With an expected valuation of $6.7 billion by 2024, the impact of edge computing is far beyond what you might expect with emerging technology. Processing-intensive applications are accelerating rollout — are you ready?
There’s a crisis brewing in the world of computing, and it’s one that has challenged network engineers and programmers since the invention of computing: speed. Specifically, the speed that users can access data and business applications, perform increasingly-difficult actions and view websites. End-users are extremely time-sensitive, unwilling to wait even an extra second for a website to load without navigating away from the site. Business users become testy when their applications do not react instantly, causing frustration and lost productivity. Yet, security is a significant concern for organizations as there is a fine line between the speed of activities and the security infrastructure surrounding them. Into this chaos comes what some experts believe is the ideal blending of security and speed — also known as edge computing.
What is Edge Computing?
According to Global Market Insights, “Edge computing differs from traditional data centres as they bring processing power from the centre of the network to the edge, closer to where the data is consumed by a computer, smartphone, or other devices by deploying smaller and decentralised servers.” This allows for greater speed, accuracy and security of data processing while still offering a modular approach to deployment. As cloud deployments increase and shared data centres become the norm, edge computing is a crucial solution used to address both bandwidth and latency at the local level, linking together regional data centres as needed to help support additional demand for services.
The Future of Edge Computing is Today
Since many of the transactions are being performed away from the “hub” of operations for the network, end-users are less likely to be impacted by any downtime experienced by the broader network.
Enhancing Speed of Streaming Video Applications
Edge computing allows processes to work with various levels of autonomy, something that will likely expand as home and business users alike increase their use of IoT devices and streaming services. With edge computing, popular data such as streaming video can be cached at local data centres that are closer to end-users — a move that can significantly improve latency concerns and increase user engagement with the content.
Boosting Power for Autonomous Vehicles
Autonomous vehicles are another real-world benefit of edge computing and one that is rapidly evolving with immense potential for future growth. With automakers investing billions in AI and self-driving technology for their vehicle lines, an edge computing framework allows vehicles to access information such as road conditions local to their current information. Vehicle information requests are seamlessly routed to the nearest edge computing facility, significantly reducing the latency required to beam requests back to a central framework in a more remote location.
Expanding the Effectiveness of Telemedicine
Everything from wearable devices that collect patient data to telemedicine interactions between doctors and patients is being supported by edge computing technology. Individuals that are far away from network service providers can gain access to the healthcare advice needed to improve their well-being and quality of life. Doctors can expand their reach with innovations that are revolutionizing the way healthcare is delivered throughout the world. With a global IoT in the healthcare market expected to reach $534 billion by 2025, edge computing is expected to support higher significant standards for excellence in the future of healthcare.
Understanding how edge computing will have an impact on your organization is a vital first step to taking full advantage of this revolutionary new way of processing information. With massive algorithms and IoT-heavy business applications, edge computing may be the saving grace that allows organizations to deliver new functionality — and excellent user experience. Ready to learn more about how edge computing can help shift your organization into overdrive? Contact the professionals at Steadfast Solutions at 1300 739 335 or chat online with our friendly and knowledgeable professionals anytime to schedule your complimentary initial consultation. Our team has deep experience with a range of network and security configurations and can help analyse whether edge computing may be right for your organisation.