Cloud Computing is coming to an End

I have always avoided the term "cloud computing", it is a vague term to indicate many different things. I like Microsoft's definition:

...cloud computing is the delivery of computing services – servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics and more – over the Internet (“the cloud”). Companies ... typically charge for cloud computing services based on usage, similar to how you’re billed for gas or electricity at home.

In my career, I heard a lot of different analogies for cloud computing: power grid, rental cars, pizza delivery and even escort services (!). It is now time to move away from the whole concept.

As billions of devices get connected to the Internet, it will not be sustainable anymore to use the cloud as a centralized server; servers at the edge (what Cisco calls "fog computing") will become more and more important and they will have the computational power to perform complex operations.

The way forward is to decentralize computations away from the cloud towards the edge of the network, closer to the end user. This will reduce the latency of communication between a user device and the cloud.

Self-driving cars will make an optimal use of this new infrastructure. A car is a big IoT device (a mobile with wheels, if you want) and the more “intelligent” a car become, the more critical is to have an Edge network that can talk to the car and take a critical decision in milliseconds. Cisco claims that only 1% of the traffic will go back to the datacenter with Edge Computing.

In the near future, cloud computing companies will push Neural Networks to the Edge. Every edge server will run AI software that will take an intelligent decision without going back to customers’ datacenter. In summary, the main benefits of Edge Computing will be:

1. Push computing away from centralized nodes, closer to the source of data
2. Reduce Latency
3. Improve Security: it is easier to fight a battle on the edge of the network than near the datacenter
4. Reduction of the amount of data that is transferred towards the cloud

Edge computing will finally give the "old" cloud a partner to handle the 2 exabytes of data generated daily from the Internet of Things (Source Cisco). Are you ready for the next revolution?