Fission is at the leading edge of a computing revolution
The world generates a staggering amount of data every day, and while our devices are becoming more powerful all the time, it’s becoming increasingly clear that cloud-based digital infrastructure and centralized servers aren’t always going to be able to cope with it. This could turn out to be especially problematic for users who rely on instant data processing, such as emergency management personnel or hospital staff, who need critical information immediately and in real time. For everyone else, it will simply mean slower processing speeds and a web application architecture that hasn’t fundamentally changed in decades.
The most promising technology to address this looming problem is edge computing — a decentralized, low-latency form of data processing that can reduce the pressure on cloud systems that are in danger of being overwhelmed. One of the most innovative companies in the edge computing space is Fission — a local-first platform that allows developers to build full edge apps with front-end tools. By giving developers a decentralized, fully encrypted edge computing solution, Fission will help them build secure apps capable of meeting the evolving needs of consumers who expect far more from their apps than ever before.
The model for building web applications is long overdue for a radical transformation. Fission is driving this transformation with a platform that will lead to the creation of apps that are fast, secure, and seamlessly functional from anywhere — even offline.
How Fission is changing the face of computing
CB Insights estimates that by 2024, more than 149 trillion gigabytes of data will be created every day. Meanwhile, the use of mobile devices and apps has been surging. According to data from Nielsen, the average American adult spent two hours and 58 minutes using apps or the Internet on a smartphone or tablet in 2017 — an amount of time which jumped to four hours and 54 minutes in just two years. The rapid emergence of technologies like 5G will make the demand for decentralized data processing all the more urgent.
These developments have driven a fundamental reconsideration of how data are processed and stored. Instead of cumbersome cloud-based platforms and other types of centralized processing infrastructure, Fission offers edge computing which stores data directly on devices themselves. This method has zero latency, works offline, and it’s easy to develop, whereas traditional computing is extremely complex and error-prone at scale. Deploying and scaling centralized systems requires expensive teams with specialized expertise — a process that becomes even more time and resource-intensive when it comes to cybersecurity and compliance.
By using edge computing and putting data on devices themselves, Fission makes web apps behave more like native apps, which frees storage for centralized servers and allows them to operate more efficiently. Fission is the only system that runs entirely on a browser — there’s no need to install plugins or any other software, and developers can create apps without worrying about how to connect them to servers.
Fully distributed edge systems represent the future of computing, and Fission has developed an intuitive and powerful platform that gives developers an opportunity to take full advantage of this transformation.
How does Fission work?
Fission uses a novel edge-based architecture and modern browser APIs to deliver applications that run directly in a browser. Identity, storage, computation, and authorization all run directly on-device, much like a native application. This improves performance and security, while reducing the number of moving parts and overall system complexity.
Browsers are hostile places to run applications. By default, apps built on Fission use end-to-end encryption, and they’re encrypted-at-rest with the minimum authority granted for each context. Even Fission itself is unable to see private data stored on its servers. These features have proven popular in instant messaging from Apple Messages to Telegram and Signal, so Fission is applying similar techniques to app data in general.
Fission transfers control from some far off server controlled by a third party to users and their devices. It brings everything an app needs to run as close to the user as possible, eliminating latency and frequent network requests. In sum, Fission offers faster processing, more security, and more control than centralized platforms like the cloud.
Getting out ahead of a computing revolution
While there’s no shortage of bandwidth, there are physical constraints on just how fast centralized computing platforms can be. Edge computing is an intuitive solution to this problem — it simply moves the processing resources closer to the users themselves. Gartner predicts that more than half of enterprise-generated data will be “created and processed outside the data center or cloud” by 2022. This trend coincides with a dramatic increase in the number of IoT devices in use — from 35 billion connections in 2020 to a projected 83 billion by 2024.
Edge computing is driving these trends, but it’s also being driven by them. Users are increasingly demanding faster processing on distributed platforms, and the status quo of centralized computing is clearly no longer meeting their needs. This is why Laurence Innovation decided to work with Fission, one of the most creative companies in the burgeoning field of edge computing. We’re looking forward to the next revolution in computing, and we’re even more excited about being a part of it.
