Dell EMC Federal’s Cameron Chehreh: Edge Computing Can Support Agency Data, Device Mgmt

Cameron Chehreh, chief technology officer of Dell EMC‘s federal business, has said he believes an edge computing approach could help government agencies manage multiple devices as “one common virtual enterprise,” FedTech magazine reported Thursday.

The process involves “getting smarter sensors, smarter data and that compute capacity closer to the data so you can get better insights as this data is traversing your network into what might ultimately be an enterprise cloud,” Chehreh told the publication.

Edge computing works to support communications and sharing of insights as the practice does not require data to travel back to a data center for processing. Some military organizations and the Federal Emergency Management Agency could utilize such computing process as they commonly deploy personnel to the field far from bases or data centers.

Chehreh said agencies should manage devices at the network edge in order to “unlock greater power of your data and your information and manage it in a more cohesive, virtual manner.”

He estimated that the U.S. Air Force has been saving nearly $1M a week in tanker refueling costs through edge and cloud computing systems. The Department of Agriculture uses edge computing for expanded geological surveys, he added.

“As devices become smarter, they are going to require those enhanced compute and storage capabilities at the edge in order to deliver that richer human-to-machine experience that is the era we’re going into,” said Chehreh.