Evaluating the Costs and ROI of Edge Computing

This IDC Perspective outlines the various methods for provisioning IT service at the edge and presents strategies to understand the business value of edge investments. More and more companies are embracing edge computing, citing benefits that include faster and more efficient data collection and analysis near the source. But while edge computing has many benefits, it's not cost effective in some cases. Determining when and how to use edge computing requires understanding both hard costs - like building and maintaining the infrastructure and optimizing applications for the edge - and soft costs - like customer satisfaction, productivity, and efficiency (as well as avoiding sometimes-hefty fines related to breaking data sovereignty rules) - associated with it."Provisioning IT service at the edge is increasingly a requirement in our digital-first world. But the cost of building out IT service at the edge can be significant. Understanding the many implementation approaches and as-a-service options, as well as the ability to measure return on investment, is critical to building an effective edge strategy," says Jennifer Cooke, research director for IDC's Edge Trends and Strategies.