Research roundup: Rapid increase in IoT, 5G spending in MEA and APAC regions point to edge cloud growth

According to the report, certain industries – such as agriculture, logistics and manufacturing -will be eager buyers of smart machines hooked into the industrial Internet of Things via new 5G services. For example, farming operations of almost all sizes will buy into unmanned aerial vehicles operating via 5G, which provides a lot of bandwidth and ultra-low latency.

5G isn’t the only wireless network technology set for growth – Low Power WAN (LPWAN) and Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) are gaining traction in some IoT applications.

In all cases, data generation requires processing and storage, hence, mobile-edge-computing infrastructure is seen as becoming something of a miniature cloud, or at least being an intermediary between cloud resources and smaller IoT devices.

The report foresees, for instance, a growing market for devices that are computationally “lightweight” machines running simpler applications and typically exhibiting less autonomy. These devices will need to tap mobile-edge computing systems for brain power.

The global “Edge Computing Market” from MarketResearch.biz looks at a longer period – 2020 to 2029. Its authors see increasingly pervasive use of cloud resources and services along with the growth of the IoT as prime accelerants of edge computing.

The growing appetite for real-time analyses and analysis of Big Data stores are energizing the market. As overhyped as Big Data and rapid decision support have been in the last decade, edge computing comes closest to delivering on promises by making mountains of data quickly useful.

North America will continue to dominate this market in sheer size and revenue, according to the report. But Asia-Pacific will grow fastest over the period studied in terms of revenue. Digitization in the region is growing, and potential customers are already convinced of the utility of Big Data analysis.

Africa, Middle East show massive potential

Africa and the Middle East do not warrant a mention in that study’s summary, but another new report from GlobalData focuses exclusively on the region’s potential for Internet of Things growth.

The market – dominated by software and services – is expected to double to more than $20 billion, in three years. Half of the region’s total IoT economic activity will occur in three critical verticals: manufacturing, government and utilities. If there is any economic growth in the region, it doubtlessly be felt in those verticals.

Only the Asia-Pacific market for IoT products and services will expand faster in terms of revenue than Africa and the Middle East.

An interesting side note in the report: Connectivity will continue to be the small slice (around 13 percent) of the entire IoT pie.

Article Topics

5G  |  Africa  |  APAC  |  edge computing  |  IoT