What is Edge Computing?
Finding a clear definition of edge computing can be challenging; there are many opinions on what constitutes the edge. Some definitions will narrow the definition of cloud, claiming that edge only includes devices that are required to support low latency workload, or that are the last computation point before the consumer, whilst others will include the consumer device or an IOT device, even if latency is not an issue. As it appears that everyone has a slightly different perspective on what edge computing entails, in order to have a common understanding the following is the definition of edge computing used for this discussion. In this discussion we take a broad interpretation of Edge Computing, including all compute devices that provide computing resources, that are not located in core or regional data centers, that bring computing resources closer to the end user or data collection devices. For example, consider this hierarchy:
Edge Use Cases
There are a large number of potential use cases for edge computing, with more being identified all the time. For example:
Edge Essential Requirements
The delivery of any compute service has a number of requirements that need to be met. With edge computing, the same delivery of a massively distributed compute service takes all those requirements and compounds them, not only because of the scale, but also because access (both physically and via the network) may be restricted due to device/cloud location. So taking this into account, what are the requirements for edge computing?Area | Detail |
Security (isolation) |
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Resource management |
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Telemetry Data |
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Operations |
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Open Standards |
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Stability and Predictability |
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Performance |
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Abstraction |
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