In the world of the Internet, the Internet of things (IoT) has become a new hot trend. With IoT dominating most of the tech markets, Cloud Computing has also seen the peak of its evolution.
Thanks to this technology, IoT was able to become a key player in the technological advancement of humans civilization. In the upcoming years, IoT will also play a major role in defining the new standard of daily life.
Implementation of Cloud computing in IoT has made things more simple, accessible, and definitely affordable. However, it can only take IoT so far. To put it simply, given the rate of advancement in IoT and the demand for accessibility, in few years cloud computing won't be efficient enough.
Now here is the million-dollar question-
What can possibly replace cloud computing and how will that happen?
Well fellas, Let me introduce you to Edge computing.
What is Edge computing?
In a one-liner, Edge computing is computing brought to an edge. Now, What is that supposed to mean?
Well, according to Paul Miller @The Verge
Edge computing is computing that’s done at or near the source of the data, instead of relying on the cloud at one of a dozen data centers to do all the work.
To understand this better let us first discuss a little about Cloud computing.
So, Cloud computing is a type of computing that is based on a centralized computing space over the internet. The data that is gathered in this process is stored in datacentres spread across the world. This data source could be close to your house or maybe on the other side of the globe, but in either scenario, it is definitely not at home.
But what if it was? Would that be called Edge computing? Not quite!
If we were to bring the data centers home, that data storage would simply convert from cloud storage to local storage. Similarly, we were to localize the computing or simply bring it home, it would be your local computer.
But, if we were to bring computing as close to the origin of data as possible, then that my friend, would be called Edge Computing. #Computing brought to the edge.
Let us take an example to understand it completely.
Example of Edge Computing
Imagine that you own a jewelry shop. Since it is a jewelry shop, it has a top-notch security system that includes a good set of CCTV cameras to record all the activities. AS these cameras record 24*7 they use a cloud-based storage system to store all its data.
Now to ensure that the footage stored by the cloud is only the ones that have some activity, you set up an application that only stores footage with any type of motion while disregarding everything else.
While it definitely helps in maintaining your storage efficiency. But, at the same time, the live streaming of footage and continuous working of the application puts a heavy strain on your cloud server.
This not only consumes most of your bandwidth but also creates latency and continuously pushes your cloud computing.
So, What is the solution? Implementation of Edge computing.
That is, rather than relying on the cloud to do the smart work (computing), how about we do it close to the origin by simply making our cameras smarter.
How smart? Well, smart enough to only stream those footages that have any type of motion in it. This way, we would be streaming way fewer recordings and since the computing is already done by our smart cameras, there would be no strain on the cloud.
This will not only increase the overall efficiency but will also reduce latency and bandwidth consumption. And Yes, it is one of the major reasons that gives Edge computing more than an edge over cloud computing.
Benefits of Edge Computing
In general, Edge computing has 4 basic benefits over Cloud Computing.
Low Bandwidth consumption- As you saw in the above example, Edge computing greatly improves efficiency which reduces the strain on the cloud. Thanks to this, the amount of bandwidth consumption is also drastically reduced. This not only reduces the wastage of the internet but also saves your cloud resources.
Less resource consumption- In order for you to own any cloud-based service, you need to have enough resources to support it for a long time. And, that does not come cheap. Thanks to edge computing, you don't really need to regularly monitor your cloud or worry about wastage of your cloud resources.
Reduce Latency- Latency is one of the biggest drawbacks cloud computing faces. It is the only reason that has kept cloud computing from being integrated into complicated IoT devices. Edge computing brings the cloud as close as possible hence the data has to travel very little distance which in return reduces latency.
Increased Security- We are well aware of the fact that cloud computing has some major security concerns and being hacked is one of them. Assume that you have a cloud-based security system, so if somebody hacks your cloud server, he now controls all your security systems. With edge computing, there is no centralized computing hence it automatically increases the security levels.
Now that we have talked all about Edge computing, let us talk about its implementations.
The Application of Edge Computing in IoT
Well, Edge computing in IoT is something that is perceived as the future of IoT. This is because of the drawbacks that Cloud computing comes with. Obviously, when it comes to normal tech devices that we usually have at our home, cloud computing works the best. But what if the number is increased while the resources remained the same.
Imagine your Tesla running on Cloud computing. What do you think will happen?
When running in auto-pilot it will first have to relay all the data gathered from its sensor to Tesla's cloud servers where it would be analyzed and sent back with a possible response.
But by the time you will get that response, your car would be kissing the barriers.
So rather than depending on the cloud, Tesla uses Edge computing i.e. by simply putting an on-board computer to handle the computing and take necessary action they make the auto-pilot feature more safer and reliable.
In the same order, Edge computing is implemented on several different platforms where requirements for IoT go far beyond Cloud Computing. A more advanced example would be onboard AI technology. In the near future, each and every one of us will hold a private AI to handle most of our basics tasks.
One big reason for that is the insane increase in the number of IoT devices in the next decade. By 2030, our classic Cloud Computing technology will run out of resources to handle all of our IoT techs. And we will need heavy implementation of Edge computing to fulfill the computing requirements for our IoT devices.
But what about now?
How Edge Computing impacts IoT in 2020?
So if I were to talk about the impact of Edge Computing on IoT at present, It is not much at all.
The reason I am saying that is because almost 80% of IoT devices today are handled over cloud computing. May it be your Tesla's phone app or your smartwatch, everything right now runs on the cloud. And it will keep on going for a while.
Yes, Edge computing is better than cloud computing in a lot of ways however, it has one major drawback. The requirement for hardware. The reason why cloud computing is so prevalent at the current times is that it reduces the need for hardware while providing amazing accessibility.
Even if something happened and my computer went boom, the only thing I would be worried about is a potential fire. Because all my important data, from images to documents are on the cloud and can be accessed anytime and anyplace.
While with edge computing you will need decent enough hardware to handle most of the computing tasks, so your cloud remains free from the burden.
Now doing that for big companies is not a problem since they have both money and resources. But on a private level, we don't really need anything so complicated yet.
Conclusion
So if I was to conclude all of that. Edge computing is a derivative of Cloud computing that will be responsible for the future of IoT. But as of this moment, Edge computing doesn't have enough merits to replace cloud computing, may it be on an individual or a enterprise level.
And even if it happens in the near future, which definitely will, Edge computing would not replace cloud computing entirely, as the whole world of the Internet of Things would still need basic implementation of cloud computing.
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