Edge Computing, edge data centers are witnessing an increase in the demand and is now starting to take centre stage. With an increase in the data penetration due to factors such as rise in users for OTT and Social Media platforms, edge computing is helping in improving the experience of users & customers.
Data players are also looking for ways to avoid latency. The panel session in W.Media’s first physical event after the pandemic ‘Mumbai Cloud & Datacenter Convention & Awards 2021’
The panel discussion titled ‘The New Edge in Edge Computing; Balancing Data Center & Cloud’ touched upon the scope of edge computing, the ways in which edge is helping organisations and changing the dynamics and change in infrastructure of the industry and ways in which edge computing will continue to grow further including others
Is Edge a hype?
“It is the most structured word that is being put to the way in which we have been doing computing. A very clear example which we have seen in the media industry is excess content which has been delivered with the help of edge notes using the content delivery network. At Alibaba cloud, we also have our CDN network, which is a very relevant form of edge computing that has been there for ages and specially in the times of COVID if you see it gained more relevance during that time because there was no physical access.
For every industry, the access to the consumer was through content whether it is manufacturing or banking. The way in which companies kept in touch with its consumer was through content via advertisement, video, giving reviews or other ways,” said Vivek Sehgal, Head – Business & Technology Alliances, Alibaba Cloud.
He further explained that content becomes relevant and the CDN network is an example of how edge computing delivers that. What is happening now is it is advancing and gaining relevance beyond just the typical use case. Typically it has just been used to deliver the content but now with various things coming in, it is gaining relevance from IoT perspective again edge computing is prominent and required.
Similarly from a content access perspective the way it is changing is now, you are not only delivering content but when you are accessing the content to secure that content from time to time, algorithms are added to deliver tokens, checking the verification of the users more prominently and hence the relevance of edge computing has gone beyond just delivering the cach. Similarly in manufacturing IoT because it is taking prominence, the relevance of edge computing has increased. Different modes of adoption and depending upon the industry the use is coming into the picture and gaining prominence in the industry.
“I have used edge technology for prototyping in my earlier job. At Kolkata port, we implemented differential GPS, it is like a tagging system. Locating containers at the port. The containers are picked from the ship and put in the container yard. After which the coordination is done with the customs and the shipping agency.
For this process we used the differential GPS, when the container is picked up a photograph is taken and then the profiling of the container is done which includes its details. That profiling is completed and is then stored in the local edge server.
We are trying to implement a similar kind of framework in 28 factories and 41 depos. Locating material is important, not only finished goods but also semi finished goods,” said Sudhir Kanvinde, Chief Information Officer, Supreme Industries Ltd.
Organisations could face tough challenges in the future especially in this new normal, if they don’t have an architecture which is redefined in terms of edge . “Whereas today if you see the enterprise architecture is totally distributed, the user is operating from somewhere else on the internet bandwidth.
So definitely one needs to relook at the architecture and relook at how the data is going to be processed and how it is going to be consumed and where it is positioned. Edge computing is going to be there and the demand is further going to increase in the future,” said Avinash Velhal, CIO Growing Markets – India, Middle East & Africa, APAC & South America VP IT & Process.
“The applications on the mobile phones are the use cases of edge computing. Any area be it e-commerce, logistics or content delivery. I don’t think mobile can work without edge computing. 100 per cent of the applications use edge computing, be it any industry.
If you have to reach your customer there is no better option than edge computing. Every industry will have its own use cases like the automobile industry has connected cars for example and they work with the help of edge computing,” said Sandesh Govalkar, Vice President & Head – Enterprise IT, Angel One Ltd.
He further explained that if an organisation wants to reach its customers with a better service edge computing is the best option as it is impossible to make your application work without edge computing.
Edge computing is a newly coined term but it has been existing since ages. Now we are just making advancements in it where not only static content but dynamic content, authorisation and authentication can be possible through edge computing.
