Fog computing. It’s a new term surfacing in the technology industry to describe a computing solution that allows organizations to push the power of computing to the edge of the network.  

I first heard it from John Chambers, the head of Cisco. But it’s quickly becoming the next buzz word in the IT world.

Like the cloud, “the fog” provides data, computing, storage, and application services to end-users. This creates a highly virtualized platform that works between end devices and traditional cloud computing data centers.

What’s the Future
Some technologists believe 100 percent of computing will move to the cloud someday. I think that’s unlikely because not all computing can work in the cloud. There are times and circumstances when organizations need the ability to analyze and access data on site, instead of accessing it from the cloud.

Cloud computing is constrained by bandwidth and connectivity. As organizations create and store more and more data – and larger and larger files – bandwidth can be a problem.

Think about a geographically diverse network of sensors that collect large amounts of data.  Rather than send the data to the cloud for analysis and a decision, it might be possible to make decisions locally, and then push the data to the cloud when bandwidth is more available. 

Fog computing provides an answer. Fog is being called the future of computing.

Reasons to Get in the Fog
Fog computing provides organizations a more flexible environment to save, store, sync and use their data. Here are three key characteristics of organizations that can benefit from fog computing:

• Desire to make local decisions. In many cases, organizations generate and use data locally – and have no need to send it to the cloud. Take a smart street light that uses video cameras. It makes most sense for the light to make a decision on the spot – without pushing the information to a cloud and then sending it back to the device for a decision to be made.
• A high density of mobile devices on the network. Smartphones are constantly seeking and retrieving data from the cloud. This affects bandwidth – and security. It also can affect services. Some organizations also rely on computing power to provide key services, such as ticketing. Fog computing takes in account real-time load balancing.
• Access to data at all times. With fog computing, organizations still can sync with the cloud with the opportunity to have their data available locally when needed.

We are becoming increasingly dependent on the Internet – in our work and personal lives. We have moved to an Internet of Things (IoT) or Internet of Everything. The challenge is getting to these things. Fog computing, through new architecture developed by Cisco and others, provides a sustainable solution.