What do you need to know about Edge computing?
If you haven’t been looking into recent internet developments you could easily wonder what edge computing is all about. No, edge computing isn’t a reference to Microsoft’s latest web browser.
One of the more recent developments in hybrid cloud computing is the move of several high profile vendors like, Microsoft, VMware, and Amazon toward what they have called edge computing – sometimes called The Edge.
Edge computing typically refers to deploying local computing resources near the boundary – or edge – of your organization’s internet connection. This edge deployment typically uses a hybrid cloud model that combines local compute resources with cloud-based services and data storage. The idea behind edge computing is that it can localize computing resources closer to their sources and provide local processing that can reduce latencies as well as the amount of data that must be moved to the cloud or a remote data center.
In essence, edge computing provides lower latency and reduces data transmission costs.
Today, edge computing is growing fastest around the Internet of Things (IoT) deployments. In this scenario, local IoT devices are collecting vast quantities of data that can later be moved to the cloud and analyzed and used for decision making information. However, moving all of that data to the cloud can be slow and costly making the cloud data transfer a bottleneck. Plus, analysis is only possible after the data has been transferred to the cloud. Edge computing can address these issues by performing initial processing on the data where machine learning and AI processes that can be applied to identify and eliminate anomalies, potentially aggregate the data as well as providing the possibility for low latency local analysis and reporting.
A collection of the more notable recent edge computing offerings from Microsoft Azure include:
Azure Digital Twins
Azure Digital Twins is an IoT service that helps you create comprehensive models of physical environments. Create spatial intelligence graphs to model the relationships and interactions between people, places, and devices. Query data from a physical space rather than disparate sensors. And, build reusable, highly scalable, spatially aware experiences that link streaming data across the physical and digital world.
Azure IoT Edge extended offline
To address the ever-expanding use cases at the edge, we are adding the capability for IoT devices to operate disconnected from the internet for extended periods with the public preview of Azure IoT Edge extended offline capability.
Azure IoT Central
Azure IoT Central is a fully managed global IoT SaaS (software-as-a-service) solution that makes it easy to connect, monitor, and manage your IoT assets at scale. This means you can bring your connected products to market faster and provide new value add services to your connection solution.
Azure Sphere
Azure Sphere, a new solution for creating highly-secured, internet-connected microcontroller (MCU) devices running on the edge. Today, we are excited to announce the broad availability of the first Azure Sphere dev kit and the public preview of the Azure Sphere OS, Azure Sphere Security Service, and developer tools.
The Azure Stack family now consists of three members, Azure Stack Hub, formerly known as Azure Stack, Azure Stack HCI, and Azure Stack Edge (formerly known as Azure Databox Edge). This offers customers new capabilities, form factors, and solutions in the Azure Stack portfolio, to ensure that the customer has the right solutions for their edge infrastructure.
Azure Stack Edge
Azure Stack Edge is a Hardware-as-a-service solution. Microsoft ships you a cloud-managed device with a built-in Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) that enables accelerated AI-inferencing and has all the capabilities of a network storage gateway. Azure Stack Edge is an AI-enabled edge computing device with network data transfer capabilities.
Azure Stack Hub
Azure Stack Hub is an extension of Azure that provides a way to run apps in an on-premises environment and deliver Azure services in your datacenter. With a consistent cloud platform, organizations can confidently make technology decisions based on business requirements, rather than business decisions based on technology limitations.
Certainly, the edge will play a growing role in hybrid cloud computing as businesses look to deploy increased computing power near their own data sources and distribute processing between on-premise and the cloud.
Thanks
Susanth