Cloud technology provides businesses with a unique way of eliminating the need for maintaining physical resources. An important benefit of using the cloud technology is the advent of the Internet of Things (IoT). IoT refers to implementing the use of modern networks in all common applications to create smart devices for traditional and even mundane functions. Here, we describe what cloud-based IoT offers and how it is now moving from the cloud to take the advantage of fog computing.

Cloud-based IoT

Traditional IoT solutions are based on utilizing the power of the modern computer networks. With large datacenters available, they offer the processing and data storing backbone which is required by cloud services. IoT solutions are extremely efficient, when it comes to reducing the need for setting up hardware resources.

Devices can act smartly by sending data to a cloud server, which can arrange, store and process the data to produce useful results. However, with an increase in the number of devices, it is possible to support them, but the required internet resources can become very large in commercial and industrial applications. Currently, smart devices are present in different applications. With more smart devices around and a serious demand for IoT solutions, there is certainly a need to look for more innovations. Modern cloud-based IoT solutions may reach a ceiling where further improvement may not be possible. However, there are various methods that can be implemented within the current IoT practices to significantly improve the bar and raise the ceiling to a new standard.

Fog Computing Arrives

Fog computing is the principle of decentralizing data handling and processing  smart, IoT devices. This is accomplished by processing the available data and numbers, as close to the original source of sensors as possible. This is also termed as edge-computing and combine the elements of decentralized computing with the ability to general statistics from a central solution.

Decentralization Advantages

Fog computing decentralizes the processing requirements for smart devices. This allows their use in a variety of environments, where the processing needs keep changing from time to time. It allows the installation of computers closer to the sensors that can take care of the basic data processing needs. This can result in the creation of data, which is smaller in size and does not have redundant elements that are often present in a large IoT network. Another advantage is that it allows the use of IoT in population situations where the number of devices is simply too large to be directly connected to the cloud.