CTO Straight Talk - Issue 4 - 8

IN A
NUTSHELL
N
NUT
UTSHE
HE
IoT
T devices
d
a
and other sensors
rs produc
produce
ev
va
vast
ast
a
mounts of data but lack the ability
ity to p
oce
ess
amounts
process
ttheir
eir own d
ll allow tthem
he
em
data. Edge computing will
o send
send that
th data wirelessly, often over ce
e lu
u
to
cellular
n
etw
e
works to nearby tiny prefabricated
cate
ed
d data
dat
networks,
ce
entte
ers-
aried a
ass c
centers-located
in places as varied
cell
ow
we
ers and under park benches-i
in
nste
te
ea of
towers
benches-instead
co
oloc
ocat
ation facilities and clo
oud
ud sse
erv ce
to colocation
cloud
service
p
vide
vid
der hundreds or thousands
thousa
ands of
providers
miles away. This enable
enabless en
end users
to receive
eive the
t
results of data
analysis
alysis faster
ster.
faster.

" Cloud providers are constantly running
short on connectivity, with the average
cloud consumer experiencing 100 to 125
milliseconds of round trip latency, " says
Mark Thiele, formerly an executive at
Ericsson's Edge Gravity unit and now
CEO of Edgevana, a startup involved
in the selling and buying of edge and
data-center services. By speeding up
that process, " edge computing has
the potential to differentiate how you
engage with your customers - whether
it's pure performance, more engaging
content, deeper content level, or
smarter interaction as you go about
your life. "
Furthermore, as more micro data

Currently, edge computing is still

centers for edge computing spring up

nascent. Because there hasn't yet been

around the world, we'll be able to gather

widespread proliferation of micro data

and act on more types of data in more

centers and the creation of a widely

locations in less time, for purposes

available edge infrastructure, there

ranging from improving farming to

are few active use cases. However,

fending off natural disasters.

by shortening the distance data must

disruptive as the cloud itself has been. It

THE BIRTH OF EDGE
COMPUTING

will create opportunities for businesses

To understand the potential impact

in a wide array of industries-such

of edge computing, it's necessary to

as transportation, healthcare, and

understand the evolution of the Internet

gaming-that measure network lag in

itself. Originally conceived as a military

fractions of a second. Edge computing's

project, the Internet was designed ﬁrst

potential to better manage pandemics

and foremost for resilience. It forces

like COVID-19 is particularly enticing.

data to travel in short hops from source

(See " Edge Computing as a Treatment

to destination, a deliberate design

For Pandemics, " on page 62.)

choice that keeps the network functional

travel, thereby decreasing latency and
unpredictability, it will be at least as

even in a disaster by rerouting data

1995

MILESTONES IN THE
HISTORY OF
EDGE COMPUTING

Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World
Wide Web, challenges his colleagues at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
to solve the growing problem of Internet
congestion.

8
CTO Straight Talk - Issue 4

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