As featured in Acceleration Economy Network

We have been doing edge computing for a long time, depending on who you ask. If that is the case, what is the big deal about edge computing? It really is the emerging edge cloud. Edge cloud can be defined as the rapid push of cloud computing out across the edge continuum between the central data center or public cloud megaplexes to the on-premise edge appliances supporting IoT (Internet of Things) applications or a base station at the edge of the mobile network.

Today, much of the new “cloud-native” thinking about computing at the edge is being pushed by the telecommunications industry, following the advent of MEC (Multi-Access Edge Computing) back in 2014. Originally coined as Mobile Edge Computing by ETSI, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, MEC is geared toward specifying and setting the technical standards for edge cloud computing for mobile and other access networks, as well as the cloud-native consumer and enterprise applications that will run on top of it

Cloud native takes the concept of cloud computing to the next level by introducing containers and serverless computing. These are dramatic changes in the way that we architect, develop, deploy, and consume (and for the service provider, deliver) application-based, microservices-based architectures. In effect, developers can modularize their applications designs with a high degree of granularity. As cloud native technologies and operating models stretch out toward the edge, they are changing the edge computing and how we design, develop, and deploy applications.

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