Difference Between Edge Computing and Fog Computing

Cloud computing refers to the on-demand delivery of IT services/resources over the internet. Cloud computing delivers on-demand IT resources over the internet. By using cloud computing users can access the services from anywhere whenever they need.

Nowadays, a massive amount of data is generated every second around the globe. Businesses collect and process that data from the people and get analytics to scale their business. When lots of organizations access their data simultaneously on the remote servers in data centers, data traffic might occur. Data traffic can cause some delay in accessing the data, lower bandwidth, etc. But cloud computing technology alone is not effective enough to store and process massive amounts of data and respond quickly.  

For example, in the Tesla self-driving car, the sensors constantly monitor the area around the car. If it detects an obstacle or pedestrian on its way, then the car must be stopped or move around without hitting. When an obstacle is on its way, the data sent through the sensor must be processed quickly and help the car to detect before it hits. A little delay in detection could be a major issue. To overcome such challenges, edge computing and fog computing are introduced.  

Edge Computing

Computation takes place at the edge of a device's network, which is known as edge computing. That means a computer is connected with the network of the device, which processes the data and sends the data to the cloud in real-time. That computer is known as "edge computer" or "edge node".  

With this technology, data is processed and transmitted to the devices instantly. Yet, edge nodes transmit all the data captured or generated by the device regardless of the importance of the data.  

Example of Edge computing:

• Autonomous vehicle edge computing devices collect data from cameras and sensors on the vehicle, process it, and make decisions in milliseconds, such as self-parking cars.
• In order to accurately assess a patient's condition and foresee treatments, data is processed from a variety of edge devices connected to sensors and monitors.

Here Fog Computing was introduced and becomes an ideal solution.  

Fog Computing

Fog computing is an extension of cloud computing. It is a layer in between the edge and the cloud. When edge computers send huge amounts of data to the cloud, fog nodes receive the data and analyze what's important. Then the fog nodes transfer the important data to the cloud to be stored and delete the unimportant data or keep them with themselves for further analysis. In this way, fog computing saves a lot of space in the cloud and transfers important data quickly.  

Difference Between Edge Computing and Fog Computing