Global sales of edge computing infrastructure and services will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.7% between 2019 and 2024, with total sales expected to reach US$ 19.3bn in 2024, according to GlobalData’s new Market Opportunity Forecasts for Edge Computing*.

Chris Drake, Principal Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “The vertical industries that will see the strongest growth in the adoption of edge computing technologies include energy and utilities, healthcare, retail banking and transport and logistics. Manufacturing will account for the single largest source of investment in edge computing resources in 2024, representing 11.5% of the total market.

“By decentralizing compute and other IT resources and positioning them closer to where digital applications and services are consumed, edge computing promises to unlock multiple benefits for end-users. These include the ability to process large volumes of data in real-time, and the potential to offer applications that require high levels of performance, and which rely on additional technologies such as artificial intelligence.”

Because of its ability to support local, real-time data processing, edge computing is widely seen as key to unlocking the opportunities associated with IoT – with or without the support of high-bandwidth 5G networking.

Drake continues: “Despite the disruption that COVID-19 has delivered to enterprises and economies around the world, the long-term prospects for edge computing remain strong. Indeed, some edge computing drivers have become more important because of COVID-19, including the rise of remote working and learning at scale, and the need to support the rollout and expansion of a wide range of digital services and applications.

“Even before the COVID-19 crisis, the market for edge computing solutions was characterized by a strong partnership-based approach. This commitment to partnerships is likely to gather pace in the post-COVID-19 world, with partnerships involving telecoms network operators, cloud service providers and hardware and software vendors.”

IT flexibility will become more important than ever and extend to edge computing solutions. In addition to helping customers through more challenging economic times, a flexible approach will also help edge infrastructure vendors maximize longer-term choice and flexibility for their customers.

* This forecast includes the sale of dedicated edge hardware and software solutions, as well as edge computing as a service offerings from cloud service providers and telecoms network operators.