Tag Archives: Edge

Exploring Edge Applications

This episode explores applications for the edge. We really try to dig in on what will work in the edge from an application perspective. We also explore what’s holding us back.

Every time we have a conversation about Edge, we help undangle the components of Edge. In this discussion, we get more concise about what type of infrastructure is needed to build real edge applications. We also define where edge applications are expected to work and where they don’t.

Transcript: otter.ai/u/7uwv5Z3aupwE5ZGBXBEUqw9zkbE
Photo: www.pexels.com/photo/red-and-bla…ot-statue-185725/

Rob’s Hot Take:

Rob Hirschfeld, CEO and co-founder of RackN and host of the Cloud 2030 Podcast, offers insights from the December 2nd Edge Applications discussion. The conversation focuses on the challenges of building integrated edge applications composed of various components like platforms, compute, networking, and sensors. Hirschfeld highlights the need for collaborative data planes, digital twins, and an ecosystem that allows applications to utilize existing resources, emphasizing that these challenges in the edge space have yet to be fully addressed. He encourages listeners to explore the comprehensive discussion at the2030.cloud.

Is Edge HCI Necessary?

To explore HCI at the edge, we started with SUSE’s Harvester. It’s an HCI integration of Kubernetes, KubeVirt, and Longhorn (their storage system) plus some PXE booting magic they threw in there. From there we explored how Kubernetes can fit into Edge HCI.

That really morphed into Edge operations more generally. It’s not clear if hyperconverged infrastructure can or can’t fit. We covered items like AWS Outpost which is Amazon’s edge. We included items for the cloud to edge migration from an application development perspective.

There are a lot of fascinating ops and development topics throughout the conversation.

Transcript: otter.ai/u/Y2OH7SuJhPp4VRQSBAJk31-0_eI
Photo: www.pexels.com/photo/crop-person…ontainer-4498143/

Rob’s Hot Take:

Rob Hirschfeld, CEO and co-founder of RackN and host of the Cloud 2030 Podcast, provides insights from the January 4th discussion on hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) for the edge. The conversation explores the operational desire for clean and simple architectures with modular building blocks for easy implementation. However, it challenges the notion that platforms like Kubernetes can create a straightforward, self-building architectural solution for edge clusters, emphasizing the associated cost considerations. Hirschfeld suggests exploring the full episode at the2030.cloud for a comprehensive discussion on the complexities and potential solutions in the realm of hyper-converged infrastructure for the edge.

Resolving Software Dependency Chains

Dependency chains are complex and fragile when you’re depending on software, hardware cloud services that go away or change. In this conversation, we really examine the challenge of having dynamic vendor relationships and what we can do to fix and protect our environments.

It’s really hard to fix what can be vulnerable when it also changes your software supply chain at any moment! And that can impact any device in your infrastructure!! We work through that problem means in practical terms.

Transcript: otter.ai/u/mwpwVINGYfkQ5F5IERXgsM2oHsA
Photo: www.pexels.com/photo/focused-kid…d-puzzle-5063480/

Rob’s Hot Take:

Rob Hirschfeld, CEO and co-founder of RackN and host of the Cloud 2030 Podcast, reflects on the January 11th DevOps lunch and learn focused on managing dependencies in technology. The discussion reveals a critical realization that the interconnected and short lifecycle of technology components results in a near certainty of repercussions when patching or updating one part of the infrastructure. Hirschfeld highlights the serious security and continuity risks associated with unmaintained projects, emphasizing the need for improved visibility and management of software dependency graphs. He encourages listeners to explore the comprehensive conversation at the2030.cloud for insights into addressing these challenges.

What’s Next for Cloud and Edge?

We reflected on 2021 and our four key panelists talked through what’s coming for 2022. Instead of making broad predictions, we focused on the needs of the market. We felt there were many immediate needs around cloud outages and security challenges.

Of course, we also discuss how the edge is coming up along with more physical integrations like for automotive, healthcare, and energy creation and storage. All are very big topics that are local presence related computing.

Transcript: otter.ai/u/7IEszyeZEDGENz3JSzw_-4hmyVc
Photo: www.pexels.com/photo/barefoot-bo…spyglass-7139730/Cloud20302022 PredictLog4jOutagesSecurityEdgeAutomotiveHealthcare

Rob’s Hot Take:

Rob Hirschfeld, CEO and co-founder of RackN and host of the Cloud 2030 Podcast, shares insights from the 2021 End of Year session where predictions for the future were discussed. The focus was on transforming the market from monolithic, single-vendor clouds, including on-premises Edge locations, towards a more ad hoc and composable model that allows multiple vendors to integrate seamlessly. Hirschfeld emphasizes the importance of creating infrastructure pipelines to enable modularity and a multi-vendor experience while maintaining a single control experience for users and operators. He encourages listeners to explore the detailed discussion in the full podcast from December 30th at the2030.cloud.

