A Cue From Netflix

The best way to mitigate latency? For enterprises looking to achieve the on-demand speed of Netflix, Gartner recommends locating workloads as close as possible to end users, Rubin told ITBestOfBreed.

That’s why so many media companies rely on content delivery networks. Those CDNs — such as the one offered by Akamai — integrate connectivity points in populated areas.

“When content, compute and data center resources exist on the edge of networks, they can help extend traditional data centers, power cloud services and improve user experiences,” Rubin said.

Bill Bradley, senior vice president of partners, alliances and strategy at Digital Realty, a data center operator, said that storage located at the edge of the cloud can do even more than reduce latency.

“The edge often resides at Internet gateways,” Bradley said, “offering the further benefit of connecting with a multitude of local and global network providers.”