As companies look for better performance and improved network speeds, demand for edge computing is growing – fast.
According to Markets and Markets, the global edge computing market size will grow from $53.6 billion in 2024 to a whopping $111.3 billion by 2028, growing at a compound rate of 15% during the forecast period.
With more and more companies moving to the edge, organisations are likely to turn to edge computing companies to help them move their data closer to the edge.
What are edge computing companies?
Edge computing companies bridge the gap between the centralized cloud and the distributed network edge to bring data closer to where it’s generated. This minimizes the need for long-distance communications between client and server, and reduces latency and bandwidth usage.
Edge computing companies work on various aspects of bringing computing power closer to the source of data, enabling faster processing, lower latency, and improved data security.
Some of the most common edge computing companies include:
- Hardware Providers: These companies design and manufacture the physical infrastructure for edge computing, including microservers, edge gateways, and specialized processing units for AI and machine learning. Examples include Dell Technologies, HPE, and NVIDIA.
- Software Providers: These companies develop software platforms and tools for managing and orchestrating edge computing deployments. They offer solutions for data storage, processing, analytics, and security at the edge. Examples include Aarna Networks, FogHorn Systems, and Cumulocity.
- Network Providers: These companies provide the communication infrastructure to connect edge devices and systems to the cloud or other centralized locations. This includes mobile network operators, cable and satellite providers, and edge network startups. Examples include Verizon, AT&T, and Deutsche Telekom.
- Service Providers: These companies offer managed edge computing services, including design, deployment, and ongoing operation of edge solutions. They cater to businesses that lack the expertise or resources to manage their own edge infrastructure. Examples include Microsoft Azure Edge, Amazon Web Services Wavelength, and Google Cloud Vertex AI.
What are the benefits of edge computing?
Edge computing offers a range of benefits over traditional cloud-based computing models, making it increasingly attractive for various applications.
Here are some key benefits edge computing:
- Reduced Latency and Faster Response: Processing data at the edge, closer to its source, significantly minimizes the distance data needs to travel, leading to lower latency and faster response times. This is crucial for real-time applications like autonomous vehicles, robotics, and industrial automation where quick decision-making is essential.
- Improved Bandwidth Efficiency: By pre-processing data locally before sending it to the cloud, edge computing reduces the overall data volume transmitted. This frees up valuable bandwidth resources, improves network efficiency, and lowers costs associated with data transfer.
- Enhanced Security and Privacy: Edge computing keeps sensitive data within the local network, minimizing its exposure to potential security risks during transmission to the cloud. This significantly improves data security and privacy, particularly beneficial for industries handling sensitive information like healthcare and finance.
- Offline Functionality and Reliability: Edge-enabled devices and systems can continue to operate even when disconnected from the cloud, ensuring functionality in scenarios with limited or unreliable network connectivity. This is vital for applications in remote locations or situations where downtime is unacceptable, such as emergency response and critical infrastructure control.
- Scalability and Flexibility: Edge computing allows for dynamic deployment and scaling of computing resources closer to the data source. This provides greater flexibility and adaptability compared to centralized cloud solutions, enabling efficient handling of fluctuating data volume and processing requirements.
- Cost Savings: Reduced bandwidth usage, improved network efficiency, and minimized data storage requirements in the cloud can lead to significant cost savings for organizations adopting edge computing.
- Future-ready technology: Edge computing provides the necessary processing power and real-time data access at the edge, enabling the development and deployment of innovative technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning (ML). This opens doors for new applications and advancements in various fields.
Choosing an edge computing company
Choosing the best edge computing company for your needs requires careful consideration of several factors, as no single provider fits all scenarios.
Here's a breakdown to help you navigate the selection process:
- Assess your needs:
- Application requirements: Identify the specific needs of your edge computing application. Consider factors like latency sensitivity, data volume and processing demands, offline functionality, and security requirements.
- Deployment environment: Determine your deployment environment, whether it's industrial, retail, healthcare, or another sector. Each environment has unique considerations like regulatory compliance and network infrastructure.
- Budget and scalability: Outline your budget constraints and future scalability needs. Choose a provider offering flexible solutions and pricing models aligned with your growth plans.
- Evaluate providers:
- Expertise and experience: Look for companies with proven expertise and experience in your specific industry or application domain. Ask for case studies and references to understand their capabilities.
- Technology and service offerings: Analyze the technologies and services offered by the provider. Ensure they align with your hardware, software, and platform requirements. Consider factors like edge gateways, data management tools, analytics capabilities, and security features.
