This site will explore in greater detail the concepts and benefits of edge computing and share a variety of insights about its future.
The digital cloud was first brought into the mainstream a few years ago, and after some initial confusion about what exactly it was, it has been extremely popular with the vast majority of tech users. It enabled information to be stored and processed on remote servers, which meant our devices could offer services beyond their technical capabilities. Using the cloud, a device with only a few gigabytes of memory can effectively host an infinite amount of data. As time has gone by, though, the cloud has started to impede certain technologies, especially IoT.
The Internet of Things is simply too broad and large in scale for a cloud service to be a practical means of computer processing. The data being sent by an IoT system over wifi or cellular would slow down the entire network. Not only that, but IoT devices aren’t guaranteed to always be within range of an internet connection. This means that without access to the central cloud, devices could be effectively useless.
This is where edge computing comes in. Rather than removing data storage and processing from devices, edge computing pushes the data closer to them, improving cost and performance and making the devices more independent. This doesn’t completely eliminate the need for a cloud, but it can reduce the amount of data that needs to be sent to the cloud. Edge computing allows for cloud-like functionality on our own devices or at the network “edge,” which is a term used to describe the point where a device or network communicates with the internet.
That could be a device’s processor, a router, an ISP, or a local edge server. Instead of sending data to a remote server, data is processed as close to the device as possible or even on the device itself.
The digital cloud was first brought into the mainstream a few years ago, and after some initial confusion about what exactly it was, it has been extremely popular with the vast majority of tech users. It enabled information to be stored and processed on remote servers, which meant our devices could offer services beyond their technical capabilities. Using the cloud, a device with only a few gigabytes of memory can effectively host an infinite amount of data. As time has gone by, though, the cloud has started to impede certain technologies, especially IoT.
The Internet of Things is simply too broad and large in scale for a cloud service to be a practical means of computer processing. The data being sent by an IoT system over wifi or cellular would slow down the entire network. Not only that, but IoT devices aren’t guaranteed to always be within range of an internet connection. This means that without access to the central cloud, devices could be effectively useless.
This is where edge computing comes in. Rather than removing data storage and processing from devices, edge computing pushes the data closer to them, improving cost and performance and making the devices more independent. This doesn’t completely eliminate the need for a cloud, but it can reduce the amount of data that needs to be sent to the cloud. Edge computing allows for cloud-like functionality on our own devices or at the network “edge,” which is a term used to describe the point where a device or network communicates with the internet.
Edge computing marks another shift towards decentralization, and its usefulness is apparent when you look at the emerging IoT industry. Moving the countless processes that an IoT system is constantly performing away from a centralized cloud and onto the peripheral devices offloads the strain on the central servers, keeping an IoT project fast and agile in spite of its size.
Edge computing is also important to IoT because IoT devices aren’t always connected to the internet. IoT connectivity solutions are still in their early stages and therefore may not be completely reliable for most at-scale IoT projects. So keeping the computing on or closer to the devices themselves rather than having each device rely on a remote server means that devices can still perform their functions when outside of connectivity. Companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Dell, IBM, and Cisco are all working on edge computing development.
Hybrid Cloud Solutions predicts that 5.6 billion IoT devices will rely on edge computing for data collection and processing in 2020
In 2020, 18% of the money that IT departments invest in IoT will be towards edge computing infrastructure.
By 2022, the global edge computing market will be valued at $6.72 billion, at a CAGR of 35.4%.
Today, 10% of enterprise-generated data is created and processed through edge computing; Gartner predicts that by 2022 that number will reach 50%.
40% of CEOs increased their edge computing budget in 2018, and 75% expect more research grant funding opportunities.
According to Gartner, the number of IoT devices will increase from 30 billion to 50 billion by 2020, concurrently increasing the demand for edge computing.
When you browse the internet, listen to music, drive your car, or use your phone, Edge Computing is involved, whether you realize it or not.
Hp made a recent announcement for its plan to invest $4 billion into its intelligent Edge department, which offers edge computing solutions like data storage and computing where the data is being collected.
Faircom – a company that specializes in database technology – recently introduced the c-treeEDGE IoT database solution. It enables businesses to deploy their edge computing databases at the gateway level.
Two of the leaders in the cell tower industry have shown an interest in edge computing technology and 5G use cases.
This Portland-based startup managed to bring in more than $15 million during an investment round. This money will go towards the IoT industry, specifically edge computing services that enable things like smart buildings, asset tracking, connected retail, and more.
While working on a solution for trading cryptocurrency, Acute Angle ended up creating a new form of cloud infrastructure. This new kind of cloud technology would provide all of the traditional features of a cloud, but instead of their being a central cloud server, the cloud would be made up of all of the connected devices.
LinkedIn thinks that edge computing is the future of modern data centers, believing that it will enable processes to be completed at cell towers before data is ever sent back to internet-based companies.
Last year, Cisco unveiled its Edge Computing Gateways, which are small hardware devices that can be used to perform computing processes locally within an IoT network.
The Cisco C-Series C4200 multinode rack server is a new device for IoT that provides 128% more processor core density and 33% more memory compared to previous models, stretching the computing possibilities at the edge even further.
In 2018, SWIM.AI – an AI and edge computing firm – unveiled a set of IoT and smart city solutions. These services use SWIM.AI’s EDX software to push analytics, machine learning, and computing to the edge of IoT. These services are helping to make smart cities a reality by bringing IoT applications like water and energy management to the urban landscape.
Renovo – a company that offers an open-source autonomous vehicle platform – has partnered with EdgeConneX – and edge computing provider – to push as many of the processes in self-driving vehicles onto the vehicle itself. This helps reduce latency and bandwidth while opening the door for revenue to be made from vehicle data.
For autonomous vehicles to remain safe and effective, they have to be able to make near-instantaneous decisions and calculations. This can’t be achieved by sending and receiving data through a cloud server while the vehicle is in motion. Finding routes, using AI, accident prevention – all of these processes have to happen on the vehicle itself for full autonomy to become a reality. Edge computing could bring new capabilities to self-driving vehicles and help move the industry forward.
Personal assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant spend a lot of time communicating with cloud servers to accomplish requests. This is why you may find them less than helpful when you are outside of wifi or cellular services. With edge computing technology, these assistants would be able to perform most or all of a user’s requests without the need to connect to the internet.
While edge computing has been around for over a decade – and arguably was the only kind of computing before the cloud – it is only in the last few years that its importance to the world is being realized.
To say that AI will be able to improve our ability to interpret and utilize data is a vast understatement. Currently, data analysis is done by a person reasoning through data, an automated program that provides us with concise information, or some combination of the two.
For the past several years, data has been the primary driver behind business growth. Understanding how consumers behave, why they make the decisions they do, and how to use that information to improve marketing is key to a business’s success.
