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Amani:  Did you ever know that when planes update their navigation system mid-flight, or when factories monitor and adjust production remotely in real time, it's all thanks to Edge and Cloud computing? Actually, these technologies make it possible to process data where it's needed most, while staying connected to powerful systems in the Cloud. Hi, my name is Amani Karchoud, Technical Product Marketing Manager at SYSGO, and today we will explore how Edge and Cloud computing work together to enable cutting-edge solutions in domains like Aviation, Automotive, and Industrial Automation. So today I'm accompanied with Dr. George Violettas, a key player in our R&D department, who will share with us his expertise and insights, and we will hear more about his technical background. So without further ado, let's get started. So we'll come George. Great to have you here.

George: Thank you very much, Amani.

Amani: So George, could you please introduce yourself more to our listeners and explain your role in relation to today's topic?

George: Sure, I am working with the R&T department for almost two years now. My PhD is on cloud computing, internet of things, devices and security of such devices. So I was rather familiar with it before I joined SYSGO, but since I joined SYSGO, I have to say that I learned much more on the topic. We're working on high tech and cutting edge technology projects. Lots of them have to do with European and national projects, so I'm getting involved within quite a few projects.

Amani: Oh, that's great to hear. So can you tell us more - how did you start working on projects related to cloud computing and what got your interest in this specific area? So I would like to know if it was more requested by customers or why is it getting this hype right now?

George: Well, cloud computing and edge computing are one of the very hot topics of today. Edge computing, for example, will try to solve data processing speed close to the edge, reduce latency, provide scalable solutions and flexible solutions, adapting and dynamically utilizing resources. We have to consider that more and more devices keep on connecting to the internet every day and all those need rather quick access to back to the center, to the cloud, to the other end. So we need clever solutions, we need cost effective solutions in order to address these things. Attractive solutions for the customers, tailor made to the needs of the customers. Security is a very interesting topic, safety is another topic. Integrity of the data, availability of the data and most recently there is a big, big discussion about ownership of the data. For example, I'm reading articles where European companies want to have the data into European-based premises and not elsewhere in order to make sure that the legal aspects are met.

Amani: Thank you so much for sharing your journey and how you got into the domain of cloud computing. So now I would like to touch on a crucial aspect of today's topic. So for those in our audience and listeners who may not be so familiar, could you please explain the differences between edge computing and cloud computing and maybe also elaborate a bit more on whether each technology is suited for different use cases.

George: Well, they're both approaches, they're both solutions addressing the data processing and the data storage and they do fundamentally differ on where and how the data is processed. Cloud computing is centralized, the storing, the storage of the data could be anywhere in the world and the processing of the data could be also in another place in the world. And the final consumer of those data, whether it's a machine, whether it's an internet of things device could be on another end of the world. This provides cost-effective solutions because you can easily choose the cheapest one and the more secure or whatever other aspects the client considers interesting. On the other hand, and of course, scalable, edge computing is targeting and focusing on solving different problems. The biggest problem that edge computing solves is the distance problem: The latency problem. If you're closer to the edge, if the cloud is very close to the edge device, to the final device, then the latency is minimal. So for example, this is ideal for real-time applications like drones, autonomous cars or even medical solutions. On the other hand, cloud solutions, you may want to consider when you're talking about big data analytics, for example, because you have as much computing power as you want or you want to run the same learning, any high algorithms or any other large-scale algorithm.

Amani: Yeah, that's great to hear. So George, moving into PikeOS now, can you please explain how it integrates with both cloud and edge computing and additionally, could you highlight the key advantages that PikeOS offers in these environments, especially where it can provide the most benefits, I would say?

George: Yeah, PikeOS, with its diversity and with its potential solution providing, can work on both. On edge computing, PikeOS can easily work on lightweight client devices where it will provide obviously very low latency and real-time operations assurance. On the other hand, PikeOS running on a cloud environment will also be able to provide total separation between partitions, which today is very important because it offers the necessary security requirements for a lot of clients and a lot of applications. On the same time, it can fully utilize the underlying computational resources, so it can be used in heavy cases, AI, machine learning or whatever else. The isolation of the applications can be easily certified, which is a target for a lot of highly-demand solutions and clients. If you want me to wrap it up, it is ideal for solutions where safety and security are needed, where safety and security are essential.

Amani: So in your opinion, what are the main security challenges that businesses face today in terms of data protection and management?

George: Yeah, that's a great question. First of all, we have to remember that a new, totally new, totally unseen before security challenge issue arises almost every day. So we have to be very diligent when we talk about such challenges. We can categorize them. I can provide some categorization and some thoughts. Let's start with cyber attacks and data breaches. That's one of the most common cyber threats, cyber attack, which is becoming more and more sophisticated, including ransomware, phasing, malware, you name it, other ways of intrusion, which can usually or could lead to significant data breaches, sensitive information, exposure, and of course, financial damage, ransomware, for example, they keep on asking for more and more money without knowing if they will ever release the data. But also, a very important topic here is the reputational damage that brings to the company, which cannot easily be cured. Insider attacks, threats, is also a topic. Yeah, employees, disgruntled, disappointed employees, employees that were let go could maliciously damage data or impose security bridges to a company. It is a significant risk. So companies have to make sure that even the injured job is a very probable thing. Data privacy regulation is also a hot topic, especially Europe today with GDPR, which is one of the strictest in the world and the upcoming CRA. All the European countries have to align with it. And all European companies exchanging, doing business with other European companies, sometimes it's very challenging to make sure that they follow those correctly.

Cloud security is another thing. More and more business, more and more people, individuals, companies do upload more and more data into the cloud, obviously. Most of those data are personal, private, proprietary. So we have to make sure that the cloud security is very strict. For example, the encryption is robust. The risk management has to be continuously assessed. The endpoint security is a thing that sometimes when neglect, you can every day read different stories about a small device. For example, the door bell ring that someone installed into the building and it proved to be hackable, it proved to be erroneous. High security building with all the alarms and the cameras and the infrared things, sometimes it goes down to a single simple sensor that malfunctioned or it was easily to bypass or break.

Another topic is the data loss. We hear stories every day about business that they went completely bankrupt out of business because they did lose their data and they never managed to recover because of a system failure, because of an accident, because of malicious action, the grounded employee I mentioned before or any such thing.

So addressing all those challenges, I mentioned only the basics. It's obvious that it includes continuous updates on security technologies, policies, adhering, obeying and updating policies in every business aspect today, training of the staff. We have to remember that the weakest point of the system is where the intrusion will hit no matter how strong are the other points. If you have one small weak point, that's it. It's more than enough for a successful attack. All those things need continuous monitoring, monitoring, update and never say enough is enough. Never sit back and say, okay, we did enough, we are protected. There is no such thing as absolute security.

Amani:  Thank you so much, George, for sharing your knowledge with us today. It was so interesting learning about the differences between edge and cloud computing, how PikeOS is plays a role and the challenges businesses are navigating today. So for our listeners, stay tuned for a part-time where we will dive into real-world applications and more technical insights. So if you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe and share your feedback. We would love to hear from you. Until then, take care and we will catch up in the next episode.