Schneider Electric, the global specialist in the digital transformation of energy management and automation, announced the launch of the†Schneider Electric Edge Contest†to provide funding to help customers deploy or upgrade their edge IT infrastructure. This initiative is designed to enable customers who purchase select APC by Schneider Electric products to capitalize on the benefits of edge computing solutions to enhance customer experience, generate new revenue and decrease business costs. As 2018 is shaping up to be the tipping point for†edge computing, businesses can now begin enhancing their Internet of Things (IoT)-critical on-premise infrastructure as part of their overall IT strategy.
2018 is the Year of the Edge
The trends around IoT are reshaping the technology ecosystem, with a more distributed business model adding significant emphasis and importance to factors like bandwidth, latency, and physical security. As businesses become increasingly reliant on IoT and dependent on a distributed IT ecosystem, applications are migrating closer to the point of data consumption; requiring speed and capacity to meet customer demands in real time. As a result, edge environments are increasingly being utilized to process and analyze information to make companies’ most critical decisions. According to†IDC, 45 percent of data generated by IoT technologies will be processed close to or at the edge of the network by 2019.
“Edge infrastructure is becoming more critical to IT as companies seek to address the demands of IoT,” said†Dave Johnson, executive vice president, IT Division, Schneider Electric. “As market forces and customer interest reach a tipping point, Schneider Electric envisions 2018 as the ‘Year of Edge’ that will unlock digital transformation at an unmatched pace and scale. Through our contest, customers have the option to create a uniquely tailored edge solution – from the physical infrastructure, to software and services – to increase speed and agility, reduce costs and simplify their systems.”
As the leading brand in IT physical infrastructure and critical power management, Schneider Electric provides customers with the technology, management and services capabilities they need to successfully deploy and maintain edge IT infrastructure in a way that is consistent, manageable and secure. Schneider Electric’s integrated solutions enable customers to leverage dynamic, business-critical IoT platforms with the same level of availability, security, and management of their IT systems from the enterprise to the edge.
Seizing the edge opportunity now
To enable the growing trend of edge computing, Schneider Electric is offering a series of grants across multiple countries for businesses to strengthen and improve their edge infrastructure. Customers will have the option to invest in their IT infrastructure needed to seize the opportunity of edge technologies in the near term, whether they’re embarking on their first deployment or upgrading their existing footprint.
Through the contest, customers can buy and connect new†Connected Smart-UPS with APC SmartConnect†for a chance to win†$10,000†of IT equipment to bring data center-like resiliency to their distributed environments. If a channel partner resells and helps connect the winning Connected Smart-UPS, that channel partner will also receive†$1,000†credit from APC by Schneider Electric.
