Edge computing took center stage last month at Hughes Network Systems second “Innovation Day: What is Happening at the Edge?” The virtual event, which attracted over 200 attendees across 100 organizations, was presented in collaboration with Plug and Play – an organization that brings together promising start-ups and leading companies. In keeping with this year’s theme, event speakers, panelists, and start-up presenters highlighted the capabilities and benefits of edge computing for current and future enterprise business applications.

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Edge computing, first developed in the 1990s, more recently has emerged as a leading technology for managing the growing volume of Internet of Things (IoT) data. The application of edge computing supports IoT performance in low bandwidth environments, reduces latency, and relieves network congestion – all of which lead to improved application performance.

Rohit Tripathi (pictured above), Hughes Network Systems senior business development manager of strategic enterprise solutions, served as Innovation Day emcee, while keynote speaker Matt Trifiro, chief marketing officer at Vapor IO and co-founder of State of the Edge, kicked off the half-day event with an overview of edge computing and what makes the burgeoning technology an appealing enterprise business solution.

A lively panelist discussion and Q&A on the stages of edge computing strategy—from ideation, to prototype, to implementation, and, finally, production—set up Innovation Day’s main event: the start-up presentations (view the individual startup presentations here).

Start-up accelerator Plug and Play introduced Hughes representatives and attendees to nine start-ups from around the world that showcased their novel edge computing applications across various enterprise verticals. Featured companies – Celona, DarwinAI, Edgify, Ekkono Solutions AB, Latent AI, ObjectBox, Swim.ai, Xailient and Nalej– each demonstrated the real-world power of edge computing by illustrating its capabilities and efficiencies through case study results. The impressive presentations highlighted various approaches to edge computing and inspired attendees with potential solutions that align with their business goals.

Earlier this summer, Plug and Play bestowed its 2020 Enterprise Technology Innovation Award on Hughes Network Systems for collaborating with high-potential start-ups on ways to advance infrastructure and IT within the telecommunications industry. The award recognizes Hughes as the most active Plug and Play corporate partner in enterprise technology innovation.

Hughes has a well-established legacy of delivering innovative solutions in satellite and enterprise networking. Programs like Innovation Day are meant to help inspire the next new game-changing technology that will transform the way our enterprise customers do business.

We offer thanks to everyone who helped make this year’s event a success, including panelist participants:

• Panelist: Bruce Blaho, HP fellow and vice president at HP Inc.
• Panelist: Haseeb Budhani, co-founder and CEO at Rafay Systems
• Panelist: Mohak Shah, vice president of AI and machine learning at LG Electronics
• Panelist: Dan Davies, innovation manager of the Silicon Valley Lab at North American Lighting, Inc.
• Discussant: Amit Arora, lead data scientist at Hughes Network Systems
• Discussant: Rohit Tripathi, senior business development manager of strategic enterprise solutions at Hughes Network Systems

If you’re interested in learning more about edge computing and seeing some of the inspirational start-up presentations, you may watch the entirety of Hughes Innovation Day here.