Buyers Guide

to Edge Infrastructure
Management Solutions

Selecting the best tools to manage and monitor your edge

distributed IT environment.

se.com

ecostruxureit.com
 Contents
Guide to the Guide 3

Why You Should Consider an Edge Infrastructure Management Solution 4

First Things First: Define the Problem to be Solved 6

Evaluation Plan: Map Your Approach 7

Evaluation Team: Who to Engage (If You’re an Enterprise Buyer) 8

Evaluation Tips: What You Should Look For 9

Business Case: Identifying the Key Components 11

Making the Right Choice 12

2
Guide to
the guide
The New Era of Edge Computing
It is fair to say that Edge computing is becoming a new norm alongside the traditional centralized data center.

“Edge computing delivers the decentralized complement to today’s hyperscale cloud and legacy data
centers.” Gartner - The Edge Completes the Cloud: A Gartner Trend Insight Report, 14 September 2018.

As the Edge moves from a buzzword to a tangible computing ecosystem that needs resources, tools, and love,
more and more questions around monitoring and management of distributed IT equipment arise.

While familiar with critical facility management, many of the IT, facilities and data center managers with
whom we speak are still figuring out how they will manage remote, increasingly critical, edge computing
environments.

• “Do we need a new tool to manage our edge infrastructure, or can we make do with what we already
have?”

• “If we do need a tool, which one?”

• “And how to choose the right one?”

Whether this is your first time looking for an IT infrastructure management solution, or you’re looking to expand
your organization’s existing capabilities, this guide will provide you with experts’ advice to make the best
possible choice. We’ve done our best to create a resource that’s relevant regardless of size, industry or maturity.

We’ve tried to keep this guide vendor-agnostic, but, because we’ve been helping IT managers like you for over
30 years, we’ve selectively sprinkled in links to tools that might be helpful if you want to dig deeper on certain
questions.

We hope you find it helpful!

This guide shares the key steps companies should take before buying
and deploying an edge infrastructure management solution.

3
Why You Should Consider Getting Technical
But while much has been said about why Edge Computing is taking

an Edge Infrastructure center stage in the world of IT, there’s relatively little guidance
on tactics for managing an increasingly critical, distributed IT

Management Solution
environment. The questions we hear from customers run the gamut:

• How do we keep tabs on remote locations with no on-site IT

staff?

• Is there any way to anticipate equipment failure before it

The Big Picture:
happens?
Organizations in virtually every industry are undergoing a digital
transformation in an attempt to take advantage of edge computing • Is there any way to speed up our resolution time when there’s an
technology to make their businesses more efficient, innovative and IT equipment failure?
profitable. In the process, they’re coming face to face with challenges
• How much available capacity do we have at each remote
ranging from time-to-market to reliability of IT infrastructure.
location?
It’s a complex problem, especially when you consider the scope of
• Is there any way to enhance the security of rooms and closets
what digital transformation entails. “Digital transformation is not
hosting critical edge compute?
simply a list of IT projects. It involves completely rethinking how
an organization uses technology to pursue new revenue streams, • How do we get a consolidated view of equipment health at all of
products, services, and business models,” says research firm IDC. our sites on a single pane of glass?

Companies will be spending more than $650 billion per year on • Is there a cost-effective way to extend our on-premise
digital transformation efforts by 2024, a CAGR of more than 18.5% monitoring solution to our critical edge locations?
from 2018, according to the research firm Market Research Engine.
• Is there any way to maintain on-the-go visibility of my
The drivers behind all that spending include Internet of Things infrastructure when I’m away from my desktop (apart from using
(IoT) technology, which involves collecting data from machines VPN on my laptop)?
and sensors covering every aspect of the organization. That is
contributing to Big Data – the treasure trove of data that companies If any of these questions resonate, keep reading. An effective edge
mine to find the keys to efficiency, opportunity and more. Artificial infrastructure management solution can help you address all of the
intelligence and machine learning are crucial to that effort, helping challenges above...and then some.
companies make sense of the mountains of data they’re creating and Edge infrastructure management tools are essential to a successful
consuming, and to find opportunities. digital transformation that retains network reliability and
uncompromisingly high standards of security. They serve as eyes and
ears in places you can’t be and can’t afford to staff. And the best tools
can be quickly and cost-effectively deployed, accelerating mean time
to repair (MTTR) for unplanned outages while improving the quality
and speed of decision-making.

4
SELF-ASSESSMENT: Do you need an edge infrastructure management tool?
Take the following self-assessment. If you respond negatively to two or more of the following agree/disagree
statements, you should further investigate the value of an edge infrastructure management solution to your
organization.

