{"id":269913,"date":"2024-01-08T11:25:32","date_gmt":"2024-01-08T16:25:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.webscale.com\/blog\/two-aspects-of-edge-compute-to-focus-on-for-reducing-edge-complexity\/"},"modified":"2024-01-08T11:25:32","modified_gmt":"2024-01-08T16:25:32","slug":"two-aspects-of-edge-compute-to-focus-on-for-reducing-edge-complexity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.webscale.com\/blog\/two-aspects-of-edge-compute-to-focus-on-for-reducing-edge-complexity\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Aspects of Edge Compute to Focus on for Reducing Edge Complexity"},"content":{"rendered":"

As organizations look to capitalize on the benefits of edge computing, many are quickly realizing the complexities associated with building and operating distributed systems \u2013 including sourcing distributed compute, resource management\/placement\/sizing\/scaling, distributed traffic routing, managing many locations and non-homogenous providers \u2013 leading them to seek out solutions to help solve the <\/span>edge puzzle<\/span><\/a>. It\u2019s important to understand these complexities, which is why we\u2019ve discussed them in great detail in our previous blog posts. But as with any endeavor, when faced with adversity or confronted by hurdles, keeping an eye on the prize can ultimately help you forge ahead.<\/span><\/p>\n

Every organization, team and application has varying and distinct requirements when it comes to designing distributed systems. Given that, it\u2019s not uncommon for teams that start down the path of building their own bespoke systems to quickly find themselves overwhelmed by all the complexities that play into design decisions and implementation. As an Edge as a Service (EaaS) provider, we\u2019re often pulled into projects during the early stages of research and discovery, where we\u2019re able to offload the build and management of many, if not most, of the critical components. As such, we know first-hand that accelerating the path to edge for organizations \u2013 across a diverse range of use cases \u2013 begins with reducing complexity from the outset. Moreover, providing application developers with the opportunity to seamlessly distribute and run the software of their choice is where the real power of the edge comes into play.<\/span><\/p>\n

To that end, let\u2019s shine a spotlight on a few critical areas where complexity can creep into your edge deployment scenario, and how using an \u201cas a service\u201d strategy can combat that to reduce edge complexity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Deployment Flexibility (How and Where)<\/b><\/h3>\n

Organizations moving to the edge should expect greater flexibility in both <\/span>how<\/b> and <\/span>where<\/b> they deploy to edge resources compared to using legacy CDNs or centralized cloud environments for edge. The two areas to consider here are network provisioning and deployment pipelines \u2013 in other words, how are your getting your application workload to the edge and where is the edge? Both represent areas where unintended complexity can stymie edge outcomes.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Where<\/b><\/h4>\n

If edge compute is appropriately provisioned and distributed across a heterogenous network of providers, not only do you get increased flexibility, it also ensures increased resiliency. The CloudFlow Composable Edge Cloud, for instance, is built on the foundations of providers such as AWS, Azure, Digital Ocean, Equinix, GCP, Lumen, and RackCorp; we are adding new edge location providers and can deploy points of presence (PoPs) on-demand to help customers define their own edge.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet managing such a federated multi-cloud and edge network can increase complexity exponentially. This is where our <\/span>Adaptive Edge Engine<\/span><\/a> again saves the day by using a sophisticated decision and execution engine to automate distributed infrastructure provisioning, workload orchestration, scaling, monitoring, and traffic routing.<\/span><\/p>\n

The How<\/b><\/h4>\n

Deployment pipelines also need to be flexible to keep pace with technology changes and application workload demands. Engineers must be able to deploy fast, easily, and in a safe, reliable and repeatable way. DevOps and continuous delivery (CD) help to support a more responsive and flexible organization that can better respond to changing requirements, and ensure quicker time-to-market across the software delivery cycle. That\u2019s why CloudFlow leverages your <\/span>existing Kubernetes managed application<\/span><\/a> structure \u2013 no need to rewrite your application to get it to the edge. What\u2019s more, you\u2019re not locked into specific application providers \u2013 feel free to use any containerized application from any registry (be it open-source or private).<\/span><\/p>\n

Management Control<\/b><\/h3>\n

Once your application is at the edge, a modern EaaS provider should enable greater granular control over your tech stack and edge computing requirements. That control allows for better tailoring of application workloads, allowing you to focus on customer or team needs and leverage EaaS for deployment, rather than rearchitecting or retooling to fit the requirements of a cloud or CDN platform. EaaS solutions like CloudFlow\u2019s Edge Platform provide the necessary granular, code-level control needed to seamlessly integrate edge solutions into existing stacks and workflows.<\/span><\/p>\n

Code configuration and management in particular are areas where complexity can impact the developer experience. Beyond the granular, code-level control over edge configuration mentioned above, there are also considerations in terms of location strategy, security and compliance, application development lifecycle, and observability.<\/span><\/p>\n

At Webscale, our approach is to combine that fine-grained control when and where you want it, with powerful automation and underlying AI to hide and abstract that complexity where you don\u2019t. For example:<\/span><\/p>\n