The paper, ‘Outlook for Edge Services’, predicts a 40% increase in edge deployment of network resources by 2022 compared with 2020. If correct, 60% of all network resources will then be deployed at remote edge or service provider locations, up from 20% in 2020.

The report underlines the trend for content processing to move increasingly to the edge, which can offer high-quality video experiences with minimal buffering and reductions in bandwidth costs. It also explores the benefits industry professionals expect edge to bring, with 45% believing productivity or efficiency will be increased and 44% anticipating increased security and compliance. Then 42% expect faster decision making and 40% improved customer relations or experience.

“In the last few years, we have seen advances in both the range of edge services and their adoption within a variety of content and enterprise workflows,” said Steve Miller-Jones, VP of Strategy, Industry and Partnership at Limelight Networks. “The network edge makes it possible to affect data as it flows towards end users and devices, and to control the flow of data from those devices. Shipping large quantities of raw data towards cloud providers is expensive and can introduce significant latency. This is why the network edge will be used more for data processing and decision making.”

Miller-Jones added that edge processing allows access to multiple compute locations close to end users and devices, removing the potential for latency without incurring additional operational overheads. “The net result is improved content performance in a cost efficiency way, with built-in security and scale.”