Building the Local Cloud

The Case for Content at the Edge and Local Cloud

The edge computing market continues to grow at unprecedented rates, driven primarily by the increase in demand for low-latency processing, the ability to support real-time, automated solutions and the need to meet and control massive increases in data volume and network traffic.

In 2019, the edge computing market was valued at about $1.8 billion – and it’s expected to grow at a CAGR of 29 percent to more than $8.3 billion in 2025. As that growth occurs, applications at the edge will increase 800 percent to support dynamic workloads, communications, collaboration and IoT.

With such massive growth in demand, it’s vital that providers develop strategies for meeting demand, while also meeting quality of service (QoS) and user experience expectations. Moving content to the edge is an outstanding option to consider.

Impact of Quality of Service

As might be expected, the increase in traffic on networks is contributing to QoS issues. In 2020 alone, 1.7MB of data was created per second per person. While that number may be hard to envision, it’s made clearer when you consider that more than 306 billion emails are sent and 500 million Tweets are made each day.

Increased traffic also increases performance issues – especially latency. Today’s Internet developed around Tier 1 or NFL cities. Until now, providers solved the problem by backhauling data traffic. However, when latency is a core requirement, backhauling hinders performance and impedes QoS.

With the massive amounts of data being created and the demand for performance increasing, it’s slow, expensive and wasteful to send it to the local cloud for storage and processing. Doing so overburdens bandwidth and data center infrastructure, ultimately resulting in projects that are more expensive and unsustainable.

By contrast, it’s much more efficient to keep data at the edge, where it was produced and is used. When servers are separated from their users by fewer routing points, or hops, it increases the speed of data streams, audio and video and reduces latency.

Moreover, applications are expedited when their processors are stationed closer to where data is collected. This is especially important for things like the Internet of Things (IoT), where sensors and data-collecting devices are numerous and highly distributed.

Impact of Streaming

While streaming and two-way video collaboration have been steadily growing for years, the global pandemic caused stratospheric increases in both. In just four months, Zoom saw daily active users grow 2,900 percent, from 10 million per day to 300 million per day. Moreover, Cisco estimates that 82 percent of all internet traffic will be used to consume videos by 2022.

With that kind of phenomenal growth, it’s simply not possible to throw more bandwidth at applications and hope that will suffice. Instead, moving applications, services and content to the edge enables service providers to meet increased demand for streaming with fewer resources and reduced costs.

Impact of Carrier-Neutral Interconnection

A key factor to the success of moving content to the edge is the use of carrier-neutral edge interconnection and aggregation points. Interconnection creates network ecosystem aggregation opportunities between carriers, content and applications. Moreover, interconnection improves data delivery and allows adjacent, rural, developing and underserved markets to leverage Tier 1 market advantages.

This is precisely why DartPoints has developed carrier-neutral edge colocation data centers to solve these challenges in real time. We enable network operators, local cloud and content providers, and content delivery networks to store, process and execute data at the edge. Doing so enables us to build thriving partner ecosystems that cultivate interconnection and empower network expansion, resulting in edge interconnection facilities that transform the way data traffic is managed, processed and fulfilled within local markets.

There’s no question that growth at the edge offers tremendous opportunity for end users and providers alike. Get in touch with us today to learn more about how moving content to the edge can impact your business.