The pandemic brought a vast number of realities to the forefront. Distributed computing (in remote work scenarios, for example) is no longer a nice-to-have option, but an imperative decision.

Several enabling technologies, such as hybrid cloud and 5G connectivity, are finally tying in together and enabling the new standard in distributed computing — which is edge.

“The pandemic has accelerated a lot of the edge initiatives,” said Muneyb Minhazuddin (pictured, right), vice president of edge computing at VMware Inc. “Industry retailers think about socially disintermediated, omnichannel retail experiences. Manufacturers think about localized supply chains and efficiencies as their global supply chains get stressed. They’re all inventing and doing a few things things at the edge. It’s driving innovation toward the edge.”

Minhazuddin and Pierluca Chiodelli (pictured, left), vice president of engineering technology and product management at Dell Technologies Inc., spoke with John Furrier, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, for a digital CUBE Conversation. They discussed the current state of edge computing from a Dell/VMware perspective, industry trends, and the multiple applications of the technology across product and service verticals. (* Disclosure below.)

Powering straight toward an edge-native future

A lot of the human experience today depends on cloud technologies — from shopping to medical care, travel, business and education. Edge will offer improved capabilities across all of these use cases and, in doing so, propel itself (and the brands that provide it as a service) to becoming widespread.

“If you look at some data, we know that 50% of what is going to be happening in 2023 will be at the edge, with 90% of what is, from an application point of view, exploding at the edge,” Chiodelli explained.

Edge’s impact will not be restricted only to software and solutions; verticals like manufacturing will also be vastly improved, Chiodelli stated.

Ahead of 2021, trends like the edge/ML confluence, 5G interplay, and its convergence with IT and operational technology held sway. Now, most industry forecasting centers around its adoption and further refinement, and the industry is bracing to reach edge-native, a state of complete synergy.

The possible roadblocks

With breakthrough technologies, it’s never all roses until they completely mature. 4G saw problems with infrastructure and adoption when it was new, electric vehicle batteries have had to be constantly improved for years, and virtual reality only recently gained prominence.

With edge, one of the resultant issues enterprises are facing is the sheer scale of edge operations.

“When you actually moving these workloads towards the edge, they’re actually data dense, they are data heavy,” Minhazuddin said. “There’s a huge volume of data coming at you. And that volume of data needs to be processed. That volume of data needs to be in real time and streamed and outcomes driven out of that.”

From an architecture standpoint, it seems like a wider, more decentralized approach is the way to go, he added.

“Think about how you can standardize from the beginning so you don’t end up with thousands of different options, because then it’s difficult to manage. And also look at how you can not only scale, but bring security in all the things that you have to,” Minhazuddin said.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s CUBE Conversations. (* Disclosure: Dell Technologies Inc. sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither Dell nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE