Everything we do these days generates more data — and therefore, requires more computational power. Shopping via cell phone, posting on Facebook, streaming Netflix, smart appliances, and wearable technologies have all driven data computation to the edge. The edge data center, that is.
According to a report by MarketsandMarkets, the edge computing market is expected to grow from last year’s $1.47 billion to a $6.72 billion industry by 2022, an annual growth of more than 35% over the next five years. Tasked with offloading latent-dependent services from large, enterprise data centers across the country, edge data centers bring the computing power closer to the user, often in major metropolitan areas. This benefits both the enduser and those collecting the data in many ways. It’s no wonder edge data centers were named a Top 10 infrastructure trend by Gartner this year.