The technology pendulum has long been swinging between centralization versus decentralization. Is it better to have a mainframe or distributed systems and data across Windows, Linux, and Unix platforms? Is it better to have these server farms or consolidate things with a cloud provider? Now, the action is moving away from the cloud, toward edge and Internet of Things (IoT) configurations. The enterprise market for edge computing will grow by 22% over the coming year, mainly for hardware, according to estimates from Deloitte Global. By contrast, enterprise networking equipment expenditures will grow by 4%, while overall enterprise IT spending is projected to rise by 6%.
…
Aron Brand, CTO of CTERA, offered up an apt analogy: “The shift of computing toward the edge can be likened to the decentralization of a city’s resources. Instead of having all essential services located in the city center, causing congestion and inefficiencies, they are distributed to various neighborhoods to allow for faster access and improved services. In the same vein, edge computing brings data processing closer to its source, leading to reduced latency, better performance, and an overall improvement in user experience.”