The State of the Edge 2019 report collects the latest research and analysis on edge computing. Supported by original research, the report includes comprehensive market sizing and detailed analysis of the drivers and use cases which are pushing edge computing forward in 2019.

Machines will be the majority of users on the next-generation internet. Many billions of them, far outnumbering the human population, will connect to the network and generate unprecedented amounts of data. How can edge computing make supporting all of these devices practical?

The amount of data created at the edge is set to grow exponentially, and the cost of sufficient backhaul capacity to transmit it all back to the centralized cloud remains high. How can a large number of edge data centers address this and other economic challenges for the internet?

Transformative technologies such as NFV, SDN and C-RAN are reshaping the core network, and this merging of network and compute is pushing to the edge. At the same time, the wired and wireless network worlds are converging. What will become of the last mile infrastructure?

DCIM was supposed to solve the complex challenge of managing data center facilities. Although many data centers use DCIM, it is far from the multi-billion-dollar success that was predicted a decade ago. The industry failed to fully deliver on DCIM’s promise: it provided tools that were over-engineered and difficult to implement and maintain.
Some say DCIM is dead. With apologies to Mark Twain, we believe reports of DCIM’s death are greatly exaggerated. In our complex hybrid computing world, it’s likely the need for DCIM will be greater than it was in the past. Next generation cloud-based tools are emerging: they are more secure, intuitive, insightful, flexible, and resource efficient than DCIM as we’ve known it. In this session, we’ll discuss DCIM’s past, present, and future including key attributes that have become essential to successful operations and maintenance. Long live DCIM!
Kevin Brown, Senior Vice President of Innovation & CTO, Schneider Electric, IT Division

Our panel of global leaders in the mission-critical infrastructure landscape discuss some of the key trends, technologies and challenges in the global market.

Introductory presentation:
William Barney, Chairman and CEO, Global Cloud Xchange

Chair: Michael Tobin, Industry Entrepreneur
William Barney, Chairman and CEO, Global Cloud Xchange
Tesh Durvasula, President – Europe, CyrusOne
Antonio Nunes, CEO, Angola Cables
Christopher Sharp, CTO, Digital Realty

Dr. Julie M. Albright, Digital Sociologist and iMasons Board Member
Oliver Jones, Secretary, iMasons
Dean Nelson, Founder and Chairman, iMasons
Eddie Schutter, Board Member, iMasons

Network, mobile, cloud, IoT and other service providers are re-architecting the internet to a more multi-directional dynamic infrastructure to cope with the volume and velocity of content, applications, and data that is placing an unprecedented burden on today’s network infrastructure. The need to build out Edge infrastructure that enables a more distributed platform will be critical to alleviate the traffic bottlenecks that a uni-directional download centric model inhabits. Working with and collaborating with all the service providers to build out a more ubiquitous and interconnected Edge has been the business for EdgeConneX over the past 6 years. Join Phillip Marangella, CMO of EdgeConneX and Giordano Albertazzi, President EMEA, Vertiv for a fireside chat to discuss this shift in architecture and related customer use cases.
Giordano Albertazzi, President EMEA, Vertiv
Phillip Marangella, CMO, EdgeConneX

Michel Fraisse, VP, Europe, Huawei

Changing market requirements impact how colocation providers design, plan and deploy their data centers. Join Norwegian colocator Green Mountain, who have utilized Schneider Electric prefabricated, modular data center solutions to double the power capacity of their Stavanger and Telemark sites in order to meet growing customer demand – in half the time.
Tor Kristian Gyland, CEO, Green Mountain

Christoffer Svanberg, Chief Communications Officer, Node Pole

Conventional wisdom perceives edge data centers as very small facilities located in Tier 2 or 3 markets, however the Edge can exist in both major metros as well as secondary locations and they can also range in size from 10kWs to well more than 10mWs. They key is that the Edge is defined by the customer, not the provider and it must be integrated with core data center facilities to provide a complete continuum of solutions for customers. EdgeConneX CMO, Phillip Marangella, talks with Infrastructure Masons about the varying customer uses that are driving the growth of the Edge
Simon Allen, Executive Director, Infrastructure Masons
Phillip Marangella, CMO, EdgeConneX

