A broad group of edge computing stakeholders, including Vapor IO, Packet, Ericsson UDN, Arm and Rafay Systems, have joined forces to bring clarity and research to the field of edge computing. Produced with help from Structure Research and Edge Research Group, the State of the Edge 2018 report documents contemporary knowledge in the field of edge computing and is freely available at StateoftheEdge.com.

The group also announced two related initiatives: the Open Glossary of Edge Computing and an Edge Computing Landscape. The State of the Edge projects are ongoing efforts and the collaborators are inviting the community at large to contribute to these resources, creating a participatory platform for ongoing research.

"As the industry shifts towards IoT, self-driving vehicles, augmented reality, smart cities and numerous real-time applications, we see high-performance compute, storage and network resources rapidly moving as close to the end user and devices as possible-to the edge of the last mile network," said Philbert Shih, Managing Director at Structure Research. "The edge ecosystem is large and fast-moving, and the State of the Edge collaboration provides a critical forum for stakeholders to openly work together on terminology and shared research, thereby pushing the industry forward."

State of the Edge Report 2018

The inaugural State of the Edge report chronicles the emergence of edge computing and documents the impact on developers, technology providers, telecom operators, ISPs, and end users, among others. The report assesses the state of edge computing today, illustrates practical architectures for its deployment, and provides guidance on where this innovative collection of technologies is heading in the near future. The report also endeavors to explain the role edge computing plays in the future of cloud computing, casting it in the context of complementary approaches such as fog computing and public cloud.

Industry analysts Jim Davis (Edge Research Group) and Philbert Shih (Structure Research) produced the report with help from Packet, Vapor IO, Rafay Systems, Ericsson UDN, and Arm. The State of the Edge 2018 report can be viewed and downloaded here.

Glossary and Landscape

Also announced today is the Open Glossary of Edge Computing, a community-driven lexicon of essential terms in the edge computing ecosystem. The Open Glossary of Edge Computing presents a framework for organizing shared language to assist in more precise discussions around edge computing. Readers can view a formatted version of the Glossary here as well as contribute to the project via a GitHub repository.

The State of the Edge collaborators have also published the first edition of the Edge Computing Landscape, an open source database and interactive landscape visualization of vendors, open source projects, foundations and standards groups that intersect or influence the edge computing market. Readers can view the Edge Computing Landscape on the State of the Edge website, as well as visit the GitHub repository to submit pull requests for edits and additions.