The global market volume for edge data centres is expected to double from $9.3 billion today to $18 billion in the next five years. That would represent a compound annual growth rate of 17 per cent, according to a report by Ireland-based analytics firm ResearchAndMarkets.com. In the study "Edge Data Center Market – Global Forecast to 2026", the researchers define edge data centres as small data centres that are located near the edge of a network – i.e. closer to the end user than the public cloud. The researchers see 5G, IoT and video streaming in particular as growth drivers, i.e. services that tend to require lower latency. And shorter round-trip times tend to deliver connections to data centres closer to the end user than services served by a public cloud. As data processing moves to the network edge, market researchers expect new small edge data centres to be built around the world. With the rapid development of AI, IoT and 5G, data usage has shifted from the cloud to edge applications, driving demand for edge servers and edge data centres. Innodisk is introducing new solutions for the edge server market, opening up new business opportunities.

As one of the world’s leading suppliers of industrial-grade storage and embedded peripherals, Innodisk is driving the development of Edge AI technology. The latest development is an SSD product line for edge computing, consisting of the 2.5-inch SATA drives 3TS6-P, 3TS9-P and M.2 (P80) 4TS2-P. Innodisk’s new Edge Server SSDs feature low latency, high DWPD (Drive Writes per Day) and large capacities. In addition, the included iCell Technology provides power loss protection and AES technology provides data security. Typical applications for the SSDs include smart retail, smart city, smart fleet management and NAS network storage applications. The storage products offer high speeds, reliability and industrial-grade quality to meet increasing market demands. They are available with storage capacities of up to 6.4 TB.

Edge Server SSDs in edge servers need to process data at high speed locally instead of sending all data back to a central data centre, improving latency and reducing costs. Smart streetlights and traffic monitoring units, for example, rely on SSDs that have high read and write speeds, large capacity and low latency to process data in real time, and the same is true for edge data centres.

CC Wu, general manager of Innodisk’s Flash Division, points out that Innodisk has already started to actively focus on applications for the fast-growing 5G and AI sectors. The new product line integrates Innodisk’s R&D capabilities in software, hardware and firmware. By introducing specialised SSDs that combine the benefits of industrial SSDs with the features of data centre SSDs, Innodisk aims to capitalise on the business opportunities of edge computing and meet the demands of the ever-growing sector.