Statement Agree/Disagree
1. We can remotely check the status of all our remote critical infrastructure devices
or sites.
2. We are immediately notified if there’s an event or problem with our distributed
critical infrastructure devices or sites.
3. We have skilled onsite IT support at all locations with critical IT infrastructure
devices.
4. Our systems notify us of potential cyber security vulnerabilities in our critical
infrastructure devices as they arise.
5. We can remotely upgrade our equipment through a single user interface (UI) to
ensure we have the latest security fixes.

6. We have a centralized team that monitors our critical infrastructure 24x7.

7. Our team is not overly reliant on the knowledge and skills of any single
employee in our IT organization to maintain our edge infrastructure.
8. We can quickly view and understand the performance trends of various critical
infrastructure devices.
9. We are satisfied with the time it takes to resolve an incident when there is an IT
equipment failure.
10. We are satisfied with the effort required to provide relevant reports to our
management team concerning our critical edge infrastructure.

# of “Disagree” Responses:

5
First Things First: Define Involving Others in the Process…as Necessary
Second, who else has meaningful interest in solving this problem?

the Problem to be Solved How this question is answered often dictates a customer’s buying
path. In short, the smaller the organization, the simpler the decision.
The larger the organization, the more necessary consensus-building
becomes to driving successful results.
Because we’re committed to providing a resource that’s relevant
regardless of size, industry or sophistication, we recommend asking
and answering two basic questions at the outset of your evaluation Smaller organizations are usually managing fewer than 150 critical IT
process: assets with 1-2 IT employees. Budget authority resides with the team
• What is the problem(s) you’re trying to solve? benefiting from the tool. No need to complicate the process. Define
the problems you need to solve, test a couple of solutions, and move
• Who else needs to be involved in this process? ahead. (In fact, you can skip the next section of this guide).

Medium-to-large organizations are managing many more assets

Problems to be Solved, Jobs to be Done
(>150-200 assets). While their staffs aren’t necessarily large, a tool
Ever heard of the Theory of Jobs to Be Done? Developed by like this can impact stakeholders beyond their immediate team. It
author and Harvard University Business School Professor Clayton can also draw the attention of your cybersecurity team. As a result,
Christensen, the Jobs Theory says that people don’t simply buy you’re better off engaging these stakeholders early on in your buying
products or services, they ‘hire’ them to make progress in specific process to avoid late-stage plan disruptions. In the next section, we
circumstances. This progress is the “job” they are trying to get done. offer a few suggestions on what this might look like.
The first step in selecting an edge infrastructure management
solution is describing the job to be done.
In a world of distributed IT where edge computing is growing
more essential to executing organizational strategies, the most
common job customers are “hiring” edge infrastructure management
solutions to do is monitor equipment located in a range of remote
environments, whether they be industrial (e.g., factory floors,
outdoors, industrialized warehouses), commercial & office (e.g. open
office, retail stores, server closets, automated warehouses) or IT
environments (e.g., server rooms, wiring closets, small data centers).

What job would you be hiring an edge infrastructure management

solution to do? Whatever you choose, set yourself up for an easy
early win so that you can build momentum to expand.

6
 Evaluation Plan: Map Your Approach
Are you part of a medium-to-large organization that likely requires consensus to move
forward with an investment in an edge infrastructure management tool (as discussed in the
previous section)? If so, this section is for you.

Oftentimes in larger organizations, decisions about software investments attract multiple

stakeholders. Gartner Research has found that, as the number of people involved in
B2B solutions purchases increases, the risk of decision paralysis grows substantially. To
guard against a failure to ever launch, successful deployment of an edge infrastructure
management solution often depends on a well-considered project plan. Consider the
following as you map your path to edge infrastructure visibility.

The 3 Pillars of the Evaluation Plan

Evaluation Team: Identify key people to involve in the evaluation process.
In addition to the technical team (i.e., daily users) evaluating solutions needs and
capabilities, three groups often overlooked in an edge infrastructure management
solutions buying process are Cybersecurity, Finance and the Line of Business.
Cybersecurity
Because the best solutions are cloud-based, this group is focused on maintaining the
integrity of your data security, as well as ensuring regulatory compliance.
Finance
Cloud-based solutions are increasingly sold as-a-service. Not all organizations are set up to
buy Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions. It is wise to engage someone either in Finance,
Procurement, or Contract Management to ensure key steps are taken to comply with what
might be new SaaS acquisition procedures.
Line of Business (End-user)
The final end-user of the solution is effectively the “customer” that you are providing the
desired outcome or solution capability to. The “user” is a key influencer and someone with
whom you should validate your assumptions.

