Exploring the Emerging Technology: ‘Fog Computing’

Cyber Security has now become an integral part of any organization. It is very difficult to ignore the importance of cyber-security nowadays. From the significant role it played in the 2016 presidential poll to the recent revelation about the Yahoo bluff (where more than one billion Yahoo accounts were breached in 2013), cyber security is no longer a problem unique to Sci-Fi thrillers. Perceptibly, the two examples stated here are simply the most egregious of recent times, but they are vague in comparison to the threat of cyberattack on actual infrastructure.
Cyber Security for the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) started as a spark and quickly turned into an eruptive volcano. Undeniably, data is the most important “currency” in the tech world today, and companies both public and private are struggling to figure out the best possible way to protect that data will still ensure real-time transport and analysis.
Emergence of Fog Computing
The forthcoming months will see the advent of True Fog Computing and Programmable/Intelligent Edge Devices designed with robust security measures till-date.
According to a report by analysts, companies have now become more comfortable hosting the critical infrastructure and applications in the Cloud. In an effort to optimize processes and shorten the response time, companies will explore ways to horde applications at the device/sensor level (which is termed the Edge or Fog Computing). It is basically a decentralized network architecture, that brings computing control closer to where data is generated and acted upon, Fog Computing allows analysis, automation and control closer to the “Things” in the IIoT. Cyber Security will be improved by reducing the threat and attack to surfaces of IIoT networks, since Fog Computing will reduce the amount of data being directed towards the Cloud. Certain processes will move away from the Cloud and closer to the Edge, which will aid the industries where even milliseconds are vital.
The base of this shift in intellect deployment is simple: the Cloud, while legitimately secure, is still prone to security breaches, so rather than hosting all of the data and the analytics tools over the cloud, we must consider moving those processes closer to the edge to the sensors and devices with built in security.
Now, while the concept is simple, the implementation is more difficult. This shift requires a high-speed, robust network capable of real-time data diffusion and, perhaps even more essentially, programmable devices at the edge. Rather than thinking about big data from the outlook of consuming from a fire hose, a programmable device at the edge permits the user to develop exclusive applications that cleans out unnecessary data. Consequently, the smaller data packets assist two things: faster transmission to the analytics engines, and the ability to send that data via mesh networking technology, which has been verified to provide better security.
Currently, the problem faced in this shift in intelligence to the edge is because there are very few companies producing programmable devices for this advantage. It’s a totally different way of impending data transmission and security, and so far, the industry has been slow to catch on: instead of trying to build a wall in front of the huge door (the Cloud), eliminate the door and build a series of constantly moving mouse holes (the Edge). Which one do you think sounds easier to protect?
Conclusion
Data has not been an issue; we already have more of it than we can analyze or utilize, and we’re collecting more and more every day. The problem is going to be about storing and retrieving the data when we want it in a convenient fashion.
Fog computing allows for data to be processed and accessed more rapidly and more reliably from the most logical location, which lessens the risk of data latency.
Any business that trusts someone else’s data center for storing its data would be wise to consider this new trend, and scrutinize how their business might be affected in the future if they lack the bandwidth to access it.