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Everything You Need to Know About Edge Computing

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16 July 2024

Data is considered to be the lifeblood of modern business. It provides valuable business insights and supports the real-time control of important business processes and operations. 

Businesses are often overwhelmed with massive floods of data. In fact, large amounts of data can now be collected from sensors and IoT devices present almost anywhere in the world.

However, these massive data streams are also changing how businesses handle computing, with many businesses now adopting edge computing. 

Edge computing allows you to unlock the true potential of untapped data created by connected devices. It can also help you discover new business opportunities, improve operational efficiency, and enhance customer experiences. 

In this blog, we’ll examine edge computing, its workings, benefits, and how it is reshaping IT and business computing.

Let’s begin!

What Is Edge Computing?

Edge computing is a network philosophy that revolves around starting computing as close to the source of data as possible to minimise latency and bandwidth use. 

The concept of edge computing isn’t particularly new and is rooted in old ideas of remote computing, such as remote offices and branch offices.

Essentially, edge computing means running fewer processes in the cloud and instead moving those processes to local places, i.e. edge data centres such as a user’s computer, an edge server or an IoT device. 

By bringing computation to the edge in computer networks, you can reduce the amount of long-distance communication that has to occur between a client and server. The principle of edge computing is relatively straightforward: if you can’t get the data close to the data centre, get the centre closer to the data.

How Does Edge Computing Work?

In edge computing, your data is stored and processed locally on a built-in or separate server. Performing some processing locally and only sending essential data to the central data centre or cloud significantly reduces data congestion. 

By managing processing at the edge in a computer network, edge computing ensures that data, especially real-time data, doesn’t suffer any latency issues. As such, this helps prevent any impact on performance. It also reduces the strain on the network and allows for quicker analysis and response times. 

Moreover, as we’ve become increasingly reliant on technology, there has been an exponential increase in data. This results in network congestion and slow response times. If you were to use traditional cloud-based computing methods to solve this issue, it could quickly become very costly for your business.  

Edge computing efficiently processes and analyses large amounts of data generated by IoT devices and improves their functionality. By embracing that form of computing, your business can process data more quickly and enjoy the high responsiveness required in today’s technology-driven world. 

The increasing number of connected devices paired with the rising demand for real-time processing has made edge computing a crucial aspect of modern computing systems. 

Benefits of Edge Computing

Bringing processing and storage closer to the source of data can prove very beneficial in the long term. Let’s explore some of the many benefits of implementing edge computing in your IT infrastructure:

1) Reliability

More often than not, edge computing occurs in remote areas where internet connectivity is scarce. 

By setting up an edge computing environment, your organisation can ensure the reliable processing, analysis, and storage of data. This significantly minimises the risks of operational downtime that can occur due to connectivity issues or network disruption. 

2) Affordability

Sending large amounts of data from its point of origin to centralised data centres can become very expensive as it requires more bandwidth. 

By utilising an edge computing model, you can reduce the amount of data being sent from sites to data centres, as only critical data is sent. Depending on how much data your business sends and processes regularly, edge computing can be very cost-effective. 

3) Availability

Edge computing is especially useful in places where connectivity is unreliable or bandwidth is restricted due to environmental elements, such as oil rigs, remote farms, and other remote locations. 

Edge computing ensures that all computing work is done on-site, sometimes on the edge device itself. By processing data locally on network edges, you can significantly reduce the data that needs to be sent, leading to the utilisation of less bandwidth and minimal connectivity.

4) Better Security

As you’re aware, edge computing demands that most data processing and storage be done locally. However, did you know it also offers an additional opportunity to implement and ensure data security? 

By implementing computing at the edge of your network, you can use encryption to secure any data traversing back to the cloud or data centre. Moreover, the edge deployment itself can also be protected against cyber security threats, hackers, and other malicious activities, even when security on IoT devices is limited.

Edge computing also helps your business comply with local data sovereignty laws, such as the Data Protection Act, keeping sensitive data close to the source.

Optimise IT Security and Contact Redpalm Today! 

Edge computing continues to evolve and use the latest technologies and practices to improve its capabilities and performance. 

Similar to the ever-evolving world of edge computing, it is also important that your business continues to evolve and arm itself against potential IT security threats. Fortunately, we can assist you with that!

Redpalm is a leading Managed Services Provider (MSP) that provides effective managed IT services and cybersecurity solutions to help you protect your business.

With their many years of experience, our Microsoft-certified experts are well-equipped to help you identify and mitigate all risks as soon as they are detected. 

We also offer services such as proactive monitoring, IT user support, vulnerability assessment, IT audits and health checks to strengthen your business’ defences. 

To learn more about our services, click here or contact us to schedule an appointment today!

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