The Edge Is The ‘New Cloud’

VMware’s longtime telecom and edge superstar Shekar Ayyar says the market opportunities at the edge will soon become as massive and lucrative as cloud computing as the edge becomes crucial in collecting and processing massive amounts of data.

“The opportunity at the edge is exactly like the cloud. It’s sort of a new cloud in the making if you think about it,” said Ayyar, executive vice president and general manager for VMware’s Telco and Edge Cloud business, who’s been an executive at VMware for over 13 years. “The cloud created an immense amount of opportunity, but it was all about remote computing, taking things to the cloud and it gets computed somewhere. The edge is literally closer to home. We now have a much better way to create, deliver and consume services from the edge. We look at the edge as a massive growth opportunity for VMware and our partners as customers start to build and consume more and more applications and data that will all be delivered from the edge.”

The worldwide edge computing market is predicted to reach approximately $250 billion in 2024, with a compound annual growth rate of 12.5 percent over the next four years, according to IDC. The research firm expects the amount of data created over the next three years will be more than the data created in total over the past 30 years.

Vendors and forward-thinking channel partners are investing heavily in creating custom edge solutions and services to enable business outcomes for customers through data analytics. Ayyar talks to CRN about the significant opportunities at the edge, why VMware partners need to double down or formulate an edge business strategy today, as well as how it will help revolutionize video conferencing for the new remote workforce.

“You could do [video conferencing] in 3D or with 5,000 people – all of that should be possible with the snap of your fingers,” he said.