Is Fog Computing Worth Investing In?

No organisation would want to be late to catch the bus for adopting market innovations. But it is equally important to ensure that the innovation being heralded as a new benchmark, is worth an investment, considering an organisation’s business traits.

Perhaps, one of the most intriguing thoughts in this regard will be about Fog computing. In simple terms, Fog computing is an intermediatory computing and processing layer between Edge networks and a central Cloud server. It serves as a filtering mechanism for data flowing in from Edge networks, sending in only relevant data and insights post-processing into the Cloud.

We have already seen how the Edge Data Centers of today empower enterprises to achieve digital supremacy. So, is there a need to bring in an additional processing and computing layer to the equation?

The answer to this question is conditional. There are situations where Fog computing can prove to be a worthy asset. But the underlying principle that enterprises need to be aware of is that Fog computing is always a subset of Edge computing. Edge computing can easily survive on its own. Fog Computing becomes attractive in only certain situations where enterprises already have a direct Edge-Cloud ecosystem in place.

Let us examine some of the core use-cases where enterprises are perceived to have a choice to include both Fog and Edge computing and explore the true worthiness of Fog computing in these areas.

1. Lower Cloud Congestion

Imagine the scenario where a television channel transitions into an influential local OTT player by emulating the model used by established brands like Netflix, but on a very localised level like within a state or region.

To arrive at the most accurate recommendations of localised content, the OTT player would need to deep dive into viewing habits, show schedules, view counts, and even subscription plans from end-users. If the insights collected from subscribers are directly sent to their centralised Cloud, the volume of data that must be processed by the centralised Cloud server will be huge.

Additionally, different regions will send in multiple parallel streams of information that will congest the entire bandwidth and capacity of the Cloud server and will require exponential levels of scalability to accommodate the influx of data.

In such a situation, Fog computing can resolve this challenge by building a localised computing framework that quickly consumes high-velocity data streams coming in from Edge networks and process insights locally and share only relevant insights to the centralised Cloud server for storage.

2. Faster Computing

Bringing an intermediatory computing layer closer to the source of data generation allows for faster realisation of insights and computing capabilities. This allows decision-making initiatives to quickly arrive at conclusions thanks to faster decision support from the highly responsive Fog computing infrastructure lying closer to them.

However, this concept works only in the case of lower computing workloads or processing capacity. As the complexity and dependency of data generation devices and processes increase in the Edge network, the number of indirect data acquisition channels will rise exponentially and can populate localised Fog servers faster. This would leave the application’s scalability and performance in the balance.

In such cases, the best option would be to leverage direct Cloud-Edge computing information exchange and computational processing. Our earlier blog on “Processing Data At The Edge: Colocation, Cloud, And The Latency Between Them” provides deep insight into how perceiving Edge as an extension of Cloud computing proves to be beneficial for enterprises with a larger digital footprint.

3. Security

Many enterprise leaders often raise concerns about critical business data that is stored and managed in the Cloud. When it comes to Fog and Edge computing, the advantage tilts in favour of Edge computing.

With more localised processing and storage of data at the nodes, there is lesser damage to the entire network when a single node or Edge device is compromised. On the other hand, when data from Edge devices is collected and filtered at a Fog computing infrastructure, the risks are higher.

<,p>Gaining access to a Fog gateway can result in hackers and fraudsters being given the credentials to influence multiple Edge devices connected to the Fog that has been compromised, resulting in a larger extent of the damage.

4. Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

Fog computing can bring on-board speed, efficiency, and better latency in Cloud-centric digital ecosystems which comprise multiple Edge networks. However, it comes with inherent complexities when enterprises try to integrate it into their existing Edge-Cloud infrastructure.

Every business scenario is unique and hence arriving at a one-size-fits-all Fog solution for your business isn’t practical. The complexities and efforts involved in democratising your Edge network with Fog has severe cost implications as well. Hence Fog Computing is much better suited for larger corporations having specific high-density Edge traffic that may overwhelm their cloud infrastructure.

Projected to have a market size of just around USD 539.8 million by 2027, Fog computing is a relatively low-priority technology area for enterprises worldwide. On the other hand, with the explosive growth of IoT and smart connected devices projected to be over 29 billion in numbers by the end of 2022, the potential for enterprises from leveraging a powerful Edge-computing infrastructure is immense.

With competition knocking on your doorstep every single day, gaining a competitive advantage with Edge computing requires enterprises to innovate faster and effortlessly.

This is where Web Werks can bring in a transformational winning formula with our state-of-the-art Edge infrastructure. Over the years, we have enabled some of the world's best businesses to embark on their Edge-computing journey through our Interconnection-rich Tier III Data Centers spread across Mumbai, Pune, and Delhi-NCR. These advanced Edge capabilities are further offered from 16+ Data Centers spread across the US, APAC, and Europe in partnership with our Joint Venture partner Iron Mountain Data Centers.

Partnering with us not only brings you closer to a vision of effortless innovation on Edge networks but also guarantees the trust of a superior Edge infrastructure, endowed by numerous industry feats including the latest CIO Choice 2022 Award in the ‘Edge Computing Infrastructure’ category.

To learn how Web Werks can help you accelerate your organisation’s digital transformation efforts, please visit https://www.webwerks.in/ or get in touch with us at ‌‌ +91 8828 335 555.