A few years ago, edge computing was all the rage. We were on our way to billions of endpoints, bringing everything from the mundane to the complex closer to users to meet their growing demands for low latency.

The emergence of COVID in 2020 derailed demand for the edge, as the crisis created new priorities to enhance core networks to support work-from-home and other priorities. But in 2024 the edge is hot again, there are plenty of use cases for it, and some believe that we could see 75% of compute eventually occur at the edge. 

This renaissance of the edge seems to have staying power, particularly in support of unique applications. Areas such as military operations, healthcare, and manufacturing have driven forecasts that spending on edge computing is increasing by 15% in the current year.   There is also a belief by some that AI will drive significant edge demand.

As with most computing solutions, edge demand depends on the requirements and budgets of the specific users. Just as the public cloud is a useful solution for some organizations but not others, and the same with AI, edge will be useful and important for some (latency-sensitive applications with a broad base of users). In contrast, more traditional computing solutions will continue to work well for others.

If your edge needs are growing, Eastern Pennsylvania may be an ideal locale for an edge presence for your organization.  If you want to be near a copious amount of eyeballs, 38.3 million people are within 125 miles of Reading, PA, the home of the Direct LTx data center, a hardened, highly connected colocation facility.  For more information on Direct LTx data center colocation solutions or to arrange for a tour, email strategy@directltx.com.