In November 2019, Schneider Electric unveiled the industry-first 6U Wall Mount EcoStruxure Micro Data Center, which was useful as it allowed large, heavy edge servers, networking equipment, and the UPS to be safely mounted on a wall, consuming zero floor space. However, through its partnership with Cisco, Schneider is now offering a pre-packaged version of its micro data centre that uses Cisco’s HyperFlex Edge. 

Cisco’s HyperFlex Edge combines compute, storage, and hypervisor (VMware ESX) in one package, which the firm says offers faster deployment and savings in OpEx and CapEx. Schneider says that the pre-packaged solution reduces time to market by 50% and engineering costs by 35%, as each micro data centre has been pre-tested and everything has been standardised across the board. 

In addition to coming prepackaged, the new solution promises everything you’d expect from a Schneider product – namely the fact it’s EcoStruxure Ready. That means it can all be managed through EcoStruxure IT software, which eases concerns surrounding remote deployment.

Edge computing presents customers with a number of new challenges, including greater numbers of distributed systems deployed in environments not optimized for IT, which are often unstaffed, placing new physical and cyber security demands on the solution. With live demonstrations at Cisco Live, Barcelona, 2020, the system will showcase new physical and cyber security features, including a high-performance image recognition application and the recent Device Security Vulnerability Assessment now available in EcoStruxure IT Expert.

“Cisco and Schneider Electric have been Alliance Partners for more than 15 years,” said Rob McKernan, senior vice president, Secure Power Europe.

“As part of that collaboration, we continue to innovate and build on the integration capabilities between our companies. This helps partners to deliver best-in-class, pre-integrated systems, safe in the knowledge that the solution will work predictably, as planned from the minute it is operational. At the edge, reliability is essential, and with interoperability between EcoStruxure and Cisco Intersight, partners can manage multiple edge sites on behalf of their customers, whilst generating new service revenues.”