Since the mass adoption of cloud computing technologies and the delivery of technology services from distributed computing systems, the term "cloud" has grown exponentially to the point where many use it to describe the Internet. The large providers of computing capacity and datacenter-hosted infrastructure, such as AWS, Azure, and others, were the first to adopt the term "cloud" and have since become known as "big clouds" or, more accurately, "large hyperscalers".
With the rapidly increasing use of data center-hosted applications in various industrial workflows and by users of personal mobile devices, there is a growing demand for applications hosted at the edge, i.e. physically stored as close as possible to the users of the application and data. However, the large hyperscalers are very centralized, each operating a handful of data centers in a geographic region or a continent. Many of them don't even have data centers in most countries or most states or provinces within a country.
For example, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has 70 data centers in the United States, but many of them are concentrated in Virginia and Northern Virginia in particular. As of August 2024, AWS has only one data center in South America, in Sao Paulo, Brazil. On its own website, Amazon says that "the AWS cloud spans 105 availability zones across 33 geographic regions." The company adds that there are "announced plans" to add 21 more points of presence (called "availability zones") and 7 more regions - Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Taiwan, and what's called the "AWS European Sovereign Cloud" - an infrastructure aimed at the EU's public sector and highly regulated industries.
Microsoft Azure for example has U.S. data centers in Arizona, California, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming. The company does not officially operate a data center in New York and New England, for example. Azure has only one active data center location in Brazil and plans to open another one in Chile.
Both AWS and Azure claim "Announced Zone", which hare regions and countries where both large hyperscalers do not have the infrastructure, but plan to deploy in the near future. South America and Africa are virtually ignored by both, with Asia having only a host of "Availability Zones", most of them in China.
It is similar to other major cloud providers. They offer advanced automation and the ability to scale up and down IT infrastructure on demand. However, most of them, do not have the necessary data center facilities to offer instant application delivery. This significant gap is filled by IT infrastructure hosting providers called Edge Data Centers (EDCs).
Microsoft Azure for example has U.S. data centers in Arizona, California, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming. The company does not officially operate a data center in New York or in New England. Azure has only one active data center location in Brazil, with plans to open another in Chile.
Both AWS and Azure claim "announced zones," which are regions and countries where both hyperscalers do not have infrastructure but plan to deploy in the near future. South America and Africa are virtually ignored by both, and Asia has only a handful of "availability zones," most of them in China.
Most of the other major cloud providers have fewer points of presence than AWS and Azure. They offer advanced automation and the ability to scale IT infrastructure up and down as needed. However, most do not have the necessary data center facilities to offer instant application delivery. This significant gap is filled by IT infrastructure hosting providers called Edge Data Centers (EDCs).
Difference between Data Center (DC) and Edge Data Center (EDC)
What is the difference between "data center" and "edge data center"? In simple terms, a "data center" means a facility that houses servers. "Edge data center" is a facility located in the same geo-location where the hosted application services are used. The geographical proximity and the way the edge data center's network is designed ensures very low latency for application users, making the data center and edge a single entity.
So, the Edge data centers (EDC) providers are strategically positioned close to end users, to host and enable faster data processing with reduced latency. The Edge-hosted dedicated cloud environments offer several advantages over larges hyperscalers (big cloud providers) such as AWS, Azure, and other corporate clouds. In this article, we explore why edge server hosting providers should embrace users’ preferred virtualization technologies to create dedicated cloud environments. We’ll compare these edge-hosted environments with those hosted on major cloud platforms.
How and where EDCs beat the largest hyperscalers?
What are the advantages of EDC providers and edge-hosted dedicated clouds over the large hyperscalers and their hosted cloud infrastructure?
- Lowest Possible Latency
Large Hyperscalers
The "major clouds" like AWS, Azure, and others operate large data center networks that are geographically distant from end users in many application delivery scenarios. In addition, their networks are designed and purposely optimized for internal low latency between their own datacenter regions. For cloud infrastructure users, this often results in data delivery delays and high data transfer costs.
Edge Data Center (EDC)
EDC providers design their networks to minimize the distance data must travel, resulting in lower latency. Real-time applications, such as IoT devices and autonomous vehicles, benefit from reduced response times.
