By: Jon Eaves, CTO, Leading Edge Data Centres

You may never have heard of Edge computing but it’s predicted to boom due to the rapid evolution of the Internet of Things (IoT), demands for 5G, and real-time app performance – all of which generate mass amounts of data at astonishing rates. As 90% of all human data has been created over the last two years – a trend that will increase exponentially as we continue connecting millions of IoT and consumer devices – high-speed fixed and wireless connectivity will become a basic expectation of citizens, Governments and business. It will no longer be possible to transmit and store all of this data centrally, and customers will have to distribute their data and computing as close to where it will be used, and as close to where it was generated as practical.
Compounding the impact of this, the global pandemic has accelerated the rate of businesses’ digital transformation, pushing edge to become worth an estimated US$5.8 billion by mid-2020 in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region alone.

For business leaders, this makes edge difficult to ignore. This isn’t just another technical trend. Its arrival will be profound – 95% of Australian IT decision makers are already experiencing positive impacts from early adoption of edge.

Michael Dell has gone on record for predicting that the edge will be bigger than cloud because we’re producing billions of sensors and microprocessors. We’re attaching them to everything – including people, animals, drones, and cars – and revolutionizing every industry, from healthcare and agriculture to transport and education. These new ways of working generate so much data that we need new paradigms for transmitting, storing and processing it.

Why Leading Edge Data Centres

We have built an edge ecosystem designed around a glaring market gap, embarking on an Australian-first, to deliver much-needed connectivity and IT services to all Australian regions, regardless of your location or population. Where other technology vendors have put regional Australia in the ‘too hard’ basket, we’re forging ahead with an edge platform that will transform how regional Australians do business. For us, driving these changes has been a no-brainer – but only if you approach it understanding how profound this will be.

Regional Australian businesses have been putting up with extortionate connectivity, colocation, storage, and networking costs in comparison to their metropolitan counterparts for years because – quite frankly – there hasn’t been an alternative.

By building data centres in closer proximity to regional businesses, we have completely redesigned the metro-round trip nature of connectivity regional businesses have to endure when wanting to connect between towns like Wagga Wagga and Tamworth, or Dubbo and Coffs Harbor. This has historically been considered too resource-intensive and costly to implement and in some locations has left regional businesses with no choice but to pay significantly higher prices for often unreliable network connectivity and technology services.

At Leading Edge Data Centres, we’ve spent the last 18 months visiting regional Australian towns and cities, listening to what is and isn’t needed. We found that the vast majority of business leaders are looking for more cost-effective and reliable network services, delivered by companies who understand their needs from shared first-hand experiences.

As we build out Australia’s first edge network, we’re moving our data centres closer to regional businesses. We’re building networks that maximize multiple providers and connect to the NBN, enabling direct connectivity between regional businesses and customers across the country. We know it’s not enough to build new infrastructure and hope businesses will figure it out. We also have regional staff on the ground and we’re partnering with handpicked regional IT organizations to deliver the services.

A new ecosystem ready for the ‘new normal’

No one knows the value of community better than regional Australians. As we navigate through the pandemic together, collaboration and partnerships will be critical to ensuring businesses can emerge from this time, ready to action economic recovery plans.

Our first phase will see 15-20 networked edge data centres deployed in record time frames to provide a complete ecosystem for Australia’s digital economy. Our partner ecosystem will also deliver cloud, internet, IoT, analytics and smart city expertise as needed.

It’s an exciting time to be exploring the possibilities of edge and we have great ambitions for what this could mean for a digital Australia. To find out more or ask questions to one of our experts, please don’t hesitate to contact us or schedule a consultation.