FOG COMPUTING, A NEW STAR IN CLOUD UNIVERSE:

A new trend could be observed in joint relation with cloud starting last summer. Fog Computing concept aims to gather services, workloads, applications and large data volumes in the same place and to deliver it all to the edge of the new generation network. The main goal is to offer core data, computing power, storage, memory and application services at a really distributed level.

The roots of the new concept are coming from the fact today’s data are extremely dispersed and the main needs are related to a continuously delivery, in large volumes and to a huge number of users with different devices. Before designing an effective cloud model, businesses needs to learn how to deliver the large content volume to users in a geographically distributed platform.

The idea of Fog Computing is to distribute all data and place it closer to a user, removing network delays and other possible obstacles related to data transfer. Users need to have all data and apps at any time in any place. What is new here? This is the essence of cloud services. But Fog Computing could take this service to the next level.

The new Fog Computing concept is based on the abstract concept of the “Drop”, a micro-controller chip with built-in memory and data transfer interface, which combined with wireless connection Mesh chip can connect different sensors for temperature, light, voltage, etc. in a really distributed network of data or devices, located all around the world.

fog The key advantages of Fog Computing are related to:

Data placed closer to the final user – the Drops allow keeping the data close to a user instead of storing them in a far data center and eliminate possible delays in data transfer.
Creating dense geographical distribution – Fog computing extends direct cloud services by creating an edge network which sits at numerous points. This, dense, geographically dispersed infrastructure helps in numerous ways: big data and analytics can be done faster, administrators are able to support location-based mobility demands and not have to traverse the entire WAN, and finally, this edge (Fog) systems would be created in such a way that real-time data analytics become a reality on a truly massive scale.
True support for mobility and the IoE – there is a direct increase in the amount of devices and data that we use. Administrators are able to leverage the Fog and control where users are coming in and how they access this information. As more services are created to benefit the end-user, edge and Fog networks will become more prevalent.
Numerous verticals are ready to adopt – The term “fog computing” has been embraced by Cisco Systems as a new paradigm to support wireless data transfer to support distributed devices in the “Internet of Things.” A number of distributed computing and storage start-ups are also adopting the phrase. It builds upon earlier concepts in distributed computing, such as content delivery networks, but allows the delivery of more complex services using cloud technologies.
Seamless integration with the cloud and other services – With Fog services is possible to enhance the cloud experience by isolating user data that needs to live on the edge. From there, administrators are able to tie-in analytics, security, or other services directly into their cloud model. This infrastructure still maintains the concept of the cloud while incorporating the power of Fog Computing at the edge.

Concluding, Fog Computing is not a replacement for Cloud Computing. Fog Computing is a big step to a distributed cloud – by controlling data in all node points, fog computing allows turning datacenter into a distributed cloud platform for users. Fog is an addition which develops the concept of cloud services. Thanks to the “drops” it is possible to isolate data in the cloud systems and keep them close to users.

Market figures are showing very clear that IT consumerization and BYOD will increase mobile data consumption. Users are more and more mobile. We need mobility to conduct our business and to better organise our personal lives. Rich content and lots of data points are pushing cloud computing platforms, literally, to the edge – where our more and more hungry requirements are claiming more services and applications. As more services, data and applications are pushed to us, technologists will need to find ways to optimise the delivery process.

This means bringing information closer to the end-user will reduce latency and will request us to be prepared for the Internet of Everything.

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Photo Source: 1bog.org