For several years now companies using or basing their services on IoT have been depending on the solutions provided by the cloud. Although the market is constantly changing and costumers are always expecting high performance products. As Aleksander Poniewierski, Global Digital and Emerging Technology Leader mentions in his book “SPEED no limits in the digital era”(p.179) “the synergy of emerging technologies shapes habits attitudes and expectations. We are used to not having to queue at a bank window anymore. We make transfers or withdrawals via mobile phone applications. And it takes a few seconds. […] Time saving and convenience are addictive and feeding these needs is one of the ways that technology is changing the world.” In order to provide that, exchange of data has to be very quick and time of response – immediate.
But what exactly is edge computing and how does it differ from the cloud computing? Until now data processing and storing was taking place in the Cloud Data Centers. This model was sufficient until the devices of IoT created the need for faster and real-time processing. For example if a self-driving car had a delay in analyzing data, it could have tragic consequences. The solution for this problem is actually quite simple – creating local databases, storing and processing data close to its sources, edge devices. That’s exactly what edge computing was created for. According to authors of “An Overview on Edge Computing Research” Keyan Cao, Yefan Liu , Gongjie Meng and Qimeng Sun, “it stores and processes data at the edge of the network. It has proximity and location awareness, and provides users with near-end services. In terms of data processing, it is faster, real-time, and secure. It can also solve the problem of excessive energy consumption in cloud computing, reduce costs, and reduce the pressure of network bandwidth. Edge computing is applied in various fields such as production, energy, smart home, and transportation.”
As we know, in order to work efficiently, services based on IoT have to collect and process an enormous amount of data. Cloud computing can prove to be quite expensive and even not economically, financially profitable in that matter, although it works better in terms of complexed analytics and advanced visualizations, while edge computing enables us to do many operations instantly. But these two concepts can work together, creating many exciting possibilities. For example “technicians working on a remote wind turbine use edge computing to view basic data and analytic information in the field. The essential data needed to diagnose the turbine is more efficiently delivered in the field without having to rely on patchy cellular communications with a cloud based solution. Processing power is provided at the data source or ‘edge’ via standard PC hardware or other IIoT gateway devices. The centralized cloud platform is still utilized for more resource-intensive analytics, stored business logic and data warehousing”(Open Automation Software Blog). Both paradigms are very important for the miniaturization of IoT devices, they let us use only sensors and necessary mechanical support, while all computing power comes from the third party.
An interesting example of usage of this computing paradigm is also a mobile game “Pokémon Go” developed by Niantic in collaboration with Nintendo. Players of this augmented reality game have been facing problems regarding its performance, mostly in terms of the time of response. Games that are claiming to provide a real-time experience are very delay-sensitive. As a accomplished IT trade press writer Paul Desmont describes it “requires a constant back and forth of data between the user and the servers supporting the game. That includes location information from dozens if not hundreds or thousands of users in close proximity, messages back to them that prompt the virtual images to pop up on their phones, data on how many Pokémon each one catches and more.” (“Stellar Growth of Pokémon GO Highlights Need for Edge Data Centers”, Schneider Electric Blog). Edge computing provided an answer to this problem. It enabled the founders of the game to storage and analyze data closer to its users, without the need of exchanging all of it with the Cloud Data Center, which made the response time much shorter.
Furthermore, nowadays many companies are leaning towards the sustainable development model. What does that mean and why is edge computing an integral part of it? In simple words sustainability requires acknowledging that work of natural eco-systems and development of human-created technologies have to be integral. A perfect example of a company trying to work in that model is Fujitsu. As we can read on their website, their philosophy is to “recognize that global environmental protection is a vital business issue. By utilizing their technological expertise and creative talents in the ICT industry, they seek to contribute to the promotion of sustainable development. In addition, while observing all environmental regulations in their business operations, they are actively pursuing environmental protection activities on their own initiative. Through their individual and collective actions, they will continuously strive to safeguard a rich natural environment for future generations” (President of Fujitsu Limited, April 2011). In order to create a technology, that would be considered as a Green IT, we have to lower the required amount of energy needed for analyzing and storing data. Data centers are no longer sufficient in these cases. Edge computing provides us with the possibility to save energy, time and avoid data traffics.
Moreover people are getting more aware of processing their data and the value of their privacy. Because of that, governments all over the world are creating new restrictions regarding protection, processing and usage of data. European countries came up with the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), which according to the gdpr.eu “is the toughest privacy and security law in the world. Though it was drafted and passed by the European Union (EU), it imposes obligations onto organizations anywhere, so long as they target or collect data related to people in the EU.” “ Being able to process data at source helps us to abate the amount of transfers and devices needed in the process, which significantly improves the security. “Edge computing in the smart home has the potential to give control of personal data back to consumers – one of the primary goals of GDPR. By integrating edge capabilities into their core services, providers of smart home accessories offer users control of the data, whether they transmit it to the cloud or store and process it locally”(Machnation Blog, “Edge computing helps organizations meet GDPR compliance”).
As you can see edge computing is currently one of the most efficient ways to develop the near-end technology based industries, it provides solutions to various problems companies have been facing regarding both the speed of the data flow and profitability, enabling them to run their businesses in the sustainable development model.