It may seem like a stretch to connect Edge Computing with lowering our carbon emissions but there is good reason and science behind this thinking. Data usage and transmission are increasing exponentially and by processing and storing much of it close to the user, significant energy savings is possible. The post How Building Green IoT Solutions on the Edge Can Help Save Energy and CO2from ObjectBox, lays out a case that shows considerable energy savings for Edge Computing vs. solely using the cloud. Per the article, “ObjectBox enables companies to cut the power consumption of their IoT applications, and thus their emissions, by 50 – 90%.”
Using local processing for applications like Microsoft Office has been the standard for years. There have been attempts to move much of this to the Cloud but in addition to more energy consumption, the need to keep working during times of no or slow connectivity is critical, especially now that we are in a remote-first environment. 5G will help in speed and latency improvements but the hybrid model of Edge and Cloud is our preferred network for the future.
Edge Computing also has other sustainability benefits. For instance, I use an Artificial Intelligence (AI) enabled lawn sprinkler system. With water moisture ground sensors connected to an app that also ties in weather predictions using AI, my sprinklers can be set to deliver just the right amount of water needed for how I want my lawn to look. And I can train it to understand what is working for me and to show variations against water usage, cost and impact on the environment. When these systems are the norm, we will collectively save trillions of gallons of much needed water for other uses.
With micro-solar systems set up on light and traffic poles, buildings, and larger systems set up in the streets we drive, all the power we need for Edge Computing can be generated at point of need. The efficiency of solar also continues to improve. The Popular Mechanics article New Molecule Harnesses 50 Percent More Spectrum Than Ever Beforestates that new systems can be 25 times more efficient than today’s standard. With more Internet of Things (IoT) devices coming online at an astonishing pace, the need to drive more local energy sources to power these will be critical. Wind can also support the multi-source needs for energy. Smaller, more effective generators are creating interlinked systems that are practically always making electricity.
At Fortress Data Centers, we have embraced clean energy and sustainability practices for years. We were an early adopter of lithium ion batteries for improving the critical-function needs of our data centers. Longer life and better performance over lead-acid batteries with lower weight have many benefits including less batteries going to the recycle centers.
Edge Computing is enabling new technologies like AI, Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) Blockchain and others, but we also need an interconnected Cloud in order to optimize and maximize the use of applications and data. Through our local data centers, Fortress creates a connected ecosystem of Mission-Critical Colocation, Carrier Neutral 5G connectivity, Software Defined Networks and other services. We are committed to improving the value of our data centers for our customers, their customers and the world.
Edge Computing can lower carbon emissions and be a major driver of sustainable energy consumption. By embracing a focus on improvement, one device and network at a time, we can all “Be Here” for a great future.
Personal and societal health are intricately linked. Wellness takes form in many ways from our mental resiliency to our physical capabilities. The COVID-19 virus has made it tragically clear that personal wellness protects us from being at high risk of dying from this disease. But as a society, we are bombarded by messages and policies that contradict a wellness mindset. Junk food as a lifestyle, controversial ways of handling addiction and the glorification of success at any cost. Since March of 2020, we have all changed our habits in one way or another. Unfortunately, many for the worst. But we have an opportunity to reflect and move forward in a much more positive way. One that is illuminated by an understanding of why we can drive our own wellness and through technology, with information and experiences that can help us in our journey.
At Fortress Data Centers, we are in the interconnectivity business. Our job is to ensure that all opportunities to connect people, businesses, systems and institutions for the good of our constituents is maximized. As the saying goes, knowledge is power, but we work to take it further by helping turn knowledge into understanding, then motivation and finally execution. Here are a couple of areas that a focus on Edge Computing, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality (VR) Augmented Reality (AR) and 5G enabled interconnectivity will help drive ourselves and our world to a better place.
Devices like FitBits and the Apple Watch have gotten our attention because they give us information. To be well, we start with information. That can come from simply listening to your body and processing what it is telling you or supplementing it with what technology can give you. All change starts at the personal level, including change that can roll up or down to the community and world. Someone makes a decision and the consequences are felt.
New ways to get information are coming our way including a new method to practice good breathing techniques using a wearable device connected to a phone-based VR application. As per Juan Comparán, CEO and Founder of Ilimita, proper breathing is at the core of our being. It has been proven that a practiced breathing regimen can significantly improve our mental and physical wellbeing.
With Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), new ways of using Virtual and Augmented Reality are helping those diagnosed deal with a confusing world. VR is also becoming very successful for visualization of what we can be, whether that is in the motivation to lose weight or for mental stimulation as we age. Simulation methods basically trick the brain into recognizing the experiences we have in VR as memories. As proponents of self-help therapy espouse, visualization techniques can manifest success.
