However, some changes can come as a shock, especially when they come sooner than anticipated. While the cloud is still a valuable resource for business, some experts are already pointing to an existing IT model that might supplant it: Edge computing. In his recent blog post entitled ‘The Edge Will Eat The Cloud,’ Gartner VP and analyst Thomas Bittman suggests Edge computing will reign supreme as we move towards an increasingly interconnected world.
Driving the move toward edge computing is a phenomenon related to the cloud itself: the Internet of Things. IoT computing spreads out networks, both physically and virtually, and performing more processing on the edge of networks can lead to better reliability for IoT devices, often a critical necessity when it comes to safety and reacting to customer demands in real time. Edge computing makes it easier to scale as IoT networks continue to grow; it’s often easier to add processing power to the IoT devices themselves rather than having to continually build out a more centralized server.
While cloud applications typically provide ample responsiveness for humans, some fields, such as self-driving cars, demand nearly instantaneous results, and the sheer volume of data self-driving cars generate means sending everything to a central server unrealistic. As edge computing finds its way into more devices, businesses and technology experts will explore new ways edge computing can help; devices developed for certain domains may prove useful in other areas, expanding the reach of edge computing.
“The truth is that IoT will fundamentally overwhelm what is centralised IT today” predicts Andy Isherwood, EMEA Managing Director at Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
We spoke in depth with Andy about the increasing need for intelligence at the edge. Listen below.
Read Andy’s LinkedIn post ‘Is the driverless car the worst thing for car-lovers?‘
Even when latency isn’t the primary consideration, there are still significant benefits to using edge computing within a network.
