Realizing the Full Promise of the Internet Of Things with Edge Computing

Last week, Jason Shepherd, VP of Ecosystem at ZEDEDA, published a three-part blog series on the ZEDEDA blog about the requirement to create ecosystems to fully capture the potential of digital transformation enabled by IoT and Edge Computing. One of the fathers of the LF Edge project EdgeX Foundry and formerly the CTO for Edge and IoT at Dell Technologies, Jason has spent the past five years building commercial and open-source ecosystems in these markets and was named one of the top Industrial IoT influencers for both 2018 and 2019. 

I found this series provided me with a good understanding of where the industry is now and a clear path to move forward. Starting with the statement that the early experimentations in IoT ended with a collection of Intranets of Things, he also highlights that the true value of the Internet came from ecosystems built on top of open standards. To replicate the same success with the Internet of Things, we need three pillars:  Interoperability, trust, and ecosystem scale: 

  1. True interoperability with a universal, open and consistent edge infrastructure foundation such as what the LF Edge community is building;
  2. Trust insertion through a layering of technologies such as distributed ledger to enable devices and people to transact based on pre-existing and agreed upon smart contracts;
  3. Ecosystem scale driven by differentiated hardware and applications – especially AI – that’s backed with industry-specific domain knowledge and abstracted from the underlying horizontal, open and trusted infrastructure foundation. This enables end users to scale increasingly-interconnected solutions and build a dependable Internet of Things that drives new experiences and business outcomes.

For more on this topic, Edge AI, security, business model innovation, and beyond, register now for ZEDEDA Transform – a free, half-day virtual event on August 19th and Edge Computing World from October 12-15. We will be at both events and are looking forward to interacting with you then! 

Philippe Cases

Smart city concept.