From the cloud to the edge and back

Slalom and Google Cloud bring the edge advantage

While many business needs can be met using cloud services — whether that’s public or private clouds, a combination of the two, multicloud, or even hybrid cloud and on-premises architectures — no single option is ideal for all scenarios. This is why more and more organizations are adopting edge technologies, particularly in multicloud environments, to enable greater flexibility for engineers to solve some of their most challenging problems.

Edge is an architecture that allows data to be processed close to the location where it’s being created or where it needs to be processed, rather than in a centralized data center. Why is this important? Let’s look at three areas where edge can give you … well, an edge … when used in conjunction with your current architecture:

1. Reducing latency: Speed up data transmission and processing for critical applications.
2. Improving security: Keep data local to reduce potential threats from outside the organization.
3. Overcoming network issues: Ensure continuity even during times of low or no network availability.

Source: Google Distributed Cloud

Lose the latency and boost response speed with edge

An issue with the public cloud is its need to process data far away from the source of that data. Applications generate large amounts of data that would be performance-prohibitive or cost-prohibitive to transfer to a public cloud. According to Nima Niakan, a director in Slalom’s semiconductor practice, “Our clients are generating gigabytes and terabytes of machine data per day, some per second. They need it to be processed. Currently, we’re forced to do huge file transfers — from video feeds or machine data, for example — and we want that technology to respond quickly.” The larger the file size, the greater the distance the data has to travel, and the more congestion in the network, the slower these transfers will be.

Admittedly, not every process needs real-time data transfer. High latency can be a minor annoyance, such as slow delivery of emails, or it can be a serious issue when it affects applications that require real-time data processing, such as defect detection in a highly complex manufacturing environment. In these cases, delays in reacting to the information in the data — even when measured in seconds — could be devastating.

An example where this kind of split-second processing could be pivotal is in threat detection. In much the same way that doorbell cameras detect if someone is approaching your door with a package, security cameras using artificial intelligence (AI) can be trained to detect if a person is holding a gun. The system would then use that information to alert the authorities.

“But video feeds are big,” notes Niakan. “It could take several minutes from the time the video feed is sent to a centralized location, stored, and then analyzed by the AI, and a lot of bad things could happen in that time.” Incorporating edge technology into the camera would allow it to see, analyze, and pass information to the server in real time for immediate response.

In this context edge technology is also beneficial for:

• Manufacturing: Machinery can make immediate adjustments to avoid deviations that could result in product flaws.
• Autonomous cars: Reacting quickly to sensor data could literally be a life-or-death capability.
• Smart cities: Massive amounts of auto, train, and bus data can be used to better control traffic flow and make rapid rerouting decisions to avoid congestion and potential accidents.

Low or no network availability? No problem!

Many organizations have operations in remote areas where unreliable connectivity and network downtime is a weekly reality. Edge technology provides a way for important work to be done even when the network is slow or completely unavailable, for example in:

• Healthcare: Edge technology in machines used for surgery and patient treatment is vital to rural hospitals. With a modern edge solution attached to a treatment device, images and information captured can be transmitted to a central server when internet connection is available. But when there’s limited or no bandwidth, edge computing capability combined with smart software can give doctors what they need to deliver the best care to their patients with no interruption.
• Oil and gas operations: When coupled with computer vision capabilities, edge technology can improve both human and environmental safety in remote and offshore facilities. According to the Journal of Petroleum Technology, monitoring for hazardous conditions, aiding in the detection and prevention of fires, and identifying when workers are injured are just a few of the potentially lifesaving use cases.
• Agriculture: Sensors using edge technology allow for greater precision in detecting when watering, pest eradication, and harvesting are needed, and they can do so by optimizing what little bandwidth may be available. This can save time for farmers with large fields by eliminating the need for them to monitor conditions in person, and it also can be vital to those farming in high-risk areas, such as conflict zones.

This same capability can also benefit organizations that aren’t in remote areas but nonetheless have business-critical processes that simply can’t be interrupted. Retailers, for example, can’t afford to lose network connection. Without it, they’re forced to require cash payments, which could mean turning customers away. Edge capabilities are insurance against such a scenario. “Basically, the edge device acts as a background clearinghouse for the point-of-sale system,” explains Niakan. “When the cashier scans a credit card, the edge device collects and processes the payment information. Then, when the internet connection comes back, it does a batch update of all the transactions at once to all the credit card companies. So it keeps the business running while the internet is down.”

Security for the most sensitive data

We mentioned earlier that transmitting data over long distances can cause higher latency, but it also introduces the risk of being intercepted by people who shouldn’t have access to it. With sensitive data being processed on the edge device itself, there’s much less of a chance that it will fall into the wrong hands.

Edge computing also offers a bridge between local data centers and the cloud. When processing larger, more complex workloads, it makes sense to maximize use of the data center internally for the most sensitive data, but still push some of the work to the cloud to take advantage of its speed. “Just using data centers may take six weeks to do what only takes two weeks in the cloud,” explains Niakan. “So using modern intelligent edge devices that interact seamlessly with existing, older technology but that can also burst to the cloud to leverage all the latest and greatest in AI means you get the best of both worlds.”

The edge advantage in your organization

The examples we’ve talked about here illustrate that many of the applications for edge technology involve mission-critical processes or health and safety. You should consider using edge technologies if any of the following circumstances are true:

• Your applications require a very stable network connection and cannot tolerate potential traffic disruptions that commonly occur when transferring data over the internet.
• Your applications require the lowest attainable network latency and are sensitive to latency spikes or jitter.
• Your applications may generate large amounts of data that would be performance- or cost-prohibitive to transfer to and from Google Cloud.
• Local laws or regulations dictate that your data must remain on-premises and must not be stored either outside your business or outside a specific geographic jurisdiction.

Your vital processes shouldn’t be left to chance, which makes working with experts key to a successful integration of edge capabilities. Slalom is partnering with Google to offer accelerators for implementing Google Distributed Cloud Edge technology, which brings all the speed and power of Google’s public cloud services and infrastructure to your edge devices.

Google manages, monitors, upgrades, and maintains its product, which makes for easy integration with your existing Google Cloud ecosystem. “With the control plane being local, all you do is point it to your Google Cloud Platform project and it captures all of the configurations attached to the project,” says Niakan. “So it’s secure and complies with your already-approved security policies. You can do everything on-prem, and you can lower your cost by not pushing things to the cloud that you don’t have to.”

Slalom’s accelerators can help organizations quickly adopt these solutions and integrate them into your workflows, rather than having to go through a lot of custom software development. Our teams will work with you to determine the best approach for bringing edge technology into your organization, but we’ll also help you to scale it beyond the initial use cases so you experience the full range of benefits edge has to offer.

Slalom is a 2024 Google Cloud Services Partner of the Year. We’re also the first global systems integrator in North America to be recognized for having Google Distributed Cloud Expertise. Discover how we can help you make the most of your Google Cloud technologies.