Dew Computing: State of the Art, Opportunities, and Research Challenges

A. Cloud Computing

The supply of computing services, such as servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, and intelligence, over the internet is known as cloud computing (i.e., the “cloud”). This eliminates the need for enterprises to purchase and maintain their own infrastructure by enabling access to and use of a variety of computer resources.

Three basic categories of cloud computing services are available as follows:

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  Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): It is a basic building blocks of computing infrastructure, including servers, storage, and networking, which organizations can use to build and run their own applications.

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  Platform as a Service (PaaS): This enables businesses to create, test, and deploy applications without having to maintain the underlying infrastructure by providing a full-featured cloud development and deployment environment, including operating systems, programming languages, and tools.

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  Software as a Service (SaaS): This gives users online access to programs and software, such as email, customer relationship management (CRM), and productivity tools.

Some benefits of cloud computing include increased scalability, flexibility, reliability, and cost-effectiveness. However, there are also potential drawbacks, such as security concerns and the need to rely on internet connectivity.

B. Fog Computing

Fog computing is a distributed computing concept that aims to provide services closer to end-users by using computing resources in edge devices such as routers, switches, and gateways. In this way, it reduces the latency and bandwidth requirements of cloud-based applications. Fog computing is particularly useful in scenarios where there is a large volume of data generated by IoT (Internet of Things) devices that need to be processed in real-time. By bringing the computing closer to the source, fog computing can reduce the latency and processing time needed to analyze and act on the data. This can lead to faster decision-making, improved operational efficiency, and reduced bandwidth costs. Fog computing also provides better security and privacy by keeping sensitive data local to the devices that generate it. It reduces the risk of data breaches and unauthorized access to sensitive information. Some use cases of fog computing include smart cities, industrial IoT, healthcare, and autonomous vehicles, among others. Fog computing is seen as complementary to cloud computing, with both technologies working together to provide a more robust and efficient computing infrastructure.