Around a third (34%) of respondents are planning or in the midst of significant edge deployments. A quarter have already deployed new, purpose-built edge sites, and 41% are operating with legacy edge sites. All edge activity is growing, but survey participants also anticipate a 150% increase in core sites and greater cloud activity. According to the survey, the percentage of compute resources deployed in the public cloud is expected to grow from the current 19% to 25% by 2026. Demand for compute resources is skyrocketing on today's networks.

"The next five years will reshape the data center landscape, increasingly moving computing to the edge while reinforcing enterprise facilities at the core of modern hybrid networks," said Martin Olsen, global vice president of edge strategy and transformation at Vertiv. "This survey underscores the urgent demand for computing closer to the end user. The future of computing is all about speed and latency, and the only way to meet that need is to build at the edge."find-center-data-edge-vertiv-w

The survey results follow the publication late last year of Edge Infrastructure Archetypes 2.0 Ready for Deployment. This report expanded on Vertiv's Edge research and identified four Edge infrastructure models that enable a smarter, semi-standardized approach to Edge infrastructure deployment. The survey results are consistent with the Edge Archetypes 2.0 premise that massive Edge growth requires a more standardized architectural approach.

The survey also revealed the evolving profile of the modern edge site. 29% of sites have between 5 and 20 racks, and 13% have more than 20 racks. More racks mean more power, and the survey results reflect this: 28% say their facilities need between 21 and 200 kW, and 14% say their power demand exceeds 200 kW. The days of single racks tucked away in rudimentary IT cabinets are over.

Other important findings from the survey include:

  • Sustainability is playing a significant role in new and planned edge deployments. More than three-quarters of data centers (77%) are using or plan to use energy-efficient UPS systems. In addition, 40% plan to use renewable energy; 31%, water-efficient cooling; 29%, dynamic grid support technologies; and 19%, refrigerants with a low global warming potential (GWP).
  • Although security and availability are top priorities for participants in deploying Edge sites, the survey highlighted some current design and operating practices that could reduce the ability of Edge Computing locations to achieve these goals as the number of sites expands.

“Vertiv’s survey data shows that companies are serious about edge growth to meet anticipated demand, but building edge solutions can be complex,” said Birgit Jackson, director of the integrated racks and IT solutions business in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). “Companies have to consider software and hardware, organization and management, and much more. Now is the time for organizations to look to a network of partners and manufacturers to deploy edge-enabled solutions in a configurable and customized way.”

Vertiv surveyed 156 industry professionals to learn about their companies' edge computing plans. The full survey results are available in the report: What's Your Edge? Survey Highlights Infrastructure Transformation Occurring at the Edge of Network. Visit Vertiv.com to learn about the ready-to-deploy Edge Archetypes 2.0 infrastructure models and a tool to identify the right edge infrastructure model for your installation.