I recently had the pleasure of speaking about edge computing and its relationship to the IoT and AI spaces at the nGage Enterprise Transformation Canada Exchange conference. I believe it’s the fifth time I have spoken at this event and it was great to see such a large group of Canadian technologists and business leaders all in one (virtual) place. I hope the next one will be held in person!
You can see the video of the presentation below. Reflecting on it afterward, it did occur to me that I missed highlighting an important point: the fact that edge computing is even more critical in the Canadian setting than some others.
Why is that? Imagine you are running an electrical grid in the far North of Canada. Currently, the way you tell if one of your transformers may be experiencing a problem is you send someone out to a remote location to literally listen to the transformer – in particular, to listen for something called Partial Discharge (PD).
Can you imagine the time and money spent to do this? Not to mention the risk to the technician’s health and safety. Of course, edge computers at the transformer stations can now ‘listen’ to these transformers 24×7 and match that data with the stream of other telemetry coming off the machines that was previously ‘dark’ (because it wasn’t being used to make real-time decisions).
This is not a fictitious example: we are doing exactly the same thing today with part of Norway’s electrical grid.
Extrapolate that same example to oil rigs, transportation systems, weather stations, even healthcare operators across this vast country and it’s easy to see why edge computing will become a critical component of Canada’s technology infrastructure in the years ahead.
O Canada. Our home and native land (on the edge)!
