{"id":2104,"date":"2019-11-29T04:35:03","date_gmt":"2019-11-29T04:35:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kusuaks7\/?p=1709"},"modified":"2024-02-19T14:53:35","modified_gmt":"2024-02-19T14:53:35","slug":"edge-computing-is-just-the-latest-phase-in-the-technology-cycle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/bigdata-cloud\/edge-computing-is-just-the-latest-phase-in-the-technology-cycle\/","title":{"rendered":"Edge computing is just the latest phase in the technology cycle"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe technology cycle moves from centralised to distributed and then it starts all over. Edge computing is the latest phase in the technology cycle\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhen the then chairman of IBM, Thomas Watson, said in 1943, that \u201cthere is a world market for maybe five computers,\u201d he wasn\u2019t thinking about the technology cycle. For that matter, when\u00a0Popular Mechanics stated<\/a>: \u201cWhere a calculator like ENIAC today is equipped with 18,000 vacuum tubes and weighs 30 tons, computers in the future may have only 1000 vacuum tubes and perhaps weigh only 1\u00bd tons,\u201d it wasn\u2019t thinking about distributed computing. But then we didn\u2019t know about computers then, let alone the technology cycle and edge computing referred to lots of mathematicians on a mountain climb.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThere was a time when computing meant lots of people working together doing mathematics for some greater aim. For example, NASA employed mathematicians working together for the space programme. These early \u2018\u2019computers\u2019 were made famous in the movie Hidden Figures, about Katherine Johnson, the female black mathematician, who helped pioneer the use of computers.\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBut then we moved to actual machines, what we would now think of as computers \u2014 massive beasts, that took up a whole room, maybe in the basement and which hardly anyone understood. Data was stored on 12-inch disc drives. The mini-computer first emerged in the 1960s, at the time\u00a0the New York Times suggested that the definition of a mini-computer was that it cost less than $25,000<\/a>. Data was typically stored on 9-inch drives. The technology cycle, which today has swung towards edge computing, had its first jump from mainframe (centralised) to mini (distributed.)\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOf course, when IBM first revealed the PC, not many people thought it would change the world. Indeed, the theory known as innovators dilemma looks at how the disc drive industry was disrupted with the changes in computers \u2014 at that time 5.25 inch disc drives for PCs were seen as little more as toys, to support \u2018the toy\u2019 called a PC. History shows they were wrong \u2014 Bill Gates realised his dream of a computer on every desk \u2014 the technology cycle had swung to centralised.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Stephen Tanaka, CTO, One Commercial Partner, Microsoft Canada, helps Information Age dissect the edge; what it is, the use cases and the challenges<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/blockquote><\/h4>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe next switch to distributed began with the internet but gained momentum with the cloud. The cloud turned IT from an overhead requiring a large upfront investment and which was hard to change, to a variable cost, easy to change, easy to turn up and down. The cloud was a vital enabler in creating the start-up and agile work practices we know today \u2014 the technology cycle swung towards distributed.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOf course, we have seen a similar story in TV and movies:\u00a0 the cinema \u2014 centralised \u2014 to TV\u00a0 \u2014 terminals \u2014 to VHS and DVDs and now online TV services such as Neflix.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNow the technology cycle has thrown up edge computing but the shift is still in its infancy.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe shift was partly created by the Internet of Things \u2014 the massive explosion in devices, all with their own processing power. This processing power was often under-utilised. The swing in the technology cycle to edge computing has also been driven by privacy concerns \u2014 the ability to store personal data on individuals\u2019 own devices, rather than somewhere in the cloud.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe key shift, though, in the technology cycle towards Edge computing has occurred because of all that spare capacity created for other purposes. The CapEx has been funded. We have already paid for smartphones, wearable tech, sensors, computing power in cars, cranes, and in time in traffic lights, car parks\u2026the list goes on.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Why do we need Edge computing? What is it? What are the advantages? The five pillars to edge computing provide the answers.<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/blockquote><\/h4>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBut the technology cycle shift to edge computing won\u2019t ever be 100%. The cloud remains a vital technology and in many ways is complementary. Edge devices may be used to store sensitive personal data locally, or for processing power, when the cloud gets clogged up, or because of bandwidth limitations, but\u00a0the list of cloud computing advantages<\/a>\u00a0is long \u2014 for one thing, it is vital for collaboration. Deep learning algorithms are often processed on the cloud via super-powerful computers.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIn time, the technology cycle may swing again from edge computing \u2014 distributive \u2014 to centralised. Quantum computers, for example, may never be cheap enough for us all to own one. Many can only operate at minus 273 degrees, hardly technology to sit in our back pocket. Likewise, 5G may help solve the problem of bandwidth.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBut the technology cycle never swings to extremes. Mainframes didn\u2019t die in the age of minicomputers, dumb terminals were still used by many organisations even in the heyday of the PC. Just as the technology cycle swinging towards edge computing is unlikely to spell the death of the cloud, the swing back to centralised, supported by 5G and quantum, will not kill edge computing. No matter how fast the internet connection, it will always be constrained by the speed of light. For applications requiring thousands of instructions a second, or processing of data in milliseconds, the proximity between the data, processing and application matters. The Internet of Things revolution is only just beginning, all that CapeEx going into devices is begging for utilisation. Privacy is set to become an ever more important issue and that means processing on the edge.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The internet of things has its own unique cybersecurity considerations, as for cyber security and Edge computing, there are a lot of unknowns<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/blockquote><\/h4>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now the technology cycle has thrown up edge computing but the shift is still in its infancy. The shift was partly created by the Internet of Things — the massive explosion in devices, all with their own processing power. This processing power was often under-utilised. The swing in the technology cycle to edge computing has also been driven by privacy concerns — the ability to store personal data on individuals’ own devices, rather than somewhere in the cloud.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":442,"featured_media":2916,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[187],"tags":[95],"ppma_author":[2975],"class_list":["post-2104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bigdata-cloud","tag-big-data-amp-technology"],"authors":[{"term_id":2975,"user_id":442,"is_guest":0,"slug":"michael-baxter","display_name":"Michael Baxter","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","user_url":"","last_name":"Baxter","first_name":"Michael","job_title":"","description":"Michael Baxter is Editor of Information Age<\/a>, Author, and economics and technology writer. He is also an accomplished public speaker, has spoken on disruptive technology, the economy, and Brexit at various locations in the UK and the US and facilitated conferences on GDPR and digital marketing."}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/442"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2104"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36035,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2104\/revisions\/36035"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2104"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=2104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}