Edge Computing: Thinking Beyond the Data Center

Communications Society, co-sponsoring GBC/ACM, Women In Engineering and Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society

Speaker: Beth Cohen, Product Manager, Verizon

This meeting is preceded by dinner with our guest speaker at Bertucci’s, 475 Winter St, Waltham, MA at 5:30 PM.

For over a decade, centralized cloud computing has been long been considered a standard IT delivery platform. Recently companies have been applying the simplified administration and flexibility of cloud computing architectures to distributed infrastructures that span across multiple sites and networks. Edge Computing is emerging as a new way of delivering IT Infrastructure for use cases that were never imagined. Think about the possibility of a global swarm of hundreds, thousands or even millions of nodes. Edge Computing requires radically different approaches and tools.

Use cases include:

• Extreme edge conditions (IoT, transportation, manufacturing, utility grids, VDI),
• Long distances between nodes (Satellites, Supply-chain, global shipping)
• Significant hardware and network connectivity constraints
• Hub and spoke designs (Telecom networks, global application distributions)
• We need to think differently about an Edge Computing ecosystem.
• Different architectures to different use cases: hierarchical, matrixes, widely distributed, or mesh.
• How node size affects performance and fit for each use case.
• Deployment considerations
• More stringent security (code/design) in exposed environments

Speaker Bio: Beth Cohen, Product Manager, Verizon

Beth is a Cloud Networking Product Manager at Verizon, working on developing new cloud based networking products and services. Previously, Ms. Cohen was a Senior Cloud Architect with Cloud Technology Partners and the Director of Engineering IT for BBN Corporation, where she was involved with the initial development of the Internet, working on some of the hottest networking and web technology protocols in their infancy. Most recently she has been working on Edge Computing architectures both from the development and building one within Verizon, but also as a program chair of the upcoming OpenDev Symposium on Edge Computing.

Please circulate to interested parties.

Venue Note: This is our venue at the new Verizon Technology Center Campus in Waltham.

The meeting begins at 7 PM at the new meeting auditorium at the Verizon Technology Center. The address is 60 Sylvan Road, Waltham, MA 02451. The entrance is by the far corner – with the picnic tables out front – and not the tower or the new building. It is most easily reached by the West Street entrance.

Important Note: Verizon Technology Center requests the names of the meeting attendees in advance of the meeting. If you plan to attend, please send a note via e-mail with your name to John Nitzke at RF@ieee.org by Wednesday, January 31st.
The meeting is preceded by dinner at Bertucci’s, 475 Winter St, Waltham at 5:30 PM. The speaker will be joining us at dinner.

Directions to Bertucci’s restaurant in Waltham: Take Exit 27B on I95/128, heading west on Winter Street. After exiting, stay all the way to the right and take the first right turn into the shopping plaza. Please let Bob Malupin know if you plan to attend the dinner at Bertucci’s. Bob can be contacted at Robert.Malupin@VerizonWireless.com.

Directions to Verizon Technology Center (old Verizon Labs location), 60 Sylvan Rd. campus, Waltham, MA 02451: Take Exit 27B on I95/128, heading west on Winter Street. Stay all the way to the right. Verizon Technology Center is 1/2 mile ahead. At the second traffic light, turn left onto WEST ST. and then take the first right (at the Verizon sign) which leads into the Verizon campus. Take the first left. The building and entrance for the meeting are on your right. Note that the entrance to the auditorium area is by the far corner – with the picnic tables out front – and not the tower or the new building.