Software

Dell’s NativeEdge Platform Is Simplifying Data Management at the Edge

Edge data is booming. Agencies need a solution for collecting and analyzing it quickly.

Nathan Eddy works as an independent filmmaker and journalist based in Berlin, specializing in architecture, business technology and healthcare IT. He is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.

The explosive growth of Internet of Things devices has made development of edge infrastructure pivotal for real-time data analytics.

As more data originates from various IoT devices and other sources that include industrial sensors — insights that enhance operations, customer experiences and safety measures — more can be processed. But as the edge gains prominence, it presents challenges due to the proliferation of point solutions, often spread across numerous endpoints, and the exponential growth of data. All of this demands innovative approaches for effective management.

Federal IT workers must understand and harness the edge's potential to address these issues, as well as the growing demand for real-time analytics. With the introduction of Dell NativeEdge, a global edge operations software platform aimed at simplifying the management of dynamic environments, the company is offering centralized management and zero-touch deployment.

The platform also supports open design, enhanced zero-trust security and the automation of routine tasks to significantly speed up edge application lifecycle management.

DISCOVER: Dell Technologies helps agencies achieve navigate the world of IoT

Agencies Grapple with Data Volume at the Edge

Federal agencies can no longer neglect edge computing in the day-to-day execution of their missions, says Mansour Yusuf, chief cloud and edge architect for Dell Federal Solutions.

Collecting, analyzing and quickly gaining insights in edge locations is increasingly critical for many industries as they continue to compete and apply new capabilities such as generative artificial intelligence. Software platforms such as NativeEdge can simplify application orchestration and management.

"As their environments expand, reach out and collect information from more than just the internal data center, organizations are beginning to realize the amount of data that's being generated at the edge," Yusuf says.

Increasingly, agencies want mission-based insights into that data set.

Click here to learn more about zero-trust and IT modernization within the government.

The zero-touch deployment of edge infrastructure for applications using NativeEdge is rooted in three areas: simplification, optimization and security.

"We're focused on how we simplify edge operations at scale for our federal customers as these environments grow, and how they can optimize that investment at the edge so they have a long-term understanding and lifecycle for those systems," Yusuf says.

Agencies are prioritizing zero-trust security, an approach that stresses continual verification and authentication of both external and internal network users and devices.

"As data grows at the edge, they can simplify and minimize the number of edge devices required based on their use case,” Yusuf says.

NativeEdge’s Centralized Management Creates an Edge Estate

NativeEdge helps agencies deal with data volume from both a software and hardware perspective by prioritizing areas where information resides and needs to be collected, and offering centralized management.

"That centralized management capability of all your edge devices, wherever they may exist globally, allows you to provide some sort of edge estate management," Yusuf says. "That gives you an understanding of where everything is."

Visibility into critical issues affecting those devices allows agencies to address them, while connectivity to other devices allows for management across the estate management plan.

"From a software perspective, we employ application orchestration through a blueprint catalog, similar to what customers are getting used to in the cloud — how they spin up and spin down resources and expand or contract based on requirements and use cases," Yusuf says.

This allows for a tightly knit environment agencies can manage, adding capacity quickly in desired regions, he adds.

The federal healthcare system is a prime candidate for improved edge operations and management, Yusuf says.

"There are a lot of edge devices in a hospital, disparate systems all collecting information," he says. "If I'm able to correlate that through one central device in each room or on each floor, I can then run analytics against that patient and provide information back to the nursing staff, the doctors, to support their patients."

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