Edge Computing and Cloud Security
Edge computing is where the computational aspect of information technology is done “closer to the edge” of where users consume that information. It is a new form of computing that is gaining popularity as 5G is becoming more mainstream. This means that as networking itself gets faster; computing is accelerating at a similar rate along with it. Network World describes the applications of edge computing through video processing and analytics, self-driving cars, artificial intelligence, and robotics.
Cloud security on the other hand is how all the data users store outside of their physical locations remains safe (Tech Republic). Data is often a difficult concept to grasp for most, but to put it in simpler terms, it is like an individual storing $5 million dollars in a bank rather than under their mattress. If they want to withdraw all this money from one branch of their bank, that specific location may not have that much storage itself, so it pools together it storage with other branches. This is comparable to a user not having 5 terabytes worth of capacity on their phone, but if they upload this data to the cloud, it will be distributed among multiple servers to be “withdrawn” at a point when the user wants to access all this data.
Cloud security is the foundation of AWS and how they promise to keep their customers’ data safe. Since a good portion of Enterprise IT Architecture revolves around the cloud-based platform of Amazon Web Services, we also learned about cloud security. This was taught to us through the differences in the capabilities of public and private subnets. With public subnets, the data is available out of the server itself, but with private subnets, the administrator must authorize specific control over the data to the individuals.
While cloud security remained a present force in lectures throughout the semester, edge computing, while present in concept, was not as visible as the former. However, it arose in relevance through the forms of auto scaling and availability zones. By utilizing auto scaling, we were able to increase the performance of the data and computational power; and with availability zones, we learned the concepts of bringing this data closer to the edge.
Edge computing is seeing a necessity grow for how to operate within the Internet of Things and remain secure through the Cloud. Edge computing is allowing companies to process and store data at a much faster rate, but this data at the edge is not as secure as a centralized cloud system. While companies are using the edge to get their data into their secure cloud servers, the trouble for privacy comes in on that transport from the edge.
Recently, Microsoft has begun a rollout of new “Azure Edge Zones”, where they are combining cloud applications to run on a variety of edge-based devices to broadcast 5G service (Forbes). This project seems ambitious, but that is because it is as it attempts to combine several of the tech industry’s biggest developments into a new product to reduce latency down to milliseconds.
Due to the ongoing pandemic, many have turned to popular voice chat platform, Zoom, to connect with each other. However, the company recently came under scrutiny for its privacy concerns. To combat this criticism, they just enlisted Oracle to provide cloud security for their company. This will help Zoom be able to scale up for their increasing users needs while making the platform itself more secure (CNBC).
Sources
https://www.networkworld.com/article/3224893/what-is-edge-computing-and-how-it-s-changing-the-network.html
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/cloud-security-10-things-you-need-to-know/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/bobodonnell/2020/04/15/microsofts-new-azure-edge-zones-highlights-opportunity-to-combine-5g-and-edge-computing/#686665a225aa
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/28/zoom-taps-oracle-for-cloud-deal-passing-over-amazon-microsoft.html