More and more companies are beginning to turn to edge computing for their data storage and processing needs as the benefits clearly outweigh those of a cloud-only configuration or corporate data center. Not only does edge computing allow for remote management, which is critical now more than ever as more people are working from home, but it also requires minimal space, is significantly less expensive, and most importantly, still allows applications to run on-site to support local applications.
Running applications on-site at the edge is a critical component to many business operations, especially for supermarkets and convenience stores, manufacturers, and IoT device developers, for example. The most important, and obvious benefit of running applications on-site through edge computing is the performance. An application can access and process data from on-site compute and storage much quicker than it can from the cloud. A point of sale system, for example, may have a slight delay when processing payment, but if all the purchase and payment information had to be transmitted to the cloud and back, we could expect that delay to be much longer. Additionally, the cost of transmission to the cloud or data center is significantly higher and security risks are greater. Data going to and from the cloud is more susceptible to breaches, but if an edge computing site is properly secured with encryption and key management, the risk of data loss is much lower than with constant transmission.
