2021 Forecast for the Edge

Following the chaos of 2020, making predictions for the coming year feels more uncertain than ever. But over the past 12 months, a few clear edge-computing trends have begun to emerge that I think will continue in 2021.

对于初学者来说，该行业继续朝着将边缘视为具有独特范式的连续体，而不是一个非态实体。提供者越来越意识到，尽管尽可能多地在连续体中应用类似原则的好处，但由于技术和业务模型之间的固有权衡，仍有不同的高级边缘计算类别。

这Linux Foundation’s LF Edge taxonomy paper在定义这些权衡方面取得了长足的进步，例如用例对延迟敏感（例如，视频流）还是关键（例如，部署安全气囊）。其他包括边缘计算节点是在数据中心中还是可以在现场上进行物理访问（这值得额外关注安全性）。以及计算资源是否能够以容器和虚拟机的形式进行应用抽象，还是受到限制，以至于需要嵌入式软件开发(see figure)。

鉴于这一认识，在2020年，我们看到越来越多的公司之间建立了伙伴关系，专注于Edge Continuum的不同部分，以提供基于一流成分的全面解决方案。这种趋势可能是2021年的总体定义质量：非传统的伙伴关系和试图闯入其他人以历史上解决市场的新挑战者。

Breaking Tradition

We’ve seen the beginnings of this as startups likeVapor IOandendgemicromake inroads into providing regional and hyper-local computing resources—which has been the domain of larger telco and IT providers. We also see the crossover from service providers traditionally serving different spaces. For example, DISH Network bought Boost Mobile and has spent billions of dollars purchasing spectrum to offer products and services on top of its own 5G network.

当然,公共云也积极extending their reach into the network edge and beyond. Meanwhile, despite the convenience of these cloud resources, customers increasingly realize the importance of having a multi-cloud strategy. Interestingly, Google’s position with Anthos is cloud-agnostic, and recently Amazon Web Services (AWS) has even started to overtly use the term “multi-cloud” in its messaging.

这Private Side of 5G

You can’t watch television for more than 20 minutes nowadays without seeing a commercial touting a cell provider’s 5G coverage. But in reality, we’re still years away from consumers realizing many benefits from 5G. Sure, you can download a movie a little faster, but does that really change your overall experience? We still need our applications to catch up and take advantage of the lower latency and higher bandwidth before people feel a real shift.

More immediately, private 5G networks will make a more significant impact. This will open doors for non-traditional players, including startups, to offer new services and AI-based innovations at the edge.

In addition to traditional cell providers, we will increasingly see industrial experts providing managed services around networks tailored to customers' unique needs. The reason being, an industrial solutions provider, like Siemens, understands how a factory runs and how to optimize connectivity within that environment in a different way from that of a telco. We will also see traditional networking players partnering with people who understand operations for a private, optimized 5G experience.

您好伙伴

Further expanding on this theme, expect to see an accelerating trend in 2021 of IT-centric players partnering up with leading industrial providers who understand the unique contexts of industrial environments because IT practices around security, management, and data science don’t equal domain knowledge. Similarly, more industrial players will stop investing in building out their own cloud platforms. Instead, they will adopt platforms from the cloud scalers and focus on their domain-specific knowledge and products.

Rockwell Automation是该趋势的一个很好的例子，因为该公司正在采用开放式方法来建立其工业物联网和边缘计算策略。

总的来说，边缘分类法的混乱将减少，标准将开始达到。与我们在过去五年中看到的数百个通用平台相比，这为堆栈中的专家打开了大门，这些提供商是该堆栈的一门学科。

边缘和AI促进了新的正常

Despite the availability of COVID vaccines, remote work will be a new normal for many. In 2021, we will see more transformation in the cloud and the acceleration of edge computing due to the need to offload networks. New AI-driven innovations will emerge to enhance productivity for remote workers and help them balance work and home life.

人工智能变得更苗条

2019年底开始供暖的Tinyml对话将在2021年全面嗡嗡声。这是部署针对高度受限的，基于微控制器的设备进行优化的小型推断模型的做法。例如，Amazon Echo的“ Hey Alexa” Wake命令是由Tinyml模型在本地识别的，该模型触发了与他们的基于云的服务器打开连接的会话。

TinyML algorithms will increasingly be used for a localized analysis of simple voice and gesture commands. These involve familiar sounds such as a gunshot or a baby crying, assessing location and orientation, environmental conditions, vital signs, and so forth.

This trend will help further the growing realization by the telcos and traditional IT players that not all edge processing will happen in a data center, and the edge is indeed a continuum.

Kubernetes Heads South

With K3S and the recent introduction of K0S, the Kubernetes wave will continue to flow “southbound” toward more constrained edge-computing devices. This will spin up more focus on the right security models for deployments outside of physically secure data centers. It will also drive more partnerships between companies with expertise in edge data-center deployments and those that address the unique needs of managing and securing compute resources distributed in the field.

学习被联合起来

联邦的概念表明promis学习e for several years, but it’s a challenging prospect. This space will evolve in 2021 out of necessity to provide the benefits of decentralization for privacy, autonomy, data sovereignty, and bandwidth savings while centralizing results from distributed data zones to eliminate regional bias.

AI vs. AI

Data trust will be an increasingly hot topic in 2021. This is due to the rapidly growing challenge of dealing with the proliferation of deep fakes that can skew business results, drive false sentiments on social media, or worse. The industry will respond by leveraging AI to combat rogue AI and further exploring the concept of data confidence fabrics.

Wrapping Up

One of the encouraging developments of 2020 that has great momentum heading into the new year is establishing definitions and taxonomies around edge computing.

我们摆脱了围绕边缘计算的最初嗡嗡声，在此期间，各种行业（云，电信，IT，OT/工业，消费者）以强烈的偏见对自己的利益定义了空间。另外，他们使用了诸如“薄又厚”和“近乎遥远”之类的模棱两可的术语对不同的人意味着不同的事物。一个常见的词汇在清除混乱并将挑战陷入可管理的范围方面有很长的路要走。

2021年及以后的一个关键主题将是公司采用更开放的基础架构，并建立技术和服务提供商的战略生态系统，这些生态系统以其自己的重点报价提供独特的增值。这将包括非传统合作伙伴关系，适应商业模式和新挑战者。

最后，域知识超越了其他所有内容，并且鉴于优势的多样性，尝试自行解决整个解决方案堆栈没有效率。我们需要与专家建立有意义的合作伙伴关系，以跨越边缘连续体的每个独特挑战。不仅仅是说“它需要一个村庄”。我们需要构建它。

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