Edge possibilities

Edge possibilities

Welcome to our latest post on the Alef Private Edge partnership program. In this article, we will go through some possible use cases that can be implemented with the Alef Private Edge APIs. We’ll be mainly looking at the Video Enablement API and the Video Notifications API this time.

The Alef Video Enablement API enables you to stream video from edge locations to your users at high speeds. This is enabled by the use of edge computing by the backing infrastructure. The API allows you to upload content to the edge, and to stream it from the edge to your users. Both static and streaming media are supported by the API.

Vanilla video player

Edge computing represents the future and it is worthwhile to upgrade your ordinary video player apps to be edge-enabled.This is accomplished through an upgrade process to bring additional features to your existing cloud apps without having to sacrifice functionality on the way, or to take a gamble for new tech. You will simply gain the benefits of edge computing in addition to your existing functionality.

Bringing computation and content closer to the client through the edge allows for the creation of new, location based features. You can bring the most valuable and relevant content to your audience at ultra-high speeds and bandwidth. This means target language content, target sector content, interest area content, and valuable partnership content at edge-enabled ultra-high speeds. Bringing in more personalization and localization to your apps allows your product to be more relevant to your audience and thus bring in increased user satisfaction.

Educational portal

Expanding on the above, a use case that would enjoy definite benefits from an upgrade to the edge-enabled future is an educational web portal. This can be an internal portal for your company communications, or a full educational product that you are building for your audience. Edge represents much higher user satisfaction and experience for your portal by bringing the relevant content close to the consumers. Being able to stream all relevant content at high speeds will bring you the edge you need to win over your viewers and keep them engaged.

Company intranet portal

For an educational portal as a company internal resource, you will be able to localize office location -specific content right to the relevant office location. Your employees will be able to enjoy onboarding video tutorials, role-specific educational material, and also company or office-wide video content, such as informational and promotional shots for a new program or directive.

Educational portal on the Web

For an educational portal as a product, you will be able to leverage the demographic structure of your audience to provide the most relevant courses at enhanced speeds. This can help you drive customer satisfaction and provide a much better experience for your audience to help your product stand out against the competition. Maybe you will provide localized versions of course materials and provide them to your users at their locations, as a faster and more relevant alternative to other alternatives.

Real-time ad delivery service

Another possibility where the edge computing can bring you a competitive advantage is a real-time ad bidding and delivery service. This is an area where each millisecond counts, and so providing the ad content at faster rates than your competitors will be a huge advantage in your favour. Here, machine learning is another growing field that offers synergy with edge technology by providing the ad choice part of the equation for bids at high speed, optimized for value and relevance.

In the ad business, ads are provided to the client through an automated bidding service, where content providers compete against each other through automated bids. The winning bidder will then be chosen to provide ad content to the customer. Cutting off the latency-related milliseconds will give your platform the boost it needs to win in this sector by providing the content faster and allowing for the next bid to start faster.

Wrap-up

These are just a few use case possibilities representing areas where edge adoption will bring in concrete benefits. We only focused on video content delivery this time, but edge computing, and the shift it represents, will bring their benefits in many other areas as well.

Thank you for joining us for this short use cases ideation session, and as always, stay tuned for more!

References & Further Reading

Topcoder - Alef Private Edge community program
Alef
Alef Private Edge
Alef Video Enablement API
Wikipedia, Edge computing
Wikipedia 5G
Wikipedia, Internet of things