Imagine walking into your home and being greeted by a symphony of interconnected devices working seamlessly to adjust to your presence. Your lights dim to your preferred setting, your favourite music begins to play softly in the background, and your smart oven preheats, all without lifting a finger.

This isn’t a scene from a futuristic movie; it’s the reality of today’s smart homes, powered by the magic of edge computing and the Internet of Things (IoT).

How Businesses Are Championing Edge Computing

For businesses, edge computing has been a transformative technology, enabling them to process data closer to where it’s generated, reducing latency, improving efficiency, and enhancing security.

Two notable examples of businesses championing edge computing are AllEdge and American Tower.

AllEdge offers a cloud-native edge services platform, delivering Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Network-as-a-Service (NaaS), and Security-as-a-Service (MSSP). Its solutions are designed to deliver various benefits including increased user agility, proximity to users and data sources, global and unified security, simplified conformity, total visibility, and reduced costs.

AllEdge’s innovations in cloud-native processing, networking and security, including private and hybrid cloud infrastructure, SD-WAN network services, and Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) security services, showcase how edge computing can revolutionise enterprises across various sectors such as retail, hospitality, education, and healthcare​​.

American Tower has developed a hybrid, multi-cloud edge computing platform, enabling technologies like IoT, 5G, AI, and network automation. Through its collaboration with IBM, American Tower’s transformation to an edge-enabled infrastructure has increased agility, reduced costs, and improved user experience.

The company expanded its Access Edge Data Center ecosystem to include IBM Hybrid Cloud capabilities and Red Hat OpenShift, illustrating the transformative potential of edge computing in enhancing connectivity and enabling advanced technologies for telecom operators, enterprises, and fibre providers​​.

Looking At Consumer Edge Computing

Businesses aren’t the only ones benefiting from edge computing – consumers are also experiencing the advantages

Two examples of consumer edge computing transforming IoT in the home include Wyze’s smart security cameras and Raspberry Pi (RPI), which provides smart home automation systems.

Wyze offers IoT-controlled devices, notably intelligent security cameras that provide wired and wireless home security options. These cameras can be connected and managed through the Wyze app, allowing users to monitor their homes remotely.

This setup shows how edge computing enhances consumer IoT. It enables real-time, local data processing, thus reducing latency and bandwidth use while ensuring privacy and security​​.

Raspberry Pi (RPI) offers smart home automation systems leveraging IoT and edge computing paradigms. Through a central control unit, this system provides a cost-effective and integrated solution for managing home appliances, ensuring security and safety, and reducing energy consumption.

The system minimises bandwidth and computation costs by processing and storing sensor-generated data locally on the RPI. The company also addresses privacy concerns by keeping sensitive data within a local cloud.

Conclusion

Using edge computing and IoT, it is now possible to create a comprehensive smart home automation system that offers numerous benefits. Such benefits include remote monitoring, cost-effectiveness, integrated control, privacy, and security.

This trend is expected to create more innovative and efficient IoT applications capable of handling large amounts of data while ensuring real-time processing and minimising latency. 

As the world embraces IoT and edge computing, following best practices ensures a secure and efficient system. 

The future of IoT and edge computing is bright, with endless possibilities for creating more brilliant, connected environments that bring convenience, efficiency, and improved quality of life.