The edge computing ecosystem offers opportunities for most participants in the cloud computing ecosystem, from devices to hyperscale cloud computing providers. Still, opportunities might be greatest for hyperscalers, tower companies and connectivity providers, ABI Research suggests.
source: ABI Research
AT&T says its edge computing strategy--built with Google Cloud--with feature multi-access edge computing that often will reside on an enterprise premises (stadiums, retail sites, factories) as well as off premises at AT&T or Google points of presence located somewhere in a metro area in major U.S. cities.
The former is known as AT&T Multi-access Edge Compute (MEC); the latter as AT&T Network Edge (ANE).
Every technology choice carries some risk as well as reward. Cloud computing, for example, exposes banks to risk, as the available suppliers are few, implying switching costs and barriers.
On the other hand, use of hyperscale computing facilities potentially can reduce infrastructure costs 30 percent to 50 percent, estimates the Bank of England.
The cloud computing sales journey can range from three months to more than seven months, says Spiceworks.
Some 29 percent can make a decision within three months or fewer. About 27 percent make a decision in four to six months. In 32 percent of cases a decision takes seven months or longer.
As you would anticipate, decisions take longer at bigger firms.
In the vast majority of organizations (91 percent), there’s no single decision maker that exclusively owns the entire cloud buying process, a survey by Spiceworks finds.
Instead, the purchase process is almost always a collaborative effort involving a group of key stakeholders that comprise the “buying collective.”
The median number of influencers involved in cloud purchase decisions:
Three — Small business
Five — Medium businesses
10 — Large businesses
An estimated 50 percent of workloads will run in the cloud by 2023, up from 40 percent in 2021, says Spiceworks.
Cloud computing, as with most other markets, has a small group of market share leaders: Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Google and Alibaba.
Azure revenue includes sales of the Windows operating system, productivity suites, Xbox, Surface and advertising. Also, keep in mind that Azure cloud computing also includes server sales, not just “cloud computing as a service” revenues.
The “intelligent cloud” segment of Azure represents only about 35 percent of total Azure revenue. Another third of Azure revenue comes from productivity suite revenues. Also, 32 percent of Azure revenue comes from operating systems, productivity suites, Xbox, Surface and advertising.
I personally do not consider those revenue sources a “like to like” comparison with AWS cloud computing as a service revenues. Actual Azure cloud computing revenue. might be as low as $4 billion a quarter. The point is that any analysis of cloud computing market share based on Azure revenue is incorrect.
Azure cloud computing might be only a bit larger than Google Cloud, which generated about $3.4 billion quarterly revenues recently.
U.S. cloud services spending grew 29 percent in the first quarter 2021 to $18.6 billion, up $621 million sequentially.
In the fourth quarter of 2020, global cloud services spending grew $10 billion.
The edge computing market is a complicated mix of different products, ranging from servers and software to computing-as-a-service and other revenue sources such as colocation (real estate) and connectivity services (public and private). For that reason, analysts do not yet agree about the relative revenue contributions of edge computing segments.
It is reasonable to assume that much of the revenue represents hardware and infrastructure sales.
Others believe software, platforms and analytics will drive as much as 45 percent of edge computing revenue.
But some also believe as much as 66 percent of service revenue will be captured by hyperscale computing-as-a-service suppliers.
Globally, edge computing revenues were estimated to reach US$3.4 billion in 2020, reaching $15.2 billion by 2026, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 27.7 percent. Hardware will represent as much as $8.8 billion by 2026, garnering 58 percent of total revenues, estimates Global Industry Analysts.
in the United States market is estimated at $1.6 Billion in 2021. China, the world's second largest economy, is forecast to reach a projected market size of $2.1 billion by about 2026, Global Industry Analysts also predicts.
Japan and Canada, each forecast to grow at 24.2 percent and 28.1 percent respectively over the analysis period. Within Europe, Germany is forecast to grow at approximately 24.7 percent CAGR, according to Global Industry Analysts.
Multi-access edge computing could affect public and private networking choices, at least when enterprises look at use cases requiring high-performance, low-latency, high-availability and high device density performance.
Traditionally, private networks have been preferred when enterprises want high isolation from public networks, plus full control and lower cost, higher-performance in-building networking. Some 50 years ago, the use case was support for personal computers and peripherals connected to servers and cabled networks were the platform.
These days, Wi-Fi tends to dominate for general purpose computing requirements supporting devices of all types. Mobile phone support remains a mix of public network access for voice and messaging, while data access can use either Wi-Fi or the public network.
5G plus multi-access edge computing allows new permutations. Some 66 percent of mobile operators polled by GSMA are looking to use their core assets to support private enterprise networks. Some 59 percent also believe they can use their public networks to do so, operating with service level agreements.
In all likelihood, quite a mix will emerge.
