Multi-Access Edge Computing Growth Opportunities

Increasing Deployment of Public MEC and 5G Networks Across Industries Drives Future Growth Potential

Edge computing is computing that pushes intelligence, data processing, analytics, and communication capabilities to where the data originates at network gateways or endpoints. The aim is to reduce latency and ensure highly efficient networks, operations, service delivery, and an improved user experience. By bringing computing closer to the data source, edge computing enables latency-sensitive computing and greater business agility through better control and faster insights. It also lowers operating expenses, resulting in more efficient network bandwidth support.

Primary characteristics of edge computing include:

• Computing power in the network or on-premises
• Proximity
• Real-time data processing
• Wide geo-distribution

Three major computing revolutions have occurred in industrial applications: mainframe, client server, and cloud computing. Picking up where these paradigms left off, edge computing is establishing itself as a foundational technology for industrial enterprises, offering shorter latencies, robust security, responsive data collection, and lower costs. It is highly relevant in hyperconnected industrial environments as its solution-agnostic nature enables its use in various applications, including autonomous assets, remote asset monitoring, data extraction from stranded assets, autonomous robotics, autonomous vehicles, smart factories, oilfield operations management, machine monitoring, and smart campuses.

The global multi-access edge computing (MEC) market is growing as telecom operators and cloud providers launch commercial services and begin to scale. 5G technology offers lower latency and higher capacity. Together with MEC, it brings computing power closer to customers, enabling new applications and experiences. Telecom operators now deploy smaller data centers closer to customers at the network’s edge to optimize application performance. However, telecom operators cannot implement and manage MEC alone. They must establish partnerships and an application ecosystem to seize growth opportunities in the MEC space. Telecom operators have started partnering with cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and IBM Cloud to improve the performance of mission-critical applications and enable new applications over wireless networks.

The MEC market presents growth opportunities in various consumer and enterprise use cases and applications that require low-latency connectivity to boost the user experience. For consumers, innovative applications for MEC include 5G gaming and augmented reality, virtual reality, and ultra-high-definition streaming. For enterprises, telecom operators deploy private wireless networks to enable manufacturing 4.0, automated mining, precision agriculture, industrial internet of things (IIoT), and other compelling applications.

The geographic coverage of this MEC study is global. The study period is from 2019 to 2025, with 2021 as the base year.