There is much debate in the industry on the topic of edge computing, but little clarity for vendors and potential customers on how much capacity will be available. This article promotes STL Partners’ forecast on the capacity of network edge data centres from 2024-2028.
This forecast focuses on network edge data centres
Edge computing comprises of a spectrum of locations and technologies that are designed to bring processing power closer to the end-device and source of data, outside of a central data centre or cloud. This report focuses on forecasting capacity at the network edge – i.e., edge computing at edge data centres owned (and usually operated) by telecoms operators. Typically, network edge data centres are deployed at one of three locations in the network: access sites, access aggregation sites, and transport aggregation sites (where the majority of deployments occur).
This forecast models capacity at these sites for non-network workloads. In other words, processing for enterprise or consumer applications.
The forecast is available to our Edge Insights Service subscribers, an off-the-shelf research service on all things edge. Updates to the model are published annually, with accompanying reports, and will be shared with subscribers. To subscribe, or simply find out more, feel free to click here to arrange a call with our team.
The model seeks to answer the following key questions:
- How many network edge data centres will there be in the next 4 years?
- How are these distributed by country and region?
- What is the amount of capacity (number of servers) within these edge data centres?
- How does the type of network the edge data centre primarily sit on impact the number of data centres?
- What are telecoms operators’ strategies for building out edge data centres?
- How much of network edge data centre capacity will be taken up by hyperscaler infrastructure?
Below is a limited version of the forecast, redacted but showing the relative outputs from the model. You can select and filter by region using the menu.
The forecast data is based on data modelled for 80 telecoms operators and can be filtered using the following criteria:
- Site location
- Edge server owner
- Region
- Country
- Telecoms operator
Edge data centre market trends
The accompanying report, Network edge data centre forecast: Building the base, identifies some of the key trends within network edge data centre build and telecoms operators’ strategies:
- Key factors for determining a telco’s approach and timing for its edge data centres are 5G roadmap, geographic profile and overall edge strategy
- Momentum for building out network edge data centres has slowed
- Telecoms operators are taking a risk-averse, pragmatic approach
- We forecast that there will be approximately 1,825 network edge data centres by 2028
Next steps
Outside of this forecast, STL Partners is adding to its Edge Insights Service, ensuring we publish reports on key topics and incorporate insights through our tools (see an overview of the service below).
STL Partners’ Edge Insights Service
