60 percent of network resources expected to be at the edge by 2022

A new study from IDC and Limelight Networks predicts that by next year 60 percent of all network resources will be deployed at remote edge or service provider locations, up from just 20 percent in 2020.

The survey of 1,100 analysts worldwide shows 73 percent view edge as a strategic investment, while another 17 percent say it's required by business operations.

The report underlines the trend for content processing to move to the edge, which can offer high-quality video experiences with minimal buffering and cost reductions.

Industry professionals responding to the survey believe that edge will improve productivity or efficiency (45 percent), increase security and compliance (44 percent), ensure faster decision making (42 percent), and will bring improved customer relations or customer experience (40 percent).

Steve Miller-Jones, VP of strategy, industry and partnership at Limelight Networks says:

In the last few years, we have seen advances in both the range of edge services and their adoption within a variety of content and enterprise workflows. In 2021, we can expect the variety and scope of customization capabilities to grow, helping enterprises meet high end user expectations for accessing and consuming content.

The network edge makes it possible to affect data as it flows towards end users and devices, and to control the flow of data from those devices. Shipping large quantities of raw data towards cloud providers is expensive and can introduce significant latency.

This is why the network edge will be used more for data processing and decision making. It allows access to multiple compute locations close to end users and devices, therefore removing the potential for latency without incurring additional operational overheads. The net result is improved content performance in a cost efficiency way, with built-in security and scale.

You can get the full report from the Limelight site.

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