When there’s a long distance between your network or systems and your server, it reduces communication speed and uses up more bandwidth. Essentially, this means response times will be slower and it will take longer to access, input, modify or delete data.
Edge computing aims to overcome these issues by bringing data storage and computation closer to the location it’s needed. Until recently, the vast majority of business users and consumers relied on a relatively small number of centralized services. Of course, this high demand and the vast distance between the end user’s hardware and the software they want to access meant a drop in speeds.
While there is little scope or advantage in making the cloud bigger, innovators have been working behind the scenes to bring the cloud closer to you. And that’s where edge computing comes in. By facilitating data storage and processing on edge devices, like your phone or tablet, less communication is needed between the device and the centralised services housed in the cloud. Due to this, there are fewer lags in connectivity and speeds are increased.
What are the Benefits of Edge Computing?
With the potential to decrease latency, reduce network congestion and enhance the user experience, it’s easy to see why edge computing is creating such a buzz. While mobile edge computing is already improving the use of smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices, edge computing is set to have far more uses.
As the Internet of Things (IoT) becomes a part of everyday life, we’re seeing a large number of appliances with built-in internet connectivity. Whereas an average home may have once had one or two computers, this increased to maybe five or six devices when smartphones become widely available. With the IoT, however, it’s not unreasonable to think that the average household will soon have dozens or even hundreds of devices with internet connectivity capabilities.
With the network set to be under more pressure than ever, latency could increase further without an appropriate solution. Fortunately, the move towards edge computing offers just that. By allowing and enabling devices to process and store data (or storing and processing this data closer to the device), communication is reduced, and the network is no longer overburdened.
What Does Edge Computing Mean for Businesses?
There’s no doubt that edge computing will be beneficial for everyone, but companies stand to make significant gains by incorporating edge computing into their infrastructure. Even a slight increase in latency can have a major impact on your operations. From reducing efficiency and productivity to delaying transactions; latency has a substantial effect on your bottom line.
Due to this, it’s vital that companies find effective ways to overcome the reduced speed and connectivity issues that a crowded network brings. By using a serverless architecture, companies can reduce their costs further, while implementing edge computing provides a verifiable way of speeding up connectivity.
To learn more about the benefits of edge computing for your business, contact Gemraj Technologies Ltd now on 0800 051 7679.