Obstacles in the Course of Edge Computing

Business leaders around the world are busy accommodating digital technology and systems of intelligence into their organizations to transform their products, optimize operations, empower employees, and engage customers. The digital realm is progressing leaps and bounds but the future of this growth is dependent on the collective ability of businesses to transcend current technologies into business models. Most of these revolutionizing contemporary technologies are dependent upon the very popular – Edge Computing.

Edge computing promises intelligence at proximity, and is undeniably one of the most talked about technologies of this day and age. It is the lynchpin technology that will enable all the digital developments that are taking us into the future. Disruptions like artificial intelligence, machine learning, IoT, 5G, augmented reality, visual reality, content delivery networks like Netflix and Amazon Prime, self-driving cars, etc, all depend on a network at the edge for their seamless working.

With the amazing advantages it offers we would all think that edge computing must be moving as fast as the speed of light. But, that might not exactly be the case right now.

Currently, it feels like the buzz surrounding edge deployments is a little larger than the actual number of deployments for the same. Edge Computing is at present seeing hurdles that are delaying the widespread adoption of the technology and such obstructions are common to a lot of new technologies.

The ground reality

5G is one the most talked about application of edge, but apart from 5G, there is not a lot on the news about the necessity of edge computing to support other developments like AI, IoT, and self-driving cars.

Even as the base stations are being laid for the 5G networks, the developments around it are not as quick as were anticipated. Just a limited number of regional 5G networks are predicted to be functional in the next 12-15 months. We are in a place where we need many more players in the market to encourage market growth.

Looking at things from a commercial angle the telecom companies are starting to slowly and steadily show off their edge deployments. Car companies are seen testing connectivity at the edge to collect and analyze data from their self-driving test vehicles, in a bid to roll out their autonomous cars. Apart from this, not a lot is in the news as of yet.

Many hyper scale companies Microsoft, Google maps, Amazon will benefit hugely with more and more edge data centers. Such companies are starting to provide multiple resources to promote edge computing, as apart from the large central connectivity service they provide, they also have various branches of their companies and services at the edge.

But when it comes to edge, there is always a silver lining. There are predictions from within the industry that by 2030, the edge market will be four times bigger than the market for cloud computing (Arpit Joshipura, general manager for networking at the Linux Foundation, to Data Economy). The industry insiders believe that every promising new technology needs a strong framework for it to be successful. That is exactly where the industry is with respect to edge.

Prerequisites of a functioning edge deployment call for near zero latency, mobility, flexibility, and appropriate location to provide proximate storage and processing. We might have to wait for a few more months to see more activity from the big players, but there is one thing we know for sure – Edge computing is coming, and it will change the game of technology forever.

References

https://data-economy.com/edge-to-be-four-times-bigger-than-the-cloud-market-apparently/