Edge computing vs. Cloud computing: Challenges and opportunities in industry 4.0

Abstract

With the technological development of advanced technologies and the use of the Internet of Things (IoT), the number of connected devices is increasing in manufacturing processes. As devices become more and more incorporated using more processing power, the big data is generated. However, increasing the generation of big data leads to problems related to processing and analysis. The current tendency of solving the problems of processing and analysis is via Cloud Computing technologies. However, more attention is dedicated of performing computations as close to the device as possible, relying on Edge Computing technologies. Motivated by these facts, this paper provides a comparative analysis of the roles of edge computing and cloud computing, summarizing challenges and opportunities of these technologies and providing their application in Industry 4.0.