Edge Computing vs Cloud Computing: A Comparative Analysis

Ritesh Satish Patil

Abstract: Today, a lot of devices across the world are connected to the internet, from smartwatches to machines in factories. Handling all the data these devices make has become a problem. For a time, cloud computing has been the solution people turn to. It processes data in huge data centres that are far away. As more devices get online and applications need to respond faster, cloud computing is not always enough. This is where edge computing comes in. Edge computing processes data right where it is made, on machines or devices that are close by. This paper compares both methods in terms of performance. We look at how they work, where each one is better, and where they do not work well. We also look at examples from areas like healthcare, manufacturing in factories, and smart cities. Our main finding is that neither method is always better. The right choice depends on what the application needs. In some cases, using both cloud computing and edge computing together works best.

Keywords: Edge Computing, Cloud Computing, IoT, Latency, Distributed Systems, Fog Computing, Hybrid Architecture, Real-Time Processing, Scalability, Network Bandwidth