According to GlobalData’s new Competitive Landscape Assessment for Edge Computing Infrastructure, businesses, government and other organizations will invest in edge computing in order to harness several benefits. These include its ability to support a host of new digital applications that rely on high levels of performance such as video analytics, autonomous driverless vehicles, and immersive content experiences based on virtual or augmented reality. Other benefits of edge computing include the ability to process data in real-time, and the cost-savings it offers, by mitigating the need to transfer large volumes of data to the cloud for processing.

Enterprises looking to invest in edge computing will consider several criteria, including the manageability and scalability of individual solutions, and the extent to which solutions can be flexibly consumed and easily deployed and integrated with existing physical and networking environments. Solutions will also be evaluated based on the tools and capabilities they offer application developers.

Chris Drake, Principal Analyst at GlobalData, a leading industry research firm, comments: “Edge computing reduces the number of “network hops” that data or application content has to travel in order to be processed or delivered to end users. The faster turnaround times associated with local data processing help to ensure lower latency and higher levels of application performance”.

“In addition, by supporting the ability to process data locally, close to where it is generated and/or collected, edge computing ensures that data can be harnessed and acted-upon in real-time. Real-time data processing makes it possible to offer a wide range of new applications and digital services, and is essential for things like autonomous, driverless vehicles, online gaming, or failure detection systems in a factory or chemical plant”.

“The market for edge computing infrastructure is in the early stages of development, both in terms of vendor strategies and solutions and with regard to use cases and end user adoption. However, the segment is already attracting interest and investment from an assortment of companies, including data center and telecoms infrastructure vendors, cloud service providers, telecoms network operators, content delivery networks (CDNs), and IT service providers and systems integrators. Together these companies offer a broad portfolio of edge computing solutions, which address both general and specific use cases. Many of them are also entering into partnerships in order to address a diverse range of edge computing requirements and opportunities”.

“The coming months will see further innovations and refinements to the solutions, strategies, partnerships, and business models that are being developed to target emerging edge computing opportunities. 5G networking advancements will provide a further source of innovation and growth for this rapidly developing market sector”.