Spending on edge computing is expected to increase at 14.8 percent to $176 billion in 2022, IDC report said.
Enterprise and service provider spending on hardware, software, and services for edge solutions is forecast to touch nearly $274 billion.
The report said edge is the foremost technology infrastructure that extends and innovates on the capabilities found in core datacenters, whether they are enterprise or service provider owned. The value of edge is the movement of computing resources to the physical location where data is created, reducing time to value and the instant enablement of business processes, decisions, and intelligence outside of the core IT environment.
IDC has identified more than 150 use cases for edge computing across various industries and domains. The two edge use cases that will see the largest investments in 2022 – content delivery networks and virtual network functions – are both foundational to service providers’ edge services offerings.
Content delivery networks and virtual network functions use cases will generate nearly $26 billion in spending this year. In total, service providers will invest more than $38 billion in enabling edge offerings this year.
For enterprise adopters, the edge use cases with the largest investments in 2022 include manufacturing operations, production asset management, smart grids, omni-channel operations, public safety & emergency response, freight monitoring, and intelligent transportation systems. Use cases that will see the fastest spending growth over the 2020-2025 forecast include public infrastructure maintenance, network maintenance, anatomy diagnostics, and AR assisted surgery.
Discrete and process manufacturing combined will invest $33.6 billion in edge solutions this year. Retail and professional services will also see spending of more than $10 billion on edge computing in 2022 while all 19 industries profiled in the IDC Spending Guide will experience double-digit spending growth over the five year forecast period.
IDC expects hardware and services spending will account for 85 percent of all edge spending in 2022 with the remainder going to software. Hardware spending will be led by investments in edge gateways, which feature low-power components designed for running limited or single functions in environments where power and cooling availability is limited.
Investments in compute and storage assets adapted for edge locations or deployment will grow at a faster rate and will nearly equal spending on edge gateways by the end of the forecast period. Services spending, comprised of professional and provisioned services, will grow at a faster rate than the other two groups with a five-year CAGR of 19.6 percent.
By 2025, services will account for 50 percent of all edge spending led by investments in provisioned services, including connectivity and edge-related infrastructure, platform, and software as a service (IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS). Software spending will primarily be allocated toward system infrastructure and security software with analytics & AI software seeing faster growth within the group.
United States will be the largest investor in edge solutions with spending forecast to reach $76.5 billion in 2022. Western Europe and China will be the next largest regions with spending totals of $30.6 and $20.8 billion, respectively. China will see the fastest spending growth over the five-year forecast with a CAGR of 19.7 percent, followed by Latin America at 19.4 percent.
