Analysts working for the prediction and divination department at Gartner group are predicting that infrastructure providers should be raking in cash and need to look beyond the edge to make even more.
Big G said that many think that that edge computing was the place to focus, but they need to look a bit further.
While Gartner is not disputing that the edge is essential but is warning infrastructure providers that they need to keep following the demands for customers to deliver ‘digital touchpoint services’.
The analyst house defines a digital touchpoint as being any interaction with a digital device, product or service. An example would be a question and answer session with a chatbot or communication with a fitness tracker.
Rene Buest, senior research director at Gartner, is predicting that by 2021 the world will have shifted with 65 percent of global infrastructure providers generating 55 per cent of their revenues from edge-related services that support digital touchpoints.
“Creating business moments at digital touchpoints is the new scalable way of engaging with customers. Infrastructure service providers that fail to embrace this development will lack a presence at digital touchpoints and struggle to interact closely with customers”, he said.
“This enormous growth will need to be backed by reliable end-to-end infrastructure environments that support proximity, and that ensure low latency, high bandwidth, autonomy and privacy. The cloud is no longer enough. Infrastructure service providers must exploit this growth by extending services beyond the edge in support of digital touchpoints.”
There are several important planks that service providers will have to offer: infrastructure management, integration, security and data management and governance.
Each of those possible services should be attractive to those with infrastructure, security and data management skills.
