Edge Cloud: A Closer Look at the IoT Edge Platform

I recently caught up with Lior Netzer, VP and CTO IoT, Akamai Technologies to discuss their new edge platform.

Please tell me more about Edge Cloud.

Edge Cloud is a new solution line that leverages the Akamai edge platform to help businesses succeed in the connected device, in-app messaging, and connected cars revolution, with an eye toward scalability and security. By bringing billions of endpoints online, Edge Cloud enables connected device initiatives to capitalize on the ubiquity of Internet access. It’s critical that businesses begin thinking about the infrastructure required to support and secure connected messaging at scale if they want to maintain a competitive edge, as approximately 22 billion connected devices will be sending data across the Internet by 2025.

What are the major IoT pain points you're solving for your customers?

The solution offers unrivaled scalability. The increasing prevalence of IoT, in-app messaging, and connected cars, like Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT), across businesses and industries underlines the need for optimized connectivity and real-time data delivery to and from billions of devices.

IoT Edge Connect, the newest product in the Edge Cloud solution line, further addresses these challenges by providing a secure framework for IoT devices and applications using MQTT, reducing security breaches, and improving messaging manageability. IoT Edge Connect also provides a simplified administrative interface that offers businesses full visibility into their IoT and in-app messaging, allowing them to avoid the costly development and maintenance of these networks.

OTA Updates uses the Edge Cloud to distribute software updates to connected vehicles. It tracks completion rates, provides large files transfers and real-time reporting to keep campaign managers informed.

Describe some potential use cases.

We’re moving toward a future where everything is connected, from hotel rooms to emergency vehicles to supply chains, to simplifying daily tasks like switching off lights and turning down thermostats, hands and remote free. With that, it’s critical that automated and interconnected communications are protected from hackers. IoT Edge Connect ensures the security of connected devices and safe delivery of associated data with end-to-end mutual authentication a fully managed and pre-integrated solution. It also offers big data architects visibility into their daily operations with an integrated, all-in-one data stream, distributed database, and a key-value store. For example, hospitals can track the location of ambulances to better anticipate patient arrivals, as well as critical inventory like wheelchairs and hospital beds to track patient movement. This also enables global enterprises to send messages (10-times more messages than other IoT or in-app messaging cloud solutions) at scale and around the globe.

What industries can benefit from this new solution?

The Edge Cloud solution and IoT Edge Connect is applicable and beneficial to businesses of all sizes and across industries, including automotive, airlines, hospitality, restaurants, hospitals, schools, gaming, financial services, retail, fleet management, and more.

Anything else our developer community needs to know?

Akamai offers a free 30-day trial and a developer’s sandbox environment of IoT Edge Connect to provide hands-on access to the technology. Your readers can click here to get started.