The edge is being sold to enterprise customers from just about every part of the technology industry, and there’s not always a bright dividing line between “public” options – edge computing sold as a service, with a vendor handling operational data directly – and “private” ones, where a company implements an edge architecture by itself.
任何选择都有优势和挑战，是正确的边缘计算choice for any particular organization depends on their individual needs, budgets and staffing, among other factors. Here are some considerations.
内部边缘计算挑战
The IT-centric approach to edge keeps ownership of edge devices in-house and is likely to appeal to businesses with either strict legal requirements about where their data can be at any given time – a healthcare provider would be a good example – or a low level of institutional comfort for putting that data in the hands of third parties, like utility and manufacturing companies.
然而，在内部处理物品可能具有挑战性。对于一件事，根据基督教斥责，IOT实践总监451次研究，事实的事实是许多IT商店缺乏自己的优先级专业知识来处理边缘部署。
“We run into a few use cases where the internal IT team can’t handle the edge infrastructure, so handing it off to a vendor makes a lot of sense,” he said. “The challenge is that, with production systems, that’s a whole different ballgame [than IT], so there’s a pretty strict set of requirements in terms of what the OT vendors will let run on other people’s networks.”
The lack of common standards in edge compute limits customers’ ability to build their edge infrastructure using multiple vendors. An organization might not be able to use one vendor’s sensors without also buying its edge compute modules or networking gear, since they’re all part of the same offering.
Forrester vice president and principal analyst Brian Hopkins contrasts edge to cloud computing, where interoperability, open frameworks and containerization makes these concerns all but irrelevant.
“[Many cloud frameworks] don’t have to worry about platforms or standards or anything, but when you move to the edge, all that abstraction doesn’t exist,” he said. “So you have to worry about what server you’re running, what communication protocols you’re using … it’s hugely complicated.”
Still, single-vendor edge infrastructure can have feature advantages. For example, Cisco’s edge intelligence orchestration software, which runs on its networking equipment and is managed remotely by Cisco, can send only the data that Cisco needs to run the software, not the operational data itself, Renaud said that. Hence, a user could utilize the software to operate an automated factory, but never have specific data about its machines leave its own networks.
边缘服务可以导致锁定
这是许多供应商想要提供的选项，因为提供了更多的功能，从而越来越能要求客户支付。脱离供应商的边缘计算部署具有可预测成本的优势 - 只需为服务的预算而不是预算，并实施一个复杂的新计算系统，其最终费用可能会不可预测。外包还可以简化运营责任，因为它是供应商保持运行的工作。
Ultimately it’s the direction in which a lot of companies are likely to go, according to Accenture North America networking lead Peters Suh.
“与许多其他有关的技术相关的决策，所有权成本，足够的技术资源和能力，以及拥有网络边缘堆栈的战略价值是否会在这一决策过程中，”他说。“然而，在长期以来，大多数企业可能会寻找第三方支持。”
当然，这也意味着供应商锁定是非常戏剧的。例如，使用第三方服务到仪器并协调其机械的连接工厂。提供商部署自己的传感器，网络设备，边缘盒进行本地控制和快速分析，并将所有内容馈送到客户可以查看更深入的见解。
如果工厂主人甚至想要更改一件拼图 - 说，更有效的传感器，具有新功能 - 它可能会扰乱整个生态系统，并且需要向新的供应商或尴尬，复杂的实施过程中腾出批发交换机，以保证兼容性在新传感器和其他一切之间。
According to Renaud, that’s changing, at least to some extent. Even quite recently, operational-technology vendors would largely dictate the terms of all their deployments. If customers wanted an edge deployment, they had to accept exactly what the vendor had to offer.
“所以现在它更了50/50，每个人都坐在桌子上，以决定数据的位置，安全的会议，以获得所需的OT结果，”他说。“现在的挑战是，这么大的编排由工作量和生产环境中的供应商决定。”
很难知道边缘是什么意思
Given the constellation of different products and services billed as edge computing – and a pervasive lack of agreement on a vendor-independent definition of the term – it can be a chore just to nail down whether a given solution is “edge” at all, much less “in-house” or “edge as a service.”
一个解决方案可以使用网络件的私有5G或LTE，但完全保留在客户的服务器上的数据。另一个可能使用载波连接将数据从数据中心移动到私有云或其他提供商的云。雷竞技电脑网站还有其他人将整个运营技术堆栈外包给提供传感器，边缘硬件，网络和计算的供应商，并为客户提供仪表板，他们可以通过它们查看所需的所有信息。
所有这些都涉及具有各种合适用例的非常不同的技术，但所有这些都被出售为“边缘计算”。根据载体，“边缘”是网络的边缘。每霍普金斯，多年来，多年来，运营商大多是他们的收入销售了一种类型或另一个的简单连接，并查看边缘计算是引入超顶服务的好方法，如管理的多种边缘基础设施，如一个值添加。
“如果您是广告客户或营销人员，他们会说，”如果您想将Adds安装到本地客户的应用程序，我们的基础架构是一个要做的地方，“霍普金斯说。
同样，速度和Akamai的内容交付网络正在寻找许多全球性存在点，传统上用于阶段的需求数据，并将其视为分支的机会。由于边缘计算的标志之一正在提供具有非常低的延迟的服务，并且低延迟一直是CDNS的核心销售点多年来，世界的Akamais和速度急于将自己销售为边缘的流行。如果客户可以弄清楚连接件，则可以在其中一个弹出作为服务中的一个弹出的数据处理。例如，Hopkins中的广告商可以使用CDN作为用于位置依赖的广告服务的清算室。