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IOT / BLOCKCHAIN / EDGE COMPUTING / COGNITIVE COMPUTING / IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCES / QUANTUM COMPUTING

DATA DEEP DI V E

Edge computingThese findings are based on an independent study of 1200 IT influencers from a mix of large and small companies across Europe.

What is Edge computing and how is it really being used at the moment?


“It will streamline the flow of traffic from our IoT devices and provide real-time local data analysis. Which means for us that we can act faster on the changes in the energy

market or changes in the weather patterns which affects how efficient our

trading will work.” – survey respondent

/ COMPUTING

There are approximately seventeen billion1 connected devices in operation today , with IoT devices numbering seven billion. By 2025 this is expected to grow to over 34 billion connected devices, of which 12.5 billion will be IoT devices. Each of these devices will generate huge amounts of data, so one of the biggest challenges for any organisation is how to manage the data flow, make sense of the data and create actions quick enough to avert problems or create positive outcomes.

Edge computing is designed to address this, when latency becomes an issue with cloud-based processing. Edge computing is essentially a distributed, open IT architecture that features decentralised processing power, where data is processed by the device itself or by a local computer or server. This means that there is no need to transmit data to a data centre for analytics. Actions are processed (ideally in real-time) at source, reducing latency and speeding-up decision making. While this may not be necessary for all scenarios, there are instances where it makes perfect sense, such as autonomous vehicles and healthcare. Fast data processing could be the difference between life and death here but it also has benefits where there is actually no need for data to be sent to a data centre

and stored. Edge computing could determine what is actually needed, streamlining data management and therefore saving costs on operation and storage, for example. The utilities industry, which is increasingly moving to smart grids to manage supply and demand across a range of energy sources, is a good example of where this is already working. While autonomous vehicles are still very much in their infancy, Edge computing is essential for their viability. Anywhere which has huge amounts of data that needs to be filtered and processed locally, such as traffic management, Edge will find a natural home.

What impact will this technology have on the workplace in five years’ time?

INTERNET OF THINGS

EDGE COMPUTING

BLOCKCHAIN QUANTUM COMPUTING


Which technology trends will have the most impact on the workplace over the next five years?*.

COGNITIVE COMPUTING

IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE

49%39%

35%29%

25%23%

*Based on the percentage of professionals who rated the impact of each of these technologies as 5 or 6 out of 6

After IoT, Edge computing is deemed the most likely technology to have a major impact over the next five years. With 75% of respondents believing it will have at least some impact, Edge is seen as a technology that can start to solve some pressing data issues, particularly around latency. While IoT is quite rightly regarded as a technology that will have a major impact, it stands to reason that businesses will subsequently be concerned about data pipelines and potential storage and latency issues.

Nowhere does this resonate more than in the Nordics and Benelux regions, according to the survey. With these regions wealthy in terms of car manufacturing and IoT, it makes sense (the EU is the second largest manufacturer of cars in the world2 and countries such as Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Netherlands and Norway dominate the top ten of the Global Connectivity Index3 ) that Edge is seen as a promising tech.

“It will bring processing and problem-solving computer power

closer and make it more affordable for the average workplace.”

– survey respondent

Edge is a solution to many data issues, current and future, particularly within IoT and vehicle manufacture. But it doesn’t stop there. If you’re an enterprise that collects data from sensors on the periphery of the cloud and find yourself drowning in data, unable to provide results to your end users at speeds they expect, then Edge computing should be a welcome solution.

Will Edge computing make us more productive?

I don’t knowLess productive More productive Stay the same

“Efficiency of processing both in the real world and the virtual means we’ll have to

look in depth at our processes to see which are needed at the core or at the edge.

Less focus on the central core and moving failure points further out around

the environment will mean greater reliability, increased reactivity,

and faster response times.” – survey respondent

What impact will edge computing have on workplace productivity?


The very nature of Edge computing is to improve the management of data derived from a multitude of connected devices. This means that, in theory at least, it is geared to improving productivity by helping organisations focus on only the relevant data, speeding up analysis and therefore reducing latency.

Overall 47% of respondents feel this is true, that Edge computing will increase productivity, although whether this is pointed at humans or machines is unclear. The reality is that Edge will enable machines to automate reactions more quickly and therefore more realistically. If we really do want a future with autonomous cars, for example, Edge computing is absolutely essential for making it possible.

14% 64% 19%

2%

With 64% of IT directors believing that Edge will have a major impact, the message is clear that this is regarded as a technologist’s idea of problem solving and is not a subject of hype. Edge is not just going to make an impact, it has to make an impact for the sake of our data-driven futures.

What is holding the technology back?

“Edge computing could be a difficult concept to assimilate and will not

always be necessary for everyone.” – survey respondent

Lack of understanding about the technology

Don’t knowEmployee behaviourstowards the technology

Internal business processes

Actions of senior management regarding implementation

Which factor is most likely to prevent edge computing from being incorporated in the workplace?


Overall the actions of senior management were deemed the biggest obstacle, except amongst VP IT/CIOs who felt a lack of understanding and employee behaviour towards the tech were more responsible. In fact, overall there is a fairly even split, which indicates a transformation problem.

As with other emerging technology areas, this is new territory for many organisations who have to face up to the challenge of re-training a workforce, recruiting nw and different skills and phasing out legacy technology. It takes time and can be costly, although with Edge computing it could also be argued that implementation will save both time and money.

As IDC’s research director Giorgio Nebuloni4 says, “while technology and European supplier ecosystems are making strides, we recommend starting any project with an analysis on real and specific use cases in which edge approaches can generate savings or additional revenue opportunities.”

13%19%20% 21%27%

What conclusions can we draw?

“Edge technology is essential for data-driven objects that will increasingly look to work in real-time,” says Howard Roberts, Technologist at HP.

Autonomous vehicles are clearly a good example of this. Despite the emergence of ubiquitous bandwidth technologies such as 5G, reliance on the cloud alone to manage and analyse data or objects and devices will not be sufficient. Bandwidth, and therefore communications, can be interrupted, making cloud a part of the solution rather than the only solution, especially for real-time analytics.

“Edge computing will speed up data management and analysis and therefore object performance, but we need agreed standards so objects can communicate securely with each other and not be compromised,” says Roberts.

“Amongst other things, we’re working towards using Edge for visual recognition applications for automotive as well as collision detection and mapping 3D surfaces,” adds Roberts. “The technology is already here. It’s just a case of honing it, improving communications between objects and making it more secure.”


Appendix

This research was conducted by Spiceworks on behalf of HP. The 1200 respondents came from job titles ranging from helpdesk to CEO, in companies ranging from under 50 employees to over 5000 employees, from UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Nordics, Benelux. The full breakdown can be found below.

1. https://iot-analytics.com/state-of-the-iot-update-q1-q2-2018-number-of-iot-devices-now-7b/

2. https://www.acea.be/statistics/article/top-10-car-producing-countries-worldwide-and-eu

3. https://www.huawei.com/minisite/gci/en/country-rankings.html

4. https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=EMEA43589818

Links:

Breakdown of respondents by company size Breakdown of respondents by country Breakdown of respondents by job title

Company size

<500

500+

Dataset

588

612

Country

UK

France

Germany

Italy

Spain

Nordics

Benelux

Dataset

200

200

200

200

200

100

100

Job Title

Owner/CEO/President

VP IT/CIO

IT Director

IT Manager

Network Architect

Network Admin

Help Desk

Tech Consultant

Other

Dataset

120 (10%)

108 (9%)

204 (17%)

300 (25%)

24 (2%)

192 (16%)

72 (6%)

108 (9%)

72 (6%)


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