How are IoT and the edge related?

IoT benefits from processing power being closer to the physical device or data source. For data collected by IoT sensors and devices to be used to react faster or eliminate issues, it must be analyzed at the edge rather than traveling back to a central site.

By providing a local source of processing and storage for the data and computing demands of IoT devices, edge computing reduces communication latency between IoT devices and the central information technology (IT) networks to which they are connected.

IoT would rely on cloud or data center connection and computation services without edge computing. Sending data back and forth between an IoT device and the cloud could slow response times and reduce operational efficiency.

Edge computing also addresses network capacity requirements for transferring large amounts of data across sluggish cellular or satellite connections, as well as the ability for systems to work offline if a network connection...