What is edge cloud?

An edge cloud architecture is used to decentralise (processing) power to the edges (clients/devices) of your networks. Traditionally the computing power of servers is used to perform tasks such as data minimisation or to create advanced distributed systems. Within the cloud model, such ‘intelligent’ tasks are performed by servers so they can be transferred to other devices with less or almost no computing power.

Edge cloud explained

With edge cloud, a big part of these processing tasks is shifting to the client-side, known as edge computing. Edge computing generally refers to IoT devices, but also gaming hardware that processes telemetry on the device itself, instead of sending that raw data to the cloud.

This creates many opportunities for businesses, especially when they want to provide low-latency services throughout apps or high-density platform usage.

The advantage of edge computing

Instead of a model where clients simply connect to servers, thousands of clients are all connected to each other to perform smaller processing tasks. The ideal edge computing landscape enables millions of IoT devices to shape an enormous intelligent network that can perform tasks that are usually only possible in very big data centres.

What does this mean for your network architecture?

By combining edge and cloud, you can utilise the power of distributed systems by processing data on devices themselves, which then send it to the cloud. Here it can be processed, analysed or saved using less (or even unavailable) processing power.

Thanks to an edge cloud architecture, connected cars that share information, for example, are able to analyse data themselves instead of using a server’s processing power. So instead of having an enormous backhaul of data that needs to be processed at your central servers, a big part of the processing work has already been completed by the connected devices themselves.

Benefits of edge cloud

Edge cloud benefits vary from cost-effectively deploying new services as a service provider, or providing low-latency experiences to connected car drivers or online gamers.

For service providers who want to cost-effectively deploy new services at the space- and power-constrained network edge, utilising the power of edge cloud has to be a priority.

  • Solutions such as contrail edge cloud abstract and virtualises compute, storage and networking resources in lightweight edge environments such as base stations, hubs, switching sites and central offices.
  • An edge cloud architecture accelerates service creation at the edges of your network, through low-latency, automated and simple delivery, without sacrificing the rich functionality of a multi-tenant secure cloud.
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