Relevance of edge analytics

IoT devices are not permanently connected to a central server, so some amount of processing/analytics needs to be done locally so that these devices can function independently if they’re not connected to a central server. This is one scenario where edge analytics is required. Essentially, edge analytics refers to processing IoT data near the point at which it is generated. In other words, edge analytics refers to the scenario where analytics data is sent to the point of data generation rather than being sent to the point where analytics and algorithms are hosted or deployed. This definition points to the fact that edge analytics can be implemented on a variety of physical infrastructures (device gateways, on-premises servers, or data centers physically located close to field devices).

Distributing data processing workloads between edge and central server depends on use case requirements – most IoT use cases rely on a hybrid approach. Usually...