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Edge computing

Edge computing is a form of distributed computing whereby resources are copied from a remote location to a local one. See the following diagram:

As you can see, there is a central cloud network of servers and database storage, and nodes of servers and databases connected to the central cloud. The cloud-based network exists in a remote location. This could be on the other side of the world, for example. The nodes are located locally, perhaps in the same physical building as the computers that will access them.

Edge computing will be used in the upcoming 5G cellular data standard, as locally distributed nodes will provide access to the network with lightning speeds. With the rapid rise in the number of IoT devices connected, 5G will allow for sensors to transmit data with a small amount of latency.

Despite improvements to network technology, having nodes close to the location where they are needed is a methodology worth the extra cost due to the following three factors:

Privacy
Latency
Reliability

We will go into more detail on these three factors in the upcoming section Edge analytics.

Now that we have an understanding of the various options for computing resources, let's take a look at IoT applications.