Project Plan: Map out how you will evaluate potential solutions.
In the next section, we will provide some advice on what features and capabilities to
screen for as you search for potential vendors. However, it’s worth outlining your intended
process early on and researching what’s been involved for comparable decisions made by
your company to ensure you’re not overlooking anything. At a minimum, your plan should
include:
Vendor Research
Determine your short list for evaluation based on experience in the industry, long-term
commitment to this market, current capabilities, and future roadmap.
Solutions Presentation
Engage directly the vendors with solutions that meet your main criteria.
Trial/Proof of Concept
The beauty of SaaS solutions is that short-term, free trials are typically baked into the
purchase process. Build at least a 30-day trial into your project plan.
Deployment Plan
Determine what approach is required in order to achieve quick wins for the business.
Consider either a phased approach with low-risk rapid deployment for selected high-value
assets or a big bang approach for all assets and devices.

Business Case: Identify the key drivers of business value early on.
As you review potential solutions, keep the business case in mind throughout, especially
the business drivers of key stakeholders whose support will be required for this investment.

7
Evaluation Team: Who to Engage
(If You’re an Enterprise Buyer)
The first investment you make in Edge Infrastructure Solutions Management is unlikely to be the last. Most software-as-a-
service (SaaS) solutions allow customers to invest in a limited range of capabilities to solve a discrete set of challenges. As your
experience and comfort with a solution increases, so too does your readiness to invest in additional capabilities to manage your
infrastructure.

Thus, one secret to long-term success is to think beyond your silo. From our experience, here are some common roles with
interest in an Edge Infrastructure Management solution and the questions with which they’re concerned:

Role Questions
IT Manager • Will this meet our business requirements?
Daily • Are we ready for this?
User Network Operating Center (NOC) • How will this work with our existing set of tools?
• Can this help us deliver our services more effectively?

• What’s the ROI on this tool?

CIO • Will it make my organization more productive?
Interested • What will this tool do to ensure more reliable service to
Stakeholder customers and stakeholders?

Cybersecurity • Is this tool secure?

• Does it comply with corporate security and privacy policy?

Legal • Who owns the data in the cloud?

• What are the vendor’s data security practices?

Finance • How much does this cost directly/indirectly?

• Is this worth the investment?

• How will this tool impact our business operations?

Line of Business • What impact will it have on our team’s day-to-day
responsibilities and/or productivity?

8
Evaluation Tips: What Should You Look for an
Edge Infrastructure Management Solution?
There are many suppliers of edge infrastructure management tools, but, despite their claims, not all have been created with
equal value. Some vendors make much of certain shiny bells and whistles while omitting essential functionality that will limit
the overall benefit of the solution. Thus, we recommend bucketing your assessment into the following categories and screening
for at least the capabilities described below:

Functionality
What does the tool need to be able to do? Our customers consider the following capabilities
to be core to achieving the bulk of their edge management objectives:

a. Cloud-based – In this day and age of cloud solutions, don’t even consider an
on-premise solution unless you’re required to by regulation. Cloud-based SaaS solutions
open the door to a range of benefits that cannot be achieved otherwise. They allow for easier
deployment, robust analytics, benchmarking, infrastructure health assessments, to name just a
few. Every day brings new innovation, but it starts with the cloud.

b. Vendor-Agnostic – Because critical edge infrastructure is composed of equipment

from a range of manufacturers, the solution should work with 3rd party vendors. Don’t settle
for a vendor-specific solution.

c. Scalable – One of the biggest constraints of on-premise edge infrastructure

management solutions is their lack of scalability without incurring significant additional cost in
time and money. Look for a solution that is easy to deploy and has limitless scale.

d. Subscription-based/SaaS – One of the great benefits of subscribing to a solution

rather than purchasing one is that you can turn it off when you want. As a result, the vendor
needs to earn your business every day. And while the sticker price of a SaaS solution might be
higher than licensed software, keep in mind what tasks you’re pushing back to the vendor—
upgrades, security patches, hosting, and redundancy, to name just a few.

e. Vendor-based Mass Configuration – Depending on the number of devices you

want to manage, a big driver of productivity is having the ability to configure multiple assets
simultaneously.

f. Vendor-based Firmware Upgrades – Firmware refers to the programs that help

a device do what it’s supposed to do. When manufacturers make improvements to the
programs that run the device, they’re released as firmware updates. Look for a solution that
runs these updates automatically.

