At the same time, distributed cloud can help organizations modernize traditional IT environments by removing data silos and enabling data to flow freely, fully delivering on the promise of the edge. Moreover, for organizations in highly regulated industries such as banking and financial services, distributed cloud can create highly performant hybrid cloud environments that maintain compliance with strict data privacy regulations.
Here is a look at how distributed cloud is powering new uses cases across a spectrum of industries:
There is a big push among manufacturers to build connected factories to gather real-time machine data and drive insights related to product quality and predictive maintenance. Factory-floor downtime is a huge disruption to production and is costly, whether it means dollars channeled to repair damaged equipment or negative revenue impact when customer orders are delayed or of poor quality. AR sofware deployed at the edge can facilitate real-time maintenance and repair work on pieces of equipment on the factory floor as well as those located out in the field. Research shows that companies deploying AR for real-time maintenance and repair (ARMAR) are seeing a 30% decrease in service time and a 90% boost in service quality.
Clusters deployed at the edge and managed through distributed cloud can power video systems to help improve security and prevent safety hazards while reducing human error. Legacy infrastructure can also be modernized with a distributed cloud to build an enterprise data pipeline from the edge to analytics or business intelligence services to extract operational insights to boost production performance.
Small remote branch clusters are key for modernizing bank branch offices with new smart-branch technologies such as interactive teller machines, videoconferencing, banker tablets, and service terminals. Larger clusters come into play for virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) for remote employees and to handle customer-facing applications and databases that might be brought back on-premises due to risk concerns associated with federal compliance regulations. A distributed cloud can also aid in continuous backup and replication to the cloud for compliance with regulatory requirements and create a path for decoupling legacy, monolithic systems and creating a modern microservices environment.
There are many instances where edge computing empowered by a distributed cloud is driving new, innovative use cases. Distributed cloud solutions provide a foundation for enabling smart retail solutions such as smart fitting rooms that enable customers to try on an article of clothing and, with a simple tap on a mirror, see the item in a different color or find a related accessory. As an example, Ralph Lauren is leveraging IoT via smart fitting rooms. They installed connected fitting rooms in their Fifth Avenue flagship store in Manhattan, developed by Oak Labs. According to Digiday, the store saw a 90% engagement rate in just five months—which blew expectations out of the water. Customers want augmented reality as part of their shopping experience, so much so that 40% of customers have indicated that they would be willing to pay more for a product they could experience it through augmented reality. Other emerging solutions include mobile point of sale (POS) devices, shelf automation, self-checkout, smart asset tracking, smart kiosks, and electronic shelf labels that can easily be updated with the latest promotional pricing.
In addition, large clusters can be employed to modernize application development environments with microservices that connect development and test environments in the cloud with production environments that are on-premises.
Small clusters deployed at remote locations help digitize assets such as oil rigs and natural gas exploration sites, setting the stage for collection of IoT sensor data for predictive maintenance, hazard, and safety management. Scalable clusters in a data center can deliver virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) capabilities for graphics-intensive use cases such as visualization of exploration data. A distributed cloud can also facilitate real-time backup to support disaster recovery and business resilience initiatives.
In addition to gathering IoT data to assist with predictive maintenance and facilitating AR for real-time maintenance and repair applications, distributed cloud can play an
enabling role in monitoring drone traffic to prevent damage to 5G infrastructure. Small clusters can provide on-site support of 5G edge locations, serving as a gateway for telemetry data to the cloud as well as for retail storefronts to power POS, inventory management, or digital signage software. Large clusters can optimize workloads waiting to be migrated to the cloud or those running in a hybrid cloud — for example, databases, enterprise-scale virtualization, or custom applications.
“Distributed cloud isn’t just about reducing operational expenses and inefficiencies. There are a great many opportunities to use the edge to drive top-line growth as well,” Haren says.