On-premise or off, you have powerful tools available to maximize the value of your infrastructure and you demand more visibility and operational control. Fortunately, data center management tools keep a vigil on memory contestation, power, thermal consumption, server health, and utilization, allowing better control no matter your cloud’s shape. In this session, learn how Intel software tools enable real-time monitoring and precise management to lower operational costs and optimize infrastructure for today even as you’re forecasting for tomorrow.
Ofer Lior, Regional Business Development Manager – Data Center Software Solutions, Intel

Giuseppe Leto, Global Portfolio Manager, Siemens

Zoe Zhuang, VP & CFO, Chindata

Andreas Grewing, Senior Director, Head of Telecom Power Solutions, Delta EMEA

Hear a panel of industry experts share best practices and proven strategies to support growing demand for specialised AI Hardware. Topics will include:
- Why on-premise data centers are not up to task for AI and Deep Learning workloads
- Infrastructure, super storage and security criteria of an AI-ready data center
- The management and design expertise needed for successful implementation
Chair: Tom Berry, CEO, Chameleon
Elan Raja, CEO, Scan
Bart Schneider, Senior Director, EMEA, Nvidia

IIoT is one of the major trends changing the IT landscape dramatically. The amount of data generated cannot be handled by hyperscale / cloud data centers. It implies a significant and strong growth of edge data center to cope with the data volume, to response and react with a very short latency.
The presentation outlines the Rittal experience in a complete Industry 4.0 landscape from Web-based configuration, order processing, automated production to an in-time delivery. The presentation underlines the importance of the digital value chain and explains the necessity of edge data center for innovative services (digital twin, analytics, and predictive maintenance) inside a streamlined production.
Andreas Keiger, EVP – Business Unit IT Infrastructure, Rittal

Cole Crawford, CEO and Founder, Vapor IO

Martin Levy, Network Strategy, Cloudflare

The move towards the digital economy and industry 4.0 will see an ever increasing dependency on data center infrastructure. Increased requirements for cloud services, blockchain, HPC, AI, IoT/OT, quantum computing and edge services are just a handful of technologies impacting industry and supporting infrastructure. How will these technologies be reflected in the way data center infrastructure is designed and operated? How can existing DC infrastructure be upgraded to support new workloads and technologies? From hyperscale to micro what do operators need to take into account?
Chair: Andy Lawrence, Executive Director, Research, Uptime Institute
Brian Davis, Data Center Segment Lead, Americas Region, ABB
Justin Jenkins, CEO, NGD
Peter Lambrecht, VP, Key Accounts EMEA, Vertiv
Alastair Waite, Global Data Centre Market Development, Commscope

With data volumes and traffic set to rocket as the world embraces IoT, moves towards smart cities and contemplates 5G, what challenges lie ahead for the data infrastructure industry. Will industry be allowed to make its own future or does the data focus mean that governments want a bigger say in how the landscape develops? And do these new opportunities create room for new challengers who push innovation but also vertical integration?
Ronald Hendrikx, Partner/Head of Commercial Group, Bird & Bird

This session takes magnifying glass to one of Europes’ key economies and data center markets. Our speakers discuss investment opportunities, pitfalls, strengths, market nuances and future developments to keep an eye on – and ultimately why to go there in the first place.
Chair: Alexander Hauser, Managing Partner, TTSP HWP
Brad Bauman, Partner, Alpha Real Capital
Denise Breen, Senior Project Manager, Iron Mountain
Kai Goh Chuen, Head of Investments (Europe), Keppel Data Centres
Mark Gregory, Managing Director, Penta Infra
Falk Weinreich, SVP, Colt Data Centre Services

Mauro Leuce, Associate Director, Atkins

Artificial Intelligence, HPC and Robotics create lots of data that needs storage and processing. Digital Hubs are created all over Europe.
How can the Data Centre Industry respond to the new opportunities?
Jeanette Nilsson, Project Leader, RISE SISC North

