Virtualization Technology News and Information
Article
RSS
IBM Hybrid Cloud 2024 Predictions: Edge Computing Will be More Prominent

vmblog-predictions-2024 

Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2024.  Read them in this 16th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.

Edge Computing Will be More Prominent

By Utpal Mangla, VP, Industry EDGE Cloud; IBM Cloud Platform

As we head into 2024, enterprise priorities and technologies will continue to evolve. Businesses are looking to address demographic and international shifts, make supply chains more resilient and improve sustainability, among other global challenges. Businesses are also continuously looking for real time insights to fuel operations and ensuring worldwide data sovereignty at edge. Technology serves as a fundamental source of competitive advantage in tackling these issues. One of the competitive advantages businesses can look to adopt is edge computing.  

Edge computing with 5G creates tremendous opportunities in every industry. It brings computation and data storage closer to where data is generated, enabling better data control, reduced costs, faster insights and actions, and continuous operations.  IDC predicts that enterprise and service provider spending on hardware, software, and services for edge solutions is forecast to sustain this pace of growth through 2026 when spending will reach nearly $317 billion. [1] Heading into 2024, we're going to see even more edge computing take shape across industries.

Edge Adoption Will Increase as AI Adoption Increases 

To meet the data processing and compute needs for AI, we can expect to see more enterprises shifting their data center strategy toward edge computing in 2024. An edge infrastructure allows the AI computation to happen near the data center at the edge of a network instead of a private data center. Since the data is being analyzed locally, there is potentially better availability and more real-time analytics available. Edge computing also helps to reduce networking costs since the processing is happening locally. Edge computing can also address security and data residency concerns related to AI adoption because it also allows companies to keep their data required for AI use cases onsite and in country, respecting the sovereign regulatory requirements. 

Edge Computing Will Support Sustainable Practices  

With global climate change concerns on the rise, businesses are under more pressure to be sustainable and efficient with their IT infrastructure. Solutions like green data centers can play a key role in helping organizations reach their ambitious goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. [2] There needs to be renewable sources like solar and wind-power energy so data centers can create an energy-supply profile that better fit customer demands. The adoption of technology solutions like edge computing will help reduce latency and the energy requirements associated with long-distance data transfers to centralized data centers; in turn contributing to energy efficiency and a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. 

Edge computing helps reduce energy by the total amount of data traversing the network, which reduces the overall energy consumption in networks. Real-time analysis and monitoring make the transfer of data across multiple networks unnecessary. With decisions made locally, energy consumption is reduced. Edge computing also facilitates the deployment of smart infrastructure, enhancing the efficiency and reliability of transportation systems, energy grids, and public services. Governments are leveraging edge analytics to reduce congestion and minimize environmental impact to build smarter cities to improve quality of life for residents.  

Edge Computing Will Drive New Consumer Experiences for Retailers 

The adoption of edge computing won't be industry agnostic, and in 2024, we're going to see more industries adopt this technology to keep pace with rapid digital transformation. One industry that we see as this technology helping drive transformation is retail.  For the retail industry, adopting new technology that enhances consumer experience is critical to staying competitive. In 2024, we will see retailers continue to move analytics, AI and media workloads to the edge, allowing retailers to power these critical workloads safely and securely. For example, a limiting factor of online grocery shopping is the inability of the shopper to check on the quality of the produce in the store. With edge computing, stores can enable AI-visual recognition devices that will check the quality of the produce and validate it for the shopper. We expect edge computing to continue to transform businesses across the retail industry by advancing and streamlining customer experiences and improving engagement.  

As companies look to keep pace with digital transformation in 2024 and beyond, edge computing will be an important technological step they can take to bridge gaps in their tech stack and remain competitive in the market.

##

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Utpal Mangla 

Utpal Mangla is a VP responsible for Distributed, Edge, Sovereign & Cloud Partnerships in IBM. He is responsible for driving the growth of hybrid cloud for enterprises especially in regulated industries. Utpal was previously the VP and Senior Partner in IBM Consulting with focus on Telecommunications, Media, and Entertainment Industry clients. In his role as an executive and thought leader in emerging technologies, Utpal's mission is to fuel growth by building and implementing differentiated competitive market service solution offerings to meeting critical business imperatives of our customers. He is a regular speaker at industry forums, university, and business conferences globally.

++

[1] New IDC Spending Guide Forecasts Edge Computing Investments Will Reach $208 Billion in 2023, Michael Shirer, IDC Research, February 2023

[2] "Carbon neutrality by 2050: the world's most urgent mission" António Guterres, The United Nations, 2020

Published Wednesday, December 27, 2023 7:32 AM by David Marshall
Comments
There are no comments for this post.
To post a comment, you must be a registered user. Registration is free and easy! Sign up now!
Calendar
<December 2023>
SuMoTuWeThFrSa
262728293012
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31123456