Words of Wisdom

"I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them."

Isaac Asimov

Well, hold that thought! 🛑 

Welcome back to another trek through tech on Thursday as we explore some really cool technologies. Admittedly these technologies have been in development for sometime now but their growth has been substantial this year.

Blockchain 🖥️ 

You’ve heard blockchain shouted by every crypto, tech, and finance media most likely for the last year now. This popular concept has good reason to be as it is most widely known as being essential for continued development of crypto currency. Well, what makes blockchain so special? Let’s break down what this technology really does.

Brought forward during the Pandemic due to the abundance of employee’s working from their homes, many tout it for its security. Simply, blockchain is a digital ledger. It will hold “blocks” or ever increasing groups of data and introduce essentially it is similar to permits and papers for travel. Every block maintains a record of these permits and papers and will know everything that happened in the prior block. Not to mention, there is mobile security across the chain in the form of a algorithm that will check the consensus routinely.

Sounds like the end-all-be-all to cybersecurity right? In a perfect world yes, however there is a mounting number of problems being introduced as we develop it. The development time for various companies and programs to introduce blockchain would take a number of years. There is also a major hurdle when it comes to scaling blockchain enterprise-wide as the amount of keys and processing is intensive on most small enterprises. Lastly, there is many pieces of legislation in the EU under debate due to the GDPR preventing blockchain as it prevents deletion of user-data.

Li-Fi: Illuminating Wireless Communication 🦾 

A new way to wirelessly share data has come to challenge Wi-Fi for dominance. The Wi-Fi we are all used to uses radio frequencies to transmit data. It is great, but has some notable issues. Namely security and frequency crunch. It can be intercepted by unwanted parties and be interfered with by many different things, be it other devices or simple magnetism. A lot of stuff occupies the area around the frequencies Wi-Fi operates at. Things like radios, microwaves, Bluetooth signals etc.

The Solution Li-Fi came up with? Using Light to carry data. This new idea employs custom lights bulbs and receivers to transmit and receive data. With promised speeds over 100 times faster than conventional Wi-Fi and using frequencies immune to interference or outside interception, this could be real game changer.

Li-Fi offers enhanced security on top of increased reliability, but with shorter ranges. Only able to go around 10 meters and not able to pass through walls it isn’t perfect, but nevertheless is a revolution in wireless design. Due to requiring custom bulbs in each room and a high initial cost, it also may not fully replace Wi-Fi. This technology has not yet seen market release but it’s still on the radar of ever security focused organization out there. Wireless connections are one of the most vulnerable parts of any network, but Li-Fi could make it one of the most secure!

Edge Computing 🤖 

The newest trend in cloud computing. Not necessarily a single new technology per se, but more of a paradigm shift in computing philosophy. Cloud and server computing has long been commonplace, and with it the internet of things has too. What edge computing does is turn those internet of things devices into part of the computing power of the network.

What this means is that instead of the primary server doing all of the data crunching and processing, the devices around the edge of the network are built to do more work themselves. For example: If traffic sensors in a intersection collect data on the traffic flowing through it, instead of sending it back for processing, the node is given its own processing power to do it at the local level before connecting to the server. Essentially the whole point of edge computing is making local devices process as much data as possible freeing up the server and increasing responsiveness systemwide.

Currently many networks collect tons of data but only so much makes it back to the primary server and even less up to those using the data to make decisions. The ability of local or ‘edge’ nodes to process and analyze data for the server makes it easier to incorporate data from every node and sensor into decision making. These edge nodes then transmit that back to the server without the server needing to actually crunch the numbers. This allows for almost real time response to conditions on the local level, and incredible speed increases server wide for data processing. Not only that the local nodes only needing to synchronize with the main server allows for continued operation in times of intermittent connectivity further increasing reliability.

By bringing computation closer to the source of data, we can optimize performance so that it remains responsive and decision-making across a wide variety of industries.