What is EDGE computing?

Edge computing has arrived to break response time and reduce the volume of data transfer between devices, thus making bandwidth performance more efficient and lowering investment costs. Edge computing: closer and faster, more secure?

What is edge computing?

The technology known as edge computing uses a mesh of small nodes of nearby micro data centers to quickly process the information generated by connected devices, without having to send a large amount of data to external servers or distant cloud platforms.

The main objective of edge computing is to bring the cloud closer to the user, to the edge of the network: to bring information as close as possible to the place where it is generated.

Reducing the time between data analysis and device response is essential in some fields, such as industry, finance, healthcare and telecommunications. Hence the importance of edge computing.

Characteristics of edge computing

One of the main objectives of edge computing is to bring the cloud closer to the user, at the edge of the network. In other words, to make it easier for information to be as close as possible to the place where it is generated.

In this way, browsing and data transfer is more efficient with edge computing, and the latency time, the response time between the connected device and the server or cloud storage, is reduced.

In addition, the reduction in the amount of information sent is remarkable, since only the necessary information is processed locally, from these connected nodes, micro data centers installed in different locations, which would help to decongest the traffic of corporate communications networks.

Edge computing applications

Edge computing already has many applications, both in the IOT, or Internet of Things, and in its applications in intelligent industry, the so-called Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT).

For example, in a connected vehicle, all the data collected can be processed in the same place where it is generated, the vehicle itself, without having to send it to an external server.

The same happens in industrial plants of any other sector, where the sensors installed in the different machines or tools, managed by different industrial software programs, process the information through nearby nodes.

Research or robotic surgery

In addition, edge computing makes it possible to process rapid information on the status of the machinery used in industrial manufacturing processes, and to warn of possible operating errors so that they can be corrected quickly.

As we can see, the reduction of data analysis time and device response is essential in some areas that require immediacy for the processing of their operations, such as in industry, the financial sector, for companies in the telecommunications sector, or in the health area, where the use of edge computing stands out in specialized fields such as medical technology.