Business drivers for growth in edge computing

There are two main categories of emerging business needs that are predicted to drive explosive growth in new edge computing applications, as well as rapid and unpredictable scaling of those applications once they are in place. The first category is those drivers that fall under the Industry 4.0 zeitgeist, and the second consists of those necessitated by data sovereignty and privacy concerns.

Industry 4.0

Industry 4.0 is a term that was popularized by the World Economic Forum founder and executive chairman Klas Schwab in his 2017 book, The Fourth Industrial Revolution. It predicts a number of fundamental shifts in how production and supply networks function around the world. These are expected to be driven by imminent breakthroughs in emerging technologies that fuse digital, physical, and human components.

The shift to Industry 4.0 is not a mere technological upgrade but a strategic move to address a range of business challenges...