Lionel Sujay Vailshery
Research expert covering the consumer electronics industry
Edge Computing - statistics & facts
With the advent of smart sensors and connected technologies, massive amounts of data produced that demand real-time processing that has been enabled by the internet of things. This demand is met by leveraging edge computing technology to make this data useful with a quick turnaround time. Edge computing has been made possible with the advancement of cloud computing technologies and advancing network technologies allowing companies and individuals to take advantage of services offered by cloud computing providers such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Google to store and process their data in virtual space or the “cloud”. However, the transmission of data between the endpoints and the cloud datacenters hosted by the provider consumes a great deal of energy and is hampered by latency, meaning that cloud solutions may not be appropriate for every case.
What is edge computing?
With a rapid growing number of devices able to connect to each other, more and more of them require faster computing with low latency for various use-cases driving computing at the “edge” of the network. The so-called “Third Act of the Internet” according to the Linux foundation reports, the edge of the network of devices is where a lot of the data storage and processing will take place in the future, giving rise to the term edge computing.
Edge computing is about delivering computing capabilities to the local points of a network, through which greater performance, lower latency and lower costs in operations are achieved. For example, smart home devices perform little to no computational work; requests are mostly sent from the device to servers owned by the smart speaker provider. Using edge computing, smart speakers would be able to receive and process a user’s request entirely on the device itself.
IoT, 5G, and edge
The need for localized network infrastructure and computing power is highlighted by the ever-growing Internet of Things (IoT), a term used to describe the network of connected devices. A growing amount of data is generated at the endpoints, burdening the traditional network structure.
The emergence and application of 5G, the fifth generation of cellular network technologies that allows for much greater bandwidth and density of connected devices, accelerates the growth of IoT while paving the way for edge computing. AI-optimized processors, which provide greater computing power, also enable wider adoption of edge systems.
Edge computing market and outlook
Edge computing has become a big market and continues to grow at a great speed – the forecast global revenue is set to reach 350 billion U.S. dollars by 2027. Some industries such as manufacturing, and telecommunications have already put implementations of edge solutions on the schedule. Businesses look to gain benefits such as new core business functions and capabilities as well as the improvement of monitoring, response, and site reliability from their edge strategy. The interest in edge has exploded since 2015. In 2015, there were only 720 new papers related to edge computing on Google Scholar – that number has grown to more than 42,700 in 2023.
