For a while now, cloud computing was all the rage in tech circles and for many legitimate reasons. Cloud computing helps companies reduce tech infrastructure costs, often provides better security than in-house setups, and enables many SaaS solutions for businesses. Yet, for all those benefits, cloud computing isn’t quite the panacea that everyone imagined it might prove.
Enter edge computing. Edge computing serves as a kind of middle ground between cloud computing and local computing with a clever combination of hardware and software. If you’re still on the fence about edge computing, keep reading for seven ways edge computing can benefit your business.
1. Reduced Latency
One of the major complaints about cloud computing is the problem of latency. Latency is essentially lag time in data transmission.
So, you might see some lag time between when data enters the system and when your system gets a response from a cloud resource, such as a SaaS point of sale system that operates in the cloud. While latency typically gets measured in milliseconds, they add up after a while.
Even worse, for larger-scale businesses processing lots of transactions or crunching lots of data, that lag time actually reduces traffic and even revenue.
Since cloud computing happens closer to the source of the data, you see less latency. That speed improvement supports your site, software, and even sales.
2. Security
Wait, you might think, I thought cloud computing was safer than an in-house setup. As a general rule, cloud computing does offer better security than an in-house setup.
While you generally possess control over how much security your data gets, the overall cloud system usually enjoys very robust security. Yet, the finite number of major cloud providers also means that there is a tremendous amount of valuable business data stored in only a few places. That makes them targets and any security failure can expose vast troves of data.
Edge computing companies like Hivecell take advantage of distributed computing which spreads your data out over multiple sources. While some of your data might get exposed at any one spot, a single security failure won’t expose all of your data.
3. Scalable
Traditional business computing depends on building data centers that process that business data or provide support for your other business software. Of course, these data centers prove cost-prohibitive for smaller businesses, and scaling them up requires even more investment.
Since edge computing solutions don’t depend on these centralized data centers, you can scale up the services for a lot less money. You just add a little more hardware at the local level.
Since you add hardware locally, it’s comparatively simple to connect it to your existing system. Rather than a central hub that may not respond well to hardware changes, you simply add a node to a kind of digital swarm.
4. Reduced Costs
Initially, cloud computing helped companies cut IT costs by limiting the in-house infrastructure you needed to support operations. As the number of data sources swelled and swelled, the age of big data arrived on the scene. Now, you can burn through a pile of money paying to move that data around.
Keeping some of the data processing local means you must transmit and receive less data. While you can still enjoy a smaller IT infrastructure, you also enjoy the benefits of paying less for moving that data.
Cloud service providers often charge based on how much data you move back and forth. REducing the data you send to the cloud service itself will also provide savings over time.
5. Improved Decision Making
Moving business data to a central location for analysis has its place for large-scale corporate decisions. Yet, it’s less than optimal for local decisions in a retail environment.
Even if the centralized analysis provides the same conclusions, local operators can’t rely on that information coming from a real-time analysis. The analysis might come from data less than an hour old or data from three weeks ago.
Edge computing lets local branches of a business analyze data in near to real-time. That means they can make decisions based on the most recent data available, which can potentially improve everything from initiating sales to inventory control.
6. IoT
The Internet of Things provides a lot of value to consumers and to businesses, but it also produces mountains of largely useless data. The cloud system itself encourages businesses to simply upload everything and store it. It’s a waste of resources all the way around.
Edge computing can help businesses separate out the data wheat from the digital chaff. The valuable data gets passed on to the cloud, while the less than valuable data never reaches it.
Just as importantly, edge computing can respond faster to IoT data that provides life-saving functions like data from a heart monitor.
7. Operational Efficiency
Edge computing solutions aren’t just for tech startups and major corporations. Businesses involved in manufacturing any product can also benefit in terms of operational efficiency.
Working with local data and leveraging real-time analysis can help you spot a problem out on the floor before it turns into a disaster. This helps you avoid full-blown shutdowns of your lines.
That real-time data processing can also help you identify bottlenecks in your process that may escape the notice of more traditional efficiency systems like Six Sigma and lean manufacturing.
Edge Computing and Your Business
Edge computing provides a middle ground between local business data processing and cloud data processes. By keeping some of the hardware local and marrying it to distributed computing, edge computing solves common cloud service problems. It also provides your business with lots of benefits.
You can reduce latency and IT costs while boosting operational efficiency and security. You get a scalable system that helps you refine the data you do send along for cloud computing.
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