Location
Number of Racks
Power
Tenancy
External
Environment
Passive
Infrastructure
Edge Infrastructure Provider
Expected Deployments
Device edge
Micro Edge
Distributed Edge
Data Center
Regional Edge
Data Center
Edge infrastructure model
CHARACTERISTICS
Smart devices
(e.g. in vehicle,
street lamp, IoT)
0
Up to 1 kW
Single Tenant
Controlled
(within Device),
Harsh & Rugged
May or may not have power and filtration,
no cooling, etc.
Device manufacturer
or in-house solution within enterprise / government
Millions
Enterprise site (e.g.
retail, factory floor, IT closet, municipalities)
0-4 racks
Up to 20 kW
Single Tenant
IT Closet,
Commercial & Office, Harsh & Rugged
Has power with
limited cooling and filtration, etc.
Hardware OEM, data center provider, telecoms operator or in-house solution within
enterprise / government
Hundreds of thousands
Enterprise site (e.g. warehouse, office), telecoms site, parking lot, tier 2/3 city
5-20 racks
Up to 200 kW
Single Tenant /
Multi-Tenant
Harsh & Rugged,
Commercial & Office, Conditioned & Controlled
Tier 1+
Colocation provider,
hyperscale cloud
provider (public cloud),
telecoms operator
Thousands
Tier 2/3 city
20+ racks
Up to 4000 kW
Multi-Tenant
Conditioned
& Controlled
Tier 3+
Colocation provider,
hyperscale cloud
provider
(public cloud)
Hundreds
* by 2030 per major region
Coordinating the many elements of edge computing (software, hardware, infrastructure, etc.) is challenging and requires an ecosystem of partners to support the 66% of enterprises that prefer to have an entire edge solution coming from a single lead vendor.
Deployment-Ready Edge Infrastructure Models Framework
Device Edge:
The compute is at the end-device. It is either built into the device (e.g., a smart video camera with artificial intelligence capabilities) or is an “add-on edge,” stand-alone form factor that directly attaches to the device (e.g., a Raspberry Pi computer attached to an automated guided vehicle). When the compute is built in, the IT hardware is fully enclosed within the device, so it does not need to be designed to endure harsh environments.
Micro Edge:
A small, stand-alone solution that ranges in size from one or two servers up to four racks. It is often deployed at an enterprise’s own site (e.g., on a manufacturer’s shop floor in the factory or in a back office). It can also be situated at a telco site (e.g., a rack of servers located at a telco base station). The Micro Edge can be deployed in both controlled and uncontrolled environments.
Distributed Edge Data Center:
A small data center having less than 20 racks that is situated at the enterprise site, telco network facilities, or at a regional site (e.g., in the parking lot of a business park). It is either a new, stand-alone facility (e.g., a pre-fabricated data center) or a pre-existing data center or network room.
Regional Edge Data Center:
A data center facility located outside core data center hubs. As this is typically a facility that is purpose-built to host compute infrastructure, it shares many features of hyperscale data centers (e.g., is conditioned and controlled, has high security, and high reliability).