With the advances in technology, we have witnessed in recent years a boom in artificial intelligence (AI) applications and services such as edge computing. All this thanks to the momentum of advances in mobile computing and the Internet of Things (IoT), where billions of mobile and IoT devices are connected to the Internet, generating trillions of bytes of data.
Undoubtedly, there is an urgent need to bring AI to the edge of the network to fully unlock the potential of Big Data at the edge. To realize this trend, Edge Computing is a promising solution to support compute-intensive AI applications on edge devices.
Edge Intelligence or Edge AI is a combination of AI and Edge Computing, which allows the implementation of machine learning algorithms in the edge device where the data is generated.
What is Edge Computing?
Edge computing is the concept of capturing, storing, processing and analyzing data closer to the location where it is needed, in order to improve response times and save bandwidth.
In that sense, edge computing is a distributed computing framework that brings applications closer to data sources, such as IoT devices, local end devices or edge servers.
As noted in NetworkWorld, Edge Computing «allows data produced by Internet of Things devices to be processed closer to where it was created rather than being sent over long distances to reach data centers and compute clouds.»
Why do we need Edge Computing?
As a key driver pushing the development of AI, Big data has recently undergone a radical shift of data sources from large-scale cloud data centers to increasingly pervasive end devices such as mobile and IoT devices.
Traditionally, big data, such as online shopping records, social media content and enterprise computing, was born and stored primarily in large-scale data centers. However, with the emergence of mobile computing and IoT, the trend is now reversing.
Today, a plethora of sensors and smart devices generate massive amounts of data, and ever-increasing computing power is driving core computation and services from the cloud to the network edge.
Did you know?
Today, more than 50 billion IoT devices are connected to the Internet, and it is predicted that by 2025, 80 billion IoT devices and sensors will be online.
What is edge intelligence and what are its advantages? Don’t miss the topic in our next article – expect it this week!