Intelligent Data Centres Issue 01 | Page 37

EXPERT OPINION THE HYPERSCALE DATA CENTRES THAT SERVICE PROVIDERS HAVE BEEN INVESTING IN WILL NOT BE ABLE TO FULLY COVER THE NEW NETWORK, COMPUTING AND STORAGE REQUIREMENTS OF THE COMING YEARS. take place at the speed of light. Along with future 5G services, this will require a fibre optic network along the roadside. There would have to be servers or micro data centres on the roads or at base stations every 15 kilometres to guarantee virtually latency-free interaction and processing of the most important data on site. Exchanging data using remote cloud data centres would be too slow to control traffic and ensure there are no accidents with the typical one to two milliseconds latency. So, while the cloud could compile, analyse and store all traffic data that is not critically time-bound, the edge will require micro data centres as there is zero tolerance for latency and a need for unconditional availability. Shibu Vahid, Business Head – Special Projects, Middle East Africa and Turkey at R&M www.intelligentdatacentres.com This latency, hyper-interactivity and decentralised intelligence will play a role in numerous other applications in the digitalised world. These include industrial manufacture, industrial Ethernet and robotics, 5G and video communication, smart grids, the Internet of Things (IoT) as well as Blockchain, AI and AR applications. Edge computing can support all these tasks by shortening the path between the acquisition, collection, analysis and feedback of intelligence to the networks. Micro data centre requirements The locations at which micro data centres will have to be deployed could be demanding. To minimise risks, application sites will have to be chosen carefully and edge solutions will have to be as robust and maintenance-free as possible. They should also be able to run independently without specialist personnel. But there will still have to be safe rooms or containers to protect micro data centres from manipulation, environmental influences and electromagnetic loads. Installation and operation at the edge will have to be made as simple as possible with the ‘plug and play’ principle applied to connectivity and IT. Micro data centres will require the ability to be connected directly to fibre optic or broadband Issue 01 37