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Benefits and Applications of Edge Computing

This article discusses the benefits of edge computing compared to a traditional or cloud-based computing setup.

By Raghav K.

Today, the world is highly interconnected and can count on seamless communication and data processing to make life easier. Enterprises are implementing solutions using technologies that accelerate growth and provide easy access to flexible, scalable, and practically unlimited computing, storage, security, and network solutions. Edge computing is the next big thing within the IT infrastructure. Its high-performance approach differs completely from how data is processed by a traditional data center or the cloud.

What Is Edge Computing and How Does It Work?

Edge computing technology is based on the concepts of distributed computing that incorporates edge devices (or nodes) to bring intelligence into the concept of processing. How does edge computing differ? Edge computing can process and analyze data in real-time. Also, the collected data is processed at the source rather than a data center.

Edge computing focuses primarily on optimizing the processes of data collection, processing, and analysis. This must be processed in real-time close to the user system, just like with the Internet of Things (IoT). Enterprises are used to storing data using a traditional data center or with the cloud. However, applications and device-centric systems, such as IoT/IoE and AI-based services, require real-time resource availability to process huge amounts of data with minimal latency. Since this is not feasible with traditional IT services, edge computing is utilized in such scenarios.

The Benefits of Edge Computing

Performance

A computing solution that can provide real-time data processing applies to all of the projects that require a superfast data processing system. It could be the financial applications that work with trading or the healthcare industry that is highly dependent on quick information processing. Edge computing offers massive speed when compared to traditional computing solutions and cloud computing.

Reduced network latency is the key here. Data is processed and analyzed at the same place without uploading, and downloading creates a huge performance boost for a solution. Why does performance matter so much? Some industries require low latency and high-performance computing solutions with real-time processing. When you are working with AI-enabled technology or with Internet of Everything (IoE) devices, a millisecond delay can cause disruption. Speed provides value to these solutions, and that is what edge computing is all about.

Security

Edge computing utilizes a distributed architecture; it distributes the resources that make up the whole solution. Distributed Denial of Service attacks (DDoS) can affect your organization's business value and reputation and cause economic harm. When compared to traditional computing, edge computing is less vulnerable to DDoS attacks since the data travel time is greatly reduced.

Arguably, IoT edge devices are vulnerable to cyberattacks. Alibaba Cloud security products can be deployed at various endpoints to provide end-to-end security to combat this issue. The distributed nature of edge computing helps maintain the overall availability of the solution. Instead of shutting off an entire system, specific modules can be taken off for maintenance whenever necessary.

Flexibility

Organizational expansion is directly related to growth. More expansion means more growth and the need for resources orchestration. Infrastructure needs cannot be capped if you want to deliver value to the customers or become a success story yourself. Instead, resource utilization is necessary.

Scalability and elasticity with infrastructure orchestration are necessary to implement a robust solution, especially on a larger scale. Alibaba Cloud has made it remarkably easy for organizations to scale their operations by providing elastic computing, unlimited and highly scalable storage, and network resources. On top of that, data analytics with Alibaba Cloud can present a clear picture of your solutions ability and future projections for better strategy and expansion.

Edge computing enables quick data analysis without dedicated data centers. All that is required are the edge devics and IoT devices to scale the capacity of your edge solution.

Cost Savings

Edge computing allows data categorization and provides better cost management. Different levels of processing are needed for different categories of data. Edge computing enables a good cost-saving structure for an enterprise by ensuring that only the necessary resources are allocated for processing and analysis. Edge computing is not a replacement for cloud computing. It is a technology solution that works to optimize the workflow by cutting down processing time and providing data redundancies.

Industry Reliability

Edge devices store and process usable data locally, making edge computing an extremely reliable solution with or without optimal environments. Edge computing can enable a stable data flow even when there is intermittent internet connectivity. The environment saves the data temporarily to fill out the connectivity gaps. The IoT edge computing devices store critical functions natively to enable continuous operation even when outages occur.

The physical distance between the users and edge nodes is comparatively less. The processing is distributed to provide an optimal working environment for the user. This seamless association of IoT devices and processing makes edge computing a highly reliable computing solution. Secondly, the security advantages associated with Edge computing allows for better reliability within a solution.

What Can You Expect From Edge Computing and IoT?

Today, various industries can benefit from the combination of IoT and edge computing. The financial sector, medical industry, or industries that require real-time data and analysis can leverage the benefits associated with edge computing.

IoT is mainstream, and the devices based on the platform are multiplying rapidly. Edge computing has started to have major effects on how architectures are designed. IoT devices are connected to networks worldwide, and organizations are trying to create faster and more reliable ways to deliver data by upgrading and utilizing the edge computing framework.

Internet-connected devices generate large amounts of data and can add to an organization's business value. This requirement to process large amounts of data can be easily relieved using edge computing. Edge computing distributes the data processing load to provide faster processing and delivery based on user location. It applies the closest node to process and analyze data.

In the End – What Matters?

Moving forward, organizations can shift their data processing needs to edge nodes since these edge devices are growing rapidly. Edge computing is highly scalable and provides a perfect solution for organizations that want agile practices. Edge computing can change the way organizations operate by providing scalable service solutions that extract more value for the organization and the customers.

Edge computing provides various advantages over a traditional computing setup. It will help organizations leverage more benefits as the devices grow and the evolutionary cycle pushes edge computing to the next level.

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