FEATURE
reach US $ 55,930 million by 2028 , from US $ 8,237 million last year .
The growth of Edge
Edge growth will be witnessed across almost every industry sector , including transport and logistics , manufacturing , energy and utilities , healthcare , smart cities and retail . This growth can be divided into two subcategories : Edge devices – all manner of ( IoT-enabled ) sensors and handheld devices which will leverage Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to generate , process and act upon data locally ; and Edge infrastructure – the networks ( including 5G ) and data centre infrastructure required to support the ‘ local ’ applications and to house the servers which will collect , process and store the likely zettabytes of data and images these applications generate via the devices .
Industry 4.0 promises to revolutionise the manufacturing industry , with more and more intelligence and automation being implemented to optimise product design and testing as well as actual production processes . Edge sensors , devices and infrastructure can be installed retrospectively to upgrade existing manufacturing facilities – indeed many organisations have already embarked on this process . Native Edge applications which incorporate advanced digital operations , such as autonomous , mobile robots , will be a major feature of new greenfield factories , constructed , for example , to produce the autonomous vehicles and alternative , sustainable energy infrastructures of the future .
Edge and affected industries
Autonomous vehicles are , perhaps , the best example of just how prevalent Edge Computing will become . Not only will all manner of IoT sensors and devices be deployed in the manufacturing supply chain , as well as during vehicle production ; there will also be the need for Edge data centre infrastructure to be created within the factories , to ensure near real-time communications between the computers , the networks and the data storage . The autonomous vehicles themselves
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