PREVIEW:
We’re on the cusp of the next major advance in infrastructure modernization. The traditional data center is nearly dead. The future is in Industry 4.0. Within this marriage of cyber and physical systems, trends in automation, connectivity, processes, and data exchange are shifting. Enterprises have found that advanced sensors that communicate with edge devices, edge networks, and edge data centers can offer higher levels of responsiveness, output, and efficiency than previous generations of infrastructure.
Although edge infrastructure adoption remains in its infancy, by 2025, the market is expected to reach a valuation of $250 billion. New edge infrastructure is designed to reduce latency, enhance system reliability, optimize for 5G and yield security advantages. Nonetheless, edge infrastructure also requires security. We’re not in Kansas anymore and your data is no longer in a centralized data center or a cloud environment.
A growing number of modern enterprises rely on data for real-time decision making. Sensors that can process data quickly can increase productivity and results. In a classic example, a self-driving car that must transmit data to a far-off processing center can present a more agile and efficient response to traffic pattern shift when processing data at the edge. Business leaders everywhere are looking to reduce latency in order to increase operational efficiency. Lower latency not only solves older business problems; it can offer new opportunities for innovation too.
In the case of a self-driving car, an information processing delay could result in a dangerous situation. By 2022, over 55 billion edge devices will be on the market. By 2025, estimates expect that number to hit 150 billion.
The edge also eliminates a central point of failure. Previously, a single data center that experienced a disruption could have significant downstream effects across organizations and verticals. The decentralized nature of the edge disposes of this difficulty. Rather, edge enables organizations to isolate disrupted or attacked systems quickly and easily.
At the end of the day, edge computing is designed to allow for hyper-communication and seamless interactions between disparate industrial machinery, computers, robots, and independent systems. While that’s not the only rationale for the continued evolution of edge, it’s a strong case. In order to enable smooth inter-device functionality, edge is often deployed in tandem with 5G rollouts. As a result, business leaders can transform business connectivity and capabilities. For many organizations, edge and 5G together can unlock unprecedented value add.
In addition, as organizations load hundreds or thousands of new devices onto networks and data from each device hits servers and storage systems, bandwidth can quickly become overwhelmed. The introduction of both edge and 5G together can conquer this challenge. Many continued technology developments and new business ventures will only be possible through the unified use of edge and 5G.
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