While there are many ways that edge computing benefits organizations that collect and process significant amounts of data from edge devices, this type of architecture also presents a few challenges.
Ensuring Adequate Network Bandwidth
Edge computing reduces the bandwidth load between the centralized data center and edge locations but increases the bandwidth load on individual edge LANs. To take full advantage of edge computing, you must allocate more bandwidth to edge locations and use LAN infrastructure capable of supporting this bandwidth (e.g., gigabit routers and switches).
Decentralizing Security Policies and Controls
Decentralizing your data processing reduces risk, but edge computing also creates new security challenges. It’s harder to build a strong defensive perimeter of security policies, tools, and controls when so much computing occurs outside of the core network. One way to overcome this challenge is to use cloud security tools that can apply role-based access control (RBAC) policies, firewall rules, and other protections consistently across your core and edge network no matter where the user, device, or application resides.
Reducing Management Complexity
When all of your data processing systems live in one place, it’s easier for administrators to monitor, manage, and optimize them. When you move and disperse these computing resources around the edge, management becomes more complex, increasing the chances that an administrator will make a costly mistake or miss a critical issue. For edge computing to be most effective, you need to implement a centralized monitoring and orchestration solution that unifies edge system management behind a single interface.