Edge Computing and 5G: Emerging Technology Shaping the Future of IT

Executive summary

• The edge computing market is expected to grow from US$53.6 billion in 2023 to US$111.3 billion in 2028.

• The number of 5G mobile subscriptions worldwide is expected to increase to 5.9 billion by 2027.

• 5G networks can offer speeds up to 20 Gbps — nearly 200 times faster than 4G networks.

• The edge computing market is expected to more than double in the next three years and 5G is becoming ubiquitous worldwide. 

• Together, these two emerging technologies are shaping the present and future of IT operations for global enterprise organizations. 

In this rapidly changing world of IT, understanding what these technologies are, the current market trends and use cases, and how they work together to deliver superior data computation performance will quickly become essential for every enterprise business that is looking to competitively deliver performant experiences at scale. Read on to learn more.

What is edge computing?

Edge computing is a topology and location-sensitive distributed computing paradigm that puts computation sources like enterprise applications closer to where mission-critical data resides — such as cloud servers or on-premises data centers. By placing data and compute resources closer to your devices, computing from edge devices enables users across your business to access and process data faster; this, in turn, enables emerging use cases such as:

• Low-latency applications

• Faster delivery of novel content

• Lightning fast time-to-insight for both your business and your customers

The term “edge” refers to the proximity of computation sources to data sources. It’s important to note that edge computing isn't a specific technology but rather a broader architectural approach that changes many of the monolithic norms of traditional cloud computing.

Compared with traditional and data center-based apps, edge computing benefits from greatly improved processing and response times and saves bandwidth — both are vital for handling the unprecedented volumes of data prevalent in today’s digital society. 

Edge computing can reduce and even eliminate data center construction and infrastructure management costs, and is more energy-efficient than traditional data centers — further reducing costs and helping organizations more effectively comply with energy regulations while optimizing performance and latency. 

What is 5G?

5G is the fifth-generation wireless cellular network standard that can connect your devices — particularly mobile devices like smartphones — to a telephone network and the wider internet. This technology began to be deployed worldwide in 2019, and is the successor to 4G technology that provides connectivity to most current mobile phones. Service areas for cellular 5G networks are divided into small geographical areas called cells.

The benefits of 5G networks that make them distinct from cellular network standard predecessors like 4G include:

• Higher download speeds, with a peak speed of 20 gigabits per second (Gbps) when only one user exists in the network

• Higher bandwidth for delivering faster download and upload speeds than 4G

• The ability to connect more devices to improve internet service quality in crowded areas

5G cellular networks are becoming vital to edge computing and are therefore shaping the future of enterprise IT. 5G connects wireless devices to the internet more quickly than fourth-generation LTE, offering much higher bandwidth, higher download speeds, and lower latency than what has traditionally been possible. 

Mobile networks are divided into cell areas — hence the name “cellular” — and they share a design infrastructure with edge computing. As such, 5G and edge computing can work together to offer enterprise IT companies faster edge computing and transmission of processed data to user devices across distributed networks,which can further enhance processing speeds and deliver faster, more performant applications and experiences at scale.

Read on to learn more about the intersection of edge computing and 5G networks and how these technologies will drive the enterprise IT world.

Enterprise trends in edge computing and 5G

As more people embrace digital connectivity, enterprise IT companies have the opportunity to offer their services to larger audiences. Of course, these prospects will demand consistently cutting-edge experiences delivered to them fast — making low latency and high performance top-of-mind considerations for the enterprise IT world when developing future applications. 

Computing at the edge of the network via 5G offers enterprise IT companies the unprecedented capability to enrich new and existing applications with optimized data processing and delivery to users. This is made possible by the rapid transition from the more traditional paradigm of smaller, more expensive data centers to a wide-scale, global deployment of computation-ready data sources like servers and production-ready 5G content delivery networks. 

By using both of these emerging data infrastructures, enterprise IT service providers are better prepared to competitively meet the needs of a more connected user base.

How businesses can leverage edge computing and 5G

Edge computing delivered via 5G networks enables companies to offer more users high-quality, next-generation application products and services. Once edge computing is deployed, businesses can make informed decisions more quickly with the insights derived from up-to-the-minute data on everything from user sentiment about their products and services to new and emerging industry trends.

Here’s just a glimpse of what a 5G and edge computing ecosystem can make possible for enterprise IT companies:

• Lower latency application-server interactions 

• Near real-time performance

• Greater bandwidth

• Faster, wider adoption and advancement of new technologies

• Building with open-source technologies that deliver the latest innovations while maintaining enterprise standards

Industry use cases of edge computing and 5G 

Many other industries worldwide have also identified key use cases for employing a hybrid 5G–edge computing approach to data processing and delivery, including:

• Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR)

• Manufacturing

• Internet of Things (IoT)

• Healthcare

Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR)

When AR and VR devices exhibit any degree of latency, many users experience deep discomfort — which can cause them to swear them off these technologies entirely. Edge computing delivered over 5G enables ultra-low latency experiences for AR and VR applications to encourage stronger AR/VR adoption.

