The CIO Show: Edge computing has arrived

Edge computing as a concept has been around a long time. But now it would seem it’s entering the mainstream as an important, viable technology to improve everything from latency, data collection and, importantly organisations’ ability to further exploit the capabilities of hyper-scale, cloud-based technologies, as well as the internet of things. In fact, it’s expected that the edge will spawn completely new thinking and actual applications around business communications over the next few years. And in Australia it’s poised to be a game-changer for all organisations, especially those operating in rural and regional locations, which are on the wrong side of what has become a gaping digital divide in this country. Providing further perspective, CIO50 2020 alumnus, Water NSW's chief information officer, Ian Robinson, discusses how important having an effective edge computing architecture will be for the organisation moving forward, outlining some powerful use cases, in particular around the capturing and analysing of high-definition video footage from sites. He also gives a sneak peak at current Water NSW projects bring together the edge and IoT applications in compelling ways. Hugh Ujhazy, IDC’s vice president, telecommunications and IoT for APEJ, explains that the whole concept of networking has been turned on its head in recent years with the explosion of devices at the edge driving a future with less emphasis on the ‘consumption’ of data and more about its ‘creation’. And Chris Thorpe, founder and chief executive officer at Leading Edge Data Centres, shares his vision for closing the gap between metro and regional Australia through the progressive rollout of data centres. He says they're already enabling CIOs to capitalise on cloud and other technologies which were previously inaccessible or lacked adequate performance to be effective, with agriculture, healthcare, education and government organisations among those standing to gain the most.