Edge Computing Ready to Compete with Cloud Computing
The massive cloud companies Amazon, Alphabet, and Microsoft, are now facing heavy competition because of the usefulness and cost-effectiveness of edge computing components. Cloud computing still forms the backbone of many enterprise-level technology experiments. Edge computing provides far better connection and response times, since links to cloud servers may suffer from high latency. In time-sensitive equipment, edge computing offers faster data transfer.
5G Fueling Adoption
While edge computing has been around for a while and has even featured as a complementary technology to the cloud, it hadn’t yet found its best application because of the unreliability of networks. However, with the looming rollout of 5G across the country, this problem might have been resolved. The faster transfer speeds and more reliable connectivity means that processing can be done in real-time at the edge, allowing for more responsive devices. The increased responsivity is especially essential for IoT devices that depend on connectivity to fuel their data transfer and communication with their parent locations.
A Change in Paradigm
At current, cloud computing helps to process and distribute data across hundreds of data centers located around the country. However, as edge computing becomes more and more ubiquitous, cloud computing will likely be replaced as the primary location for processing. Instead, cloud servers may be changed into massive data storage lakes. Edge computing will replace the cloud as the central processing location for the collected data.
As 5G opens up edge processing to industry, the cloud providers may need to start partnering with telecommunications providers. Telecom companies already have access to their own infrastructure, which provides coverage for the 5G network across the United States. By partnering with these companies, the cloud providers can leverage the locations to cash in on the prevalence of edge computing and offer service tie-ins with their cloud servers. Cloud-telecom partnerships are likely to mirror those of Tencent and Alibaba with China Unicom, which happened in 2017.
