Until recently, the major share of data generated was fed to processing facilities in the USA. But increasingly, data centers need to be closer to the information source.

At DCD>Zettastructure in London last month, global VP for strategical business at data center infrastructure specialist Panduit, Michael Adams, discussed the shift from centralized infrastructure to distributed, edge computing and what this means for the industry. 

”The amount of storage used to keep to a certain level, but it’s now having to grow substantially around the world,” he said, and the speed of communication between servers, networks and storage must be very high. 

Another issue, he notes, is that “nobody buys anything from one manufacturer anymore,” meaning they must capture customer’s interest on all fronts. 

Finally, he states, “the flavor of edge is changing.” Companies like Panduit, he says, must “start looking at new solutions and opportunities” to address fiber in the data center and office environments.