Analysts’ predictions for the edge computing market include rosy expectations, although they vary significantly in sizing the market and its rate of growth over the next few years. Gartner, in a report commissioned by Equinix, went so far as to posit that “the edge will eat the cloud.”
Here are four predictions for the edge computing market:
-Gartner, in the aforementioned report, predicted that “edge computing will be a necessary requirement for all digital businesses by 2022.” Gartner went on to estimate that 40% of large enterprises will be integrating edge computing principles into their 2021 projects, compared to less than 1% implementing such concepts in 2017. Gartner said that latency and/or bandwidth requirements will become critical application deployment factors for 30% of workload deployments by 2021.
-Grand View Research said that according to a study it conducted, the global edge computing market is expected to reach $3.24 billion by 2025, reflecting a “phenomenal” 41% compound annual growth rate. The small-to-medium enterprise market is expected to see the highest edge computing CAGR, according to Grand View, because it helps reduce the operational costs of enterprise networks by processing and storing data at the network edge. The North American market is expected to see substantial growth over that period, Grand View noted, facilitated by the region’s high levels of connectivity and the presence of major players such as Cisco, General Electric, IBM, Microsoft, SAP and HP Enterprise.
-Transparency Market Research said that it expected the global edge computing market to grow steadily in the next few years, driven by the proliferation of the internet of things and “challenges arising from the excessive use of traditional cloud computing architecture.” Transparency estimated the 2017 global edge computing market at about $8 billion in 2017 and forecasted it to reach $13.3 billion by the end of 2022. Hardware, the firm said, constituted about 54.3% of the edge computing market in 2017 and will remain the largest segment growth within edge computing.
-Stratistics MRC estimated the 2017 edge computing market at about $8 billion and expected it to reach about $20.5 billion by 2026. Stratistics MRC said that the market is being driven by IoT technology, smartphones, smart watches and “intelligent wearable devices,” as well as an increase in real-time computing and the arrival of 5G, but that “insufficient production standards, interoperability issues and safety and privacy enterprises related to edge computing are hindering the market.”
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