Silicon Valley, the Dulles Corridor in North America, the FLAP markets in Europe and Singapore, Seoul and Hong Kong in Asia – all are cited as key data center and digital hubs and examples of the infrastructure required to fuel our digital economy. What made these locations so attractive? Was it industrial, economic, political support, or a happy confluence of coinciding factors? How can markets looking to develop their attractiveness as digital infrastructure locations distinguish themselves? And what are the next digital hubs?
Chair: Vinay Nagpal, President, InterGlobix
Mark Bailey, Partner, Charles Russell Speechlys
John Kilmartin, Executive Director, ICT Division, Bahrain Economic Development Board
Tomas Sokolnicki, Head Data Centers by Sweden/Senior Investment Advisor ICT, Business Sweden
Henry Sutton, Head of Partnerships, DC Byte

Karim Ait-Younes, Senior Regional Sales Manager, Head of Sales EMEA, STULZ GmbH

Some of the largest market opportunities are in China, India and SEA. From hyperscalers to edge players, these three markets are awakening to a tsunami of investment forces that will connect the last unconnected parts of the world. This session looks at the drivers and opportunities for financiers and data centre operators across APAC, analysing the nuances of each market, capacity, investment potential and risk.
Chair: Steve Wallage, Managing Director, BroadGroup Consulting
Sunita Bottse, Managing Director, SUPERNAP Thailand
Eric Crabtree, Chief Investment Officer, IFC
Oliver Jones, Co-Founder and CEO, Chayora
Kok-Chye Ong, SVP/Head of Investments, Keppel Data Centres
Narendra Sen, Founder and CEO, RackBank Datacenters

Join Schneider Electric and 4 leading players as they discuss how to overcome the challenges of implementing digital strategies within data centers. What does Artificial Intelligence bring to the table, and how is cyber security maintained in a complex hybrid computing environment, where change is the one constant.
Chair: Steven Carlini, VP, Innovation and Data Center, Schneider Electric
Frederic Bouchez, Managing Director, Etix Labs
Olivier Micheli, CEO, Data4
Lars Schedin, CEO, EcoDataCenter
Cyril Voisin, Chief Security Advisor EMEA, Microsoft

Workforce sustainability is a topic that has been under the microscope across engineering verticals for many years, but as demand continues to outstrip supply, without a conclusive solution in sight. Increasingly automated and intelligent systems can ease the problem, but how are individual organisations and the industry as a whole working to engage the future workforce? Further, as trends such as edge technologies and services evolve the nature of mission critical infrastructure, what is the impact on skill and training requirements?
Chair: Peter Hannaford, Founder and CEO, Datacenter People
Lee Kirby, Chairman & Co-Founder, Salute
Barry Shambrook, Chair of UK and Ireland District, BICSI
James Wilman, CEO, Future-tech

Steen Hommel, Director, Invest in Denmark

The engineering and technology industries often appear stereotype bastions of a male dominated workforce. However internally, the sector is undergoing a long-term process of self-reflection. Here we examine what can be done to ensure a greater diversity in the workforce – drawing on experiences of women currently in the DC sector and those engaged in developing the sector’s future workforce.
Chair: Stephanie Liston, Senior Counsel, Mishcon de Reya
Amber Caramella, SVP Sales, Zayo Group
Michelle Senecal de Fonseca, Area Vice President – Europe, Citrix Systems
Katie O’Hara, VP, Stream Data Centers
Angela Leavitt, Founder/CEO, Mojo Marketing
Brooke Petosa, Senior Associate, Global Data Center Advisory Group, Cushman & Wakefield

Chair: Olivier Micheli, CEO, DATA4 Group
Qunkai Liu, Country Manager France, South Europe & Israel, Alibaba Cloud
Francois Sterin, Chief Industrial Officer, OVH Group
Fabien Vieau, Principal – Data Centers Energy & Location Strategy – EMEA, Google

