Edge apps and the enterprise – Cisco Blogs

Edge computing – the concept of running business logic at the edge of the network has been talked about for quite while now in the context of IoT networks. It makes a lot of sense for compute to be shifted to the edge in these kind of networks since we can save on costly bandwidth by avoiding unnecessary traffic over the WAN. Sensors that sent data up only when it changed Or just when thresholds were breached helped save on precious WAN bandwidth. More importantly this also dramatically reduced the amount of data that had to be processed in the data centers.

More recently this trend of computing across the network is being increasingly embraced in the enterprise too with several benefits.

Point of deployment

Network monitoring is best done near the users of the network. If you’d like to measure how the network is treating its users, its best done from the edge. Hence apps like ThousandEyes are ideally suited to run in devices like the Catalyst 9300 and 9400s that form the access segment of the network.

Apps that guard the network are best deployed where attacks strike first. An app that simulates a honeypot or one that looks for suspicious rogues is best when deployed where such attacks strike first.

Point of compute

The fact that network bandwidth is abundant in the enterprise may lead us to believe that it does not pay to process information at the edge. Computing at the edge of the network has another not-so-obvious benefit. In reducing the amount of traffic we send up to the controller or data center, we save on precious compute resources at those points in the network where traffic is aggregated like a wireless controller or the management station in the data center. This frees up compute for the other more important functions that these network equipment deliver like scaling to more sessions or ensuring performance of connections.

New capabilities

Cisco Catalyst 9120 Access Points are helping in convergence of IoT with Wi-Fi with the unique capability in supporting USB dongles that now enable third party apps to bring in amazing new capabilities and avoiding the need for other controller hardware. REWE International simplifies IoT with App Hosting and Cisco and SOLUM Team Up to Deliver IoT Simplicity showcase two different apps that deliver a lot of value.

What’s changing now?

The coming together of three different complementary technologies from Cisco stables is truly changing the game here.

1. Apps – Compute at the edge is only useful when we have killer apps that offer business critical functionality. ThousandEyes which already loved and used by enterprises world over is now available to be run on the Catalyst range of switches.
2. App hosting capability – The app hosting capability on catalyst switches has been upgraded significantly in recent times to offer every capability that modern apps require. Some Cisco apps can be hosted by switches without an SSD. This enables users to just upgrade their IOS-XE images to start deploying apps on their network infrastructure
3. Orchestration of apps via DNAC center – Cisco DNA Center offers the ability to manage enterprise apps both in the wireless and wired space effortlessly. This enables deployment and management of these apps at scale.

See more

App hosting on Cisco Catalyst access points

App hosting on Catalyst switches

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