Introduction
The buzz in 2021 rang super loud around the topic of edge computing, and 2022 appears to be a continuance of this excitement and hype. There is a reason for this hype. Edge computing is game changing for businesses and government customers for many reasons, and enables specific IoT use cases, but first let’s talk about data. The industry transitioned from data silos to cloud computing, which allowed businesses to push data off-site and into data centers that provided a centralized architecture. This data was used to make decisions, analyzed for trending and anomalies, and provided information back to the business or government agency to support in improvements, efficiencies, quality control, and customer delivery.
The Transition to Distributed Architectures
Today, we transition into a distributed architecture for the purposes of reaching real-time intelligence and faster processing of relevant/critical data. With this new era, new technologies and architectures introduce smarter ways to collect, store, and analyze data closer to the end-point device, asset, and place where the data is located (on-premise). This is essentially processing the data as close to the source of the data as possible. The edge can be anything other than the central cloud or data center, and thus that is why there are varying definitions being shared with the enterprise.
Assets can be fixed or mobile (moving) and even multi-modal (more than one way it is being transported or moved). Related technologies that augment or come together to support in this real-time intelligence and business automation include edge computing, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and other Internet of Things (IoT)-related technologies. Real-time intelligence is important as faster processing and data analytics feedback can support in responding and making decisions around failures, maintenance, repairs, tracking, monitoring, theft, breaches, production, and other important business operations.
Why is this game changing for businesses and government?
This is game-changing as businesses push further into both digital transformation of their operations and require greater automation to offset the need for workers to do mundane and repetitive tasks. Industry 4.0 (including Industry 5.0) is also a driver as we push the limits on human and machine collaboration (i.e., robotics, robotic process automation). Businesses can for example look at the back-office (operational, production, manufacturing) and front-office (sales, marketing, customer service) and determine what areas of their business and processes would benefit from real-time intelligence. Real-time intelligence is essentially using data to make faster decisions. IoT is a blanketed umbrella of hardware, software, and solutions that supports real-time intelligence, while edge computing is the architecture that supports speed of processing data, along with many other benefits.
Some of the primary business benefits of edge computing based on a recent survey research (Source: BusinessEdgeReport.com) include:
- Lower Latency
- Faster Distributed App Performance
- Local Data Capture, Store, & Processing
- Scalability and Elasticity
Businesses today are faced with a few major challenges including lack of skilled and knowledge workers, hybrid or work-from-home workforces (less people in the office or building), and uncertainty in the economy and pandemic impact. These challenges further drive the need to look to machines and automation to support in operations. The changing dynamic of the workforce also means that businesses will rely more on robotics and IoT sensor-systems to remove the human element for specific job functions. This is even more the case for businesses that have operations in remote locations where the monitoring and tracking of assets is vital to the business. For cities, this may mean departments and agencies will seek the support of smart cameras, digital signage, and intelligent transportation systems to provide better and safer city services. Some of these core automation and IoT solutions are not possible without edge computing, and if anything are made possible through a combination of architectures depending on the data actions required. Businesses will need to evaluate their existing architecture, and some may move to hybrid architectures, a combination of both cloud and edge computing.
Bottom line for enterprises is edge computing provides real-time intelligence to advance digital transformation journeys. Companies of all sizes continue to explore and adopt technologies to augment, support, and provide benefit for the workforce, operations, or customer services. Edge computing removes barriers, shortens time-frames, and provides solutions for actionable business decision-making.
Written by: Stephanie Atkinson
CEO and Founder, Compass Intelligence
