Edge computing: operator strategies, use cases and implementation

01 July 2020 | Research

Perspective | PDF (18 pages) | Edge and Media Platforms

"Operators are taking a range of different paths towards building their edge infrastructure with varying primary business drivers, implementation strategies and partnership approaches."

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Edge computing refers to the architectural principle of moving the execution of digital services and applications to the edge of the network, closer to the human user or connected device. This enhances the user experience and enables the delivery of low-latency applications, while optimizing the economics of implementation. This new distributed cloud computing paradigm stands at the intersection of 5G, artificial intelligence (AI), digital transformation and industry 4.0 developments and is spawning new, complex value chains with a diverse set of players and ecosystems. Many operators are interested in pursuing emerging opportunities in the edge computing market, but to do so they must overcome the challenges and uncertainties surrounding use cases, technology choices and partnership decisions.

Analysys Mason conducted a survey in 1Q 2020 of 30 Tier-1 operators from 12 countries in 3 regions to examine the following issues: operators’ main drivers for building edge computing infrastructure and the challenges that they face, the types of use cases that they are planning to launch, the roles that they expect to play in the edge value chain and the deployment and ecosystem strategies that they are adopting.