Support
While all vendors aim to build easy-to-use, intuitive, flawless solutions, sometimes you still
need some help to ensure you get the value you set out to capture in the first place.

a. Customer Success Management – With the emergence of SaaS, a new type

of customer support called Customer Success Management (CSM) has emerged. This is a
function committed to helping customers achieve their business goals with the use of their
tool. Ask about what kinds of CSM support are offered.

b. Onsite support if needed – The thing about distributed environments is that they
are located where you often don’t have IT staff nearby. And while an edge infrastructure
management solution can tell you something is wrong or about to go wrong, you still might
need someone to physically go to the site to repair or replace equipment. Ask the vendor
about the support they provide and if their team is present everywhere your assets are.

c. Integrations – Customers often want the data captured by their edge infrastructure
management solution to be able to feed into other systems. Ask about what other key
platforms the tool supports.

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 Security
You are entrusting the edge infrastructure management solution with a lot critical
infrastructure data. Some of the questions you will want to ask should relate to:

a. Product Security Features – Ask about the security measures the vendor has taken
in the development of the tool. Is there two-factor authentication? Do they maintain high
encryption standards?

b. Data Privacy – Data privacy and integrity is essential in this day and age. How is
your data going to be transported and stored? Is the vendor compliant with GDPR? How will
your personal data remain confidential?

c. Certifications – What sorts of certifications does the vendor maintain?

Company
Big Data & IoT trends are attracting countless companies, small and large, to the edge
infrastructure management market. Customers are not lacking options. Given the rapid
development of technology, customers are looking especially closely at:

a. Experience – What is the company’s knowledge of IT and experience in the

industry?

b. Viability – How big is the vendor today? Will it be here tomorrow? How invested
are they in this market?

c. Geographic Presence – Does the company operate in all the domains in which your
edge environment resides? Are they familiar with all the local requirements of data security &
privacy? Can they provide support wherever your assets reside?

Since most of the above are not yes/no questions, we recommend evaluating against a simple
1-5 scale where 1 = Vendor lacks capability and 5 = Vendor possesses strong capabilities.

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Business Case
It is never too early in your buying journey to start developing an understanding of the cost and value of your edge infrastructure
management solution. We often get asked for advice on how to think about a business case for this kind of investment. We think
a business case involves several components:

1. Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

a. Cost of monitoring each device/asset
b. Cost of initial deployment
c. Cost of solution maintenance over time

2. Return on Investment (ROI)

a. Revenue generation
b. Decreased network downtime
c. Increased productivity
d. Reduced mean time to repair
e. Improved business processes
f. Retirement of other tools/systems

Given the wide range of edge use cases, we see business cases built on a variety of desired outcomes.

Example of Edge Infrastructure

Industry Outcomes Impacted
Management Solution Deployment

Typically, there’s no on-site IT staff in retail • Increased sales

Retail locations. Retailer deployed tool to monitor in-store • Reduced downtime
IT infrastructure supporting point-of-sale operations • Improved retail employee productivity
in numerous locations.

Local IT infrastructure supports healthcare staff • Improved patient experience

Healthcare applications and hospital room IT. Regional hospital • Reduced unplanned maintenance
operators struggle to manage distributed IT spend
composed of equipment of different ages from • Improved employee satisfaction
multiple vendors. Deployed solution to gain
visibility and benchmark performance to prioritize
maintenance activity.

University transitioning to Voice over • Improved university staff and student

Higher Education
Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephony for on-campus satisfaction
offices and dormitories. • Reduced burden on small IT support
Deployed solution to gain mobile visibility into team
supporting infrastructure.

School district upgrading IT infrastructure to • Improved learning experience

State & Local support onsite digital education curriculums and • Improved IT employee
Government and distance learning. Limited IT staff to satisfaction and productivity
Education support distributed school network needs • Improved IT support response time
on-the-go infrastructure visibility.

Small investment firm experienced an over-heating • Improved IT support response time

Financial Services issue in one of their network closets that caused an • Increased peace of mind for staff and
extended disruption to a regional trading office due management
to a failed HVAC unit. Deployed solution to gain
24/7 visibility.

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Making the Right Choice
What are the stakes of this decision? In one sense, the beauty of SaaS is that it lowers the cost of choosing poorly. Just turn it
off if it’s not working for you. No more rip-and-replace like on-premise software. But that sells short the value and impact of
choosing well. Edge infrastructure management solutions will not only increase your peace of mind, but they’ll also add value to
adjacent systems and processes.

But more than that, by investing in a tool that is rapidly growing, you can start learning and growing with a solution that is
opening new doors to proactive infrastructure management every day.

For more information on Schneider Electric’s edge infrastructure management solutions, visit www.ecostruxureit.com.

12
 June 2019
Schneider Electric
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