CTO Straight Talk - Issue 4 - 15

distance and angle and to allow each

crunch the data after it leaves the ﬂeet

player to interact with the character

but before it reaches the cloud-based

individually in real time. Currently, this

routing system, the transport ﬁrm more

computing is taking place on Google's

than doubled the ROI of its sensor

servers, with some small amount on

network from 35% to 80%.

the phone itself. Placing it in micro
data centers close to users would make
the game even more detailed and

NEARING THE EDGE

responsive, the ultimate goal of any

As more companies demonstrate how

gamer.

analyzing data where it's generated
can revolutionize how they create

Other industries where latency is an

value, industry leaders predict that

issue are also exploring edge computing.

adoption will spread rapidly through

Deepesh Thakur, founder of 3rdeye

industries ranging from transportation to

Technik, a German ﬁrm that designs IoT

communication to agriculture.

systems with customizable applications
that run on its own edge platform, cites

Autonomous vehicles. An autonomous

the example of a trucking company

vehicle needs more than just the data

that transports perishable food items

from its onboard sensors to function

into Germany from Spain. The company

safely. As Triﬁro points out, " A car going

wanted to route its trucks to different

60 miles per hour travels the length

distribution centers depending on how

of a football ﬁeld in four seconds,

much longer their cargo could remain

so if your onboard telemetry system

fresh, but the IoT sensors monitoring

needs three seconds to tell you that

the environments in the trucks had to

something's coming at you, your life's at

manage traffic " on the Internet as well

risk. " Instead, autonomous vehicles will

as on the streets, " Thakur says.

need a cloud-based decision support

By installing micro data centers to

system that takes in and processes
data from the surrounding
environment, including street
signs, pedestrians, and data

On micro data centers are
Once
ubiquitous - in parking lots,
on cell towers, in wiring boxes,
under park benches, on fences
- it will be easier to deliver
low latency data in a massively
scalable way.

from other vehicles. But the
computing power will at all
times have to be close enough
to the car - think streets lined
with micro data centers - to
minimize latency for fast
action when it's needed.

2016

2018

The Association for Computing Machinery and the

Gartner ranks edge computing among the top
p ten
te
en
n

IEEE Computer Society jointly organize their ﬁrst

technology trends enabling the next generation
tio
on
n of
o

symposium on edge computing.

digital businesses and ecosystems.
s.
15
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 4

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of CTO Straight Talk - Issue 4
