RECAP | ROUNDTABLE | Changes at the Edge

Uptime Institute’s Technical Director-Latin America Enrique Hernandez joined an April 14, 2020, Inside Track roundtable discussion of edge computing. Several participants at the session offered visions of how edge computing might evolve, with one North American telecom sharing his view of possible infrastructure, provider, design criteria, 5G adoption, and industry organization outcomes. Of all the participants, this North American telecom had built out the most edge infrastructure. All participants agreed that edge was inevitable, with most suggesting that an inflection point would not arrive until 2021 or later.
Other participants joined the discussion in learning mode, asking questions of other participants as part of the process. They asked how edge would be secured, who would own it, what the reliability requirements might be and what would happen to IT loads at brick-and-mortar facilities. These questions led to even deeper discussions about overall energy use and capacity management. Most participants agreed that answers to these types of organizational and infrastructure questions were not yet clear.
One participant from Brazil raised several additional concerns, regarding the current viability of edge services. He said that the lack of industry standards, scarcity of components and shortages of trained, experienced people were already proving a barrier to edge adoption, at least in Brazil.
During the discussion, Hernandez noted that the use cases for edge were not always clear, at least in some industries, which he thought could also be slowing edge adoption. He added, though, that new demand and services could emerge relatively quickly in some industries, sometimes because of a unique need or change in the market. Hernandez thought the impact of the COVID-19 disease could spur a range of health-care solutions using patient-specific data processed at a treatment center but accessed from a nearby and safe location by medical professions.