Efficiency perennial focus when it comes to uptime in the data center. As server and compute demands have evolved, supporting infrastructure is also under pressure to keep pace. Here we explore how the evolution of the data center as whole influences operational efficiency, how this can best be measured and the opportunities for further cost and operational efficiencies.
Chair: Alex Rabbetts, Managing Director, EUDCA
Mikael Berggren, Director Business Development Data Center, Mission Critical Infrastructure Solutions (MCIS) Business Unit, Delta EMEA
Ciarán Forde, Segment Leader Data Center & ICT, EMEA, EATON
Iain Hannaway, Key Account Manager, Data Centres – Energy Solutions, Wärtsilä Finland Oy

João Marques Lima, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Data Economy

The data centre colocation market is experiencing meaningful impact from hyperscale cloud platforms and interconnection is a critical piece to enable hybrid cloud environments. How is hyperscale going to further shape the data centre market in the near and long term? Which countries and markets will experience the greatest growth in data centre capacity in the next five years? Why is retail colocation growth slowing down and will this trend continue? Will the hyperscalers build their own data centres in the future and no longer lease from colocation providers?
Jabez Tan, Head of Research, Structure Research

The world’s leading TMT, data hosting, cloud, telco and PE firms debate the sector in a new stage format that will lead to the year’s top panel discussion for the industry.
Chair: Alexander Ramirez, Managing Director – Global TMT Group, Citi
Eugene Bergen Henegouwen, President EMEA, Equinix
Sureel Choksi, President & CEO, Vantage Data Centers
Stephane Duproz, CEO, Africa Data Centres

From fibre to 5G and new infrastructure, investment in the wider network to support the cloud is booming and shifting. For example, as hyperscalers invest billions in the build of new cables, the segment has become an attractive business case for investors. In this panel, the audience will be presentation with a compelling overview of the challenges and opportunities across investment in supporting and connecting infrastructure.
Chair: Tim Anker, Founder, Colo-X
Sicco Boomsma, Director TMT, ING
Pieter-Jan Bouten, Managing Director, Head of UK, Greenhill
Chris Hogg, Investment Director, Amber Infrastructure
Eddie Kilbane, CEO and Co-Founder, DataPlex Group
Steffen Leiwesmeier, Head of Financing, Digital Infrastructure, Hamburg Commercial Bank

Randy Brouckman, CEO, EdgeConneX

Global leaders in the TMT and data center space will be discussing the key factors that drive TMT and data center investment and mergers and acquisitions.
Chair: Kemal Hawa, Partner & Shareholder, Greenberg Traurig LLP
Sylvain Delion, Managing Director, Infrastructure Projects, Macquarie Capital
Tesh Durvasula, President – Europe, CyrusOne
Therese Kerfoot, SVP Operations, EdgeCore Internet Real Estate

Sylvain Delion, Managing Director, Infrastructure Projects, Macquarie Capital
Khaled Sedrak, Founder & CEO, NxtVn

Edge will be everywhere, but where should investments be done next? Competition is shooting up in Tier 1 markets, yet, the majority of the world’s population resides outside these regional hubs. This panel will discuss the development of edge markets and the strategy behind selecting and developing services, whether that be to boost connectivity and delivery for specific applications and next generation services or to improve delivery in tier 2 hotspots or poorly connected environments.
Chair: Vinay Nagpal, President, InterGlobix
Olivier Labbe, Co-Founder and CEO, CAP DC
Michael Ortiz, Practice Co-Leader, Keyser
Dick Theunissen, MD EMEA, EdgeConneX
Guy Willner, Founder and CEO, IXcellerate

Smedvig has more than a 100-year story of managing successful companies within several industries and was incremental in building Stavanger as Europe’s Oil & Gas Capital. After exiting the Offshore drilling operations in 2006, Smedvig has built a portfolio robust and well performing investment portfolio, which supports the forefront of digitalization and disruptive strategies through investments in companies like Green Mountain, Navtor, Cercare Medical, Your.MD and Veni, but also in tech enabled businesses through their London based private equity team. The Smedvig Family Office also has a portfolio of real estate and infrastructure funds, which again have invested in successful data center operations like DataIV and Cologix. The long-term ownership strategy has proven successful, and the Smedvig Family Office aims to continue to invest in disruptive companies with global ambitions supporting a digital and sustainable shift.
Marit Salte, CFO, Smedvig Family Office

