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In the wake of the looming global economic crisis, more businesses are pushing to lower bandwidth usage, resolve latency problems and solve privacy issues associated with big data to optimize their business. That’s why edge computing adoption is hitting the IT industry like a tsunami.

A recent global edge computing market size report covering edge computing trend analysis by components, applications, industry vertical and segment forecast suggests that the global edge computing market size is expected to hit $155.90 billion by 2030, exhibiting a compound annual growth rate of about 38.9% during the forecast period.

With this report, there is an expected rise in market demands for edge computing infrastructure and Internet of Things devices and a renewed drive for 5G adoption across industries. In addition, during this forecast period, it’s also anticipated that the integration of artificial intelligence into the edge computing environment will be on the rise.

Main drivers of the edge computing market growth

Need for AI-driven devices

According to the Global Edge Computing Market Report, one of the drivers of the global edge computing market is the need for artificial intelligence-based devices. AI plays a key role in the efficient utilization of a wide range of endpoint devices such as cameras, sensors, smartphones, smartwatches and other IoT devices.

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Offering credence to the above report is the State of AI 2021 Report, which further adds that the global artificial intelligence funding witnessed an astronomical growth of about 108% in 2021 due to the growing integration of artificial intelligence in edge devices.

In addition, about 54% of the organizations surveyed by McKinsey in 2021 agreed that they had adopted artificial intelligence to facilitate some key computing functions. So, with all these numbers, there is no denying that the global edge computing market will continue to soar.

Growth in the adoption of 5G in the global telecommunication market

The Global Edge Computing Market Report further submits that the telecom edge is estimated to grow during this forecast period. Aiding this growth in telecom edge is the speedy adoption and implementation of 5G tech across many industries. 5G promises to offer better reliability and speed in handling the ever-increasing demand for big data creation and processing.

According to the record contained in the McKinsey Technology Trends Outlook 2022, the preference for advanced connectivity technology, which includes 5G and 6G, will continue to drive growth and investment in edge computing to the tune of about $166 billion. With the implementation of 5G expected to take shape in edge computing devices during this period, solving several issues like network connectivity and system lags in data processing will become easier.

Some areas where 5G applications will further fuel the edge computing market include virtual reality, autonomous vehicles, augmented reality and IoT devices and services.

Growing edge computing use cases

Another factor that has fueled the global edge computing market growth is the increasing use cases for edge computing. As the use cases for edge computing continues to grow, it’s expected that more edge computing adoption across different industries will suffice.

The 2022 global edge computing market forecast captured this by explaining that “edge computing use cases have outpaced initial infrastructure deployments and are projected to provide momentum to edge computing infrastructure and use cases investments.”

The report further said that “edge computing is predicted to become more ubiquitous and evolve toward platform-centric solutions during the projection period.”

Growth in IoT edge devices

According to the Global Edge Computing Market Report, the boom in the edge computing market will also be driven by parallel growth in IoT edge devices. Since edge computing helps organizations minimize the numerous bottlenecks inherent in processing data on centralized data centers, there is tremendous growth in manufacturing IoT edge devices.

A 2022 Statista report predicts there will be over 29 billion IoT-connected devices by 2030. This Statista report predicts that about 5 billion IoT edge device customers will be found in China by the end of 2030.

Major highlights of the edge computing market report

  • During the period in the forecast, there will be an unprecedented demand for edge servers as the major hardware component in edge infrastructure. This suggests that edge servers will be the major market driving force within this period.
  • There will also be increased use of AR/VR due to the advancements in the 5G network.
  • Edge data centers are projected to witness the highest CAGR during the forecast period. This is because a lot depends on the edge data centers to resolve connectivity problems and bring data storage and processing close to the device.
  • The edge computing market growth will experience the highest boom in the Asia-Pacific region due to the region’s early adoption of 5G.
  • Some notable market players in this forecast are Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft, Cisco Systems, Honeywell International, Digi International, Huawei Technologies and Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development.