Derek Collison, Founder & CEO, Synadia sits down with Stu Miniman and John Troyer at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon NA 2019 in San Diego, CA. #theCUBE #KubeCon #CloudNativeCon https://siliconangle.com/2019/11/25/qa-globally-distributed-edge-computers-to-rule-in-the-connective-economy-kubecon/ Q&A: Globally distributed edge computers to rule in the connective economy Traditionally, in order to keep clients at the edge of network simple and easy to manage, all computational resources were usually allocated to a central computer. Big servers and infrastructure in the data center were the norm. But now the industry is shifting from centralized to decentralized systems. All the power of the old core network is being disintegrated into smaller mini data centers, all scattered around. Now, we also have intelligent devices that fit in the palms of our hands that are probably 10x more powerful than an entire data center 20 years ago. In today’s version of the client/server model, the server does not necessarily hold the power; instead, shared resources between internet of things or edge devices make up a globally distributed edge computing. These distributed systems are forming a connective economy. Take the example of the content delivery networks, which are bringing the web closer to end-users. But lighting up this edge computing field is not exactly about building smarter and lighter mini computers — it is about pushing data and computing power to the edge in a secured fashion, according to Derek Collison (pictured), founder and chief executive officer of Synadia Communications Inc. “For a long time, we were swept up in the ‘cloud economy,’ which was how you move from CapEx into OpEx … and then, of course, it was all about the data,” according to Derek Collison (pictured), founder and chief executive officer of Synadia Communications Inc. “And it still is about data, but if you notice, it’s not the data moving to where you’re trying to process things — now it’s all of a sudden being distributed. I see the value driving out of these systems now, as in how are they connected; how are you observing them; how are you securing them and trusting them?” Collison spoke with Stu Miniman (@stu), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, and guest host John Troyer (@jtroyer), chief reckoner at TechReckoning, during the KubeCon + CloudNativeCon event in San Diego, California. They discussed the connective economy, the NATS open-source messaging system, the Synadia business model, multicloud, and edge computing. (* Disclosure below.) [Editor’s note: The following has been condensed for clarity.] Miniman: How does NATS and messaging play into helping solve the communication issue? Collison: NATS was built to power Cloud Foundry … and NATS, just like a lot of the other technologies, was built for an itch that needed to scratch. So about two years ago, we had the opportunity to actually think about if we wanted to make a business out of NATS. The answer we came up with internally as a team was [that] we needed to build something that its value was greater than the sum of its parts. So we took NATS, which was a very mature technology, made it multi-tinted, made very forward-looking, secure, and made it run in any cloud, edge, IoT, with the hope that we could encourage people to connect everything. Miniman: Explain [your] business model, what you’re doing, and how that actually goes together? Collison: So, when we started out, what we didn’t want to do is ignore the old models. I don’t think a long-term business model is the old models, meaning recurring support, consulting, NRE work type of stuff. And we [also] believed that the SaaS model, that utility model where, again, its value is greater than the sum of its parts allows us to keep everything open source. But there’s a value in being connected to this network — multicloud, cloud to edge, all that kind of stuff. And what we want is customers to slowly transition to that. And then the last piece of that pie is, there may be people who are running against the global utility, running their own servers, and they go, “That service right there inside of that system, we love it. We want it on-premise. Can we actually license it from you?” So it’s a combination of software and service, license revenue, and recurring support. Miniman: So, are you enabling partners to deliver those services, or is that Synadia does that themselves? Where do those premium services come from? ... Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the KubeCon + CloudNativeCon event. (* Disclosure: Cloud Native Computing Foundation sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither CNCF nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)