Servers and clouds have had their day, at least when it comes to endpoint management. Adaptiva explains which six advantages of edge cloud platforms are the reason.
For a long time, traditional data centres were the top dog when it came to endpoint management. However, they were only moderately suited to managing many clients over long distances. Cloud platforms for endpoint management solved the problem, but did not shine in terms of cost and reliability. Edge cloud platforms, which transform every client into an edge server, represent the next stage of evolution. The administrators gain full insight into the entire endpoint infrastructure via corresponding software from the respective provider. They can also use the clients to deliver software, updates and patches from endpoint to endpoint via peer-to-peer (P2P) protocol. Adaptiva, a provider of endpoint management and security solutions, explains the six advantages of this approach.
Advantage #1: Better performance
When companies move data processing and storage directly to the edge of the network, they improve the performance of many processes. These include applications that run in real time, such as patch and endpoint health management and software distribution.
Advantage #2: Lower latency
In traditional endpoint management architectures via the cloud or on-premises data centres, administrators must first send the data to the server that distributes it to the endpoints. This procedure can lead to significant latency. If, on the other hand, companies rely on edge cloud platforms, the data reaches the clients directly from the company’s internal P2P network and processes it on site. This way, they receive security-critical updates and patches faster, among other things.
Advantage #3: More efficient use of resources
Moving data processing to the edge of the network and to the endpoints relieves the burden on central servers and clouds. Edge cloud platforms thus enable companies to use their resources more efficiently and for more business-critical applications than endpoint management. Edge computing also reduces the need for expensive clouds and energy-intensive data centres.
Advantage #4: More positive employee experience
How good or bad the remote and hybrid work experience is for employees often depends on the IT infrastructure. Edge cloud platforms can improve the so-called employee experience by moving data storage and computation to the edge of the network and closer to endpoints. Even in environments with limited network connectivity, this often enables more reliable and efficient work.
Benefit #5: Limitless capacity and scalability
The more endpoints the IT infrastructure has, the better – at least when using an edge cloud platform. While each client requires more server or cloud capacity in traditional scenarios, new endpoints in an edge cloud platform increase storage and computing capacity. Thus, companies can implement more functions and store data without fear of running out of resources. Another benefit is that the platform scales linearly with each new endpoint – again, no new server or cloud capacity is needed.
Advantage #6: Lower costs
Since in edge cloud platforms the clients themselves provide the computing and storage capacities, such solutions drastically reduce the need for data centres and cloud services. In this way, edge computing approaches to endpoint management effectively reduce costs.
“After on-premise servers and cloud approaches, edge cloud platforms are the third evolutionary step in endpoint management,” explains Sascha Stock, Regional Sales Director at Adaptiva. “Companies have more computing power and storage capacity at the edge of the network than they realise – and significantly more than employees need on their clients to do their work per se. With an edge cloud platform, they can not only reduce their costs and the need for additional hardware or services by using freely available resources. They also improve the performance of their endpoint management and no longer need to worry about scalability of their traditional solutions.”
