Meeting the challenges of managing edge computing sites

Schneider Electric - As the weeks stretch to months of enforced social distancing due to the Covid-19 pandemic, remote working looks set to become the new normal.

While data centres are classified as essential services in every part of the world and hence exempt from stay-home requirements, being able to address issues remotely is still incredibly valuable.

The old way of maintenance

The fundamental challenges for those managing edge computing sites are a lack of on-site staff and this is further amplified during circuit breaker lockdowns where deployment of on-site staff becomes an even bigger issue.

Traditional monitoring tools and methods are having a hard time keeping up with changing demands.

Many choose to rely on managed service providers (MSPs) and other third-party vendors to monitor and maintain their equipment because it is more cost effective. However, such arrangements may not be as helpful and responsive as they could have been.

There is a critical need to examine how we can manage multiple edge computing installations with widely dispersed assets more effectively.

New cloud-based monitoring platforms that support mobile and web technologies like Schneider Electric's EcoStruxure IT Expert make this simpler. 

A faster and better paradigm

As you can imagine, the old approach seems anarchic and slow at a time when remote work is common. Fortunately, new digital tools can now connect experts to failing equipment for faster diagnosis and remediation.

The right specialists can now quickly and efficiently manage multiple sites from a remote location - either at their corporate office or at any location in the world.

Next generation management tools take advantage of newer technologies, such as cloud computing, data analytics, artificial intelligence, and mobile communications. This is especially valuable when there is a need to manage multiple edge computing installations with widely dispersed assets.

New cloud-based monitoring platforms that support mobile and web technologies like EcoStruxure IT Expert make this simpler by providing a secure platform for trusted third parties to monitor from afar so that all parties have access to the same data, at the same time, across all sites.

The cloud architecture also provides a means by which data analytics and artificial intelligence services can be provided to make monitoring much more proactive and even predictive.

Looking to the future

There is no question that the move to remote management is accelerating across the globe in factories and data centres alike.

Image a world where critical faults are detected in real-time and the system initiates an immediate dispatch of an expert with the correct parts, without any action required from the site owner.

This saves time and money for every critical alarm that occurs -in addition to potentially avoiding the severe cost of downtime that might have occurred.

If you find yourself questioning the ability to monitor and keep track of all your distributed assets, it might be time to consider digital remote monitoring and dispatch service. For more information, you can refer to the following white paper.