Peeling back the layers of the edge

Peeling back the layers of the edge

There’s a certain concept that’s been around in the IT industry for decades, and yet it’s one of the most difficult to define. It’s something that Gartner predicts will soon “become empowered with sophisticated computer resources and more data storage”. Many organisations are preparing for it to take over the world, and many others are dedicating resources to figuring out how to benefit from it.


The edge. What is it? What are its motivations, the best practices surrounding its usage, its role in today’s digitally transformed world?


It’s becoming increasingly clear that, in 2021, the ability for organisations to integrate edge infrastructure into their existing cloud-native ecosystem — all while maintaining non-negotiable requirements such as security, power consumption and hardware — is one of the highest-value attributes of the edge. 


But it’s hard to extract value out of something if you don’t have a firm grasp of its definition.  


So what is edge computing?


The term edge computing has been used to describe everything from actions performed by tiny IoT devices to data-centre-like infrastructure. At the conceptual level, edge computing refers to the idea of bringing computing closer to where it’s consumed or closer to the sources of data. 


While the term ‘edge’ is frequently attached to computing, it’s not limited to just that: conceptually, the edge can also include networking and storage services.


Indeed, there is no single edge, but a continuum of edge tiers with different properties in terms of distance to users, number of sites, size of sites, ownership, etc. Added to this: the location of where edge computing is located is subject to interpretation. For service providers, edge computing can extend from core to the last mile, whereas for enterprises ..

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