Almost 70% of service providers in this month's Thought Leadership Council (TLC) survey say they either already have or will move compute and application execution to the edge by 2020.

Denise Culver, Online Research Director

October 18, 2018

2 Min Read
CSPs Prove Eager to Embrace Edge Computing

As service providers struggle to handle billions of new connected devices, they're increasingly turning to edge computing to eliminate latency and congestion problems, as well as to improve the performance of applications running on devices.

Not only does moving resources to the edge reduce latency, but it improves network security, increases scalability and lowers costs. These benefits and more are responsible for CSPs embracing the edge, according to the latest TLC report, Thought Leadership Council: CSPs Not Hesitating to Move Network Functions to Edge.

In fact, more than half of the 15 council members that participated in this month's forum said they would have up to five percent of service applications running at the edge by the end of the year. By 2026, more than half of the CSPs surveyed will have between 40% and 60% of their service applications at the edge.

A third of the CSPs in the report are using edge computing for enterprise transformation. Council members identified several business drivers that are fueling the use of edge computing for enterprise transformation, including the ability to create new vertical business segments (47% of respondents), the ability to enhance customer service (33%), capex reduction (27%), market differentiation (27%) and reducing customer churn (20%).

Council members also see many technical benefits for moving enterprise transformation to the edge, including shortening provisioning to create agility (47%) and the ability to provide low-latency services (20%).

This month's focus group was asked nine questions about deployment plans, drivers and challenges for implementing edge solutions. The results indicate that service providers are already moving or have plans to move significant portions of their networks to the edge with the expectation that they will reap significant benefits, including the creation of new vertical business opportunities while shortening provisioning and gaining agility in their networks.

TLC is a Heavy Reading research initiative in which CSP experts participate in surveys that are focused on key areas of telecom development, including service assurance, automation, 5G and IoT. Members participate in Q&A forums several times a year, and all information disclosed by Council members remains anonymous.

If you would like to become a member of TLC, or if you're interested in sponsoring a survey for the Council, please contact me at [email protected].

— Denise Culver, Director of Online Research, Heavy Reading

About the Author(s)

Denise Culver

Online Research Director

Denise manages Heavy Reading's Thought Leadership Council, which uses a focus group approach to glean insights from CSPs on topics ranging from automation, IoT, 5G, B/OSS transformation, SD-WAN and emerging technologies. Additionally, Denise covers the test and measurement industry as an analyst, focusing on how T&M vendors are addressing telco transformation, as well as the impact that technologies such as IoT are having on service provider networks. Denise also continues to oversee development of Light Reading's Pedia projects, including Virtuapedia and Testapedia. Previously, she was a Contributing Analyst with Heavy Reading for seven years, covering a wide range of areas, including mobile, IP transformation and T&M. Her career in technology journalism began in 1996, and she is a past winner of the American Business Media Association's Jesse Neal Award for editorial achievement. She is a graduate of Texas A&M University.

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