Edge Computing and its Benefits

We are living in the era of technological advancements, and the field experts have made a pathway full of remarkable technical interventions, towards the establishment of a world which is more efficient, more advanced, and driven by technology. The technology of edge computing is a major breakthrough in this regard, as it is one of its kind, without any doubt. Before exploring more of it, let's get to know what edge computing actually is!

Edge computing is basically a type of computing technology that works by processing the client data near the source of data, which helps reduce the operational time and also the need for data processing in a remote data center. It is a computing paradigm in a distributed format that helps bring computation and data storage/processing closer to the periphery network/data source. Edge computing is basically a computational architecture, that improves the basic technology of computing.

Now, let's talk about the origin of edge computing, we can trace it back to the late 1990s when content distribution networks were made for serving video/web content from the edge servers that were installed close to the users. Afterward, in the early 2000s, these networks enhanced to the extent when they started hosting applications at the edge servers. This evolution ultimately introduced the first commercial edge computing services that we can host commercial applications like shopping carts, dealer locators, ad insertion engines, and data aggregators.

Edge computing is the need of time as the basic purpose of this architecture is to handle data and computing in a smart and less timely manner, as well as to tackle the typical computational issues such as bandwidth limitations, unpredictable networking disruptions, and latency issues as well. It is made to serve purposes that a network based on data processing in centralized data centers, would've never served. Instead of transmitting data to data centers for its processing and conversion, edge computing enables data processing at the site from where the data actually originated.

Examples of the practical applications of edge computing include autonomous vehicle convoy communication, remote asset monitoring in the industrial sector, smart grids, predictive maintenance and monitoring in the healthcare sector, cloud gaming, virtualized radio networks, 5G mobile networks, traffic management, and digital content delivery.

How does it work?

Edge computing simply is a concept related to location. While traditional computing works by taking the client data from the source towards the data processing enterprise, through the internet, edge computing works a bit differently and efficiently, by reducing the burden of a high volume of devices and data being used in traditional computing, which becomes difficult for data centers to accommodate. It works by putting servers simply where the data lies. All the analysis and processing of data is done near the data source and only the results are sent to the data centers. Edge computing requires computer gears (such as routers) usually installed in shielded enclosures, which are designed to protect them from moisture, heat, and other environmental factors.

Benefits of Edge Computing:

Following are the most prominent benefits of the edge computing architecture;

1-Speed:

Edge computing is a kind of innovative computing that brings data processing closer to the source, which ultimately results in a sharp increase in the responsiveness and output of the applications. A well-designed edge setup definitely performs better than a system based on traditional cloud computing, because of its shorter response time.

2-Efficiency:

Because of the closeness of analytical and processing resources to the client end/source of data, edge computing proves to be much more efficient than traditional computing systems. The installation of data processing devices near the periphery ultimately results in operational efficiency.

3-Privacy and Security:

The distributed architecture of edge computing introduces a breakthrough in data security in comparison to cloud computing. By processing data at the periphery of the network, edge computing provides an increased amount of privacy to the client, because it reduces the need for transmission of the client's sensitive data to the cloud. Moreover, it brings a shift in the ownership of the data collected, from service providers to end-to-end encryption.

4-Bandwidth relief:

Edge computing reduces the overall volume of data traffic flowing between the source and central servers. This results in the reduced expenditure of bandwidth throughout the whole system and eliminates unnecessary and problematic processing tasks as well. By this, users get faster performance as their local network no longer needs to compete with other regional networks for limited resources of the bandwidth.

5-Reliability:

As edge computing works on a distributed architecture system, the tasks of data processing also get distributed throughout the network, resulting in a stronger and more reliable working mechanism. In traditional computing, even a small problem/downtime in the main server results in the disruption of the whole network as everything including applications of data processing is dependent on the main server. In contrast, edge computing systems utilize the combination of regional edge data centers and local processing techniques, which makes the entire architecture less consolidated. Even if the core servers experience a downtime/disruption, a variety of necessary services continue to be delivered. This makes edge computing far more reliable and trustable.

6-Improved data management:

What we’ve observed in the typical computing networks, is that they usually transmit all data collected from the edge towards the central server, which may cause useless data to be transmitted with the user data as well. Edge computing, on the other hand, works smartly with respect to data management and transmission, as it processes the data on the edge and sends only that data to the central server, which is required for gaining better insights.

Edge computing is a computational architecture, which has proved that the smart use of technology can improve our lives in a variety of aspects, by taking us out of the typical data processing towards an efficient, useful, and smarter one.