Edge computing is a term that is being thrown around more and more these days, but often without an easily digestible definition of what exactly Edge Computing is. More often than not, the explanations are either too aggressively filled with technical jargon for a layperson to decipher, or too vague to provide a meaningful, clear understanding of what Edge Computing really is, why it’s useful, and why so many more organizations are using it as a way to address emerging IT roadblocks and leverage the power of other technologies, namely Cloud Computing and IoT.

Below we explain exactly what edge computing is and why it is becoming increasingly important in our digital world as we grapple with the new data processing challenges that come with increasingly sophisticated technologies.

Before we can explain the mechanics of Edge Computing, it is important to first understand how cloud computing works. This is a completely different technology and term that is in no way interchangeable with Edge Computing. We also need to understand what obstacles currently exist.

Cloud computing delivers computing power over the Internet by connecting users to powerful servers that are maintained and secured by a third party. This allows users to use the computing power of those servers to process data for them.