Table of Contents
- Summary
- About the GigaOm Radar
- Market Categories and Deployment Types
- Key Criteria Comparison
- GigaOm Radar
- Vendor Insights
- Analyst’s Take
- Methodology
- About GigaOm
- Copyright
1. Summary
The edge market has been growing by leaps and bounds, despite the fact that many people remain uncertain about what the edge is, and which technology components enable edge applications. With the rollout of 5G wireless technology and the explosion of the Internet of Things (IoT) devices, the market for edge enablement technology is projected to expand exponentially. Industries and municipalities have taken notice of the potential use cases of edge applications, and are starting to explore possible deployment models. Edge applications need a place to run, and that place will often be some iteration of the infrastructure edge.
Edge infrastructure is an extension of existing infrastructure found in the public cloud or on-premises data center, located in close proximity to edge devices and IoT gateways. Applications running on edge infrastructure can perform operations such as:
- Data aggregation and summarization
- Machine learning analysis
- Localized breakout
- Real-time data processing
The infrastructure edge can be broken down into three categories established in our Key Criteria for Edge Infrastructure report: physical infrastructure, core systems, and platform systems. This radar report focuses on physical infrastructure, also referred to as edge colocation, using the key criteria and evaluation metrics found in the Key Criteria for Edge Colocation report.
Physical infrastructure addresses the physical resources for an edge solution, encompassing resources that include physical space, power, cooling, and connectivity. These are resources that a typical colocation facility might provide, but are found in an edge context.
While the use cases for the edge are varied and still unfolding, the need for an edge colocation solution is clear. The transformation of edge applications relies on suitably provisioned locations that support their compute, network, storage, and security requirements. The radar used in tandem with the Key Criteria report can assist you in evaluating which solutions meet the unique requirements of your edge application.