As the pandemic swept through, businesses quickly moved their workloads onto the cloud to ensure continuity of business operations and continued productivity. But the cloud isn’t always the answer. Not always.
Internet of Things devices, now at 10 billion, create a tremendous amount of information in realtime. If they must send this data back to cloud storage, it causes latency and decreased agility.
This led to enterprise IT departments leveraging the Edge, an architecture that distributes computation, storage, network services, and other services near the end users to increase the app’s performance.
What is the Edge exactly?
Two ways to look at it. First, there’s far edge. Here enterprise IT teams do edge computing on premise. This could include everything from brick-and-mortar retail shops to autonomous cars. These various locations have one thing in common. They all perform computations at end-users’ locations, where the data was collected.
What is edge computing really good for? The data is not required to travel and can be processed faster, with lower latency and network bandwidth savings. Edge computing has become a vital component for IT departments in enterprises.
In fact more than 40% will be using edge computing for cloud rollouts in 2022. According to the forecast, the global market will earn almost $250 billion in 2024.
What about near-edge edge and multi-access edge computing
Alternately you have the near edge. It provides multiaccess edge computing. This market is estimated to generate $23Billion annually by 2028.
MEC is a tool that allows enterprises to take advantage of real-time cloud-based services, powered off-premises at service provider edge. These services can be found at base stations and telco data center, as well as points of presence (PoPs). Still located very close to end-users. This results is improved data performance, faster processor speeds, and greater storage capabilities.
The same service can be provided by the near edge and the far edge computing
While definitions may differ, both the near edge and the far edge offer the same service: Secure network connectivity that is reliable, performant, and reliable. This can only be achieved through secure access service edge (SASE), which delivers SD-WAN and security-as-a-service to both near and far-edge sites via a global network of PoPs.
Here’s a look at the impact of edge computing, SASE, MEC on end-user data collection.
Make the most of edge computing
As connectivity requirements grow across industries, 30% to 30% of all data will soon be created and gathered in real-time. In order to provide a quick response, the data must first be processed on premises located at the far margin. This allows for resources like storage, computing and networking to be as close as possible.
This helps customers networks reduce latency, improve data processing speed, and save bandwidth.
Who is most likely to benefit from edge computing technology?
All industries, from manufacturing to farming to healthcare, network optimization, safety at work, and retail. The possibilities are almost limitless.
Edge computing not only solves network congestion and bandwidth limits, but also allows for autonomy in places where reliable connectivity might be difficult to obtain. This is combined with data sovereignty that allows sensitive data processing to be done locally using encryption and other methods to protect it before it is sent to cloud.
Augmented Reality Computing
Imagine you’re a retail store owner. Offering interactive digital content will enhance the customer experience in many ways. Edge computing can be used to power augmented reality-powered shopping applications like smart mirrors. These apps require real-time feedback from humans.
What if your car is autonomous? Edge computing allows vehicles to access, process, and analyze data coming from multiple sources. This data must be processed in realtime and aggregated to enable your car’s AI to make fast driving decisions.
SASE offers a cheaper and more flexible way to protect data
The projected 1.9 billion monthly active users of mobile augmented realities apps in 2022 is a reason why enterprises are trying to find ways to securely connect users to entertainment and business resources.
Although it’s effective, SDWAN is designed to link specific branches and home workers. However, this makes it inefficient for the increasing number remote devices and services. SASE combines SDWAN’s network performance benefits with a more efficient approach to delivering on-demand security service anywhere. Similar to other cloud services, it uses SASE.
SASE provides on-demand connectivity to ensure data is always available and protects devices and data. As a global network, PoPs are able to use all of the enterprise security functions. They can connect from any location, device, or application.
SASE technology is fast becoming a crucial asset for enterprises that want to improve network security.
SASE technology reduces the number or vendors that IT teams have to work with. This is both cheaper and lowers technological complexity. SASE can route through multiple POPs to provide better performance for companies who use latency-sensitive collaboration programs.
SASE’s distributed architecture allows for remote work and makes it simple for IT to provide security functions for end users.
The marketplace is still trying out different SASE solutions, as with all new technologies. Innovators should continue looking for flexible solutions that offer simplicity while ensuring scalability.
MEC – Boosting data speeds, reducing latency
A staggering 175 zettabytes annually of data will have been created by 2025. Enterprises are expected to produce 60% of it. How much data is 175 Zettabytes? Make sure you have a clear schedule. It would take 1.8 Billion years to download everything.
MEC can assist you with preparing for this big shift in bigdata.
MEC is able to handle huge amounts data in real time. These tasks aren’t performed in distant clouds. They’re done at base stations and telco data center or PoPs at near edge — via radio Access Networks — close to your network. SDWAN offers enhanced security and connectivity.
MEC powers ultralow latency
How will this change the game for you? MEC powers extremely low latency, lightning-fast transmission of data, and enhanced customer experience (QoE). You can also use it to dramatically reduce the traffic that’s being offloaded from the core network or backend servers, freeing up these assets for other business-critical functions.
MEC, which is similar to edge computing, supports unlimited use cases in all industries. MEC can also be used to support smart factories by manufacturers. MEC allows engineers and technicians to instantly detect any faults or defects in video and have them analyzed.
MEC benefits law enforcement too.
British police carry dash cams and body cameras and are unable to transfer all of the imagery data to a central repository where it can easily be analyzed. To overcome this, they have placed ruggedized UCBs-style devices inside the trunks their police cruisers. They include a video processor unit (VPU), a SDWAN Edge device, a Wi Fi card and dual LTE connection.
After officers had left their cruisers they broadcast the footage over WiFi to a trunk-mounted recorder. After the VPU processes it, the data is uploaded over dual LTE to a basestation at the near edge. It’s used SD-WAN to improve the quality and connectivity.
Conclusion
Edge is the new standard for app performance. Enterprises all around the world have turned to it. The Edge is a data processing center that processes data at the edge. Data is stored in real time, very close users, which dramatically reduces latency.
MEC performs the heavy lifting at the near edge. MEC handles massive amounts of data in realtime and performs data processing and analysis at warp speeds, improving end-user QoE. IT teams, what’s the endgame of their work?
They can reduce their cloud dependence and increase data speed, agility, cost reduction, and support next-generation innovations.