10 edge computing forums driving the industry forward

As the industry tries to accelerate its understanding and experience with edge computing, lessons can be learned from early adopters and others in the value chain. Forums provide a crucial way to share these lessons and promote coordination and interoperability between all parties. This article outlines the key forums shaping the edge community.

10 edge computing forums enabling industry collaboration

1. Automotive Edge Computing Consortium

Date founded: March 2017

Key focus area: AECC are focused on how edge computing can be used to enable connected car use cases. Connected car services will require the sharing of big data between vehicles, the cloud and the edge in a seamless fashion.

Key members: Toyota, Ericsson, Intel, DENSO Corporation, NTT, Dell EMC and KDDI

The AEEC believes that the automotive industry will benefit from mobile comms, big data analytics and new applications and services 

Source: AEEC

2. LF Edge

Date founded: July 2018

Key focus area: The Linux Foundation’s LF Edge seeks to build an open source framework for edge computing through multiple projects, including Akarino, EdgeX Foundry, Fledge, Open Horizon and State of the Edge

Key members: AT&T, Intel, Red Hat, Dell, HPE, IBM, Wipro
The AEEC believes that the automotive industry will benefit from mobile comms, big data analytics and new applications and services

3. Edge Computing Consortium

Date founded:

Key focus area: The Edge Computing Consortium, based in China, is focused on trying to bring together IT and OT stakeholders in order to explore new edge-enabled applications. Currently their focus areas are around manufacturing, smart cities, transportation and energy.

Key members: Huawei, Intel, Arm, Shenyang Institute of Automation, CAICT, ISSTech

4. GSMA Telco Edge Cloud group

Date founded: February 2020

Key focus area: GSMA TEC group is working to ensure that customers would be able to access edge computing services from all their member operators through a single, standard interface. These means they need to have alignment on elements such as business models, charging principles and commercial deployments. The group runs Telco Edge Cloud Trials Workshops for their members to hear from companies who want to trial their use cases at the telco edge.

Key members: Founding members were China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, EE, KDDI, Orange, Singtel, SK Telecom, Telefonica and TIM

5. Kinetic Edge Alliance

Date founded: February 2019

Key focus area: KEA is a US-focused forum. Their key aim is to create a critical mass for edge computing rollout in USA. Members gain access to reference architecture that helps them to design and deploy edge computing which is based on the six Kinetic Edge sites already launched in the US. Members are also encouraged to collaborate to create joint edge computing solutions.

Key members: Vapor.io created KEA and founding members were Federated Wireless, Linode, MobiledgeX, Packet, StackPath, Alef Mobitech, Detecon International, Hitachi Vantara, New Continuum Data Centers, Pluribus Networks, and Seagate Technology.

KEA has founding members focused on both deploying edge computing sites and on the supporting technology once they exist

Source: KEA

6. Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance

Date founded: 2006

Key focus area: NGMN Alliance is focused on ensuring that next generation network infrastructure and service platforms are built in a way that will satisfy end sure demand. They have particular focuses on 5G’s implementation as well as operators move to disaggregate and cloudify their networks – edge computing comes into both topic areas.

Key members: Deutsche Telekom, TELUS, TIM, Singtel, T-Mobile US, A1, China Mobile, Vodafone, US Cellular, Tele2, CPN, Bell Canada, Turkcell, PLDT, Hongkong Telecom, NTT Docomo, BT, Chunghwa Telecom, SK Telecom

7. Open Grid Alliance

Date founded: April 2021

Key focus area: The OGA provides its members with lab environments and will create reference architectures centering on interoperable technologies. Their focus is on the evolution of the full network stack from the infrastructure to virtualisation to automation and applications.

Key members: Vapor.io, VMware, Dell, DriveNets, MobiledgeX and PacketFabric

8. Open Networking Foundation

Date founded: March 2011

Key focus area: ONF is focused on trying to drive the transformation o f network infrastructure and then the related telecoms business models. They run several projects including Aether, which aims to be the first open source 5G Connected Edge platform.

Key members: T-Mobile, AT&T, NTT Communications, Turk Telecom, Stanford University, Edgecore Networks, Google, China Unicom

9. Seamster

Date founded: 2020

Key focus area: Seamster is focused on sharing the latest edge industry news with a particular focus on edge computing use cases. Their end goal is to accelerate edge rollouts by sharing data, research and best practices between their members.

Key members: MobiledgeX, World Wide Technology, Infosys, QCT, WIND, VMware, Acedian, Dell and Red Hat

Seamster provides examples of a wide range of edge computing use cases for their community

10. State of the Edge

Date founded: 2018

Key focus area: State of the Edge is focused on trying to ensure the industry is aligned in terms of definitions and vocabulary for edge computing. Each year, they publish a State of the Edge report and have an open glossary for edge computing.

Key members: Arm, Equinix, Rafay, Vapor.io

Author: Tilly Gilbert is a Senior Consultant at STL Partners, specialising in edge computing, AI and automation