Page 11 - FCW, November/December 2020

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emphasizing safety and security.”
In San Francisco, police recently tracked
down a person who was taking random shots at vehicles on multiple days and in multiple locations by deploying portable gunshot sensors equipped with video cameras, said Shawn McCarthy, a research director at IDC Government Insights, during a recent web conference on the subject of edge computing, 5G and artificial intelligence. The sound of a shot triggered video capture of nearby cars, enabling officers to locate and apprehend a suspect.
In fact, the emerging 5G network is one of the biggest enablers of IoT and edge computing. The fastest 5G networks are expected to be at least 10 times faster than 4G LTE. “When paired with 5G, which promises faster speeds and lower latency, edge computing offers a future with near- real-time back-and-forth connections,” the FCC report states.
‘Save time, effort
and network stress’
As agencies consider incorporating IoT
and edge computing into their operations, McCarthy recommends they evaluate factors such as how much data they collect, how they store it and additional data sources they are
likely to add. If agencies are not making the most “of the data that would otherwise be useful in order to save time, effort and network stress,” it is time to consider processing that data at the edge, he added.
Local computing is not a new concept,
but “edge computing has emerged because technologies, such as content delivery networks and local edge devices and gateways, can now aggregate IoT sensor and mobile device insights to enable on-demand actions where people and physical processes exist, need them and benefit from them,” wrote James Staten, a principal analyst at Forrester Research, in a blog post.
In a recent survey of FCW readers, 47% of respondents said their agencies are already taking advantage of edge computing to speed data analysis and decision-making. In addition, almost 38% said collecting and analyzing data at the network edge is essential to achieving their missions, while only 14% said it’s not important.
Agencies at all levels of government are discovering that edge computing can provide better data protection while facilitating faster, more efficient insights and a seamless user experience. In short, it offers agencies the security, scalability and flexibility they need in a rapidly changing IT environment.
Edge computing
BY THE NUMBERS
41.6 billion
Projected number of connected IoT devices by 2025
79.4
zettabytes
Data that will be collected by IoT devices in 2025
20%
Amount of data cities currently process at the edge
70%
IoT deployments that will include autonomous or edge decision-making by 2023
62%
FCW respondents who said budget constraints are the biggest barrier to edge computing
Sources: FCW, IDC
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