AR is well known for gaming scenarios like Pokémon Go but the true breakout will be when we have fashionable glasses that we wear which connects us to an incredible amount of data in our surrounding area. Apple is working on a glass’s device that promises to give us what we want from AR. Fashion meets functionality. Other companies have been working on this for years and we will see a massive movement to personal devices that we proudly wear and use. They will give us information to make our lives better such as reminders of our eating goals, inspiration to take a few more spins on our bikes or a reminder of the negatives around choices that can be addictive.
On addiction, the opportunity to interrupt the messages in our brains that drive us to take an action that can cause us harm is possible with technology. We start with awareness through sensor information on or in our bodies. We continue with behavioral change training using VR and other methods. We support by using AR and AI to ensure we are sending messages that help us deal with the challenges of addiction. Imagine the societal change that can happen when each of us are empowered to use all of these tools to become healthier.
At the same time, our information needs to be protected and personal. We live in a democracy that does not give all the power to the state in ways that can lead to manipulation. Fortress Data Centers’ role as a data connectivity environment means that we are focused on driving an Edge connected world that starts at the lowest point of data generation. We are committed to delivering Mission-Critical Colocation to get providers closer to the end-user, 5G enablement to drive fast and low latency movement of data, blockchain to allow our personal data privacy, and other ways with partners and customers to build a better society, one business, and one person at a time.
Fortress Data Centers is advancing Blockchain for Edge Computing
By Jason Warner
Blockchain carries around a cloud of uncertainty for most people. The connection to cryptocurrency has made it even fuzzier to understand since the ups and downs of Bitcoin, Ethereum and others put blockchain into an almost mystic world of its own. But the basics of blockchain are not that hard to understand and its value as a transformative technology for our future is real. For Edge Computing, local data storage and the protection of our personal information, blockchain is becoming a core component for enabling technology benefits at the Edge.
According to Wikipedia, blockchain is “is a growing list of records, called blocks, that are linked using cryptography. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a timestamp, and transaction data (generally represented as a Merkle tree)”. Huh? From this explanation, it is still not clear what blockchain is or the value to society as a whole. In more simplistic terms, blockchain is a data storage system.
For storing data, blockchain creates an ability to store data forever with ways to retrieve it should any single computer or data center filled with servers or a cloud server environment be compromised or crash. If you have ever lost your excel spreadsheet before saving because your computer crashed, a blockchain computer solution that autosaves could have helped prevent that because you would be able to pull a copy from the immutable record stored in other devices in your local area or through a hybrid cloud.
Security around this data is a primary benefit of blockchain systems. Blocks of data need to validate each other before access is granted. It gets complicated but once blocks are created, it is virtually impossible to attack and break into this data from the outside. It is not infallible, but the issue is typically human error that causes breaches because of access keys being stolen or lost.
Getting back to local storage and Edge Computing, blockchain uses nodes to talk to each other and connect the distributed ledgers that are central to blockchain. Most nodes today are computers and servers at data centers like Fortress Data Centers. But any device that is connected to the internet or a local network can be part of a mesh using blockchain. Your house could be made up of thousands of connected nodes that act as storage or processing centers. Sometime in the near future, we will have the ability to embed nanotechnology into anything manmade to create an interconnected fabric of data. Imagine when your windows become data storage units. Or your kitchen table and even the walls of your home. Because the blockchain replicates data, you won’t be at risk of losing your information if a baseball comes through the living room window. Or even if your house burns down because you are connected to a community mesh and up into the cloud.
Edge Computing is then engaged in processing data at the time of need. Artificial Intelligence uses this data to make your life easier, better and safer. Data Centers like Fortress become gateways to more powerful systems that keep the local and global cloud connected. We can even go so far as to create “comets” of personal data that flow with the owner no matter where they go in the world. That will be a topic of a future blog post but the use of blockchain for driving personal security of our identities is tremendous. When this happens, we won’t be worried that someone half a world away is stealing and using our information.
Blockchain will still be incomprehensible to most of us but the value for using it is becoming clearer all the time. We don’t need to know how an engine works in our cars to drive one. And with blockchain, we don’t need to know what is under its hood to use it. At Fortress Data Centers, we are connecting all of this by providing Mission-Critical Colocation, 5G enabled interconnectivity, hybrid cloud environments, Edge Computing and more. We are Local, Global and We Are Here.
Advancing the right for all to vote by bringing technology closer to home.
Author: Jason Warner
The COVID-19 pandemic is bringing massive change to how we work, get entertainment, and teach. It is also showing that fundamental rights such as voting are more challenging for communities and citizens. The answer to voting is by embracing new technologies like Blockchain and Edge Computing to ensure all who can vote to have that opportunity.