- Deployment and support: Choose a provider that offers comprehensive deployment and support services. This includes assistance with device installation, configuration, ongoing maintenance, and troubleshooting. Assess their experience with your specific deployment environment.
- Compare specific providers:
- Request proposals and demos: Contact shortlisted providers and request detailed proposals outlining their solutions, pricing, and support plans. Ask for product demos to evaluate their offerings firsthand.
- Negotiate terms and conditions: Negotiate the terms and conditions of your service agreement with your preferred provider. Ensure clarity on pricing, service levels, warranties, and data privacy aspects.
- Consider reviews: Check online reviews and consult with existing customers of the shortlisted providers to gain insights into their service quality and track record.
Top Edge Computing Companies
There are a variety of edge computers available today, each offering different services, technologies and applications to help you move closer to the edge.
In this list, we’re counting down ten edge computing companies you need to watch out for in 2024, each of whom is driving the adoption of edge computing across the enterprise.
EdgeConneX
With more than twelve years of building and operating data centres around the globe, EdgeConneX offers a full range of data centre solutions, ranging from 100kW to 100+MW, to help your organisation embrace the edge. The company pioneered the Edge Data Center concept, building data centres in markets where there’s a need for more local proximity, power, capacity, and connectivity to deliver the most cost-effective and optimal user experience for their customers.
But it has also expanded that concept, applying it to hyperscale and far-edge facilities defined by your business needs. EdgeConneX is uniquely positioned to work with hyperscale customers to deliver the hyperscale capacity and power they need to meet their demands for performance and growth. It has successfully built and deployed hyperscale data centres for some of the largest, most demanding companies in the world.
Sixsq
Sixsq is a big name when it comes to edge computing. The company’s Saas edge-to-cloud management platform, Nuvla.io, greatly accelerates the deployment of apps at the edge, allowing you to reduce risk, remove management complexity, and gain complete control over your data. Instead of moving tons of data to the cloud, the platform brings processing to the data, using This allows you to process your data in near-real time, reduce your reliance on the networks, reduce runaway cloud costs, improve data sovereignty, avoid privacy intrusion, improve autonomy and reduce carbon emissions.
Sixsq also offers dedicated edge software known as NuvlaEdge to enable you to turn any x86 or ARM hardware platform into a smart edge device, securely and remotely managed from Nuvla.io. These Nuvela Edge-powered edge devices can communicate on mobile (3G, 4G and 5G), Ethernet, Wi-Fi and even satellite. They’re also container-ready and can deploy any application packaged as Docker containers that are built for your hardware platform. This means you can create highly available apps at the edge – saving costs and increasing flexibility without imposing anything on the way you build your apps.
Akamai Technologies
Akamai offers a host of different edge computing solutions to help you put your applications closer to your users. Its EdgeWrokers technology, for instance, allows you to write and deploy code at the edge – no infrastructure headaches or new languages required. You can dynamically route traffic, personalize responses and more all at the edge with your code. Meanwhile, the company’s EdgeKV solution provides an incredibly fast global key-value store for your compute needs. You can manage data in string or JSON formats, streamline day-to-day maintenance by controlling EdgeKV database functions from Akamai’s scriptable CLI, and build EdgeKV into your automation pipeline to streamline deployments.
Boasting one of the world’s largest intelligence edge platforms, Akamai makes it easy to lower overhead with pre-built edge applications that run capabilities integrated into your CDN. It provides all the tools you need to deliver better web experiences and makes moving to the edge easily with robust, self-serviceable apps.
Avassa
Avassa is a single, easy-to-use solution to manage and monitor all of your containerised edge applications. applications across your on-premise, co-located and public cloud compute resources. The company’s application-centric platform, Avassa Control Tower, provides automated and efficient placement and versioning functionality of containers while controlling your distributed edge resources and containerized applications through user interfaces and APIs. You can assemble sets of distributed hosts into sites to allow for granular resource assignments for application deployment purposes, monitor the health of the sites and hosts, and observe resource consumption for planning purposes without impacting application availability
Avassa’s solutions are purpose-built for the edge. Whether it’s on-prem or in the cloud, the company provides a host of tools and applications to make managing your edge ecosystem a breeze. Its Edge Enforcer, for instance, provides automatic call-home, and local cluster management, including state replication and a local container registry so that applications can be rescheduled across hosts. It also configures all site-required networking including an embedded DNS service.
