IDC sees 2021 as an accelerated year for multi-access edge cloud (MEC) investments. MEC developments are carried out by a wide range of edge stakeholders (for example, wireless and wireline communications service providers, cable companies, content delivery networks (CDNs), and cloud providers) to provide Latency sensitive edge network services.

Beyond connectivity, MEC builds will also provide businesses with the ability to host applications both on-premises and on edge cloud sites. Potential benefits include the ability to adhere to strict data traffic policies, improve security, and improve real-time control and decision-making.

Use cases, go-to-market alignments, product development and the move to cloud-native architectures by market players – telecoms operators, hyperscale players and carrier infrastructure providers – remain in development.

Accelerating the development of the mobile edge cloud ecosystem, with wired MSOs investing in edge capacity and cloud service providers hosting network edge workloads and partnering with communications service providers to provide MEC solutions to enterprises will drive the majority of operators’ MEC investments during forecasting. period.

Multi-access edge cloud market to reach $ 16.7 billion by 2025

Global Multi-Access Edge (MEC) cloud revenue including Virtual Network Functions (VNF), Network Functions Virtualization Infrastructure (NFVI), and Cloud Native Network Functions (CNF) , at the operator’s edge cloud level in the four market sub-segments (mobile, wired, cable and CDN), will grow from $ 3.5 billion in 2020 to $ 16.7 billion in 2025. This represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 37.0% over the forecast period 2020-2025.

“As MEC emerges as a viable option for various business verticals, it becomes a key driver of new revenue streams beyond connectivity and essential for mobile network operators as they attempt to monetize 5G .

“Although edge investments are primarily related to 5G / MEC today, we expect edge spending to increase in the wireline market, as MSOs, CDNs, and wireline service providers are building edge platforms for low latency, availability and security for the next generation. generation of business applications, ”said Ajeet Das, Research Director, Carrier Network Infrastructure at IDC.