As early as 2017 Wired magazine’s Jeremy Hsu was warning the technology industry that it was time to think beyond cloud computing. Edge computing, he wrote, turns the logic of today’s cloud inside out. While funneling everything through a centralized data center might be a smart model for scaling web search, social media, and media streaming, “it’s not so smart for latency-intolerant applications like autonomous cars”.
Two years ago, Witekio’s own Kevin Sibué wrote that edge computing would help deliver the connected objects of tomorrow that would be more intelligent and more autonomous than those of the present. In 2021 edge computing is delivering on this vision with the edge IoT market enjoying compound annual growth rates above 35% and expanding to a total market value that is expected to exceed $60 billion by 2028.
But what does edge computing on IoT look like in 2021? What are the benefits of moving processing, storage, and analytics to the edge? What is the role for the cloud in an era of edge computing? And what are the impacts of the edge computing trend for IoT device vendors and OEMs?