What is tech sprawl at the edge and why should you care about it?
You may be familiar with “server sprawl” in the data center — where there are more servers using up space and resources than required. And there has been some research into “cloud sprawl” — where organizations lose visibility and control of all of the cloud instances, services and providers used across the business. But now we are increasingly coming across a new phenomenon — “edge sprawl”
So, what is tech / IT sprawl?
Essentially, tech sprawl, whether in the data center, the cloud, or at the edge, is caused by adding technology solutions designed to solve one specific problem alongside existing solutions. The act of adding tech solutions alongside each other ultimately leads to inefficiency and wasted resources. It creeps up over time, so often companies don’t even realize they have sprawl until it becomes a problem in itself that requires solving. And solving sprawl is inevitably more complicated than preventing it in the first place.
Is it new?
Hands up if you use more than one cloud platform in your organization. Hands up if you have more than one CRM (customer relationship management) or Project Management tool. Hands up if you have servers dedicated to running single applications.
I think it’s fair to say that “tech sprawl” is not new and that we have all experienced it and its subsequent inefficiencies at some point in our working lives. And yet research into the topic is limited.
TechTarget has shared insights into both server and cloud sprawl, while cloud sprawl was firmly on IDC’s Web Conference agenda back in 2018 — citing it as one of the top 3 challenges faced by CIOs, with over 90% of enterprises impacted. This is hardly surprising, given how quick and easy it is for any employee to access a SaaS-based tool to support the completion of day-to-day tasks. There are a number of articles discussing cyber security, application, infrastructure, data and information sprawl. But edge or edge computing sprawl? There is very little. And yet, it consistently comes up in conversations with analysts, clients and partners.
What is happening at the edge?
The use of AI, Computer Vision and IoT business applications are exploding across all industries. It involves generating more data than ever before and this needs managing and processing in near real time, close to the source and in resource-constrained, harsh environments, and often across numerous locations — the edge.
It’s not always possible for organizations to use the cloud to process all of the data generated due to latency, data sovereignty, security and cost. And data centers are too large and resource-consuming for these types of environments, so organizations are putting servers next to the data source. In a scenario similar, however, to what we have seen happen in the data center with “server sprawl”, a new physical server is being added at each location with each new application. The hardware and software platforms are either under-utilized or are inappropriate for the edge environment — leading to inefficiency and excess resource consumption — “edge server sprawl”.
And to make matters worse, the infrastructure and applications running at edge locations are typically “managed” by multiple different business units. For example, a fast food restaurant would have a team focused on improving the customer experience and would be responsible for the applications, another team may be responsible for the IT equipment in the store, and another team would be responsible for the facilities, including power and cooling. Having so many teams managing the infrastructure is unique to edge locations as data center and cloud environments have their own dedicated teams. For the reasons above, the edge has its own unique type of tech sprawl — “edge sprawl” or “edge computing sprawl”.
What can you do about it?
The same advice given to consolidate “server sprawl” in the data center can be used for the edge — but with some key considerations. The edge servers need to operate in harsh environments, like restaurant kitchens where AI is used to monitor food quality, or in rainforests where drones and Computer Vision are used to monitor tree health. Specialized edge hardware is therefore required and Lenovo is one of the brands that has a range of Sunlight-certified edge appropriate servers (ThinkEdge and ThinkSystem) — designed specifically to thrive in these types of environments.
In the data center, virtualization and software-defined / hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) are recommended for consolidating “server sprawl” but data center HCI stacks eat up memory and CPU resources, making it impossible to deploy on small edge servers. Sunlight was designed specifically for edge environments. According to the analyst firm, ESG, Sunlight is approximately 81% more CPU efficient and 98% more RAM efficient than industry leading hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) solutions. With centralized infrastructure management and application marketplace, Sunlight allows you to:
- Consolidate all of your in-location edge applications onto a single highly available hardware stack with full isolation, security and high availability.
- Standardize your infrastructure and application deployments across your locations using the Sunlight infrastructure manager and marketplace.
- Innovate by making it easy to deploy and update new applications across all your edge locations from a central management dashboard.
To find out how Sunlight can help you to consolidate your edge sprawl, contact info@sunlight.io
