You must be aware of could storages services like Dropbox, Gmail, Office 365, One Drive, Google Drive, Slack, and many more. The idea of cloud technology is to centralize data storage at one place or ‘cloud’ from where the users can access it. However, data storage and computing through this technology has some disadvantages. For example, increased latency, higher internet utilization, slow data backup & restore, and so on. To counter this problem, comes the concept of edge computing. Here’s your complete guide about edge computing.
Data related issues like storage, backup and computing are one of the key concerns of any business. Thus, many companies rely on cloud storage services for handling data related to various aspects of their business—like customer details, employee details, digital marketing statistics, etc. However, it comes with certain drawbacks. This is when edge computing comes into equation.
Moreover, for successful implementation of IoT in business, one needs to rely on edge computing. But why is edge computing so important and what is it even in first place?
What is edge computing?
There is decentralization in the sense of access to electronic devices, but the way we have been handling our data from a few years is quite centralized. And you must be aware of how time consuming it gets to access or backup that data. This is because the data travels to and from a far centralized source.
The concept of edge computing is not something outside of cloud technology. You may say it’s an improved version of it. The idea of edge computing is to reduce latency and save bandwidth by bring computation and data storage closer to the source of data. So the cloud doesn’t vanish, it just comes close to you.
Let’s talk about different aspects of edge computing
- Latency
If your information is stored in system X and you want to access it from a system Y that is in the other corner of the world through cloud technology, it can be a bit time consuming. Y will send X request, then X will process it and send the required information to Y. While it sounds simple, the geographical distance can actually delay the process. While it may not be much of a problem in some cases, latency can be a great barrier in successful implementation of Internet of Things.
For example, if you command your cloud-reliant voice assistant to turn on air conditioner, it’ll take your message to cloud, get a coded command, decode it and do the required thing. This will take noticeable amount of time and the whole point of IoT will be lost. For effective use of Internet of Things, edge computing technology is crucial. With data being readily available, users will be able to get quicker response and a more meaningful experience.
- Security and privacy
Using centralised cloud data storage system comes with concerns for privacy and security. Apple’s data storage system is considered one of the safest and secure systems. This is because it is more close to edge computing than it is to cloud storage as it stores user’s data in encrypted on the diasporic users’ device itself. Edge computing promises more security and privacy than cloud storage.
- Bandwidth
One of the problems that IoT comes with is its higher bandwidth consumption. Thus, another proposition for edge computing is that it saves bandwidth. With data available at nearby platforms, the internet consumption for accessing data from far away cloud would be saved. Moreover, smart Internet of Things systems would have the ability to understand save important information while discarding unimportant/redundant data.
Conclusion
Be it financial issues, important customer data, digital marketing reports, employee details or anything—businesses are becoming increasingly dependent on cloud technology. However, it comes with issues related to bandwidth, latency, security and privacy. With edge computing, you can save from these issues and enable easy, quick and safe storage, access and computing of data.
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