THE RISE OF EDGE COMPUTING

THE RISE OF EDGE COMPUTING MOVING PROCESSING POWER AND STORAGE TO THE EDGE OF ENTERPRISE NETWORKS IS SAID TO BE THE FUTURE OF ENTERPRISE TECHNOLOGY. HOW CAN YOU DETERMINE IF IT IS THE RIGHT CHOICE FOR YOU? HERE ARE SOME KEY QUESTIONS TO ASK BEFORE YOU START.

The concept of edge computing, hailed by many as transformational tech architecture, is rather simple. It is all about distributing computing power beyond the data centre to where the action is. In other words, processing data closer to the edge of the network where data is being generated instead of a centralised data centre. Frost & Sullivan predicts 90 percent of industrial enterprises will use edge computing by 2022, and the multiaccess edge computing market is expected to reach $7.23 billion by 2024. Some industry analysts believe edge computing will eventually replace traditional cloud computing, but the consensus is that two approaches can be complementary.

What is driving the need for edge computing?

Walid Yehia, Senior Director, Presales for MERAT - Dell Technologies, says the proliferation of IoT devices is generating massive amounts of data, with no signs of slowing any time soon. “The ability to store, move and process this data can provide tremendous opportunities for businesses, but can also become challenging if not managed properly. Edge computing can help solve this problem by processing data closer to the source and mitigating the risk of exceeding network capacity and overloading networks. This is essential as it plays a fundamental role in continued IoT and 5G adoption, along with new applications that require realtime computing power.”

He argues edge computing can also greatly reduce latency and enhance performance. With ongoing demand for faster service delivery and data analytics, organisations will increasingly push their data processing to edge networks, resulting in less centralised infrastructure and creating a wealth of possibilities for businesses.

Charbel Khneisser, Regional Presales Director, MENA at Riverbed, says until recently, the convention has been

Walid Yehia

to consolidate data into centralised locations and this approach has worked very well. However, there has been a greater need for data to be available anywhere and at any time, with little to no impact on user experience. This leaves no room for latency, which is why edge computing is gaining popularity.

Nabil Khalil, Executive Vice-President of R&M Middle East, Turkey and Africa, believes IoT, 5G, and mobility have begun to cause an exponential growth of IP traffic while requiring ultra-low latency even in remote places. The hyperscale data centres that service providers and enterprises have been investing in today will not be able to fully cover the new network, computing and storage requirements of the coming years. He thinks organisations therefore need to extend computing power to the edge of their network to support their large, central data centres.

There are many ways to implement edge in the enterprise, and CIOs must evaluate if it is really needed as part of their computing strategy to achieve performance and cost reductions.

According to Yehia, edge deployments can be diverse based on enterprise requirements and industry trends, but all fall under a common umbrella. By moving away from a centralised approach to infrastructure, edge computing can be implemented by distributing workloads and moving some computing and storage to edge locations where they may run

Charbel Khneisser

best, especially in the case of remote locations or for applications that need real-time processing. The analytics and actionable intelligence that can be derived from real-time analysis at endpoints will ultimately empower agile and proactive business practices in an increasingly connected world.

Khneisser adds that edge computing aims to deliver low latency to end users by shortening the distance between where the data is available and the end-users’ location. “Given this requirement, when designing edge computing architectures, emphasis should be placed on the end-user. To understand their requirements, you first need visibility into how applications perform on their devices, the issues they potentially face and their overall experience,” he advises.

Though at the moment edge is being primarily driven by IoT, the growing availability of 5G is also expected to create new cases for the technology beyond just manufacturing. According to Forrester, the biggest benefits organisations seek from edge computing include flexibility to handle present and future artificial intelligence demands and the fact that computing at the edge avoids network latency and allows faster responses. Following this are use cases generated due to a need for edge computing to conduct complex processing that the cloud can’t support, fueled by the proliferation of connected devices.

Nabil Khalil

Khalil says the low-latency, hyper-interactivity and decentral intelligence offered by edge will play a role in numerous other applications in the digitalised world. These include industrial manufacture, industrial Ethernet and robotics, 5G and video communication, smart grids, as well as blockchain, AI and AR applications. Edge computing can support all these tasks by shortening the path between the acquisition, collection, analysis, and feedback of intelligence to the networks.

Yahia from Dell highlights retail as one vertical that could stand to benefit from edge, with its focus on innovative customer experiences. The use-cases are many, including facial recognition for personalised advertising, AIpowered surveillance for security, retail shrinkage prevention, and augmentedreality mirrors in fitting rooms that would need close computing power.

“Healthcare also has a lot of potential, where remote surgeries, patient monitoring, and telemedicine could be facilitated more seamlessly. Smart cities also stand to advantage from edge, from faster autonomous vehicle support to smart traffic management. Additionally, for communication service providers (CSPs), edge computing remains to be a compelling area of infrastructure investment, with its benefits of reduced latency, improved throughput, better security, and isolation,” he concludes.