layers, even major edge deployments can become an integral part of the enterprise WAN, with little need for expensive truck rolls and on-site technicians, in most cases.

It’s here that Vertiv can supply to data center facilities, the type of rapidly-deploy-able, powerful, and self-contained micro data center facilities of any size, perfect for edge deployment, with enterprise grades of reliability and stability. The company’s broad experience of the DC market and the requirements of the professionals in the industry mean that professionals trust the company to produce offerings that are fit for purpose, every time.

With the emphasis on the “micro” in micro data center, the SmartCabinet range of self-contained enclosures come ready in a plug-and-play pre-configured setup that includes physical security, monitoring, connectivity, thermal management, and power distribution. These units are perfect for existing edge deployments that need rapid expansion, or, the cabinet can be dropped into remote locations in even a single unit — the type of agility that DC professionals could only dream of just a few years ago.

For updating a small server room or “computer corner” in remote facilities, there’s the larger SmartRow, which can be configured and installed without any business interruptions. Like the SmartCabinets, the product range is an optimized, resource-light solution for deployments where local data processing is the best way to achieve the business’s aims. And like the prefabricated data centers the company offers, the Vertiv product range is fully movable to new locations — the company has even designed an “archive truck” that can be driven from location to location, ensuring that uptimes and reliability levels are maintained, to support the business.

These products underpin the industry feeling — captured by Vertiv in the survey Data center 2025: Exploring the Possibilities — that a majority of DC professionals expect a 100 percent rise in the number of edge-based data centers by 2025 (you can download the survey here). The same study also supports the trend that we at Tech Wire Asia have seen, too: 5G will soon be playing a massive role in interconnecting remote nodes of the enterprise WAN, from edge to micro data center, to central data center alike.

Whether it’s data-intensive local applications or applications and services that are sensitive to unpredictable latencies (machine-to-human data is particularly vulnerable in this respect), it’s the Vertiv product range that DC providers are turning to, for the very latest in methods, hardware and systems that will power this new tranche of edge-based installations.

To learn more about that product range from Vertiv, or to explore the more extensive range on offer for data center solutions providers, click here.