Instant application delivery is critical for the rapidly digitizing economy. EDCs outperform the major clouds in terms of instant content delivery.
- Data Transfer
Large Hyperscalers
AWS, Azure and other major cloud service providers charge for for each gigabite of data transfer above the plan's quota. The data transfer costs add up, especially for data-intensive applications and the cloud infrastructure users often end up paying thousands or even tens of dollars for data transfer alone. Add to that the charges for IOPS, DNS queries, DNS zones, internet traffic zones, or infrastructure support.
Edge Data Centers (EDC)
The service offerings of the Edge providers that offer dedicated cloud hosting, rather than cloud infrastructure delivered from shared compute clusters, often feature unmetered data transfer. Users can transfer data without worrying about bandwidth rate limits or additional costs of data transfer.
- Custom Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
Large Hyperscalers
Major cloud platforms offer standardized SLAs. Customization options are limited, and users must adhere to predefined terms.
Edge Data Centers (EDC)
EDC providers can tailor SLAs to meet specific customer requirements. Custom SLAs allow organizations to define performance metrics, uptime guarantees, and response times.
- Technical Support and Managed Services
Large Hyperscalers
Major cloud platforms offer paid support through their ticket-based systems. They even charge for technical support for the same cloud infrastructure for which they charge monthly fees. If there is a problem with a compute instance, even if it is the result of a problem with the underlying physical infrastructure, the major cloud providers will not take responsibility for troubleshooting unless the customer uses one of their premium technical support plans. Even with these, users of cloud infrastructure often experience significant delays in receiving technical support.
Edge Data Centers (EDC)
EDC providers offer a more hands-on approach and often free infrastructure-level technical support. Organizations that use infrastructure with EDC usually do not pay for technical support for the core infrastructure, have the flexibility to use semi-managed infrastructure contracts, or deliver hands-on technical support under flexible terms, and ad-hoc on specific per-hour rates.
- Data Sovereignty and Compliance
Large Hyperscalers
The "big clouds" operate globally, raising data sovereignty concerns. Compliance requirements tend to be complex. The user's data is hosted in a large cloud infrastructure owned and managed on its underlying physical level by the cloud providers themselves.
It might sound scary, but the users' data hosted with the large hyperscalers is not the user's private property! The data is governed by complex terms of service and SLAs. There are various loopholes, and simply put, the customer's data is effectively owned by the cloud infrastructure provider.
Edge Data Centers (EDC)
EDC providers host user data within specific regions or countries. Compliance with privacy regulations is easier. Organizations that use EDC providers often lease physical servers to create their dedicated cloud environments, using their preferred virtualization platform to apply their customized cloud computing models.
EDC customers typically have full control over the virtualization layer and overall technology design. Unless authorized by the customer, the EDC does not have access to the customer's service environments, operating systems, hosted applications, and data.
The overall model of the technology infrastructure delivery adopted by EDC providers, for example ProtonMail, ServerWhere, virtually makes their customers' data - private property.
Conclusion
While the EDCs are literally crushing the big hyperscalers in these five very important areas outlined above, don't write them off. Infrastructure providers like AWS, Azure, and other hyperscalers have virtually unlimited compute capacity and advanced automation systems. When it comes to cloud-native applications, an organization with a skilled DevOps team can create a very scalable and relatively inexpensive infrastructure environment for various use cases.
There is one very important thing that every organization needs to consider when using one of the major hyperscalers - the cost of data transfer. The price of bandwidth and the price of data transferred out of the hyperscaler's networks is enormously expensive.
On the contrary, the EDCs very often provide Internet connection ports with unmetered bandwidth rates and thus do not charge their customers for outgoing data transfer.
So, without writing off the hyperscalers, be sure that the EDCs and edge cloud environments offer unique advantages, including low latency, customized SLAs, unmetered data transfer, personalized support, and compliance benefits. While large cloud platforms like AWS, Azure and others serve a broader audience, enterprises that need tailored solutions should consider using EDCs. Computing technologies and the hosted cloud infrastructure models continue to evolve, and providers of edge data center services will have an increasingly important role in meeting the demands of the digital economy.