Edge computing remains a hot topic in the wireless industry, but what does it actually look like? Startup EdgeMicro showed off its new mobile edge computing testing facility and explained how it is using the site.

Mike Dano, Editorial Director, 5G & Mobile Strategies

March 6, 2019

6 Slides

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- Edge computing is one of the telecom industry's hottest buzzwords today. But what does edge computing actually look like?

EdgeMicro is one of several startups looking to cash in on the edge computing trend, and to juice its efforts in the space, the company built a fully functional edge computing data center in Englewood, Colo., on the outskirts of Denver. BitBox, Cisco, Fiber Mountain, Flexential and Megaport are among the companies that are running edge computing tests in EdgeMicro's new edge computing data center.

Light Reading visited EdgeMicro's data center, and here's what we found.

Figure 1: Edge Computing Box EdgeMicro's edge computing data center is essentially stored inside a big steel shipping container, like the kind of shipping containers that can be placed on cargo ships, railroad cars or 18-wheelers. It's located immediately outside of Flexential's massive data center in Englewood, Colo. (meaning, it's literally about five feet away from one of the side exits to Flexential's data center). 

EdgeMicro built its test edge computing data center here because the company has an agreement with Flexential to use Flexential's power and internet hookups. In a real-world deployment, EdgeMicro's data centers would be located in a parking lot or other location with fiber and power -- places where massive data centers wouldn't fit -- in order to provide computing services to nearby users.

EdgeMicro's edge computing data center is essentially stored inside a big steel shipping container, like the kind of shipping containers that can be placed on cargo ships, railroad cars or 18-wheelers. It's located immediately outside of Flexential's massive data center in Englewood, Colo. (meaning, it's literally about five feet away from one of the side exits to Flexential's data center).

EdgeMicro built its test edge computing data center here because the company has an agreement with Flexential to use Flexential's power and internet hookups. In a real-world deployment, EdgeMicro's data centers would be located in a parking lot or other location with fiber and power -- places where massive data centers wouldn't fit -- in order to provide computing services to nearby users.

Mike Dano, Editorial Director, 5G & Mobile Strategies, Light Reading | @mikeddano

About the Author(s)

Mike Dano

Editorial Director, 5G & Mobile Strategies, Light Reading

Mike Dano is Light Reading's Editorial Director, 5G & Mobile Strategies. Mike can be reached at [email protected], @mikeddano or on LinkedIn.

Based in Denver, Mike has covered the wireless industry as a journalist for almost two decades, first at RCR Wireless News and then at FierceWireless and recalls once writing a story about the transition from black and white to color screens on cell phones.

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