Edge vs Cloud: Why We Are Moving Away from the Center

For the last decade, we moved everything to "The Cloud". But for autonomous cars, gaming, and VR, even the speed of light is too slow to travel to a distant data center. The solution is Edge Computing.

What is The Edge?

The "Edge" refers to computing power located physically close to the user—at the cell tower, in the street-side cabinet, or even in the user's router. Services like Cloudflare Workers are a prime example.

Why It Matters

• Zero Latency: Decision-making happens in milliseconds, not hundreds of milliseconds.
• Bandwidth Savings: Instead of sending raw video from 1,000 cameras to a server, the edge processes the data and only sends the highlights.
• Reliability: If the central cloud goes down, the edge can keep vital local services running.