Intelligent CIO Europe Issue 43 | Page 44

FEATURE : EDGE COMPUTING
models to keep more data at the endpoints and limit the amount of information that gets sent back to home office . That adds an extra layer of security , keeping threats away from the data centre , where more mission-critical resources are stored .
To optimise the security of an Edge-enabled system , organisations will need to establish strong governance programmes to control the data that ’ s being generated ,

AS ENTERPRISES ACCELERATE INVESTMENTS IN DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION PROJECTS , EDGE TECHNOLOGIES WILL OPEN UP NEW OPPORTUNITIES TO SUCCEED IN THE MARKETPLACE .

processed and transferred from individual sites . Plus , since IoT devices are tough to secure , it ’ s important that the Edge Computing deployment emphasises proper management of the devices themselves . They ’ ll need to establish policy-driven configuration enforcement and security for computing and storage , paying special attention to encryption of data at rest and in flight .
While Edge security isn ’ t a new concept , the scale of the challenge has grown with the expansion of remote work and on-site IoT-related applications . Solving these Edge security issues will be a top priority in 2021 and beyond .
Democratising technology for entrepreneurial ventures outside major hubs of commerce . Data will be cheaper to manage and it will be available to larger pools of talent . Startup and operational costs will be lower , creating a budding market for new ventures in new and existing industries .
Gartner identified democratisation as one of its top 10 strategic technology trends for the enterprise in 2020 . While the projection focuses mainly on a broader sharing of technical and business domain expertise , it can be extended to include an increase in democratisation of commerce itself – enabled by the growth of Edge technologies .
The Edge ’ s ability to aggregate , process and analyse data locally opens up new opportunities
The democratisation will be driven , in part , by society ’ s move to remote work . Home-based businesses will create their own individual Edge outlets and organisations will establish regional Edge hubs to serve growing numbers of remote employees and contractors .
And , telecommunications providers will shore up Edge hubs and leverage faster 5G to lighten the traffic loads that are bogging down today ’ s suddenly overburdened networks .
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