Read on to find out the top 5 benefits of Edge Computing for small businesses…
Gartner, a tech research and advisory firm has found that in 2018, only 10% of enterprise-generated data was created and processed outside of traditional centralized data centers and the cloud.
But Gartner estimates that around 75% of data is likely to be processed at the edge by 2025. Recent statistics show us that global spending on edge computing is expected to hit $176 billion in 2022, an increase of 14.8% over 2021.
The International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Edge Spending Guide also reports that enterprise and service provider spending on hardware, software, and services for edge solutions is likely to sustain this pace of growth through 2025 when it will reach nearly $274 billion. Managed IT Services New Jersey offers a host of Edge Computing Services for local businesses.
What Is Edge Computing?
Edge computing architecture enables key processing tasks to happen at the edge of the network (on servers and devices) instead of centralized locations like central servers in cloud computing.
Since the data is generated at the endpoints and processing happens at the edge, the data packets have to ‘travel’ a lot less since it does not have to make the lengthy journey to the network core. The data is processed and analyzed using local computing resources, allowing much faster response speeds and quicker processing.
This means that devices and applications on the edge network have the ability to react and adapt much faster to changing situations and shifting demands. Edge computing is particularly useful in cases where data processing needs to happen in real-time and with very low latency. Some of these use cases can include manoeuvring automatic vehicles, on-the-go smart decision-making for logistics and transport, and more.
Top 5 Benefits Of Edge Computing For Small Businesses
1. Improved speeds and significant reduction in latency
Traffic on edge networks does not need to reach the core of the network (cloud) in order to be processed. The data can be generated and processed at the end points themselves or at the edges of the network that vastly decreases the travel for data packets. This means data can be processed a lot faster amounting to whole seconds, or milliseconds on average.
The reduced travel time also results in negligible latency – a necessary component of real-time decision-making based on data in any field such as autonomous vehicles, IoT deployments in industrial sites (that need split-second data inputs to function safely) and medical use cases all require machines to analyze data more.
2. Better security
Enhanced Edge Computing Security and privacy is a given in edge networks since the data is kept close to the edge and has less scope of being compromised during transit. While edge devices remain prone to hacking, especially with inadequate security protocols in place, they contain only traces of data and sometimes, not even complete data sets.
This makes it unwieldy for hackers to use the data even if they manage to breach the device. Centralized servers, on the other hand, present a big fat target for hackers where endpoint data is stored with other data points to present relatively more complete data sets. Cybersecurity New Jersey team will help you out to protect your business from advanced cyber threats.
3. Significantly reduced operational costs
With volumes of data stretching belief, companies are finding it more expensive to move data around. Since data volumes can only be expected to increase in the future, users will require more bandwidth and connectivity costs are expected to rise. With prices rising up on both fronts, businesses may need edge computing cost benefits just to keep costs under control or at least prevent it from rising even further.
4. Better Data Management
Data that’s captured at the edge of the network can be very valuable because they contain data that can help analysts understand user behavior patterns. However, the data also contains a lot of useless parts that need to be sifted in order to get at the valuable data contained within. Businesses need strong analytics tools in order to effectively process that unstructured data and gain meaning from it.
Edge computing networks should ideally be designed to make use of both local devices and edge data center resources to process that data – at least at a primary level. Edge networks must be designed with the capability of processing some of the data at the edge and only send select types of information up to the cloud.
This not only results in better data management, it also reduces the burden on critical processing resources and further improves the quality of data analysis and processing done by big data applications.
5. Enhanced Scalability
Edge computing enables companies with the ability to provision systems as they go. In this respect it is very much alike with the cloud. Companies can add edge devices as and when they need to, especially when they’re scaling up but also remove devices when there is lower market demand. This way organizations only need to deploy and manage systems and resources that they actually use.
There are cost-benefits attached to this as well. Endpoint hardware and edge devices have a significantly lower cost attached compared to hardware and computing resources required for centralized data centers. The lowered cost requirement also makes it easy for companies to scale with edge networks.
To understand Edge Computing Technology in-depth and its applicability and benefits for your business, please reach out to Cloud Services New Jersey.
NOTE: This is a guest post by Chris Forte
