The Benefits of Edge Computing and Distributed Systems

Edge computing is an innovative network architecture strategy developed to reduce latency issues caused by data transmission across great physical distances. To do so, it involves placing servers and storage close to their respective data sources.

Businesses using on-premise analytics solutions can now perform critical analytics locally rather than sending them off to a remote data center or cloud, thus speeding responses and improving performance for applications reliant on low-latency processing such as facial recognition and industrial automation.

1. Faster Response Time

Data processing requirements have significantly increased over the last two decades and are projected to rise further. Unfortunately, however, not all generated data is mission-critical, and sending large volumes across long distances into cloud platforms for analysis causes latency and performance issues that negatively affect applications as well as user experiences.

Edge computing addresses these problems by placing servers and storage closer to data sources. Locally deployed hardware collects, processes and protects raw data before transmitting only essential pieces through remote LAN back to an enterprise data center or cloud for further analysis.

Self-driving cars rely on Edge computing to process data quickly in the local environment to avoid millisecond delays that could compromise driver and passenger safety, while Smart Thermostats use Edge computing to rapidly respond to temperature changes to reduce energy use and save energy costs. Organizations can purchase heavily managed Edge solutions from hardware vendors who install and manage devices and software to streamline deployment.

2. Enhanced Security

Traditional enterprise computing entails data being created at client endpoints, then transported across an Internet or WAN connection to an IT-managed server where it is stored and worked upon by applications before returning back to be presented back at client endpoints for review and processing.

Edge computing takes some of this work off-device and onto local devices themselves, reducing latency and bandwidth costs while processing closer to its source – providing added security by keeping sensitive information away from malicious actors during its transfer into cloud or central IT systems.

As it can be impossible for IT staff to physically visit each remote site, edge deployments require intensive monitoring – including resilient fault tolerance and graceful failure planning in case of poor or inconsistent connectivity issues. Hacking conferences have highlighted various strategies used by attackers against edge devices; camouflaging being one such tactic. Eventually these attacks become successful against such nodes; in such instances adversaries create fake nodes with identical IDs as one existing node that exist on a network.

3. Better Energy Efficiency

Edge computing reduces energy consumption by eliminating the need to transmit large volumes of data across networks, as well as by localized processing and analysis, thus decreasing latency and bandwidth requirements. Furthermore, distributed computing reduces impact from single points of failure.

An edge computing solution provides manufacturing businesses with real-time monitoring of production processes and instantaneous response to any issues, improving quality and efficiency. Energy managers also rely on this type of computing for real-time data processing to optimize energy usage and prevent wasteful usage or inefficiencies.

Workload offloading is another key aspect of Edge computing, wherein its goal is to redirect workloads back towards their source as near as possible. To achieve this goal, system architecture must take load distribution into consideration; Sonmez et al. [24] explores this issue using Lyapunov dynamic stochastic optimization approach with computationally intensive IoT applications at the edge. They propose an offload solution which maximizes successfully offloaded tasks while keeping network delays caused by redirections as low as possible.

4. Lower Costs

Businesses generate vast volumes of data that must be processed and analyzed, but traditional computing models based on centralized data centers and the everyday Internet aren’t well suited for handling this ever-increasing volume of real world information. Bandwidth limits, latency issues and unexpected network disruptions could disrupt data transfers.

Edge computing places data processing and analysis close to its source, requiring far lower levels of bandwidth usage while decreasing transmission times and improving performance. Many organizations can even eliminate their centralized server/data center altogether!