International Data Corporation’s (IDC) Worldwide Edge Spending Guide
Data Center 2025: Closer to the edge
STL Partners survey with 699 industry professionals globally from manufacturing, retail, healthcare and transport & logistics industries, May 2021
According to a recent survey by STL Partners, 49% of enterprises in specific industries are actively exploring edge computing and it is estimated that the total number of edge sites will grow by 226% from 2019 to 2025. However, adoption varies across geographies. This is due to the level of maturity of adjacent technologies (e.g., artificial intelligence), the existing telecommunications infrastructure, government policy, and the size of certain industries in the country. For example, manufacturing is driving edge computing adoption in the U.S. and Germany and is predicted to account for the largest share of European enterprise edge spending in 2021.
Roll over each colored region to find out more
The U.S. is leading the way with edge initiatives and is estimated to be the largest market for edge computing. Key industries include manufacturing (connected factories) and retail (enhancing the customer experience).
Europe follows the U.S. in edge adoption, although the European manufacturing industry has been fast to transition to Industry 4.0, particularly automotive in Germany.
Adoption of edge is nascent in South America and Africa, as enterprises are still at an early stage of adopting data centers and cloud, plus the telecoms infrastructure is still being developed.
Australia and New Zealand are also pushing ahead with edge. Telco edge sites have been deployed in Auckland and Micro Edge deployments near Brisbane.
China is also rolling out edge deployments aligned with the expansion of 5G coverage.
Early deployments of 5G in Singapore and South Korea, coupled with smart city initiatives, are accelerating adoption of edge.
Countries in South and South East Asia
(e.g. India and Thailand) struggle to make the business case for edge computing given their lower labour costs, therefore may take time to adopt edge computing.
The State of Edge Infrastructure Today
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