The 'Intelligent Edge': More Than Just IoT

Microsoft was the first of the major cloud vendors to embrace hybrid. Although some officials called out PCs and servers as examples of "intelligent edge" devices, Microsoft's embrace of that definition will likely become more prominent in 2021 and beyond.

When many think of "edge" devices, they immediately think of the Internet of Things (IoT) products. But Microsoft has been growing its portfolio of what constitutes an edge device over the past couple of years. Ruggedized PCs like Azure Stack Edge Pro and Pro R, are edge devices. Any kind of device with onboard AI-processing capabilities qualifies as an intelligent edge device. Even the recently announced Azure Modular Datacenters -- which are data centers inside shipping containers that can operate without Internet connections, intermittently connected, and/or permanently connected via satellite -- also are edge devices.

Microsoft has yet to announce its AWS Outposts competitor, which is codenamed "Fiji." I'm expecting this could be a 2021 announcement. Fiji is meant to provide users with the ability to run Azure as a local cloud, managed by public Azure and delivered in the form of racks of servers