Edge-Native Application Principles: Taking Your App Beyond the Cloud

The presentation discusses the principles and differences between Cloud native and Edge native applications, with a focus on the latter. It also provides examples of Edge native applications and their importance in data security and resource optimization.

• Edge native applications are designed to process data closer to where it is generated, reducing latency and security risks associated with sending data to the Cloud
• Nine principles for Edge native applications include resource and deviceware, protocol management, and scalable management
• Examples of Edge native applications include factory assembly lines and predictive maintenance
• Data security is a key concern for Edge native applications, with encryption and secure key management being important practices
• Edge native applications can also inform Cloud native applications, particularly in terms of specialized hardware and management techniques

The speaker emphasizes the importance of data security in Edge native applications, particularly in private networks such as those found in hospitals. Encryption and secure key management are important practices to ensure that personal data is protected. The speaker also notes that while there are ways to prevent unauthorized access to devices and data, it ultimately depends on the specific case and the hardening of devices.

Over the past few years, edge computing has been thoroughly discussed, with different technology fields having varying views on what defines edge computing. But in the end, despite the varied use cases of telco, retail, industrial, etc., it's clear that edge is seen as an extension to the cloud and that everyone is interested in bringing their cloud-native infrastructure and applications to the edge. In this session we will focus on this migration. Can we identify common characteristics of edge native applications? How do we tackle some of the common issues like hardware diversity, resource constraints, network availability and more? Basic cloud-native principles are well known and represent a valuable resource for developers. They serve as a check-list for developers, instructing what to keep in mind in order to successfully develop and operate their cloud applications, such as considerations for scalability, observability, ease of deployment on the edge. In the same way we see edge computing as a superset of cloud computing, we can consider edge-native principles a superset of cloud-native principles. So instead of starting from zero, let's focus on additional considerations of the edge. Let's see what additional principles we need to consider for edge-native applications in order to enable successful projects. The CNCF IoT Edge working group has started working on a white paper that aims to define these principles. In this session we will present our progress so far and give a call to action to join the effort.