How Edge Computing Can Save CX

A recent blog by Equinix leaders Benjamin Jenkins and Ian Botbyl lays out the infrastructure dilemmas faced by the chief information officer of a fast-growing SaaS company.

Jenkins, the field chief technology officer for Equinix and Botbyl, the senior manager of product marketing, explain how the SaaS company was concerned it was starting to break the limits of its current infrastructure.

Their platform — used by thousands of customers for real-time data analytics — received more complaints about slow response times during peak usage hours outside their default market.

“Every time we get a traffic spike, we’re hit with performance issues,” the CIO said.

“It’s frustrating. We’ve optimized everything we can in our core data centers, but our customers in more remote regions are still experiencing latency and performance issues… We’re losing deals because of it, and it is negatively affecting our NPS.”

The company's challenges quickly led to edge strategy discussions focused on how they could use their global hybrid multicloud footprint more effectively.

In their blog, Jenkins and Botbyl explained that edge computing isn’t a new concept, but how people think about the edge is changing — and for a good reason.

Secure, low-latency connectivity to end users has become essential to delivering the best customer and employee experiences.

Meanwhile, business ecosystems are growing exponentially. Organizations are connecting with 30% more business partners in twice as many locations, according to the 2024 Equinix Global Interconnection Index. 

Companies are also operating in and expanding rapidly into more global places.

Data has become the most valuable enterprise resource; most are generated outside centralized data centers.

Privacy concerns have become more prevalent with the increasing use of AI tools, and addressing them builds trust and customer loyalty.

Mandates like GDPR that require data localization are becoming more common. And more than ever before, businesses need maximum agility to try new things and respond to ever-changing market pressures.

All these trends mean that organizations need to think critically about putting their IT infrastructure in the right places. Gone are the days of a single centralized on-premises data center.

Instead, Equinix’s Jenkins and Botbyl explained that we are in the era of global infrastructure spanning core and edge locations and interconnecting partners and service providers striving to deliver the best user experiences.

Traditionally, edge infrastructure was considered small sites far from the central data center. However, with today’s distributed IT infrastructures, the edge can be located virtually anywhere.

What is an edge data center?

An edge data center is typically defined as a smaller, decentralized facility strategically located closer to the end users and devices it serves.

Unlike traditional centralized data centers, often situated far from users, edge data centers bring processing power to the network's edge.

So, instead of sending data back and forth from endpoints to your core data center location for processing, you process near those endpoints.

According to Jenkins and Botbyl, this proximity of infrastructure to users and devices offers several advantages, including reduced latency, improved data transfer efficiency, scalability, and enhanced reliability.

“We’ve optimized everything we can, but our customers in more remote regions are still experiencing latency and performance issues.”

By shortening the distance data travels, edge data centers significantly cut down latency, ensuring faster response times and seamless, real-time, personalized interactions.

Localized processing enhances data transfer speeds and optimizes bandwidth, which is critical for latency-sensitive applications such as streaming, gaming and IoT.

In terms of scalability, organizations can deploy edge data centers incrementally, allowing you to scale infrastructure based on demand without massive upfront investments.

Localized facilities also provide redundancy and backup for critical data and services, enhancing system reliability.

The edge today is everywhere

The Equinix view is that as businesses move away from centralized on-premises IT, they recognize that what’s most important in the digital era is putting the right workloads in the right places.

While an organization’s edge could be along the coasts where population centers are concentrated, many organizations require edge infrastructure in other locations.

For instance, a large healthcare provider might consider Denver in the U.S. state of Colorado their edge due to the high density of hospitals there. Therefore, they’d need local infrastructure there to meet their operational needs.

Similarly, a manufacturing company with facilities across the U.S. Midwest might establish its edge infrastructure in locations like Detroit or Indianapolis to optimize production and logistics processes close to its main operations.

The SaaS company mentioned at the start of this article was based in the U.K. but had customers across Europe, the Americas, and Asia.

By deploying its hybrid infrastructure closer to user bases, the company could provide faster, more reliable access to its entire platform, reducing latency and improving the performance of its core infrastructure through edge expansion.

Multiple benefits

Edge data centers can be integrated into any modern IT infrastructure strategy, offering numerous benefits.

They help to complement central data centers. Edge data centers offload tasks from central data centers, helping manage peak loads and improving overall efficiency. This symbiotic relationship enhances the performance of both types of facilities.

Another benefit is in meeting performance demands. For applications requiring real-time data processing, such as IoT devices, autonomous vehicles, and interactive gaming, edge data centers provide the necessary low-latency, high-speed environment.

Also important is how the edge can enhance user experiences. By minimizing latency and boosting data transfer speeds, edge data centers contribute to a superior user experience, a crucial factor in customer satisfaction and retention.

To better support strategic deployments, edge data centers can be strategically placed in key geographic markets or industries, such as healthcare, finance and retail, which benefit most from localized data processing.

Finally, but also significantly, edge can optimize cost efficiency.

By optimizing bandwidth usage and reducing the need for extensive infrastructure, edge data centers offer a cost-effective solution for businesses seeking high performance without heavy upfront CAPEX investment.

Image credit: iStockphoto/BeeBright