Trust in Computer Systems and the Cloud

CHAPTER 10Trust, the Cloud, and the Edge

In Chapter 5, we noted a common joke in cloud computing:

There is no cloud: it's just somebody else's computer.

In this chapter, we will delve deeper into the impact of this statement on trust and also consider another important computing environment: what has become known as “the Edge”. Let us attempt a definition of Edge computing to allow us to disambiguate it from cloud computing. While there is some overlap, there are some differing characteristics that will be of interest to us as we look at trust in each context. Edge computing addresses use cases where consolidating compute resources in a centralised location (the typical cloud computing case) is not necessarily appropriate. This pushes some or all of the computing power out to the edges of the network, where it can process data that is generated at the fringes rather than having to transfer all the data over what may be low-bandwidth networks for processing. There is no generally accepted single industry definition of Edge computing, but examples might include:

• Placing video processing systems in or near a sports stadium for pre-processing to reduce the amount of raw footage that needs to be transmitted to a centralised data centre or studio
• Providing analysis and safety control systems on an ocean-based oil rig to reduce reliance and contention on an unreliable and potentially low-bandwidth network connection
• Creating an Internet of Things (IoT) gateway to process and analyse ...