K
Kathleen Martin
Guest
The internet of things (IoT) is fast becoming a reality.
The combination of the UK’s developing edge computing platforms and high-speed, high bandwidth 5G and full fibre connectivity brings advanced artificial intelligence (AI) driven applications and services within reach of almost every business in the country. We now live in a world where machines interact with each other more than humans do.
IoT growth depends on edge expansion because it requires a platform with great network connectivity, regionalised compute capability, and cloud access. Without these edge capabilities, businesses will not be able to use IoT applications at scale in the way they already use cloud applications. These need to process the masses of data from the multiple sensors and devices that comprise the IoT.
Shipping all data to be processed at the main public cloud providers’ data centres will become unsustainable due to latency and cost considerations. To mitigate this, IoT needs gateway hubs to aggregate the data, operate actuators and translate between sensor protocols used to connect to a network. This is best suited to the edge data centre where the gateway will filter out unnecessary data and pass on critical information to proprietary applications hosted in public cloud.
Industry adoption of edge is currently led by early-adopter use of MECs (multi-access edge computing environments) providing IT services, compute, and cloud access. This, however, will soon give way to shared services at the metropolitan level. There are already live use cases within the smart city, transport and energy sectors, but large-scale adoption will only follow once edge infrastructure platforms have fully developed their low latency connectivity, high-speed backhaul to the public cloud and local computing capabilities.
Nevertheless, at enterprise level three challenges commonly stand in the way of IoT adoption, beginning with the need to gain a full understanding of the benefits it can deliver in pure business terms. Then there is the challenge of integrating the multiplicity of IoT devices, gateways, and the data that these generate into an enterprise’s current architecture. The growth of AI applications also means that architectures will have to facilitate more data being transferred back to the edge for decision-making in intelligent IoT systems.
The third challenge is the more long-standing problem of acquiring staff with the requisite skills in data architecture aligned with process business transformation. Organisations can only overcome this endemic difficulty by selecting the right partners with deep expertise in the developing relationship between edge platforms and IoT implementations.
For IoT to accelerate, access to reliable and low latency connectivity is becoming essential. The primary markets for hardware devices will be dwarfed by the market for applications based on continuous streams of sensor data. Applications focused on real-time and aggregated data analytics need connectivity that has either low jitter, loss and lag or has dedicated high bandwidth.
Continue reading: https://technative.io/iot-and-the-edge-an-evolving-relationship/
The combination of the UK’s developing edge computing platforms and high-speed, high bandwidth 5G and full fibre connectivity brings advanced artificial intelligence (AI) driven applications and services within reach of almost every business in the country. We now live in a world where machines interact with each other more than humans do.
IoT growth depends on edge expansion because it requires a platform with great network connectivity, regionalised compute capability, and cloud access. Without these edge capabilities, businesses will not be able to use IoT applications at scale in the way they already use cloud applications. These need to process the masses of data from the multiple sensors and devices that comprise the IoT.
Shipping all data to be processed at the main public cloud providers’ data centres will become unsustainable due to latency and cost considerations. To mitigate this, IoT needs gateway hubs to aggregate the data, operate actuators and translate between sensor protocols used to connect to a network. This is best suited to the edge data centre where the gateway will filter out unnecessary data and pass on critical information to proprietary applications hosted in public cloud.
Industry adoption of edge is currently led by early-adopter use of MECs (multi-access edge computing environments) providing IT services, compute, and cloud access. This, however, will soon give way to shared services at the metropolitan level. There are already live use cases within the smart city, transport and energy sectors, but large-scale adoption will only follow once edge infrastructure platforms have fully developed their low latency connectivity, high-speed backhaul to the public cloud and local computing capabilities.
Nevertheless, at enterprise level three challenges commonly stand in the way of IoT adoption, beginning with the need to gain a full understanding of the benefits it can deliver in pure business terms. Then there is the challenge of integrating the multiplicity of IoT devices, gateways, and the data that these generate into an enterprise’s current architecture. The growth of AI applications also means that architectures will have to facilitate more data being transferred back to the edge for decision-making in intelligent IoT systems.
The third challenge is the more long-standing problem of acquiring staff with the requisite skills in data architecture aligned with process business transformation. Organisations can only overcome this endemic difficulty by selecting the right partners with deep expertise in the developing relationship between edge platforms and IoT implementations.
For IoT to accelerate, access to reliable and low latency connectivity is becoming essential. The primary markets for hardware devices will be dwarfed by the market for applications based on continuous streams of sensor data. Applications focused on real-time and aggregated data analytics need connectivity that has either low jitter, loss and lag or has dedicated high bandwidth.
Continue reading: https://technative.io/iot-and-the-edge-an-evolving-relationship/
