According to a mini global survey, the edge component of total compute could grow by 29% in the next four years.

In a survey of 156 industry professionals globally with insight into their organizations’ edge computing plans, sustainability, security and availability were top priorities to be balanced with edge architecture design and operating practices.

The survey also revealed the changing profile of the modern edge site. Some 29% of sites in the survey had between 5 and 20 racks, and 13% had more than 20 racks.

Other findings include:

  • The percentage of IT resources deployed in the public cloud was expected by respondents to grow from 19% currently to 25% by 2026
  • A quarter of respondents indicated they had already deployed new, purpose-built edge sites
  • 41% were operating legacy edge sites
  • 34% were either planning or were in the midst of significant edge deployments.
  • 28% of respondents indicated that their sites required between 21kW and 200kW; 14% reported power demands in excess of 200kW
  • 77% of respondents’ edge premises were using or planning to use energy-efficient UPS systems. In addition, 40% were planning to use renewable energy; 31% water-efficient cooling; 29% dynamic grid support technologies; and 19% refrigerants with a low global warming potential.
  • Security and availability were top priorities of participants deploying edge sites, but there was indication that some current design and operating practices could reduce edge computing sites’ ability to achieve these priorities as the number of sites expanded

According to Martin Olsen, Global Vice President for Edge Strategy and Transformation, Vertiv, which commissioned the survey: “The next five years will reshape the data center landscape, shifting more and more computing to the edge while buttressing the enterprise facilities at the core of modern hybrid networks. The future of computing is about speed and latency, and the only way to meet the need is to build out the edge of the network.”

The data center equipment and services provider noted that this trend may change the profile of the data center ecosystem over the next four years, increasing the edge component of total compute by 29% over that time, from 21% of total compute to 27% in 2026.