The COVID-19 pandemic has influenced the whole planet with its major impacts on the economy and businesses across the globe. It spread worldwide in unprecedented ways due to its high infectious & contagious nature and lack of availability of its vaccine. As a result, the greatest medical challenge in the 21st century is yet to be faced by physicians worldwide. Though the emergence of the virus can be traced back to Asia, many European countries and the U.S. have been struck massively by the pandemic. The virus has spread across all the regions ranging from North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East, and Africa to South America. The COVID-19 has been declared as a pandemic by World Health Organization (WHO) due to its increased spread across the globe. After the declaration of the pandemic, various countries announced the complete lockdown, such as India, China, and other Asian countries, to decrease its spread.
According to the situation report of 23 November 2021 by WHO stated 257 million cases of COVID-19 have been reported globally, and 5.1 million patients are dead. On a slightly positive note, a total of 301 million people have recovered, and 7,408 million vaccine doses have been administered.
The pandemic has boosted the growth of the Edge computing market in the second phase of COVID-19. But during the initial phase of COVID-19, the production and manufacturing of edge computing products were halted due to the restrictions and regulations imposed by the government across various countries. In response to the COVID-19 virus, many companies are moving towards working in a more virtual environment.
Due to the advancement in technology, there has been a huge demand for edge computing solutions. This has driven the adoption and implementation of IoT-based solutions across various industries. Moreover, advancements in high-speed data transmission such as 5G have boosted the adoption of edge computing solutions for remote monitoring. Edge computing also plays an vital role in the medical sector, such as telemedicine programs and diagnostic devices, boosting the demand for edge computing market across the globe.
There are various benefits of adopting edge computing such as,
- Better data management
- Lower connectivity costs and better security practices
- Reliable, uninterrupted connection
In recent times, the statistics of edge computing has sky rocketed, numerous investments and initiatives have been taken to boost the segment.
For instance,
According to vXchnge, by 2023, there will be 64.1 Million AR/VR headsets in the market, which is a part of the edge computing revolution across the globe. Moreover, IoT healthcare market will grow to USD 534.3 billion by 2025
Impact On Demand
The pandemic has boosted the digital transformation of industries, and companies are focusing more on digital platforms to interact with their clients and customers. The e-commerce and healthcare market is increasing rapidly in this pandemic, and thus there has been increased online customers due to which there has been a huge demand of edge computing solutions.
In recent times, businesses rely heavily on data to provide significant business insight and real-time management over essential business growth. This management of data is possible due to the edge computing capabilities. Moreover, edge computing capabilities also help businesses to tackle privacy & security-related issues. Edge computing solutions also help businesses enhance its efficiency, productivity, and operational cost of the business. The edge computing solutions are in huge demand post-COVID, and the demand is expected to grow in the coming years.
IMPACT ON SUPPLY OF EDGE COMPUTING
The pandemic has resulted in the soaring market of edge computing. Data streams, audio, and video may be received faster with fewer pauses when servers are separated from their users by a minimum of intermediate routing points.
Depending on the application, when either or both edge strategies are employed, these servers may end up on the end of the network or the other. Edge computing has been touted as one of the lucrative, new markets made feasible by 5G wireless technology. For the global transmission from 4G to 5G to be economically feasible for many telecommunications companies, the new generation must open up new, exploitable revenue channels.
The reduction of latency and the improvement of processing speed (with newer servers dedicated to far fewer tasks quantitatively) should pay to the benefit of SLOs. Some have also pointed out how the wide distribution of resources contributes to service redundancy and even business continuity.
A typical tier-2 data center facility can be maintained in emergency circumstances (such as pandemic) by a few people on-site. Meanwhile, a μDC is designed a function without being perpetually staffed.
STEPS TAKEN BY COMPANIES DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC
Edge computing brings processing and storage capabilities closer to where it is needed. It continues to evolve, using new technologies and practices to enhance its capabilities and performance. Perhaps the most noteworthy trend is edge availability, and edge services are expected to become available worldwide by 2028.
The technology is set to become more ubiquitous and shift how the internet is used, bringing more abstraction and potential use cases. This can be seen in the proliferation of computing, storage, and network appliance products specifically designed for edge computing.
Wireless communication technologies such as 5G and Wi-Fi 6 will also affect edge deployments and utilization in the coming years, enabling virtualization and automation capabilities that have yet to be explored, such as better vehicle autonomy and workload migrations to the edge.
For instance,
- Autonomous platooning of truck convoys will likely be one of the first use cases for autonomous vehicles. Here, a group of trucks travels close behind one another in the convoy, saving fuel costs and decreasing congestion. With edge computing, it will be possible to remove the need for drivers in all trucks except the front one because the trucks will communicate with each other with ultra-low latency.
- Edge computing will be a core technology in the more widespread adoption of smart grids and can help allow enterprises to manage their energy consumption. Sensors, IoT devices connected to an edge platform in plants, factories are being used to monitor energy use and analyze their consumption in real-time. With this data, enterprises and energy companies can make new deals, for example, where high-powered machinery is run during off-peak times for electricity demands. These can increase the amount of green energy and enterprise consumes.
According to research, only 10% of enterprise systems currently utilize edge computing, but it is predicted to grow to 75% by 2025. The next generation of supply chain management systems is already offering edge computing.
Conclusion
Edge computing is an obvious solution with increased connectivity & visibility and reduced latency. Implementing edge computing and 5G in the organization or network can equip the company with low-cost, high-yielding software to make for a more resilient and efficient organization and network. The evolution of IoT devices will also have an impact on the future development of edge computing technology.