AWS
While it may be best known for its cloud computing service, AWS provides a host of features to allow you to deploy APIs and tools closer to the edge. It makes it easy to build high-performance applications that can process and store data close to where it’s generated, enabling ultra-low latency, intelligence, and real-time responsiveness. You can build an application once and deploy it across the cloud and at the edge in a breeze, while also maintaining security and compliance across your IT infrastructure.
AWS is the only provider that extends infrastructure, services, APIs, and tools offered in the cloud as a fully managed service to virtually any on-premises data centre or co-location space. It provides managed hardware deployed in locations outside AWS data centres – extending secure edge computing capabilities to metro areas, 5G networks, on-premises locations, and ruggedised devices. Overall, it offers the largest edge infrastructure footprint of any provider.
VMware
VMware provides a host of solutions to help you build, run, manage, connect and protect edge-native applications at the Near and Far Edge. Powered by AIOps, its Edge Compute Stack platform combines flexible infrastructure, AIOps and seamless integrations across clouds to deliver the power of edge computing. It’s fully integrated platform to quickly realize the full business benefits of edge computing. You get the flexibility to build, run and manage your modern, existing and future edge applications on containers or virtual machines consistently across edges, data centres and clouds – with built-in security against threats at all levels.
VMware’s Multi-Cloud Edge means you get consistent infrastructure to build, run, manage, connect, and protect applications across edges, clouds and data centres. You can run apps built on containers, or existing apps using virtual machines, all on a single platform. With VMware’s industry-leading unified and Context-Centric Security also protects distributed users, data and applications against threats at all levels. Application- and workload-specific security is built into the platform for superior protection.
Adtran
With a unique family of network edge and aggregation devices, Adtran is one of the industry’s leading edge hardware providers on the market today. It provides the technology you need to rapidly respond to new network challenges and demands – using an edge-centric approach that makes use of installed networks, minimizes impact with initial deployments and creates change as grows. Its technology features zero-touch provisioning to dramatically simplify supply chain logistics and enable rapid service rollout.
By continuing to create more value at the edge of the network, Adtran is consolidating its position as a leader in the global Ethernet access market. Its portfolio of demarcation and edge aggregation technology has been specifically designed to help you grow your business from connectivity services to IT outsourcing.
Alef Edge
Alef Edge is the operator of a software-defined mobile platform designed to deliver the power of 5G-based edge internet to application developers. The company enables Organizations and developers to seamlessly launch their private networks and develop innovative applications, facilitating a set of mobility, cloud, and applications APIs to create a low-cost path to edge-enabled mobile applications, enabling enterprises and application providers to release the creative potential of the worldwide application community.
Alef simplifies the complexities of the edge through a suite of tools and APIs that bring more control and security while operating at a fraction of the cost of mobile network providers. These solutions are what give systems integrators, distributors, and technology partners the flexibility and power they need to build custom networks inside their existing firewalls that fit the unique needs of their industries.
Kingston Technology
With over 35 years of experience in high-performance memory and storage products, Kingston Technology has become a key player in enabling the world of edge computing. The company is a trusted partner for organizations looking to unlock the edge, providing the knowledge, agility, and longevity to fully enable both data centres and enterprises to respond to the challenges and opportunities presented by the increase in 5G, IoT and edge computing.
Kingston is actively expanding its presence in the edge computing space by enabling edge computing solutions with memory and storage solutions while leveraging our extensive experience in the server, data centre and other technology sectors. Its focus is on developing reliable, high-performance memory and storage products to address the growing demand for edge computing solutions in various industries including IoT, AI, and telecommunications. As the adoption of edge solutions accelerates, Kingston’s role will be pivotal in providing the memory and storage solutions necessary to support these trends, making it crucial to the future of the evolving edge computing and data centres spaces.
ClearBlade
Founded in 2006 after realizing there was no software that could properly fulfil the promise of IoT, ClearBlade is driving enterprise digital transformation with powerful IoT and Edge technologies. Its software runs massive, intricate enterprise IoTs from on-prem to edge to cloud, allowing you to build an expansive IoT without putting your security at risk. You can deploy from the edge to the cloud on any protocol or solution, allowing your organizations to keep core functions close to where you need them while taking advantage of cloud storage.
With Clearblade, your users and device states are synced with IoT systems as devices go on and offline. The platform connects all your gateways, clouds and devices across numerous protocols, while devices continue real-time behaviours and 100% uptime, including when the connection to the internet is lost. You can also maximize the impact of your data at the edge by leveraging local compute, AI, and actionable visualizations directly from the ClearBlade platform – which can easily be integrated into any enterprise system.
