FEATURE
CURRENTLY,
AROUND 10%
OF ENTERPRISE-
GENERATED
DATA IS CREATED
AND PROCESSED
OUTSIDE A
TRADITIONAL
CENTRALISED
DATA CENTRE
OR CLOUD.
Using the cloud to process all this data
poses a number of problems. Firstly, there
is the matter of latency; can you really
afford to send time or safety critical data
all the way to the cloud for analysis and
then back again to site? Then there is the
cost of transporting all that data. And of
course, there is security and regulatory
compliance to consider.
How can edge computing help?
When dealing with a massive amount
of data, having the ability to analyse
and filter the data before sending it can
lead to huge savings in network and
computing resources.
Latency is reduced by reducing or
eliminating the need for data transmission
to and from core IT systems.
What is edge computing?
For the past five years we’ve all been
talking about the cloud. It’s become
all pervasive as companies move to
consumption-based pricing and we’ve
watched the meteoric rise of the hyper-
scalers like Amazon, Microsoft and Google.
And that’s despite the cynic’s view that
‘the cloud is simply a data centre that
nobody is supposed to know where it is’.
Currently, around 10% of enterprise-
generated data is created and processed
outside a traditional centralised data
centre or cloud. By 2022, Gartner predicts
this figure will reach 50%, with a great
deal of interest in edge computing, where
data is stored and processed very close to
its point of consumption and/or creation;
a factory, an oil rig, a retail outlet or even a
container ship.
So why is this suddenly getting so
much interest?
Especially important for safety/time critical
systems, this means that decisions can
be made faster based on more granular
and localised data. Edge computing
can also mean reduced connectivity
costs, decreased energy usage, less
hardware and cables, less space required,
lower installation costs and hardware
maintenance and less set up time.
And updates can be done remotely saving
on travel costs.
Security and privacy risks can be reduced
by limiting data flows between the point
of collection and the core infrastructure,
especially when those flows happen
over the public Internet. Using the edge
helps you to adhere to in-country data
protection laws. It keeps sensitive data
within the device, anonymising, analysing
and keeping the data at the source rather
than sending identifiable information to
the cloud
So, what could this look like?
www.intelligentdatacentres.com
The main reason that companies are
looking at edge computing is due to
the sheer volume of data created by
the Internet of Things and specifically
Industry 4.0, where companies stream
data from sensors to help them become
more efficient. Edge computing is still in the ‘innovation
trigger’ phase of its Gartner Hype Cycle
and it’s estimated to be another two to
five years until it reaches maturity but it
will transform the way firms deploy and
consume data centre resources.
As an example, a typical oil rig contains
20,000 sensors – that’s a lot of data. In the meantime, we are seeing customers
start to adopt a three phased approach.
Issue 02
45