In recent times, analytics at the edge level is at the front and center of all the IoT Discussions around the world.

Fog computing is a term introduced by Cisco in Jan 2014 that refers to extending cloud computing to the edge of an enterprise’s network. Also known as Edge Computing or fogging, fog computing facilitates the operation of computing, storing, and networking services between end devices and cloud computing data centers.

In the manufacturing world, vast majority use cases demand instant action such as stop the line that’s overloading the operation and causing the bottleneck or switch off the machine to avoid operator injury, turn off the gas pipeline source as you notice gas leakage, and so on. In such cases, you afford to wait for data signals to go to the cloud, have the computation done, rules applied and alerts sent to operators to switch off the equipment. It would be too late by then. Hence, local instant decision making is important, and that’s exactly what fog or edge computing enables. Edge computing allows to collect a series of a small amount of data, perform important operations, and take corrective measures as required or communicate with the cloud by sharing the processed data.

But then, the real question for teams implementing IoT projects is – If Edge does all this, then why use Cloud? Or vice-a-versa. Rightly said, why I need one or the other and how should I decide?

Connected world interviewed several thought leaders and experts in IoT space and collated their thoughts in the recently published article – Fog or Cloud – Answer is Yes!

Along with Chuck Byers, principal engineer and platform architect at Cisco,  Ada Gavrilovska, associate professor at the College of Computing and the Center for Experimental Research in Computer Systems at Georgia Tech, Matt Vasey, director of IoT business development for Microsoft, Altizon CEO Vinay Nathan has also shared his views on cloud and fog.

Difference between Fog and Cloud computing explained by Vinay Nathan

As quoted in this article, “Increasingly, fog and cloud are complementing each other in the real world. In a factory environment, for example, the real-time aspects of control systems can be pushed close to the edge, while monitoring and long-term analysis could leverage cloud computing. Whether a business adopts fog, cloud, or both depends on the use case. It comes down to how architects blend the best of both worlds in order to solve their business problems.” says Vinay Nathan.

Further, he says, “fog computing has emerged as a technology trend that is complementary to cloud computing, and for the IoT, both fog and cloud are necessary. Machines generate tremendous amounts of data and (the) vast majority of this data is extremely ephemeral, which can be examined and dropped. The fog is necessary as the first layer of quick response to the very fast-moving information. The cloud is the repository to which the fog layer pushes data for post-facto analysis.”

The article presents great facts and experts from the Industrial IoT field their insights. To know why you need both Edge and Cloud computing, Read the Original Post by Connected World Here.

If you want to know whats the right IIoT solution for your plant, Talk to IoT Experts today!