In a time when the world is run by data and real-time actions, edge computing is quickly becoming a must-have in enterprise technology. In the recent episode of the Tech Transformed podcast, hosted by Shubhangi Dua, a Podcast Producer and B2B Tech Journalist, discusses the complexities of this distributed future with guest Dmitry Panenkov, Founder and CEO of emma.

The conversation dives into how latency is the driving force behind edge adoption. Applications like autonomous vehicles and real-time analytics cannot afford to wait on a round trip to a centralised data centre. They need to compute where the data is generated.

Rather than viewing edge as a rival to the cloud, the discussion highlights it as a natural extension. Edge environments bring speed, resilience and data control, all necessary capabilities for modern applications. 

Adopting Edge Computing

For organisations looking to adopt edge computing, this episode lays out a practical step-by-step approach. The skills necessary in multi-cloud environments – automation, infrastructure as code, and observability – translate well to edge deployments. These capabilities are essential for managing the unique challenges of edge devices, which may be disconnected, have lower power, or be located in hard-to-reach areas. Without this level of operational maturity, Panenkov warns of a "zombie apocalypse" of unmanaged devices.

Simplifying Complexity

Managing different APIs, SDKs, and vendor lock-ins across a distributed network can be a challenging task, and this is where platforms like emma become crucial.

Alluding to emma’s mission, Panenkov explains, "We're building a unified platform that simplifies the way people interact with different cloud and computer environments, whether these are in a public setting or private data centres or even at the edge."

Overall, emma creates a unified API layer and user interface, which simplifies the complexity. It helps businesses manage, automate, and scale their workloads from a singular perspective and reduces the burden on IT teams. They also reduce the need for a large team of highly skilled professionals leads to substantial cost savings. 

emma’s customers have experienced that their cloud bills went down significantly and updates could be rolled out much faster using the platform.

Takeaways

• Edge computing is becoming a reality for more organisations.
• Latency-sensitive applications drive the need for edge computing.
• Real-time analytics and industry automation benefit from edge computing.
• Edge computing enhances resilience, cost efficiency, and data sovereignty.
• Integrating edge into cloud strategies requires automation and observability.
• Maturity in operational practices, like automation and observability, is essential for edge readiness.
• Standardisation of APIs and devices is crucial for future edge solutions.
• The market demand will drive the evolution of edge computing platforms.

Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction to Edge Computing
• 02:28 Driving Forces Behind Edge Computing
• 04:30 Integrating Edge into Cloud Strategies
• 06:41 The Role of Android in Edge Computing
• 08:38 Preparing for Edge Computing Challenges
• 11:30 Elevator Pitch for Emma
• 13:09 Managing Complexities in Edge Computing
• 15:30 Building Operational Maturity for Edge
• 17:54 Use Case: Autonomous Vehicles
• 21:07 Future of Platforms in Edge Computing
• 23:44 Edge Computing in Different Scenarios