For the last few years, many believed edge computing would become the next big thing. While there has been activity and deployments, it hasn’t quite lived up to the hype. And over the past year, mentions of edge computing have diminished – AI messaging has largely drowned out edge and almost everything else.

Edge computing has morphed in various ways. Vladimir Galabov, an analyst at Omdia, noted that the pace of data center construction in mature locations is slowing.

“Data center buildout will continue but hotspots will shift to emerging locations,” he said.

As well as shifting to tier 2 municipalities, edge solutions are destined to take up some of the slack. Gusakov gave the example of Toronto and other municipalities in Canada where space constraints limit opportunities within the city and green belt restrictions prevent building large campuses on the periphery. As a result, a great many small data centers are being placed inside buildings to get around obstacles such as sustainability laws and lack of space.