Edge AI for Industrial Plants: Edge vs Cloud Explained

Key Points * Edge AI runs machine learning models on hardware near the machine (a sensor, a gateway, or an industrial PC); cloud AI runs them in a remote data center with more compute and data from many sites. * The right split depends on latency, bandwidth, connectivity, and data governance. For mechanical faults that develop over days or weeks, how often an asset is measured matters more than milliseconds. * Tractian uses a cloud-analysis design: the sensor captures data on the asset, a ga