US Patent 9313299 Cloud edge appliances to extend cloud applications to customer premises

A cloud edge appliance (CEA) may augment the providing, by a remote cloud service provider, of cloud applications to a customer. The CEA may be installed at the customer premises and may provide a local access point for the customer. In one implementation, the CEA may provide a cloud-based application to a number of user devices, the cloud-based application being associated with functions, in which at least a first portion of the functions are implemented by the CEA and at least a second portion of the plurality of functions are forwarded, over a wide area network, to the cloud service provider.