Manufacturing

Automation is necessary for manufacturing and fulfilling goods at a global scale. The computing power afforded by 5G-powered edge computing can automate quality control for products manufactured in warehouses and on production lines and provide high-precision product logistics and tracking data to any device.

Internet of Things (IoT)

IoT-enabled devices are great for capturing and transmitting data on any number of objects, hardware, or software — but that data is only meaningful when consistently current. Edge computing for data processing and 5G networks for data transmission enable richer communications of real-time data across more stable, reliable networks.

Healthcare

Organizations within the healthcare industry in particular could benefit from using a hybrid 5G–edge computing approach. From connected wearables to sensors and ambulance technology, edge computing and 5G can help deliver faster, cheaper, and more innovative healthcare services to more people.

What is multi-access edge computing (MEC)?

Multi-access edge computing (MEC) is a form of edge computing that enriches the IT service environment by decentralizing data centers to the 5G network edge with cloud computing capabilities. This results in data and applications distributed across multiple sources that can each be more quickly accessed by end users close to these sources. As such, MEC adoption will become integral for enterprise IT companies that are looking to stay competitive while offering their application products and services to the most users.  

Some benefits of MEC adoption include:

• Improved processing: Web-based applications perform much better when they run closer to the locations that store them. 

• Latency reduction: MEC puts data caches closer to more customers, thereby minimizing the latency inherent to data transmission transactions.

• Minimal data gravity: By stratifying datasets and computation sources, you reduce the data gravity; that is, the risk of attracting smaller datasets, services, and applications into the wrong data locations. This decreases the size of datasets, making them faster and easier to relocate in the future.

Private 5G networks

Private 5G networks are nonpublic data transmission networks for telecommunications — including equipment, cloud computing devices, and storage solutions — that are wholly owned and operated by an organization. Since these are private networks, organizations can control who uses them and can ensure optimal latency, bandwidth, and wireless connectivity when they need it. 

Enterprise IT businesses use private 5G network infrastructures to ensure optimal internal digital operations, from employee-owned mobile devices to organizational efficiency. In doing so, they get more time and budget to invest in business drivers like products and services.

Emerging MEC and private 5G network trends

MEC and private 5G networks trends and use cases that are driving enterprise IT businesses into a more successful future include:

• Artificial intelligence (AI)

• Cloud migration

• Automation

Artificial intelligence (AI)

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to increase as more decision-makers employ this rapidly developing technology to quickly capture and derive insights from data, optimize their operations, provide faster, higher-quality customer experiences with more informed service, and more. 

In particular, AI-driven chatbots like ChatGPT can rapidly answer questions posed by customers and organizational decision-makers alike. MEC can be used to distribute AI learning and decision-making models throughout private 5G neural networks of edge computing platform sources.

Cloud migration

Cloud migration of legacy data centers offers enterprise IT businesses greater access to customer and proprietary data that they can process and consult to make decisions. MEC distributes data to more physical locations throughout the world, and the data can then be transmitted to organizations via private 5G networks.

Automation

Automation of certain tasks is becoming more prevalent in many industries — from manufacturing to automotive and finances. These automation efforts help cut costs and allow workforces to reinvest time and energy into their organization’s key value drivers. Businesses can automate everything from network management (to reduce human errors and downtime) to operational analysis (to improve performance, optimize infrastructural configuration applications, and increase scalability).

Potential challenges and drawbacks of edge computing and 5G

Although 5G and edge computing offer enterprise IT and telecom companies many rich benefits, there are currently obstacles preventing effective adoption and use of this technology. Each is being actively addressed. However, until then, you can educate yourself about these challenges associated with a 5G and edge computing digital transformation:

• Security: The likelihood of data breaches increases when data gets stored in numerous locations instead of one centralized location, since the former option makes monitoring multiple data storage solutions more difficult. It’s also easier to bypass the often lower-quality security credentials found on local devices. 

• Governance: It’s difficult to ensure that your data gathering, storage, processing, and disposal standards get properly enforced across numerous edge computing data centers at once.

• Complexity: As the amount of data to process and store continually increases, so too will the complexity of managing it all. This is particularly true of edge computing, which distributes data storage and processing across multiple locations.

Akamai Connected Cloud solves these and other security challenges by providing insights on emerging threats while strengthening your security posture and freeing your security team to focus on business drivers.

Start using edge computing and 5G technologies with Akamai

With insights on how edge computing and 5G technologies enable more engaging enterprise IT application experiences, you can leverage the right edge computing and 5G technologies to convert the largest user base possible.

Akamai Connected Cloud provides rich edge computing capabilities and comprehensive 5G delivery network access. It offers enterprise IT companies the scale, capacity, reach, and visibility they need to give users better, more fulfilling digital experiences. Talk to one of our experts to learn more about how 5G and edge computing from our platform can benefit your business.