EDGE COMPUTING
29
Leo Craig, General Manager,
Riello UPS
www.riello-ups.co.uk
Our data-driven society
increasingly depends on real-
time processing that only edge
computing can adequately deliver
There are already more than
270 million connected devices in
the UK, a figure predicted to more
than double inside the next five years
to over 600 million. Globally, Gartner
forecasts there’ll be 50 billion ‘Internet of
Things’ devices by 2020.
Whether it’s smartphones, wearables,
games consoles, and virtual assistants
dominating our day-to-day lives, or the
smart grids, robotics, and machine-to-machine
communications transforming our businesses and
public service delivery, it’s undeniable we’re in the
midst of a technological revolution. But to fully reap
the rewards of our increasingly interconnected world,
much of this data needs to be processed in real-time.
Millisecond delays could destroy automated factory
production runs. Think of the chaos any disruption would
cause banks or retailers, where millions of pounds are at
stake every day.
Enterprise data centres have been the backbone of
computing for decades. In more recent years, the advent
of the cloud has shaken up the way we store and manage
information. However, both of these options tend to
come up short when it comes to the all-important aspect
of real-time processing. Just think about it. When every
millisecond counts, transporting information from sensors
and machinery to a centralised or cloud data centre often
hundreds or even thousands of miles away, processing it,
then sending it all the way back to the original source simply
isn’t a sustainable approach. Even the largest hyperscale
data centres struggle to cope with the sheer volume. In
addition, sending data to every corner of the planet takes
up huge amounts of bandwidth. And that’s before we even
consider the cybersecurity risks. Potential hackers will be
rubbing their hands in anticipation at all those gigabytes of
precious information flowing between networks.
www.networkseuropemagazine.com