In our previous article from this series we talked about the logical common architectural elements found in an edge medical diagnosis solution for the healthcare industry.
The process was laid out how we approached the use case and how portfolio solutions are the base for researching a generic architecture. It continued by laying out the process of how we approached the use case by researching successful customer portfolio solutions as the basis for a generic architecture.
Industries That Need a High Performing Low Latency Distributed Database
There are certain industries that greatly benefit from high-performing, low-latency, geo-distributed technologies, while other organizations might be more focused on vertically scaling architectures. This is dependent on numerous factors including the data pipeline, network, data structure, type of product or solution, short and long-term goals, etc. While there are currently many databases and tools that provide vertical scaling capabilities, there are not many that focus on horizontal scaling -- but there’s still a need for both.
Latency
Before jumping into specific industries that benefit from high-performing, low-latency, geo-distributed databases (it’s a mouthful, I know), let’s define a few terms here. High-performing is pretty self-explanatory so I’ll skip over that one. For the next term, I’ll refer to my colleague Jacob Cohen’s blog on Geo-Distributed Databases. Latency generally measures the duration between an action and a response. In user-facing applications, that can be narrowed down to the delay between when a user makes a request and when the application responds to a request. So, technologies that enable low latency usually improve performance and response times, leading to improved user experience and cost savings.
Edge Computing: Public Cloud on 5G — the Grand Convergence
The closing months of 2019 saw a slew of services by AWS and Azure in their flagship events- Reinvent and Ignite. Notable among them were services leveraging 5G networks for running workloads in the 5G edge to provide ultra low latency. With 5G services set to be mainstream in this decade, this is a first of its kind collaboration model between the two principal parties in the ecosystem - The CSP (Communication Service Provider) and the Cloud Vendor(like AWS/Microsoft Azure). CSP has been referred to as Mobile network or mobile provider's network in this article for ease of understanding.
AWS has partnered with Telco service providers- Verizon, Vodafone, SK Enterprise, KDDI to provide AWS Wavelength and is in the process of adding more partners. As announced, AWS Wavelength will enable developers to build applications that serve end-users with ultra-low latency over 5G network.
Apache Kafka Is the New Black at the Edge in IoT Projects
The following question comes up almost every week in conversations with customers: Can and should I deploy Apache Kafka at the edge? Or should I just deploy Kafka in a "real" data center or public cloud infrastructure? I am glad that people ask because it is a valid question in various industries, including manufacturing, automation industry, aviation, logistics, and retailing.
Before We Use Kubernetes to Develop Edge, We Should Define It
Edge isn’t just something found in trolly Internet threads, but an entire spectrum of computing that can best be defined as “Computing not done in your traditional data center.” However, this definition is flippant and also fails to cover the true breadth and depth of edge computing, as it can be defined differently by almost every business, industry, and IT team. This is because edge computing is a relative term, meaning everything from one lock-and-key facility, Amazon's, Google's, Microsoft's or IBM’s clouds, or dozens of small datacenters surrounded by IoT devices.
You may also enjoy: An Introduction to Edge Computing