TITLE: Edge Computing: A New Disruptive Force

ABSTRACT:

At the height of its success, cloud computing is yielding to edge computing. Why is this happening? What is the unique value proposition of edge computing? As real-world deployments of edge computing appear, how will the lives of end users be improved? What new applications and capabilities will they see?  Which applications run best at the edge, which run best in the cloud, and which should straddle the edge and cloud?   How do we build systems that are seamless to the user but leverage all the available tiers of computing to best effect? Based on my team’s decade-long exploration of edge computing, I will share my insights on these questions.  Of particular interest is a new class of  “wearable cognitive assistance” applications that lie at the convergence of edge computing, wearable devices, and cognitive algorithms (e.g. computer vision, speech recognition, natural language processing).   Drawing upon insights from these edge-native applications,  I will explore what hardware and software infrastructure is needed for edge computing.

BIO:

Satya’s multi-decade research career has focused on the challenges of performance, scalability, availability, and trust in information systems that reach from the cloud to the mobile edge of the internet. In the course of this work, he has pioneered many advances in distributed systems, mobile computing, pervasive computing, and the internet of things (IoT). As described in How we created edge computing, Satya’s seminal 2009 publication The Case for VM-based Cloudlets in Mobile Computing, and the ensuing research has  led to the emergence of edge computing (also known as fog computing).  Satya is the Carnegie Group Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. He received his Ph.D. in computer science from Carnegie Mellon after bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. He is a Fellow of the ACM and the IEEE. For a more detailed bio, see Satya’s Wikipedia entry.