The Distributed Data Challenge: Unlocking the Power of Remote Engines with FME

We’re living in a complicated data world. Gone are the days where we’d work in the same building as the server that stored all our data. It was simple back then; you could process everything you needed from one centralised location.

Today, we have a myriad of data sources from on-premises systems to cloud platforms, and even edge devices. Now you have to worry about the complexities of managing and coordinating multiple sources, moving information across networks, and data security – it’s a bit of a headache.

With the release of FME 2023, Remote Engines could be the solution to your distributed data woes.

What are FME Remote Engines?

FME Remote Engines do exactly what they say on the tin. They’re instances of FME that you can deploy on servers that are part of your network, outside your network on accessible endpoints, or in the Cloud (Azure or Google Cloud Functions). You can control these engines remotely to process data wherever it’s stored.

Why are FME Remote Engines really cool?

FME Remote Engines let you put the processing power closer to your data – you don’t have to transfer your data to another server.

Simple

Sure, you can install FME Flow on different servers but to update workflows or automations you’d have to access the server directly. With Remote Engines, you can control them all from an instance of FME Flow.

Flexibility

When you combine Remote Engines with an FME Subscription, you really start unlocking data flexibility. With FME Subscription and Remote Engines, you can scale up or down licenses dynamically, and then put those engines exactly where you need them.

Security

You can now process data within its secure location, which mitigates the risks of transferring your data between servers for processing. Remote Engines are particularly useful if you want to run jobs on servers outside your network, while maintaining your primary FME Flow installation behind a firewall.

Disaster recovery

Hardware fails all the time so, when it does, you can quickly deploy remote engines to alternative machines to reduce the impact of the fault.

As data continues to disperse across sources and locations, Remote Engines can help unleash the power of distributed data processing while removing some of the headaches organisations have. While we’re just at the beginning of Remote Engines, FME Form launched in May, we’re excited to see how these develop in the future.

If you have distributed data challenges, we’d love to hear from you – contact us now.