What Is Edge Cloud Computing?

What Is Edge Cloud?

At first glance, cloud and edge computing seem to be incompatible. The cloud is a big centralized powerhouse, while edge computing is distributed close to users. Despite this seeming misalignment, the cloud and edge work quite well together. They can enhance each other’s capabilities and supercharge user performance across a plethora of applications. This collaboration is called edge cloud computing. What is edge cloud computing, and how can it benefit modern businesses?

Edge Cloud Computing Defined

Edge cloud computing creates a symbiotic relationship between edge and cloud resources. Instead of sending raw data to the cloud, edge devices process data and send only what’s necessary to the cloud. At the same time, users can leverage cloud resources to quickly scale, deploy cloud applications, access a unified dashboard, and more. How does edge cloud computing benefit businesses? Since many tasks can be performed client-side, edge resources free up the cloud network’s bandwidth and allow teams to extend the capabilities of their applications using edge resources. Additionally, processing requests at the edge first improves latency and performance while still allowing users to leverage the capacity and flexibility of the cloud. Cloud computing is no longer tied to what the provider’s infrastructure can handle, and edge computing isn’t limited to the server capacity at the edge. With edge cloud computing, the combined power of centralized cloud servers and devices across the edge work together to provide superior computing power.

The Architecture of Edge Cloud Computing

A crucial component of edge cloud computing is the networking infrastructure. The network must be able to quickly scale and adapt to user needs based on application requirements. This allows the network to correctly route data to the resources with adequate performance and space requirements. Edge cloud computing is flexible and can vary in setup depending on the use case. For example, a cloud provider can strategically place edge points of presence (PoPs) to distribute processing workloads and allocate computing resources in high-traffic areas. On the other hand, a business may use the cloud to expand its data storage capabilities and push workloads to the cloud when on-premise resources are overtaxed — also known as the hybrid cloud. The fact that edge cloud computing encompasses larger geographical areas and extends to client-side devices means providers must account for a larger set of devices. Planning and distributing IT resources can be more of a challenge. Additionally, providers must consider how they’ll maintain and upgrade computing resources they own at the edge.

Intequus Can Simplify Management of Edge Resources

Edge cloud computing supports technologies like Edge AI, machine vision, and self-driving cars. As application latency requirements increase and AI becomes more prevalent in common applications, businesses need to improve their infrastructure’s performance. This is where the edge cloud can help. However, sprawling computing infrastructure is tough to manage alone. Intequus can be your edge computing partner. Our team can help you design, deploy, and manage your distributed computing infrastructure — ensuring you’re covered from deployment to decommissioning. If you’d like to learn how edge cloud computing could improve your network, let’s talk.