What Is a Distributed Cloud?

A distributed cloud is a form of cloud computing in which an enterprise utilizes public cloud infrastructure in multiple geographic locations while operations, governance, and updates are managed centrally by a single public cloud service provider. The distribution of cloud services can help organizations meet objectives for application performance and response time, edge computing, regulatory mandates, or other demands that can be satisfied by providing cloud services from locations closer to end users and devices. The use of distributed cloud computing is driven by the rise of Internet of Things (IoT) networks, artificial intelligence, and other use cases that must process vast amounts of data in real time.

In distributed cloud infrastructure, a public cloud provider’s entire technology stack is distributed to different locations, wherever a customer needs it. This may include on-premises locations in the customer’s own data center or private cloud, or in third-party data centers or colocation centers around the world, all managed from a central control plane. This distributed architecture provides more control over where data is located, to meet regulatory requirements. It also enables cloud providers to serve data from locations closer to users, improving the performance of cloud databases, applications, and streaming media.

• Less latency. By moving processing tasks closer to end users, distributed cloud services can minimize latency and increase the responsiveness of applications.
• Greater scalability. Distributed cloud architecture makes it easier for organizations to quickly expand to edge locations without building out new data centers.
• Increase visibility. Organizations can use a single console to manage and monitor activity within hybrid cloud and multicloud infrastructure that forms a distributed cloud.
• Improved reliability. Distributed systems are inherently more fault-tolerant and offer greater redundancy. If cloud services in one location go offline, organizations can continue to access cloud services from other distributed locations.

• Security issues. With data and infrastructure distributed throughout the world, managing data and cloud network security can be more challenging.
• Backups. Backing up and recovering data from a distributed architecture can be more complicated, as many regulations require data to stay in specific locations.
• Availability. The various locations in a distributed cloud environment may have different connectivity models and capacities, limiting bandwidth and requiring upgrades to slower connections.
• Complexity. Distributed computing systems are more difficult to deploy, maintain, and troubleshoot than centralized cloud computing implementations.
• Cost. Distributed cloud computing systems require a larger investment up front, and adding capacity for increased processing may add to the initial expense.

Some common use cases for distributed clouds include:

• IoT networks and machine learning applications. Technologies such as self-driving cars, healthcare imaging, smart buildings, and real-time analytics benefit from the low latency that a distributed cloud can deliver.
• Cloud CDN. Distributed clouds can power a content delivery network (CDN) to improve the user experience for streaming video and other high-bandwidth media.
• Regulatory compliance. Distributed clouds make it easier to comply with data privacy regulations that require customer data to be restricted to specific areas or countries.

Edge computing is the practice of processing data and workloads in locations that are physically close to the end users and devices that produce or require it. This proximity helps reduce latency for applications where large volumes of data must be processed at high speeds or in real time. Distributed clouds enable edge computing initiatives by making the deployment and management of edge applications easier.

Fog computing is a decentralized model of cloud computing where data, compute, storage, and applications are located between the data source and the cloud, though not as close to end users as with edge computing. Fog computing is considered an extension of distributed cloud computing.