What is an “Edge Operating Strategy”?

Over the past decade, a common question t Fortune 500 CTOs and CIOs were seeking to answer was “what’s your cloud strategy?”

It is still only the 3rd or 4th inning in that cloud transition. And the scale of the cloud technology market, as evidenced by trackers like the Bessemer Cloud Index, is apparent.

So what is the next question? The one I know most asset operators are thinking about is:

“What is your edge strategy?”

The edge has different meanings to different users. A truck, a windmill, a component on the factory floor, an electric vehicle charger, a pipeline, a telecom tower, a security camera. These are all decentralized and intermittently (or continuously) internet-connected assets. Due to the declining costs of sensors, these edge nodes are now growing in capability… and compute.

My simple interpretation is that “the edge” is the decentralized operating environment. And an “edge strategy” is meant to address how and why companies are going to capture, compute, relay, and secure at these decentralized assets. Within that strategy, the executives need to understand which decisions can or need to happen at the edge vs. sent to a centralized cloud infrastructure. These decisions will ultimately affect how the same CTOs re-address their cloud architectures… major implications.

It is hard to fathom just how many use cases, types of value, and new hardware and software products will be developed to address this edge opportunity. We have made a number of investments in the space (more on that tomorrow) and are actively looking for more, great entrepreneurs tackling this problem.