On the Edge!
‘Edge Computing will bring the power of all technologies together and make life easier.’
What is Edge Computing?
Edge Computing is simply computation done on devices near the source of data without sending the data to the cloud. It refers to the computing infrastructure or devices which are close to the source of data and can bring the centralized calculations of data from the central cloud to extreme nodes of the system. Doing this computing closer to the edge of the network lets organizations analyze important data in near real-time — a need for organizations across many industries, including manufacturing, health care, telecommunications, and finance. One of the greatest driving factors for edge computing is the latency that today’s computer ecosystem faces. Latency is what we face when two systems try to communicate and there is a lag of time whilst computation and transfer of data between the systems.
Your voice assistants like Alexa need to communicate with the cloud infrastructure and revert with results. Supposedly you need to know about some important events happening in the country, it will return the query to the cloud and then revert back. This is some significant time which is very observable, a particular problem which Edge computing would solve. It won’t decimate the cloud in any way but rather bring the cloud to you.
What does it do?
Edge Computing is a technology that allows performing computation at the network edge so that computing happens near data sources. The edge devices consume and produce data alike. It’s a world where cloud centers, processing units, and storage are available on the edge at a micro-level and communicate with each other.
It allows computation on the edge of the network, which can be as near as your mobile devices or a security webcam. It works on both downstream data on behalf of cloud services and upstream data on behalf of IoT services.
We need to understand a few differences between edge computing and cloud computing.
Advantages:
Edge Computing
1. It can work without a cloud and have the data more securely.
2. The latency to get the final results is very low.
3. The response in real-time.
Cloud Computing
- Huge Data Storage and Processing capability.
- Easy to scale.
Disadvantages:
Edge Computing
1. Storage Capacity is low.
2. High power usage.
Cloud Computing
1. High Latency.
2. It can’t be done in an offline mode.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
To understand the working of edge computing we need to understand the very concept of the Internet of Things or IoT as it is popularly called. The Internet of Things is a network or an interconnection of devices, sensors, or actuators that share information through a unified protocol.
Edge computing works by pushing data, applications and computing power away from the centralized network to its extremes, enabling fragments of information to lie scattered across distributed networks of the server. Its target users remain any internet client using commercial internet application services. Earlier available to large-scale organizations, it’s now available to small and medium organizations because of the cost reductions in large-scale implementations.
USE CASES:
Edge computing going to have a lot of use cases, some of which will be changing the way we perceive our day to day lives. The biggest advantage of low latency and more secure data will be pushing a lot of future development built around this technology. I would like to talk about a few industries which it would be having a huge impact, some of which I feel might accelerate the development in many unforeseen ways.
Healthcare:
One major industry that has struggled long to integrate IT solutions is the healthcare industry. But, with capable IoT devices which would be generating a lot of patient-generated health data which will potentially enable healthcare providers to access the critical database and in the future enable the medical devices to assist in the diagnosis and treatment of patients.
Doctors are to patients ratio is very poor across the globe, edge computing powered medical devices can be established in many rural areas and do the initial diagnosis of the patients where doctors can’t reach. Edge devices could also help in first-aid help, situations where first-aid is necessary; these devices could assist by diagnosing the root cause and help reduce the damage factor.
These were a couple of examples in the healthcare industry where this could be helpful, a huge amount of data protection and privacy protocols need to be followed for such use cases, but can have a significant impact in our society.
Smart Infrastructure:
Our buildings are getting more and more connected, with automated doors, escalators to name a few impacting our lives in small ways but on a huge scale. Our meeting cabins would be soon filled IoT devices which would be interacting with each other and making our lives easier. Moreover, it will help make the data more secure and reliable for any meetings and conferences.
Industrial Automation:
Edge computing is going to completely enhance the world of Industrial Automation. With devices capable of interacting with each other according to the data that is being collected from the sensors, it would augment a faster service of the machines and make building products more efficient.
Disadvantages:
As good as technology sounds edge computing definitely has some disadvantages, and security is one of the major issues. It is a double-edged sword I have spoken all this while that data will be more secure, the storage will definitely be more secure, but there’s a chance of the hardware being hacked and data being misled. It also requires more hardware and investment for the initial setup.
All of these things being said about the use of edge computing and it’s disadvantages, one can’t deny the fact that it is inevitable. We are going to live in a world of devices which is going to make our life more better and healthier.
