LETTER FROM THE IIC THOUGHT LEADERSHIP TASK GROUP
Dear Reader :
The Industrial Internet Consortium is pleased to bring you the 17th issue of the IIC Journal of Innovation , “ Applying Solutions at the Distributed Edge .”
IIC is a well-respected thought leader on edge computing , and the related fields of fog computing and distributed computing . We have task groups active in edge computing related areas , and many of our member companies are enjoying success with their edge-related products . We believe edge computing will grow in importance in the coming decade , achieving similar stature to today ’ s cloud computing deployments for critical Internet of Things and Digital Transformation applications .
This issue begins with my article , “ Key Criteria to Move Cloud Workloads to the Edge .” This article analyzes the tradeoffs associated with locating computational workloads in cloud datacenters , edge computing nodes , or intelligent IoT devices . It goes on to propose a detailed process to help system implementers decide which system sub-functions are optimally located at each of these levels .
The second article was written by a team of experts from SAP : Thiago Weber Martins , Dr . Frank Rambo , Christian Viezens , Erich Clauer , Andreas Sandner , Tim McConnell , Bakhtiyar Mirtov , Robert Noce , and Stamatis Karnouskos . Its title is “ Driving Industry 4.0 at Distributed Edges with Cloud Orchestration .” It has many valuable insights into how edge computing can improve various aspects of Industry 4.0 deployments , the characteristics that make it valuable , challenges facing it , edge architectures , and implementation requirements . There is special emphasis on the important topic of orchestration of workloads in the edge .
The final paper in this issue is “ Heterogeneous Computing in the Edge .” I wrote this to describe and compare the various types of computational resources that can be applied to edge computing , including CISC / RISC CPUs , GPUs , TPUs , FPGA , DSPs , and ASICs . It analyzes the key performance and cost attributes of these technologies , provides some guidelines on how to implement a heterogenous computing architecture in the edge , and how to decide which of the processing technologies are optimal .
We would like to thank the authors and editors of this content , and hope you find it a valuable resource as you consider the application of edge computing techniques in your systems . As always , your comments are very welcome .
Best Regards ,
Chuck Byers Associate CTO Industrial Internet Consortium
Cover image courtesy of Dreamstime .
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