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Ready to Compete at the Edge? Join Patel and Phan for Important Tips

By Kelly Teal | October 5, 2021
Edge Computing Diagram

Enterprises need to do business at the edge — meaning, they require access to computing resources at their locations. They are moving too much data, doing intensive work (that needs to remain secure) too quickly to wait out latency and jitter. Channel partners possess unique capabilities for helping clients design and implement edge networks. But, chances are, you need a little education. “Maximize Profits and Gain a Competitive Edge at the Edge” will deliver just that on Tuesday, Nov. 2, at the in-person Channel Partners Conference & Expo in Las Vegas.

Anish Patel, vice president of emerging technologies at primary tech services distributor TBI, and Kha Phan, president of consultancy Bright Technologies, will lead the session. Patel specializes in sales and engineering. Phan focuses largely on cloud, networking and telecom infrastructure. Starting at 2:55 p.m., the two will host an interactive event with attendees. Expect hands-on, in-the-moment brainstorming. 

“Whiteboarding allows us to visually tell a story that not only resonates with the customer but connects the dots to the key takeaway for attendees,” Phan said.

With that in mind, Phan and Patel aim for partners to glean three major action items:

  • How to position your company to profit from an industry trend.
  • Key talking points that will resonate with customers.
  • How to deliver on edge computing.

Much of the success of edge computing relies on WAN architecture. But it has to be done correctly, or the promise of edge computing will fall short. To that point, Phan and Patel intend to clear up some of the more confusing aspects of designing and implementing global WAN architectures.

Bright Technologies' Kha Phan

“Application performance has everything to do with proper WAN design,” Phan said. “Most enterprises focus on the application but they forget about the network. We must design for the future, which is hybrid multicloud. In a global WAN architecture, we must position the customer to localize application and IT services.”

Indeed, “think local” underscores the whole purpose of edge computing. Examples of applications include self-driving vehicles, medical monitoring, and monitoring in far-off areas such as oil and gas fields. Each of these represents use cases where latency and data compromise would cause serious problems, even to the extent of endangering lives. As such, with edge computing, enterprises still use cloud technology, but they choose data centers (including on-premise setups, when needed) close to each office, remote worker or hub. At the same time, 5G also is proving integral to the hype surrounding edge computing.

With edge computing demand growing, Phan and Patel aim to educate partners as much as possible during their session. Part of that will include talking through issues related to DevOps and cost optimization. After all, teams must design the most efficient clouds; they either need partners to provide guidance on those efforts or handle them in a managed services or business process outsourcing model. Phan agreed.

“Clouds are forcing customers to build better, and to operationalize this new architecture, they need to adopt a DevOps mentality,” Phan said. “Teams with specialized skillsets need to collaborate to deliver services instead of siloed functionality typically found in today’s enterprises. Understanding this architecture will optimize cost while delivering exceptional service.”

Edge computing started trending before COVID-19 hit. But the pandemic spurred more such deployments as it proved its mettle in keeping data on-site, where enterprises need it most. The time has come for channel partners — VARs, system integrators, managed service providers, agents and others — to gain a thorough understanding of this digital transformation enabler.

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