A Pathway to Green Data Centers?

How do we make data centers green because, fundamentally, they are going to use electricity. But the sources of that electricity, how we respond to shortages of electricity and cost signals about that electricity are all critical to consider. These are the questions that lead us to how a green data center or green infrastructure gets created.

Our discussion also includes how infrastructure at the edge can play a role. Overall, there are A LOT of the factors that go into building and creating green infrastructure, including the motivations and signals that will hopefully change the market.

Transcript: otter.ai/u/9eirv3Rs292n7M1m8d1VaRPPRgA
Image: www.pexels.com/photo/clear-light…ray-rock-1108572/

Rob’s Hot Take:

Rob Hirschfeld, CEO and co-founder of RackN and host of the Cloud 2030 Podcast, discusses the importance of green infrastructure in today’s episode. He emphasizes the need to understand the impacts of power availability on the cost and design of applications and infrastructure. Hirschfeld stresses that building for the future requires consideration of unreliable power, whether due to cost, availability, or shifting dynamics, and encourages listeners to explore the comprehensive discussion in the full podcast at the2030.cloud.

Serverless At The Edge

Serverless at the edge, part one. This is a dynamic and engaged conversation with key questions like:

What is serverless?
Do we need serverless?
How is edge serverless different than cloud serverless?

We see edge environments as collecting data from sensors that needs to be heterogeneous, multi vendor, dynamic and centralized. But where centralized?

I think that the serverless aspect of this really drives home the idea that we need to be able to make small, quick, easy updates into an edge environment into a sensor environment. But how we accomplish that is still to be defined.

Transcript: otter.ai/u/XOOi-HhvbqC6NG16-7ns6j_hPLE
Image: www.pexels.com/photo/man-in-whit…ing-tray-3772524/

Rob’s Hot Take:

In the November 11th episode of the Cloud 2030 podcast, the discussion centered around the concept of serverless at the edge, a topic not widely understood. Distinct from traditional cloud-based serverless systems like Lambda, serverless at the edge involves diverse sensors and input sources, requiring different architectures. The conversation emphasized the critical role of serverless at the edge but highlighted the need for unique definitions and platforms, shaping the future of this technology.

Edge Networking: Facebook, BGP and 5G

Edge networking is hard! Because before we can talk about edge networking, we actually have to talk about edge management and edge control, and what it takes to build resilient infrastructure and train people to use it.

In the first half, we’re talking about the challenges of managing infrastructure, using the Facebook outage of the week we recorded as a starting point for how challenging it is to build resilient infrastructure.

In the second, we talk about edge networking with solid insights about how challenging edge networking really is not just creating networks in edge locations, but what does it take to sustain an edge network and the integration and technologies over the course of multiple technology generations?

Caption: otter.ai/u/U6PvW4S34DUi1Awiu4gcYMLp-pk
Photo by Tony Mucci from Pexels [ID 5367334]

Rob’s Hot Take:

Rob Hirschfeld, CEO and co-founder of RackN and host of the Cloud 2030 Podcast, reflects on the October 5th discussion about edge networking, highlighting the conversation’s focus on the long lifecycle expectancy of edge technologies and the challenges associated with their maintenance and evolution. He emphasizes the need to address these critical topics in edge networking discussions, inviting listeners to explore the in-depth conversation at the2030.cloud.

Your next DC… Edge or Cloud?

Cloud versus Edge? This panel dove into what makes edge different than cloud.

There are a lot of different technical and commercial drivers. And fundamentally, it matters who owns the sources of data and how data sources are different. This underscores how it is critical to understand data sources, infrastructure ownership, and how everything fits together.

This discussion will change to you rethink what makes Edge different than Cloud.

Transcript: otter.ai/u/y2ubHGGIhY31hRyiV6mW_B8e-os
Photo by Agafonova Photo from Pexels [ID 5284983]

Edge Control Planes

Building an edge control plane is challenging! It’s not clear even what is currently available. As always, data, data pipelines, data orchestration, and data choreography are all influential for edge infrastructure.

Transcript and Photo by Taryn Elliott from Pexels [ID 3889936]

Designing for 5G and Digital Twins

We talked about 5G, factories and edge infrastructure.

They are very interconnected because they live at the network edge and are sensitive to how we need to route traffic.

This is important as the basis for using digital twinning as a new user experience (UI/UX) around interacting with systems. This new approach is starting to emerge and it will be very network intensive, visually oriented, and involve overlaying the physical world with the virtual world.

How the heck are we going to connect all these things together?

Transcript: otter.ai/u/7lSSCwLdGiF9JqyunUHo19m6yPk
Photo: www.pexels.com/photo/two-boys-si…ent-moon-1651483/