Emerging Technology Series: Edge

What is Edge?

Computing infrastructure close to sources of data aggregating data from equipment or sensors. “where you can reduce the distance, the speed of electrons being essentially constant, you minimise latency”  

“In any telecommunications network, the edge is the furthest reach of its facilities and services towards its customers. In the context of edge computing, the edge is the location on the planet where servers may deliver functionality to customers most expediently” 

Why would businesses adopt Edge?

According to ZD Net, there are two possible strategies for edge. The first is that data streams, audio and video can be received faster with less pauses. The second is that applications can be expedited when processers are closer to the source of data. Logistics, large-scale manufacturing and IoT where there are numerous and highly distributed data collecting devices.

Additionally, the edge could help solve the security problems of IoT. There can also be bandwidth savings enabled by edge.

Should you consider edge?

Organisations tend to deploy Edge on-premises with data centres, colocation facilities and cloud service providers.

The benefits include minimal latency, simplified maintenance, cheaper cooling and a lower energy consumption for greater climate conscience. This tech is also reducing this cost and with increasing data held by organisations. It can be used with cloud computing also.

However, it may be difficult to achieve in a rural or remote location. This is because the servers need high voltage and three-phase electricity.

Edge Businesses

There are reports that there will be significant investment in this technology in the next few years. Examples of edge computing includes fleet management, mobile edge computing and autonomous vehicles.

Figures from the previous years

• In 2020, of the respondents who mentioned that they were going to deploy emerging technologies in the future, 5% of respondents reported that their organisation was going to implement Edge. 
• In 2019, 10% were actively using AI, 8% were planning to deploy in the next 12 months, 22% had longer term interest but nearly 60% had no interest.
• In 2018, 9/1% were actively using Edge, 6.1% are planning deployment in 12 months, 28.9% have longer term interest and 56.1% had no interest in the tech at all.

Edge Glossary

Edge Computing = “Edge computing is computing that’s done at or near the source of the data, instead of relying on the cloud at one of a dozen data centers to do all the work. It doesn’t mean the cloud will disappear. It means the cloud is coming to you.”

Server = “a computer or computer programme which manages access to a centralised resource or service in a network”

Data = “facts and statistics collected together for reference or analysis”

Sensor = “a device which detects or measures a physical property and records, indicates, or otherwise responds to it”