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BRIEFING
21
Finding your way through fog
Fog computing is a growing
trend. Barry Maidment, IT
Sales Manager for Rittal
South, explains what it is
and why more and more
businesses are embracing it
What is FOG?
The principle of fog is quite simple – it is to
have a temporary storage and processing
capability closer to home/the application.
Essentially, fog computing is a relatively
small computer that gathers, caches and
feeds data into and out of giant servers
in the cloud. The term ‘fog’ was used
because it is closer to the ground (and
nearer the application) than cloud (and its
distant facilities).
Smartphones are a good example
of fog. They rely on the cloud while our
increasing dependence on them means
they are constantly looking for and
retrieving data. Unfortunately, 3G and 4G
cellular networks cannot transmit data to
the cloud at the speed it is generated, so
smartphones offer some local storage and
processing power.
Fog is also likened in some quarters
to RAM in a PC or laptop, on which data
can be accessed randomly and at a great
speed by the processor. RAM caches data
before depositing it onto the hard drive.
The processor can get on with its job and
the computer gets faster with more RAM.
The same concept applies to fog – data
processing is faster when a business
has local storage facilities near the IT
application. When time is available, it
passes the consolidated data to the main
cloud.
Fog Builds Resilience
For a larger application, such as a factory,
fog computing typically describes five or
six racks on the premises which pass data
to the cloud periodically rather than as a
constant stream.
The great advantage of fog, particularly
for business critical functions, is that if
your connection to the internet goes down
and contact is lost with the cloud, you
can still function as a business. It builds
resilience into the system.
So, even if you place the majority of
your data in the cloud, it’s unlikely that
you’ll turn off all your IT. You’ll still need
some IT close to your premises.
Rittal is now seeing more small, five-
rack systems being installed to handle
local processing and the growth of IoT. Not
only does this reduce latency, it means
a business’s most sensitive data can be
more securely stored and resilience is
improved.
As more and more data is collected,
analysed and processed through IoT, so the
need for fog computing will increase.
Rittal, headquartered in Herborn,
Hessen, Germany, is a global provider
of solutions for industrial enclosures,
power distribution, climate control and
IT infrastructure, as well as software and
services. Systems made by Rittal are
deployed across a variety of industrial
and IT applications, including vertical
sectors such as the transport industry,
power generation, mechanical and plant
engineering, IT and telecommunications.
Rittal is part of the Friedhelm Loh Group,
which has 18 production sites worldwide
and 78 international subsidiaries.
Cloud computing offers processing
power and storage capabilities that
few organisations can match, and for
a relatively low cost. Indeed, there are
those who believe that one day all our
computing will reside in the cloud.
However, there is a pressing issue with
cloud computing and that is bandwidth.
Hence the new term fog computing, which
refers to an element of local processing
and storage that builds greater resilience
into the system and gives greater
protection to the most sensitive data. Its
growth is fuelling demand from businesses
for smaller, five-rack systems.
Sending and retrieving data from a
computer to a remote server is subject to
a delay known as latency, which is typically
measured in milliseconds. In a world of
mass connectivity, latency (and therefore
bandwidth) is a critical issue. If an app or
website doesn’t load in seconds, users will
go elsewhere.
Bandwidth overload
The internet of things (IoT) describes an
environment in which ever increasing
numbers of devices (from the plant
manufacturing line to a household fridge)
have embedded sensors and computers, all
collecting and processing data and sending
it to the cloud for storage.
As the IoT gathers pace, an ever
increasing number of devices are
becoming internet-enabled. Today millions
of machines, gadgets and household
items are sending small packets of data
to the cloud every second. The speed at
which the data travels is dictated by the
bandwidth and it is increasingly becoming
overloaded. This limitation in the system
is illustrated by the exploits of cyber
attackers. They task networkable devices
to send massive amounts of data to
websites, effectively blocking them.
However, anyone whose business is
totally dependent on the cloud needs full
connectivity without internet interruption or
downtime.
Barry Maidment,
IT Sales Manager,
Rittal South
Latency
(and therefore
bandwidth) is
a critical issue.
If an app or
website doesn’t
load in seconds,
users will go
elsewhere.
Source: Rittal Limited
