Four edge computing trends to watch out for in 2022

Currently about 10% of all data from enterprises are created and processed outside their core systems or clouds. But by 2025, this number will see a steep rise to 75%, according to a report by Gartner.

It is no surprise that the edge is the future of computing, and will slowly move away from mainstream tech-heavy verticals such as BFSI and manufacturing, to lesser known verticals. Here are the top four trends that we can witness from the space of edge computing in 2022.   

Edge computing expenditure increases exponentially  

The growing adoption of IoT devices across a broad range of industries is leading to a rise in data volumes and network traffic. This in turn will drive demand for real-time, automated decision making solutions through low-latency systems that will become the norm once 5G comes to the fore.   

An October 2021 report by marketsandmarkets showed that edge computing will grow from its current value of about $36.5 billion to $87.3 billion in 2026, at a compound annual growth rate of 19%. This will include all types of edge related entities including networking infrastructures, software and hardware.    

5G and edge computing will accelerate AI, IoT and automation in manufacturing    

While the Industrial internet of things grows drastically, it will be led by automation that is owed to edge computing. We are on the cusp of noticing edge computing being leveraged for smart buildings, smart machines through analytics.   

Many manufacturing companies utilise sensors to capture data at the edge, which means that the data does not necessarily always have to be sent to the data-processing engine. The edge compute will actually allow manufacturers to filter data and reduce the amount sent to a central server. This gives the companies the ability to remotely monitor conditions and generate new revenue streams.   

It is all about containerisation at the edge   

There’s no debating that kubernetes and containers are a match made in heaven for edge computing. The microservices and API based architectures have revolutionised computing as we know it. Many cloud heavyweights have understood this and have released their own versions of kubernetes platforms that can handle processing, storage ingestion and analytics of data. Some of the well-known Kubernetes platforms today includes, Google Anthos, AWS Snowball and Azure Stack.   

Some of the well-known advantages of containerisation include seamless integration between the edge and the cloud, along with better security and high availability of data. Thus the rapid rise of containerisation will accompany the growth of the edge in 2022.  

Virtual Radio access networks become more prominent  

What are vRANs? They are the technology that enable to connect smartphones, sensors from IoT devices to that of a mobile network. A September 2020 study by Arthur D little showed that vRAN solutions could provide network savings of upto 44% as compared to traditional centralised RAN configurations. This will allow for modernisation and simplification of network applications. This type of containerises, cloud native RAN solutions will provide, apart from lower costs, easier upgrades/ modifications and less vendor lock-ins as compared to proprietary solutions.