Along with the exponential growth of cloud computing and the Internet of Things, corporations are commencing to follow more and more about edge computing. Edge computing is a relatively new method with notable benefits demonstrated in various industrial applications, such as healthcare, construction, manufacturing, banking and finance, energy, and agriculture. However, edge computing is an unknown and untested concept for many companies.
Edge computing presents many advantages in IoT applications implemented in the smart city, manufacturing, and retail sectors. Manufacturers can leverage innovations in IoT sensors to improve predictive maintenance capabilities, track inventory, and track production machinery. Edge-enabled IoT devices can also track inventory in retail environments and optimize logistics and inventory.
The Benefits of Edge Computing for Your Business
True to its name, edge computing takes computing away from an enterprise's core data center. It puts it close to the endpoint devices where data is generated, which brings 5 key benefits, such as:
Improved speed/reduced latency
By its very definition and design, edge computing eradicates the need to transfer data from endpoints to the cloud and back again. Reducing that travel shaves time off the entire process; this time savings can be measured in seconds, sometimes even milliseconds.
That may not seem like much, but travel time, known as latency, is a critical consideration in a connected world where real-time decision-making capabilities are necessary for endpoint devices to function correctly.
Local, real-time retail data analysis
Edge computing encourages computing as close to where the data is generated. For instance, in retail, data has historically been collected together in one central location for analysis and then acted upon. With edge computing, retail stores can be optimized locally and in real time based on information processed at individual edge locations.
Edge computing offers better efficiency for lower costs and lower power consumption
While this reduces bandwidth pressure and latency, it also reduces the cost and power required by local equipment. This makes Edge computing an incredibly efficient method of computing in terms of price and power consumption.
Condition-based maintenance
The increased insights of edge-enabled IoT devices enable users to detect and track equipment abnormalities with condition-based monitoring (CBM). IoT devices such as sensors and wearables are vital to improving worker and workplace safety.
Elimination of redundant data
Using traditional cloud computing architectures leads to rapidly accumulating data in cloud storage. Most of this data is useless, so companies spend a lot of money storing data they will only use. Edge computing can help by sending only helpful information to the cloud, which undergoes processing.
The Future of Edge Computing
For improved security, companies should invest in security and technology talent and prioritize a zero-trust architecture. This means that when a user logs into the system, it asks for a username and password and keeps track of what computer they have, software, etc., so it knows the user is who they say they are. Additionally, this gives the user limited access to the data, allowing the rest of the company's data to be protected in the event of a breach. All security measures should also go through penetration tests to ensure they are correct and find any weaknesses.
Edge computations are typically housed in dedicated embedded devices such as edge gateways. However, that computing power at the edge can be accommodated in various devices, including endpoints. An example is a smartphone, which provides some data processing services even when offline.
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