By now everyone has heard the term “Edge Computing”, but why is it important? Because it represents a fundamental shift in architecture to power the next generation of business-critical applications. Lets examine the rise of Edge Computing and explore the benefits of a distributed cloud model.

This blog is an excerpt from my latest whitepaper, read the full paper here.

As cloud computing infrastructures have seen explosive growth over the last decade, and especially over the last year, applications that rely solely on the cloud for data storage and processing are beginning to show signs of strain. This is particularly true of those that require sub-second response times and high availability.

This makes sense because the success of cloud computing depends on a reliable connection to a centralized data center via the internet. If the connection goes down, you suffer costly downtime. And even when your applications are up, they must contend with network latency that slows the entire user experience. It takes time for an application to send data to a remote cloud data center for processing and then wait for a result to come back down over the wire in order to respond to an input. When every millisecond can mean the difference between making the right or wrong decision, that’s simply not acceptable. Also, in many cases the clients themselves amplify the unreliable nature of internet connectivity by moving from location to location.

A reliable way to eliminate these many risks is to move data processing closer to the applications. Enter the concept of “Edge Computing.”

In the whitepaper, I discuss the spectrum of Edge Computing use cases, and outline how a distributed, micro data-center architecture serves as a model for future innovation through a simple concept: bring data closer to the clients that use it. Effectively executed, the Edge Computing model will enable a new class of applications that react to inputs instantly and never go down. It has the potential to revolutionize industries such as retail, hospitality, and finance by powering a premium “always-on” real-time consumer experience. It can dramatically impact healthcare and emergency response through its ability to instantly and reliably help with life-or-death decisions. And it can greatly increase the effectiveness and safety of teams operating in isolated, low- or no-internet environments such as remote wilderness, sea-going vessels, mines, or even in space, where losing access to critical data is simply not an option.

The paper illustrates how a distributed cloud architecture is rapidly becoming more than a competitive advantage, it’s now an imperative best-practice approach to modern computing that enables a new class of resilient, fast, secure, and efficient application for 2021 and beyond.

And only Couchbase supports the distributed model at every tier, from the cloud to the edge, ensuring that critical information never stops moving between the applications and users that need it.

Read the full whitepaper here.
I hope you enjoy it, and reach out with any questions or comments!

Mark

mark.gamble@couchbase.com

Author

Posted by Mark Gamble, Dir Product & Solutions Mktg, Couchbase

I am a passionate product marketer with a technical and solution consulting background and 20+ years of experience in Enterprise and Open Source technology. I have launched several database and analytic solutions throughout my career, and have worked with customers across a wide variety of industries including Financial Services, Automotive, Hospitality, High-Tech and Healthcare. I have particular expertise in analytics and AI, love all things data, and am an emphatic supporter of data-for-good initiatives.

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