How Cloud Providers Should Position Edge Computing Services

In the era of the Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud computing, edge computing has emerged as a critical technology for enabling real-time data processing and decision-making. By bringing computing resources closer to the edge of the network, edge computing solves the three major challenges of the Internet:

1. Latency
2. Huge bandwidth utilization
3. Data security

And due to this, businesses are increasingly adopting edge computing and looking for differentiated value to compare CDN offerings. This is the reason I believe that edge providers will have to respond with more compelling and future-proof solutions. We can see that CDN and cloud providers are rapidly transforming their products and services to cater to the evolving edge computing needs of their customers.

The adoption of edge computing is being fueled by several key factors. The number of IoT devices is projected to reach 25 billion by 2025, generating an exponential amount of data that needs to be processed and analyzed in real-time. Applications such as autonomous vehicles, augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR) require low latency and high bandwidth, which can be achieved through edge computing. Edge computing can help to protect sensitive data by processing it closer to the source, reducing the risk of data breaches.

Almost all hyperscale cloud providers are expanding their offerings to include edge computing functions in their distributed delivery network product lines. These services provide customers with the infrastructure and tools they need to deploy and manage edge computing solutions. Some of the key features such cloud-based edge computing services include computing resources, such as servers, storage, and networking, that can be deployed at the edge. Another important capability being included in edge is security and compliance features to protect edge deployments from cyberattacks and ensure compliance with regulations. It includes web application firewall, bot mitigation, and Anti DDOS capabilities.

Now coming to answer the question of how a CDN or cloud provider of a distributed delivery network should address edge computing. First it is crucial to align their products according to each region's customer requirements. Besides the general availability of a global network of edge nodes, improving the performance, and increasing the reserved bandwidth, CSPs need to think in a more creative way to offer wholesome delivery as a service model. Here are a few suggestions:

• Instead of dividing the focus on multiple products or services to meet requirements one by one, offer a single platform which can cover all the needs for content and media accelerations in one stop manner. This will only be possible after aligning the strategy and roadmap of all concerning products and functions.
• Pay due attention to the platform adoption by the developer community. Make it easy for developers to integrate and test on your platform by offering open APIs, DevOps practices and integration tools. This is only possible by engaging the development community with clear product roadmaps and beta test offerings.
• Customers always want to be platform agnostic as much as possible. Give them what they want by adopting an open architecture where you co-exist with your competitors.  Smooth migration and easy traffic offloading must be provided for customer's peace of mind.
• Come up with a package solution where customers get up and running without too many tedious configurations. Optimize the serverless architecture to maturity and integrate security with edge computing.
• Make it easy for customers to integrate their edge deployments with their cloud-based infrastructure and services either on the same CSP platform or with other vendors.

To summarize, CSPs need to adopt an open architecture to offer a single platform service for edge computing and facilitate their customers and developers to easily adopt, integrate and simultaneously use the platform along with other vendors.

Learn more about Huawei's Edge Computing technical architecture.

Disclaimer: Any views and/or opinions expressed in this post by individual authors or contributors are their personal views and/or opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views and/or opinions of Huawei Technologies.