With 6.4 billion devices connected already, and an additional 5.5 million new devices added every day, the surge in IoT demands new approaches to handle these processing and analytics needs. Making the most of IoT requires a strong, seamless connection between devices and the cloud while eliminating computational issues and privacy concerns. So much so, that as I pointed out in Developing Resiliency in the Hybrid Cloud Era, many companies don’t feel ready for the risks associated with IoT technology. But edge computing uses the processing power of IoT devices to aggregate, pre-process, and filter data at the source and enhances the capabilities of digital tools. Combining edge applications with cloud connectivity to perform complex analytics and promote decisions and actions means the best of both worlds—faster speeds and as-needed support. And while companies are just beginning to tap the potential of the edge, these three areas are already seeing marked enhancements for IoT networks:
The capabilities of cloud computing combined with IoT technology means that by 2018 IoT sensors and devices will surpass mobile phones as the largest category of connected devices. Complex algorithms for industrial and consumers applications allow for functionality from voice and facial recognition to machine learning. The opportunities in these capabilities are so robust that, as I detailed on Converge in Improving Cities One IoT Device at a Time, there are currently over 4 million app developers focusing on the IoT in India alone.
But data getting shipped to the cloud and back to each IoT device has to contend with unavoidable network delays. 45 percent of all IoT-created data will be stored, processed, analyzed, and acted upon close to, or at the edge, of the network. This is why SAP is already working with their clients to make the most of this opportunity with SAP Edge Services and using analytics tools at the source.