Currently, we have in-person and mail-in votes. There is tremendous energy going into mail-in voting as a way to keep people safer from the virus and ensuring that the fear of the in-person risk of contracting the virus is mitigated. Once this election season is over, the energy has to move toward electronic means of voting to ensure better accountability and integrity. The future should include all three methods of voting.
In-Person – the traditional way of going to the local voting location, voting, getting a cup of coffee and a cookie, and doing your duty to participate in the future of the country
Mail-in – absentee mail-in ballots have been available for decades with some states like Colorado going to 100% mail-in ballots
Technology-based systems that allow individuals to log-in and cast their ballots after validating their identity
If we can check our bank accounts and send money via PayPal, we can create a technology-based platform for voting. The questions become:
How do we create the platform so that the voter’s data is protected and counted?
How do we prevent hackers from manipulating the data?
How do we educate and prepare voters to use the system?
Blockchain technology creates an immutable record that is traceable and auditable. It is also personally manageable so that the individual controls the majority of their identifiable information. The concerns about mail-in voter fraud, ballot harvesting, etc. are virtually eliminated because we can create multi-factor login authentication that can combine voiceprint, fingerprint, image recognition, and other ways to ensure the voter is who they say they are. All of this information can also be stored on the Blockchain, rather than in a central database to further drive security from hacking.
Edge Computing can support the processing of information locally and then sync with the cloud. The capability to ensure near-perfect voter integrity is only achieved with technology platforms as discussed. As voters, we also don’t know if our information is used in other ways by the government or other entities. By moving to an Edge Computing, Blockchain stored voting platform, voter-provided information stays within the control of that voter. Then, they have the right to give that information to others rather than giving it up to the platform provider and government.
We won’t move to a complete technology voter platform within the next few years, but we can lay the groundwork for allowing choice in how votes get cast. Imagine:
Not having to rush home from work to meet the cutoff time of in-person voting
Not worrying whether your vote is getting to the counting locations via the mail
Knowing that your vote is trackable and is recorded in an immutable and auditable system
Fast forward ten years; logging in to your voter system like you do your bank account, casting your vote, and knowing it will be counted. Only technology solutions can provide the peace of mind that your vote is counted and the pride that you have participated in one of the most important responsibilities of our lives.
Fortress Data Centers is making technology like Edge Computing and Blockchain work by providing Mission-Critical Colocation, 5G enabled connectivity, Software-Defined Networks, and more. At Fortress Data Centers, We Are Here, on the Edge with you.
During this time of year, the familiar sights of children returning to school is normally a positive thing. But every parent feels a little different this year with the concern of the COVID-19 virus possibly lurking around the corner. Even our college-aged kids raise our anxiety levels because there is a natural tendency for them to cluster whether that is in or out of classrooms. It is natural and a positive part of gaining independence.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is growing in value as a tool to help predict the capability to mitigate the risk of exposure and infections. Let’s compare two different school building scenarios. One has a newly installed filtration system that is connected on the grid as part of an Internet of Things (IoT) cluster. The second school does not have a smart system and its filtration capability relies on old technology filters. Though this is hypothetical, we can assume that a smart IoT device can also connect to a vapor monitoring system on-site that screens particles for their characteristics. The data is analyzed in near real-time and can give a warning when certain pollutants or virus are detected. AI is used to constantly crunch the numbers for informing administrators when to enact response scenarios.
Is this doable? Maybe not today for real-time monitoring but the tools are improving as evidenced by what Germany based Sartorius is doing using their Airscan monitors and Gelatin Membrane Filters. Rapid analysis at a local level can then roll up to a community level to enact a plan that can address the effect of the possible infection outcomes.
Many advocate for full tracing of all people but this has a lot of privacy and personal liberty concerns. There may be a need to create micro-tracing clusters when an outbreak occurs but having an active, required tracing mandate seems to go beyond what the American public wants. Instead, using technology to monitor the environment within our public spaces and by choice, within our private spaces can keep us one step removed from forced individual monitoring.
With most of the monitoring and AI-enabled analysis happening at the local level, the need for an Edge Computing and Edge Server environment becomes critical. At Fortress Data Centers, we are constantly growing our ability to support hybrid Edge and Cloud services. With 5G enabling the world of Edge to a new level, the ability to create a community monitor environment for threats including those posed by viruses is becoming real.
Whether you are homeschooling, using public or private schools or your children have just gotten their first jobs and they are going off to an office to work, there is a constant need to keep them safe. As parents, we never really get over the anxiety of them at potential risk. But we can be reassured that technology is getting better at keeping them and all of us aware, informed and ready to act.
The Internet of Things is increasing the demand on infraestructure networks to move data faster and with lower latency. Cities are being challenged on keeping up with infraestructure needs to meet this new demand.
With Fortress Data Centers, Edge Computing is here.
