Thirty years ago, computers revolutionized the workplace, economies, and daily lives. Now hybrid cloud and edge computing are taking that revolution to the next level, remaking the very business models that underpin today’s most successful companies. Consumers see the end points of these leaps forward in the form of autonomous vehicles and smart homes, but the changes in the business realm are far more extensive, comprehensively remaking the way companies think about innovation, and unleashing a new era of innovation and ingenuity.
“When companies move to the hybrid cloud and edge, their whole focus changes to innovation,” says Jan Hofmeyr, vice president of AWS. “They’re no longer talking about maintaining, upgrading, and patching their systems. They’re talking instead about the new feature they just delivered, and the new data it’s giving them. And the next feature they’re about to make.”
Once this mindset fully kicks in, transformation and innovation become innate qualities embedded in their daily operations. Existing resources are freed up, allowing companies to move faster, deliver better outcomes, and evolve in ways few could have foreseen just a short time earlier.
More than just technology advancements, these technologies are ushering in a new era of business thinking
Why hybrid cloud and edge computing represent a new paradigm for innovation
11-04-22 | aws
Too often, conventional technological growth curves create a linear relationship between capability and complexity. The more systems you create, the more efficiency you lose getting them to talk to one another—and the more overhead you burn to maintain them and stay out of tech debt.
Hybrid cloud and edge computing allow companies to fully opt out of systems management while still taking advantage of all the abilities of advanced technology, all working under a unified codebase and management paradigm. Functions can be created once and deployed everywhere from the cloud to the edge and anywhere in between, creating order-of-magnitude savings in labor and management. “Our customers have told us they really don’t want different bespoke solutions for every place they run,” Hofmeyr says. “What they want to do is build an application in one place and be able to run it anywhere.”
BY FASTCO WORKS
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More than just technology advancements, these technologies are ushering in a new era of business thinking
Why hybrid cloud and edge computing represent a new paradigm for innovation
11-04-22 | aws
BY FASTCO WORKS
—Brian Davidson, senior technical account manager, AWS
FanDuel wanted a single set of tools that worked across all of their workloads, whether on premises or in the cloud. Outposts ticked that box.
INCREASING REACH WITHOUT ADDING COMPLEXITY
In modern healthcare, MRI, sonogram, and other body scans make extensive use of artificial intelligence and machine learning for analysis. While this has been a boon for detection and treatment, it has also created additional technical burdens on hospitals, eating up bandwidth by transmitting data to the cloud for processing, or creating a need to hire technical staff to build on-site data centers. With hybrid cloud and edge computing these complex analyses can be done on-site, allowing patients and doctors to get results faster, providing peace of mind and speedy treatment.
In the entertainment and retail world, companies are using hybrid cloud and edge computing to put information and processing power closer to their users, enabling next-level interactive experiences such as streaming game services, augmented reality and virtual reality, enhanced retail experiences, and boosted performance on both home and mobile devices.
BRINGING THE CLOUD TO WHERE IT CAN DO THE MOST GOOD
As computing shifts from primarily happening on individualized hardware (e.g., servers, phones, and PCs) to being managed in a pervasive, invisible computing “fabric” that surrounds and supports us, it is already unleashing massive gains for the companies embracing it. “When the fundamental focus of a company changes from managing technology to simply using it, you unlock an immense amount of time and energy that was previously spent on maintaining legacy systems,” Hofmeyr says. “You’re suddenly freed to focus on innovation instead of merely keeping up with tech debt.”
TO ACCELERATE INNOVATION, CHANGE YOUR MINDSET
—Shane Sweeney, SVP of Technology, FanDuel
Outposts solved a number of pain points. If you have to build 10 data centers in a short space of time, the complexity adds up.
—Jan Hofmeyr, vice president, AWS
Our customers have told us they don’t want different bespoke solutions for every place they run . . . They want to build an application in one place and be able to run it anywhere.
—Jan Hofmeyr, vice president, AWS
When the fundamental focus of a company changes from managing technology to simply using it . . . you’re suddenly freed to focus on innovation.
The power of this approach is evident in the experience of AWS customers like FanDuel, an app-based sports-betting platform, that have found ways to respond to legislative changes with unprecedented speed. FanDuel already operated in the cloud, but state-by-state regulations mandated that the servers where they processed bets had to be physically located in the specific states where the bets were placed.
Previously, if legislation shifted and a new state legalized sports betting, it could take months to build out a data center, staff it, and create all the back-end software integrations. Instead, FanDuel was able to use AWS Outposts servers—fully managed cloud infrastructure that can be placed anywhere you want it—to stand up new data centers in individual states with unprecedented speed. “Outposts solved a number of pain points, low-level problems like driver compatibility, hardware, interoperability challenges,” says Shane Sweeney, SVP of Technology for FanDuel. “Each item might not be a big challenge on its own, but if you have to build 10 data centers in a short space of time, the complexity adds up.”
