Key findings of this report:

1. Edge computing is already the default paradigm for many industrial applications given that the majority of these applications predated cloud computing. This alone will make it a ‘safe transition’ technology (in contrast to centralized cloud models) for operational technology professionals hesitant to adopt IoT solutions.
2. Edge computing offers considerable benefits to latency-sensitive applications by performing analysis and action either on-premises or proximate at a service provider or colo point of presence, eliminating the round-trip delay in traffic backhauled to a centralized cloud provider for analysis and action.
3. Local computation and action offers benefits for continuous operation in the event of connectivity failure to the central cloud, offering better system uptime and ‘survivability’ in the event of wide area network failure.
4. Many operational and industrial IoT applications concern high-sample-rate time-series data that does not present any immediate value in raw form but rather from insights derived from long-term trend analysis. Local summarization of data, then forwarded to the cloud, reduces cloud storage fees as well as bandwidth fees.
5. Currently, there are no fewer than 50 technology vendors with hardware, software and service solutions targeting the fog computing opportunity.

Discover more at 451 Research , or download a report summary here.