T. Gilling
Jul 20, 2017 · 1 min read

I think that rather than humans becoming ‘a mobile data centre on two feet, what we will more likely have is ‘a mobile data source on two feet’ connected by next-generation communications to a ‘local cloud’ or as it is more generally known as an ‘edge computing solution’ or a ‘proximity computing solution’.

The end-point, the human, will probably not see much real data processing, just data packaging (i.e., basic pre-processing) prior to transmission to the actual data processor. I think this will be just as true for little IoT devices as it will be for big self-driving cars.

As connectivity improves it will just make more and more sense to process all sorts of data in the cloud. Where that data actually gets processed, in the future, will be determined by the nature of that data. If the processing of that data is somehow time sensitive then it will get processed on a ‘local cloud’ (i.e., in a data centre located in close geographic proximity to the user). If the processing of the data is less time sensitive then it could be sent to a ‘remote cloud’ (i.e., a data centre located on the other side of the world). Both will be options in the future. So rather than the future being exclusively based on ‘local clouds’ or ‘remote clouds’ it will just be based on the ‘best cloud’ for the job at hand.

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T. Gilling

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…is a forward-looking information technologist and the author of The STREAM TONE: The Future of Personal Computing? (www.TheStreamTone.com)