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Edge Computing Rapid, private, and secure processing By Tracy Barbour 20 | May 2022
loud computing has a silver lining, of sorts, at its edge. Edge computing is an alternative to transferring data to a distributed cloud, which has limitations on bandwidth (transmission capacity) and latency (transmission delay). As networked devices become more numerous and powerful, edge computing is steadily growing in usage. By 2025, 75 percent of enterprise data will be processed at the edge, compared to only 10 percent today, according to technology research firm Gartner, Inc. Edge computing is related to another somewhat recent technology, the Internet of Things (IoT), according to Kenrick Mock, a professor of computer science and dean of the UAA College of Engineering. “The central premise behind IoT is to have everyday objects and sensors connected to the internet,” he says. “Under the vision of IoT, your watch, thermostat, garage door, oven, refrigerator, and even your coffee mug could all connect, communicate, and compute via the Internet. In edge computing, there is the same vision of many interconnected computing devices, but the distinction is where the computation occurs. If you think of large, powerful, remote servers as being in the ‘center’ of the cloud that makes Kenrick Mock up the Internet, then the ‘edge’ of the UAA College of Engineering Internet are devices on the periphery, such as your phone, laptop, thermostat, watch, or sensor.” The edge is not a specific location; it’s about facilitating the distribution of services to where people need them. Regardless of the device, the edge is located near the user. “Edge computing puts that processing, the brains, or content as close to the users as possible,” says Victor Esposito,
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