Cloud computing has, without doubt, become the pervasive computing theme of the 21st century.
Now, organisations around the world are starting to roll out the application use cases that cloud computing enables, including the Internet of Things (IoT), Industrial IoT (IIoT), smart environments and more.
IoT is an opportunity to streamline operations, enabling interaction between machines and humans (M2H), and devices and machines (M2M), explains Donna Mostert, Huawei brand manager at Mustek. With typical IoT deployments, sensor-generated data are fed to the big data system for analysis, actioning and reports.
IoT isn’t a new concept, but it hasn’t really gathered momentum until recently, mainly due to issues around scalability, security, installation difficulties, poor fault tolerance and tricky maintenance. In addition, the traditional IT framework showed that it simply wasn’t up to the task of providing the speed, performance and connectivity needed.
Cloud computing and big data/analytics are key to solving many of these issues, with the three technologies creating a symbiotic ecosystem that helps to drive new and innovative applications. “The breakthrough of big data and cloud computing technologies will not only resolve problems but also promote the wide application of IoT technologies,” Mostert believes.
Cloud computing allows organisations to deploy the applications that process and analyse data quickly, and make decisions as soon as possible.
“With IoT, communication needs to happen in realtime, so there could be massive demands on the infrastructure,” Mostert explains. “Cloud computing provides the performance and scalability to store and operate these data volumes. So the two technologies are complementary: IoT generates large amounts of data; while cloud providers allow data transfer via the Internet.”
IoT data can be stored on a cloud platform, where it can be easily – and quickly – accessed, analysed and monitored. Because cloud computing enables high-speed data flow over the network, it results in faster big data processing.
Communication takes place both ways, so IoT devices with common APIs and back-end infrastructure can receive instructions or security updates instantly through the cloud.
Big data is not a new concept: it is the ability to store, manage and analyse huge quantities of data. A scalable cloud environment can provide the right level of data management – and guarantee performance – regardless of the volume of data.
Whenever there are big volumes of data involved, security, identity management and access control become major concerns. Mostert points out that a cloud computing provider can help to alleviate these worries for the user, offering security policies and processes that ensure complete data security.
“In addition, a simple software interface can abstract information details, guaranteeing confidentiality of user data and providing access only to authorised users.”
Because much of the data collected comes from the edge it is important to analyse, manage and store it from various locations. “Maintaining a number of dispersed servers would be prohibitively expensive for user organisations,” Mostert says. “But, because cloud providers have geographically dispersed data centre as well as virtual servers, cloud computing reduces the cost of big data processing significantly.”
IoT devices are usually simple, fit-for-purpose but not necessarily very powerful – so they have limited processing ability. Cloud computing uses high-level software and applications which do not depend on the efficiency of the user devices, but rather on the network servers for performance. So even the most simple of devices can be a top performer thanks to cloud computing and big data.
Partnering with Huawei and Mustek
Huawei is a world leader in the cloud environment, thanks to the organisation’s $2,3-billion R&D budget.
Mustek is a value-added distributor and long-time Huawei partner for a broad range of Huawei Enterprise products and services, including its cloud computing offerings.
The distributor has a significant complement of highly skilled engineers, presales experts and sales executives who are on hand to assist partners with the correct technical know-how to scope and quote on a system, onboard a reseller, provide training and help with configuration. It also offers value-add in the form of access to events, training and marketing services.
Huawei also provides training and certifications for customers and partners at its own expense, delivered locally through Mustek’s world-class training academy, Mecer Inter-Ed.
About Mustek
Mustek is focused on being South Africa’s ICT supplier of choice. Through the supply of configuration and customisation, tried and tested best industry practices and competitive pricing, Mustek is positioned to service a wide range of technology needs.
For more information about Mustek and its proven track record of solution formulation and superior technical expertise, visit www.mustek.co.za