Rise of the decentralized and distributed mesh computer
We are on the verge of several major technology shifts converging to disrupt everything tech as we know it today.
Cloud to edge
Check out this amazing talk by Peter Levine called “The End of Cloud Computing.” He highlights the fact that computations are moving from the cloud to the edge of the networks.
Companies have been embracing cloud computing for nearly a decade, but it’s currently being disrupted by the IoT phenomenon. Analysts are predicting that there will be 75 billion internet-connected devices by 2025. The cloud was not designed for massive sensor data uploads, nor was it designed for low-latency, real-time communications. This is the catalyst for all IoT platform vendors racing to release edge computing gateways and appliances to bring more connectivity and computing capabilities to edge networks rather than routing everything through “the cloud.”
Big data to artificial intelligence
The demand for consuming and interacting with live streaming IoT data along with artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies is now driving a massive shift away from the cloud to edge computing. For example, self-driving vehicles do not have time to stream their sensor data to the cloud and wait for machine learning feedback or driving commands. These self-driving cars are essentially mobile data centers. The car’s on-board computers are analyzing sensor data in real time and learning while making control decisions in nanoseconds — no cloud involved.
Centralization to decentralization
The current value of Bitcoin cryptocurrency has trickled its way into our everyday conversations. At the same time, there is a massive blockchain revolution underway along with controversial net neutrality legislation. These topics are driving the shift to decentralized computing, decentralized web and decentralized app (DApp) development.
Convergence
The convergence of these three drastically different computing shifts may sound overwhelming, but with great challenges come great opportunities.
With over 75 billion internet-connected devices expected by 2025, there’s going to be a ton of idle/wasted CPU resources and an insatiable demand for machine learning computes! We are moving into an era of decentralized and distributed computing where everything computes (together) as if they are peer-to-peer nodes on a global mesh computer. Decentralized web and decentralized apps will run on this new decentralized and distributed mesh computer. IoT devices will be able to self-organize on ad-hoc mesh networks and request and/or perform machine learning computations in real time without requiring cloud or edge computing infrastructures.
In this new economy, everything computes to form a new worldwide peer-to-peer decentralized and distributed mesh computer!
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