Western Digital launches edge compute servers for remote, rugged environments

Western Digital launched Ultrastar Edge servers, including one that is rugged for military and field team use, for edge computing deployments.

The company said its Ultrastar Edge servers are designed for 5G, Internet of things and cloud deployments. The servers are built to enable data processing in remote locations including deserts, seas and other areas with intermittent or no network connectivity.

Edge computing is increasingly decentralizing compute as real-time analytics, AI, deep learning and machine learning training has to happen on site before connecting to the cloud or data center. In addition, Western Digital has stepped up its data center cadence and has launched an effort to court creative pros with its SanDisk gear and SanDisk Professional. 

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Western Digital said the Ultrastar Edge family includes the following:

• Ultrastar Edge MR, a rugged and stackable system that's built for military and specialized field teams and easy transport. Ultrastar Edge MR has been tested for MIL-STD-810G-CHG-1 standards for limits of shock and vibration, and to the MIL-STD-461G standard for electromagnetic interference. The unit is also rated IP32 to provide ingress protection against water and debris. Aside from military use cases, Ultrastar Edge MR is designed for remote research as well as oil and gas exploration.
• Ultrastar Edge, a 2U rack-mountable server with a portable casing. The Ultrastar Edge is designed for co-location facilities as well as edge data centers.

Both systems will be available in the fourth quarter and are being sampled now. The Ultrastar Edge systems support up to 40 cores with two 2nd generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processors, a Nvidia T4 GPU and eight Ultrastar NVMe SSDs with up to 61TB of storage.

The Ultrastar Edge family features two 50GB or one 100GB Ethernet connection.