Originally posted on Telecom Ramblings
The vision of the micro data center empowering an underserved market was everywhere for a while. Now that the conversation has moved on to AI, I’ve seen some ask if the edge is ‘dead’. But it’s all part of the same infrastructure discussion, because in the end the beneficiaries of AI will be at the edge and the infrastructure will have to be there. With us today to take another look at the next generation of edge data centers is Doug Recker, President of Duos Edge AI. Doug previously founded and led EdgePresence before it was sold to Ubiquity in 2023, and has clearly wasted no time getting back into the saddle.
TR: What are the origins of Duos Edge AI?
DR: Duos Technologies is a public entity based here in Jacksonville, and they were a customer of Colo5 which I had founded and led. They’re in the rail technology business, and they also use AI. They also deploy little mini shelters along the rail where they do all that compute. My previous investors were still covered by their non-compete, so I thought it would be interesting to go to Duos Technologies and have them start a subsidiary targeting the Edge that leverages their space, fiber, and boots on the ground along the rails. So I pitched the idea to them and now Region 16 is the first customer. By the end of October, our first pod will be live. It’s about 55 feet long and 13 feet wide, with 15 cabinets inside and up to 350kW power. It’s not a high density AI pod by any means, but that’s not what they need.
TR: What has changed in your approach to the opportunity at the edge?
DR: With EdgePresence, we were going everywhere, but what I learned is that it is the Tier 3 and 4 markets that are in desperate need of bandwidth. I saw the rural broadband initiatives and E-Rate deals, so I went out and checked out some of these remote schools. The bandwidth was just terrible. In this new venture, I’m focusing on education and healthcare in those markets. We are focusing just on Texas for this year and 2025. We signed our first client, Region 16, which basically is 50+ schools. Up to now each school has had extremely expensive point-to-point connections back to Dallas, which is a 5-6 hour drive. Basically, we drop our mini data center — 15 cabinets and 300kW – at what they call the service center, which is where all the schools feed back to. It’s almost like a managed service division of the public school system for that group of schools. The farthest point is probably 6 to 12 miles from the node. Then I have a point-to-point dark fiber connection into Dallas, bringing their connectivity down to milliseconds. And my data center pods are all N+1 redundant just like a major data center. Amarillo, TX doesn’t justify a $30M data center, but if you drop a $1M data center, you can service the hospital, the schools, and some enterprises. It makes complete sense.
TR: Will you be limiting yourselves to sites adjacent to railroads, or is the opportunity more general?
DR: While railroads are one of vertical for Duos, our reach is broader—we’re focused on being where our customers need us. Texas, for example, organizes its schools into 20 regional service centers, and Region 16 has become our pilot program. With a dedicated edge data center here, we can support not only schools but also healthcare facilities, county offices, and critical services like 911. Our goal is to replicate this model across all Texas school district regions, extending high-speed connectivity to over 1,200 districts statewide.
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