By now, you’ve probably seen the buzz surrounding edge computing. Not too long ago, people thought that cloud computing was going to completely take over and dominate forever. However, the recent surge in the popularity of edge computing has shown that cloud computing doesn’t have a monopoly just yet!
The heavy usage of IoT devices and 5G internet has made it important to manage computing, storage, and analytics in one place that’s as close as possible to where the actual data is being created. This is where edge computing enters the stage.
Edge computing is when computing is performed in the local area network. This reduces the need for data to be sent to and received by the cloud, which ultimately reduces the cost of data travel.
As of 2023, lots of different industries have started to adopt edge computing. Some of the benefits that come with this include:
- Stronger and more reliable internet connections
- Reduced costs
- Improved security
You might be wondering, though, which specific industries currently use edge computing? After all, if you’re active in one of these industries, you’ll likely be interested in using edge computing to your advantage.
Below is a list of the main industries that benefit from edge computing.
Transportation
On an annual basis, the transportation industry varies in value from $8 trillion to $12 trillion – which is huge. Moving forward, the industry is only going to continue growing in value thanks to the introduction of smarter and better technology, such as self-driving cars.
Now, you’re already seeing self-driving cars and autonomous transport vehicles embracing edge computing so that the data can be closer to the sensors, such as the cameras and radars, within the vehicles. This speeds up response times and also makes them safer. After all, the last thing you want is for your self-driving car to be reliant on transferring data to and from the cloud, as this be extremely dangerous when the internet connection is suddenly lost.
All kinds of transportation mediums, from self-driving cars to trains, now produce tons of data every second. As a result, it’s much better to use edge computing so that the data can be processed at the “edge” of the network by either the device itself or a local server – simple.
If your business is currently operating within the transportation industry (or one of the industries later discussed in this guide), you can use things-embedded.com to get access to the edge computing resources that you need to boost and future-proof your organization.
Healthcare
In the world of healthcare, technology is very important. For a while now, hospitals have been using edge computing to successfully monitor patients. If you go inside any hospital room around the world, most of them use somewhere between 3 and 5 devices (e.g., cardiac monitors and blood glucose monitors) that are also edge computing devices. The devices then collect endless amounts of data for analysis by doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals.
Farming
Edge computing is used in farming via weather-resistant IoT sensors and drones. These devices help farmers to analyze data surrounding light, soil, and other important factors.
Remember, most farms are situated in faraway locations with a limited internet connection, meaning farmers generally can’t rely on cloud networks. Instead, many are now using edge computing.
Retail
There’s a lot going on in an average retail store, from purchases to customers entering and leaving. This means that huge amounts of data need to be processed as quickly as possible – and edge computing allows many retailers to do this before then making educated decisions from it.
