This week, the common theme was  cloud and the edge. Maybe it was because I was updating a looonnnngg story about secure access service edge (SASE). That's about as edgy as they come, right?

All puns aside, we saw stories about protecting the edge with firewalls, as Fortinet announced two new firewalls specifically designed for data centers. That's a fun story if you like talking about hybrid mesh firewalls, ASIC and operating systems. Also, my special friend SASE makes a guest appearance.

If you prefer to talk about scalability (specifically, scalable cloud architecture), data processing units (DPUs) and programmable P4 language, you should check out the story about IBM and Pensando. Especially if you (or your CIO) are in the market for a shiny new NIC.

Now, let's say you're getting ready to deploy a factory full of machines with IoT sensors in them. Overseas. Or maybe the next country over. You'd want to be able to manage them along with your regular IoTs, right? Just because they're out of sight, doesn't mean they should be out of mind. Or on a separate pane of glass, since it's not like your ops team has enough panes of glass to look at, amiright? (Your COO says "Yup.") Well, Verizon has a deal for you.

If you like your edge with a side of experimentatoin, did you see this piece about Comcast and Vapor partnering to test out a little thing they  call "'near-premises' edge computing applications with lower latency at lower costs"? Also, for you vocabulary geeks, this story talks about virtualized cable modem technology systems and multi-access edge computing. Check it out!

Finally, if all this talk about edge, firewalls and IoTs has you wondering "where's the carbon?," take a look at our new sustainability scorecard system. Writer Emma Chervek has analyzed hyperscalers to see how they compare against each other. Hopefully, the winner will be our environment.