Hofmeyr estimates that it would have taken FanDuel three to six months for each site using traditional on-premises infrastructure. Instead they were up and running in just days. “They build and test all their applications in an AWS region beforehand,” Hofmeyr says. “Then, when the license to operate in a state is approved, all they need to do is tell us where to put the Outposts, then simply deploy the exact same application.”
The mindset shift that appears in the months after companies pivot to these new technologies is part of a pattern Hofmeyr has seen over and over again during his career. “The flexibility of hybrid cloud and edge is truly a game changer,” he says. “When difficult things become easy, it frees people up to attempt what was thought to be impossible. Some companies get it. Others will be left behind. But for companies that make the switch to hybrid cloud and edge computing, the innovation it unlocks is undeniable. One of our primary focuses when working without customers is helping them make that mindset shift. What happens afterward is always quite remarkable.”
Too often, conventional technological growth curves create a linear relationship between capability and complexity. The more systems you create, the more efficiency you lose getting them to talk to one another—and the more overhead you burn to maintain them and stay out of tech debt.
Hybrid cloud and edge computing allow companies to fully opt out of systems management while still taking advantage of all the abilities of advanced technology, all working under a unified codebase and management paradigm. Functions can be created once and deployed everywhere from the cloud to the edge and anywhere in between, creating order-of-magnitude savings in labor and management. “Our customers have told us they really don’t want different bespoke solutions for every place they run,” Hofmeyr says. “What they want to do is build an application in one place and be able to run it anywhere.”
The power of this approach is evident in the experience of AWS customers like FanDuel, an app-based sports-betting platform, that have found ways to respond to legislative changes with unprecedented speed. FanDuel already operated in the cloud, but state-by-state regulations mandated that the servers where they processed bets had to be physically located in the specific states where the bets were placed.
REDUCING LONG-DISTANCE LATENCY
Hofmeyr estimates that it would have taken FanDuel three to six months for each site using traditional on-premises infrastructure. Instead they were up and running in just days. “They build and test all their applications in an AWS region beforehand,” Hofmeyr says. “Then, when the license to operate in a state is approved, all they need to do is tell us where to put the Outposts, then simply deploy the exact same application.”
—WAYNE CARTER, VICE PRESIDENT OF ENGINEERING, COUCHBASE
Our customers have told
us they don’t want different bespoke solutions for every place they run . . . They want to build an application in
one place and be able to
run it anywhere.
In modern healthcare, MRI, sonogram, and other body scans make extensive use of artificial intelligence and machine learning for analysis. While this has been a boon for detection and treatment, it has also created additional technical burdens on hospitals, eating up bandwidth by transmitting data to the cloud for processing, or creating a need to hire technical staff to build on-site data centers. With hybrid cloud and edge computing these complex analyses can be done on-site, allowing patients and doctors to get results faster, providing peace of mind and speedy treatment.
In the entertainment and retail world, companies are using hybrid cloud and edge computing to put information and processing power closer to their users, enabling next-level interactive experiences such as streaming game services, augmented reality and virtual reality, enhanced retail experiences, and boosted performance on both home and mobile devices.
INCREASING REACH WITHOUT ADDING COMPLEXITY
—Shane Sweeney,
SVP of Technology, FanDuel
Outposts solved a number of pain points. If you have to build 10 data centers in a short space of time, the complexity adds up.
As computing shifts from primarily happening on individualized hardware (e.g., servers, phones, and PCs) to being managed in a pervasive, invisible computing “fabric” that surrounds and supports us, it is already unleashing massive gains for the companies embracing it. “When the fundamental focus of a company changes from managing technology to simply using it, you unlock an immense amount of time and energy that was previously spent on maintaining legacy systems,” Hofmeyr says. “You’re suddenly freed to focus on innovation instead of merely keeping up with tech debt.”
BRINGING THE CLOUD TO WHERE IT CAN DO THE MOST GOOD
The mindset shift that appears in the months after companies pivot to these new technologies is part of a pattern Hofmeyr has seen over and over again during his career. “The flexibility of hybrid cloud and edge is truly a game changer,” he says. “When difficult things become easy, it frees people up to attempt what was thought to be impossible. Some companies get it. Others will be left behind. But for companies that make the switch to hybrid cloud and edge computing, the innovation it unlocks is undeniable. One of our primary focuses when working without customers is helping them make that mindset shift. What happens afterward is always quite remarkable.”
