In this, our final chapter, we will cover some of the key business drivers behind the explosive growth in edge computing to help you plan for future developments in the industry. We will also review how to plan for growth in your architecture so that what you put in place now will continue to function if your application’s demand scales.
Finally, we’ll review some best practices and pitfalls to avoid with any edge computing service so that you’ll be prepared no matter what new announcements AWS makes.
Here are the main topics covered in this chapter:
Business drivers for growth in edge computing
Building a solid foundation for the future
Patterns and anti-patterns
Business drivers for growth in edge computing
There are two main categories of emerging business needs that are predicted to drive explosive growth in new edge computing applications, as well as rapid and unpredictable scaling of those applications once they are in place. The first category is those drivers that fall under the Industry 4.0 zeitgeist, and the second consists of those necessitated by data sovereignty and privacy concerns.
Industry 4.0
Industry 4.0 is a term that was popularized by the World Economic Forum founder and executive chairman Klas Schwab in his 2017 book, The Fourth Industrial Revolution. It predicts a number of fundamental shifts in how production and supply networks function around the world. These are expected to be driven by imminent breakthroughs in emerging technologies that fuse digital, physical, and human components.
The shift to Industry 4.0 is not a mere technological upgrade but a strategic move to address a range of business challenges and opportunities. From expected gains in operational efficiency to increased ability to meet the demands of a rapidly evolving market, Industry 4.0 practices are now front and center in the technology strategies of governments and major manufacturers worldwide.
Given this background, let’s review some of the expected benefits of any edge computing solution to guide your architecture. These may not be stated upfront as requirements, but you should at least plan for the possibility that your architecture will be asked to deliver on them at some point in the future: