The exponential improvements in the field of new-age technological advancement have opened up enormous possibilities. Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Development, Machine Learning, Robotic Process Automation, Blockchain, Internet of Things came to characterize the progressive spirit of this new millennium. All these powerful technologies assume more control over our everyday lives. The advent of Edge Computing is the latest edition of the technological evolution we are witnessing right now.
Edge Computing- a Major Headline-Grabber
Edge computing is perhaps one of the most incredible innovations in the tech arena that is likely to have significant dominance in the coming years. This game-changing technology is going to break out into so many other lesser established categories. If we look back to human civilization, we could see that the development of new technologies has been shaped by our requirements, comfort and wants as a society. The momentum edge computing has received is the result of huge computing demands of cloud users and massive data explosion through IoT. IoT devices will hit 50 billion by 2020 — up from 20 billion, the demand for edge computing will rise, projecting Gartner. “The edge will be everywhere and everything: that is the Internet of Things and, ultimately, it will be the Internet of Everything,” said Michael Dell, the founder and CEO of Dell.
What Exactly is Edge Computing?
Edge computing is a networking philosophy focused on bringing computing as near the source of the data, rather than relying on the cloud at one of a dozen data centers to do all the work. Processing data closer to where it is created lets organizations analyze important data in near real-time. In edge computing, data produced by internet of things (IoT) devices is processed closest to the point of its collection. The collected data becomes instantly actionable that is a crucial feature for the maximum number of industries.
Let’s explore what is so special about edge computing
Edge computing complements the cloud network- The cloud is no longer sufficient to instantaneously process and analyze the humongous amount of data that is currently generated and will be generated in the near future because of the growing use of different digital platforms, connected cars, and several IoT devices. The capability of edge computing to quickly analyze and process the troves of data will be more than valuable to industrial organizations—it will be indispensable. It’s time to put in play some basic advantages of edge computing. Data latency is reduced with edge computing along with gaining actionable insights from the collected data.
Edge computing improves network security– Data and cyber security are the two biggest concerns of the modern age. With the 5G rollout and increase in the number of devices and in traffic, the security concern surrounded the cyber world will only likely to increase. Edge computing makes it possible to filter valuable information locally and forward those sensitive data model building information to the cloud. Edge computing keeps data in a decentralized mode, that makes it much more difficult to breach the dataset. It allows to filter sensitive data at the source rather than send it to the central data center. In terms of security perspective, it is immensely critical. In comparison to an in-cloud key management solution, there would also, presumably, be some edge-gained distance savings with edge computing.
Edge computing is a money-saving option– The main goal behind integrating any new technology to an organization or company is to receive some sort of financial advantages from it. Edge computing is no exception. With processing being done close to where data is generated, edge computing vastly reduces Internet bandwidth usage that ultimately results in operational cost. The mass adoption of the cloud has led to a bandwidth problem. By retaining as much data within the edge locations, edge computing eliminates the requirements of costly bandwidth to connect all of the locations. Because of the smaller operational and data management expenses of local devices vs. clouds and data centers, edge computing provides lower operating costs. Edge computing can prevent sites outages and increase availability for optimal site up-time.
Edging Forward
Whenever there is a new technology out there, those who are quick to adopt it are the best able to take maximum advantage. Companies should seriously consider edge computing in order to improve their services and products by gaining inputs from real-time data analysis. “It’s about the understanding of the end-user into the application workload performance, and then making sure that the network edge continues to grow and harden so that you can push more and more of that data closer to the customers,” said Kyle York, vice president of product strategy for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.
Conclusion
Edge Computing will continue to be the epicenter of innovation for most of the businesses. Although it is a technology in its early days, edge computing is becoming more than an IT necessity; it is considered to bring amazing competitive advantage to the businesses in the coming years. In considering the sheer variety and volume of edge use cases, future-minded CIOs should consider edge computing that will enable them to create myriad opportunities in a vast number of industries.
