Top 5 Advantages of Edge Computing

Network performance is a critical component for many businesses when it comes to modern workplace technology. According to 63% percent of mobile users, if a page or app takes more than five seconds to load, they’ll close out the page and leave the app altogether. So it makes sense that both small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) rely on consistent network performance for data processing and to maintain a competitive advantage when it comes to customer retention. Edge computing provides the reliability and consistency SMBs need.

What is Edge Computing?

Edge computing is data processing on the local devices and servers connected to the network. Unlike cloud computing(where the data is being handled remotely) with edge computing, data is processed and analyzed at the location it’s generated.

Advantages of Edge Computing

Processing data closer to its original source offers several advantages including: improved speed, better security and data protection, reduced costs, enhanced scalability, and more reliability and flexibility. Let’s explore each of these advantages in more detail.

Improved Speed

One of the most notable advantages of edge computing is the short latency period for devices. Since all the processing happens at a local level, the data transfer speed is faster. Edge computing offers several benefits for businesses that deal in home appliances, smart devices, IoT (Internet of Things) devices and other modern workplace technology. The response time from the service providers or the business network servers is significantly reduced.

The user queries and requests are quickly answered and processed because data isn’t being transferred between a remote cloud system. In edge computing, after analysis,  the time needed for data to move from local devices to the cloud servers and back to the local devices is eliminated. With the travel time of data latency is reduced to milliseconds and the processing speed is automatically improved. 

Better Security & Data Protection

Edge computing provides better protection around data privacy because data doesn’t move through centralized cloud servers. Centralized data is often more at risk because large amounts of data move between cloud servers. Whenever there’s a data transfer, there’s a risk of something happening to the data. Edge computing, however, offers better protection of data from hackers because edge devices hold small amounts of data instead of whole bundles. Hackers don’t typically bother with smaller amounts of limited data, and therefore the data security is increased.

Edge computing processes and stores data on local servers, eliminating a large risk percentage of data security threats. This process requires that only the most critical data is transferred to data centers  means only a small amount of data is at risk from breaches and external attacks. With edge computing, there’s less information to monitor, and as a result, privacy and security of data are significantly improved.

Reduced Costs

Edge computing enables you to sort data based on its value for your business. You don’t have to spend the same amount of money moving, managing, and processing your data from local devices to central servers. You can hold as much data as you need on your edge devices and say goodbye to unnecessary bandwidth costs with edge computing.

Because edge computing optimizes cloud data transfers, you can increase your data flow while keeping the operational costs in check. With a lot of data stored, analyzed, and managed on local edge devices, you don’t need to spend additional money on bandwidth to transfer data. Additionally, high connectivity costs of centralized data are significantly reduced with edge computing, if not eliminated altogether.

Scalability

As the amount of data increases, businesses can add multiple edge devices to expand their services and uses. You can easily extend your capacity by setting up more local devices. They are usually less expensive than cloud data centers. Another advantage of edge computing is that large amounts of information in multiple locations can be processed efficiently without risking the data’s privacy, size, and speed. As businesses grow, they need to evolve to handle increased amounts of data, and edge computing is easy to scale based on data requirements.

Reliability and Flexibility 

Because edge computing relies on local devices and doesn’t depend on an internet connection, service is more reliable. The chances of failure or interruptions in service are minimal, if at all. Also, if there are any technical issues with any devices, it’s typically a local issue. Other IoT devices aren’t affected since everything is localized and not centralized. For example, if the network is temporarily down or slow, edge computing devices keep operating at the usual pace. Data clustering can be avoided without the need to transfer to cloud servers, which frees up the network bandwidth and increases reliability.

The purpose of edge computing isn’t to replace cloud computing. The purpose of edge computing is to create an interconnected and safe digital network for modern workplace technology. Businesses that invest in edge computing can expect better connectivity, higher processing speed, reduced costs, and better reliability, which all lead to more profits.

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