The Edge Computing Advantage
Cloud computing in data centers offers flexibility and scale to enterprises. We can extend those benefits towards “things” in the real world, towards the edge. We accrue business benefits by connecting things and isolated systems to the internet, but there are risks that should be balanced against them. Disciplined security of the whole system is needed to make it trustworthy.
The flexibility to decide where to perform computation on data improves performance and reduces costs. Sensors are generally limited in terms of what they can do, while computing in data centers induces bandwidth costs as data is transmitted to them. Computing in the edge enables collecting data from multiple sources, fusing and abstracting it as needed, and computing on it right there. For example, the data from a surveillance camera can be abstracted into geometric features and eventually a face. If there is an issue requiring immediate action (detection of a known criminal, for instance), it can be acted on then and thereby reporting the location to the police or denying them access through a turnstile. Other information can be analyzed later.
