Issue link: https://resources.mouser.com/i/1499865
Molex 2023 7 Applications Rule One of the most obvious outcomes of the move to digital infrastructures is the continuous onslaught of data generated by powerful applications boasting unprecedented levels of functionality. This rings true for my colleague Craig Petrie, VP of Sales and Marketing for BittWare, a Molex company specializing in enterprise-class accelerators for edge and cloud- computing applications. "Customers need to scale many more diverse applications than ever before," he says. "A decade ago, they likely had 10 applications, such as databases, where the time-to-compute problem wasn't critical to the user experience. Today, enterprises are dealing with hundreds of deterministic, real-time, low-latency applications that require different user experiences. Acceleration technology is the answer to achieving much-needed performance improvements while increasing energy efficiency, minimizing data movement, and reducing costs." With the user experience at the epicenter of everything, data center providers need to deliver consistent performance, regardless of whether the application involves complex ML workflows or 4K video streaming to a cellphone. Expectations remain high that all data will be delivered on-demand without fail. Meeting that challenge continuously is a major area of ongoing focus and innovation. Research and Markets estimates that the amount of data generated each year grows by 35% globally, with data in the healthcare industry registering the fastest growth rate. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of telehealth visits increased in the first quarter of 2020 by 50%, with a single week in March showing a 154% jump compared with the same week in 2019. The rapid rise in telehealth applications is a great example of collaboration across the IT ecosystem to ensure maximum service-level consistency. Need for Speed and Agility Measuring performance has always been about speeds and feeds, but next-gen data center operators also need to demonstrate how quickly and efficiently they can adapt to new requirements. Modular, composable infrastructures are designed to abstract layers of compute, storage, and networking resources from their physical locations, enabling them to be configured and provisioned on-demand. This becomes especially relevant when contemplating the sheer volume of connected devices ingesting, processing, storing, and sharing data. Market researcher Statista estimates the total installed base of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, encompassing connected cars, smart home devices, and industrial equipment, will reach 30.9 billion units by 2025. This represents a sharp rise from 12.2 billion active units reported at the end of 2021. As most of this data is distributed, the bulk will be processed at the edge of the network, where smart technologies, including transceivers and accelerators, offer flexible performance boosts. Three recurring themes are constantly reiterated during customer conversations: Cost is always top of mind, going hand-in-hand with energy efficiency, since power represents the biggest cost in any data center. Moving from on-premises to hybrid cloud environments is an excellent way to reduce both costs and carbon footprints. Performance is paramount, as everything comes down to speeds and feeds. Data- intensive applications, such as artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML), video streaming, and natural language processing, require alternative architectures and optimized software/hardware to reduce computational processing burdens. Meet the challenge of connecting everything when it comes to bridging both physical and virtual data centers. It's critical to enable rapid exchange of data across the entire data center ecosystem through seamless integration and on-demand connectivity. Learn More IA-640i PCIe FPGA Card