The Evolution of Edge Computing

Information transmission from smart devices, including smartphones, has outgrown traditional network capabilities due to its complexity and bandwidth requirements. Edge computing involves moving processing closer to users and devices, offering significant benefits such as:

• faster real-time insights,
• improved application performance, and
• reduced bandwidth requirements.

What’s the difference between edge computing and cloud computing?

Cloud computing hosts applications at data centres in central locations, typically owned by huge corporations such as Google or Microsoft.

Edge computing involves smaller data centres closer to the users – even on site as part of an organisation’s server.

Why is edge computing important?

Edge computing is big – and growing fast!

The number of IoT (Internet of Things) connections – everyday devices exchanging data – is set to increase by almost 13% in 2024 (17.08 billion devices compared with 15.14 billion connections in 2023). Global intelligence platform Statista forecasts more than double this year’s number will be reached in 2033 with 39.6 billion connected devices predicted worldwide.

‘What makes edge so exciting is the potential it has for transforming business across every industry and function, from customer engagement and marketing to production and back-office operations. In all cases, edge helps make business functions proactive and adaptive—often in real-time—leading to new, optimised experiences for people.’ (IT consultancy Accenture)

Big benefits of edge computing

1. Super-fast speed – creating a faster environment for making real-time decisions, helping sectors such as vehicle automation, from warehouse vehicles to cars.
2. Data security – offering greater cyber security as data is not transferred to and stored in central server locations. This is especially advantageous to organisations processing sensitive data such as healthcare.
3. Instant analysis – providing real-time information such as energy usage.
4. Scalability – edge computing reduces network congestion by handling the increasing amount of data created by IoT devices.
5. Data control – data is processed and stored on users’ devices, retaining user control and privacy.
6. Cost saving – the need for less bandwidth optimises computing costs.
7. Reliability – edge computing involves few service breaks as data is processed locally on devices. This offers safety and efficiency benefits to businesses, especially where worker tracking and safety are important such as engineering and maintenance.
8. Enhanced user experience – by processing data locally on devices, edge computing [JH1] speeds up processing times and reduces network congestion, improving user experience. It’s especially advantageous where real-time data sharing is needed, such as in the manufacturing sector.

Exploring the future

Is your organisation making the most of IT opportunities? Talk to the friendly team at EMH Technology. We love to see how technology can support businesses by enhancing efficiencies. There is so much potential to discover!