According to new estimates from IDC, worldwide edge spending is expected to hit almost $274 billion in 2025, growing at an 18.7% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) during that period. That growth is being driven by AI and analytics apps that have choked off some data passages to and from the cloud, IDC notes.

On an even more vigorous note, Grand View Research reports that the CAGR for the global multi-access edge computing (MEC) market size is expected to be more than 42% from 2021 to 2028. This robust growth is attributed to the increasing use of IoT devices across various industries, and the need for faster decision-making in industries such as IT and telecom, manufacturing, transportation and logistics and datacenters. The research group also reports that the adoption of MEC offers a “safer environment for data transfer and reduces latency.”