The global edge computing market is expected to hit a size of over USD 15.7 billion by 2025, unlocking new avenues of innovation in areas ranging from autonomous driving tech to smart home automation.
The pace at which the digital economy is growing has accelerated, especially since 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted normalcy and forced innovation to the forefront. With nearly 59.5% of the world population having access to the internet, it is evident that more services will move into an internet-driven digital avatar in the coming years. There’s little doubt that they will be just as successful as services in entertainment, education, finance, and shopping that successfully transitioned into digital without disruption. At the forefront of fueling the digital economy of tomorrow will be cloud computing and the Internet of Things (IoT).
Cisco estimates that there will be 3 times more connected devices than the human population by 2023. Driving a digital revolution that channels the massive amount of data from these connected entities would require an ecosystem of low-latency processing, automated decision-making, and smarter network traffic management. With 5G deployment already on the horizon in many countries, it is only a matter of time before a new wave of high-speed, real-time digital services takes center stage in multiple domains.
The essence of edge computing is to create a computing ecosystem close to where the consumers of the processed information are located. The consumers may either be apps used by people or any smart device — ranging from smart home assistants to autonomous vehicles and factories — or both. Businesses that want to tap into the vast ecosystem of opportunities existing at the edge need to have a clear understanding of how to successfully leverage the benefits.
Let us explore a few ways in which enterprises can succeed with edge computing:
Achieve Seamless Centralized Management
Edge computing brings together diverse infrastructure and application ecosystems dispersed across the boundaries of the edge. Some components may reside on the cloud while others may run on-premises. For smooth functioning, efficient centralized management is essential. Otherwise, separate management tools for each component can create significant overheads, defeating the purpose.
Autonomous Connectivity Assurance
Different points or nodes in an edge network may face issues or faults and require reconfiguration. A failure of a node could impact the broader business service if it acts as a local processing or storage point. Therefore, businesses must ensure connectivity through alternate routing of data and traffic to another location — enabling instant stand-up of new replacement nodes with necessary configurations.
Ease of Deployment by Partners
Without deep pockets and specialized IT skills, most businesses may find it difficult to manage an end-to-end edge network themselves. A simplified deployment architecture allows partners or vendors to set up endpoints using their hardware, software, and network infrastructure for a pre-defined usage fee. This lowers capital and operational costs, and enables better local marketing and customer engagement.
Proactive Network Optimization
Businesses leveraging edge networks require proactive network optimization using advanced analytics. By analyzing traffic trends across nodes, they can ensure lowest-latency, highest-reliability paths for each user — delivering superior and personalized performance while optimizing resource allocation.
Gartner predicts that by 2025, nearly 75% of all enterprise-generated data will be created and processed outside centralized data centers or cloud infrastructure. This creates huge opportunities for businesses to offer innovative digital services through localized edge networks closer to demand sources. Get in touch with us to learn more about actualizing your business’s digital ambitions through innovations on the edge.
