RESEARCH PAPER: Edge Computing: The Fourth Wave Rises

By Matt Kimball, Patrick Moorhead - May 7, 2018

The IT and compute industry has undergone three tectonic shifts in compute models since the 1960s. Centralized compute with mainframes gave way to client server and distributed compute in the 1980s. The 1990s saw the rise of mobility. Smart phones, the internet, and eventually cloud computing emerged enabled by virtualization. This rise of the cloud saw a return to a more centralized compute model where compute resources are provisioned to users and workloads.

You can download the paper here.

Introduction
Edge Computing Use Cases
Edge Computing Versus Fog Computing
The Need Of The Edge
The Foundational Elements Of The Fourth Wave
Call To Action
Figure 1- The Four Waves of Compute
Figure 2- Edge Computing: Managing Traffic Based On Real-Time Intelligence
Figure 3- Fog Computing
Figure 4- Types Of Modular Datacenters
Figure 5- Micro Datacenters Deliver Server Environments That Can Withstand Extreme Environments
Figure 6- Intelligent Edge Design Principles

Companies Cited

Dell EMC
Dell Technologies

Matt Kimball

+ posts

Matt Kimball is a Moor Insights & Strategy senior datacenter analyst covering servers and storage. Matt’s 25 plus years of real-world experience in high tech spans from hardware to software as a product manager, product marketer, engineer and enterprise IT practitioner. This experience has led to a firm conviction that the success of an offering lies, of course, in a profitable, unique and targeted offering, but most importantly in the ability to position and communicate it effectively to the target audience.

Patrick Moorhead

+ posts

Patrick founded the firm based on his real-world world technology experiences with the understanding of what he wasn’t getting from analysts and consultants. Ten years later, Patrick is ranked #1 among technology industry analysts in terms of “power” (ARInsights) in “press citations” (Apollo Research). Moorhead is a contributor at Forbes and frequently appears on CNBC. He is a broad-based analyst covering a wide variety of topics including the cloud, enterprise SaaS, collaboration, client computing, and semiconductors. He has 30 years of experience including 15 years of executive experience at high tech companies (NCR, AT&T, Compaq, now HP, and AMD) leading strategy, product management, product marketing, and corporate marketing, including three industry board appointments.