Chair: Duncan Clubb, Senior Director, IT Consulting EMEA, CBRE
Federico Boccardi, Principal Technology Advisor, Ofcom
Glenn Fitzgerald, EMEA CTO, Fujitsu

Global M&A and investment in the data center sector continues unabated at record levels. A bullish market for data center services across the globe is attracting operators and investors to consider new opportunities driven in large part from North America into Europe and also Asia. In this discussion we consider the key developments driving global expansion, the strategy behind developing new geographical markets and how this impacts the global data center landscape.
Chair: Miles Loo, EVP, Newmark Knight Frank
Eric Crabtree, Chief Investment Officer, IFC
Matthew Dent, CCO, Global Switch
Hossein Fateh, Chairman & CEO, CloudHQ
Avner Papouchado, CEO, ServerFarm
Madonna Park, Managing Director, RBC Capital Markets
Matt Pullen, Managing Director, CyrusOne

Each infrastructure project, geography, financial model and market comes with it’s own nuances. Here we explore experiences of data center investors from initial proposal to exit. Through these first-hand experiences, this session looks at the drivers and opportunities for financiers and data centre operators across the regions, analysing the nuances of each market, capacity, investment potential and risk.
Chair: Michael Tobin OBE, Industry Entrepeneur
Ralph Choufani, Principal, ABRY Partners
Fernando Chueca, Managing Director, Carlyle Europe Technology Partners
Pierre Pozzo, Principal, Permira
Rupert Robson, CEO, Torch Partners

As the market has matured, a number of private equity and institutional investors have emerged as discrete investors in the data centre environment. The panel will explore what investors are looking for from their investments, what projects types are currently attractive, the expertise they bring to the table, projections for future investment and emerging risks for private equity investors.
Chair: Philbert Shih, Managing Director, Structure Research
Dmitriy Antropov, Co-Head, Private Infrastructure, Partners Group
Jeffrey Ferry, Director, Goldman Sachs
Jeffrey Krogh, Managing Director, BNP Paribas
Alexander Ramirez, MD – Global TMT Group, Citi
Isaac Vaz, Director – Infrastructure Equity, Aviva Investors

Sander Kaempfer, Strategic Account Manager Global Accounts, Panduit

The next wave of applications will be more pervasive and immersive than anything we have seen to date. Years of market research have uncovered demand for edge use cases across several key verticals, however concerns around privacy, control and trust will require solutions that are systematically designed, allowing application developers to focus on delivering incredible user experiences.
Sunay Tripathi, CTO & EVP of Engineering & Product, MobiledgeX

The interplay between the core and the edge has been one of some discussion in recent years, as incumbent infrastructure providers and customers explore edge technologies will influence their existing strategies. The potential promise of 5G has seemingly only further muddied the waters. Here we seek to explore the reality on the ground and what the future landscape of cloud, edge and 5G technologies will look like.
Chair: Dalia Adib, Practice Lead – Edge Computing, STL Partners
Steven Carlini, VP, Innovation and Data Center, Schneider Electric
Giordano Albertazzi, President EMEA, Vertiv
Ronald Hendrikx, Partner/Head of Commercial Group, Bird & Bird
Sander Kaempfer, Strategic Account Manager Global Accounts, Panduit
Loren Long, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, DartPoints Data Centers

Mark Thiele, Director Engineering, Edge Compute, Ericsson

Mission critical service delivery is set to be built on the back of increasingly diverse classes of communications infrastructure to support highly specified application requirements of latency, availability, security and redundancy. Here we will explore the deveopment of communications infrastrucuture for the future generation of network and application delivery – including, tower and rooftop antenna site; data centers; fiber and back-haul; cloud storage; and, small cell, DAS and WiFi
Jon Mauck, Managing Director, Digital Bridge and Digital Colony

On-prem is far from dead. Rather the trend toward dispersed networks and edge infrastructures/technologies is seeing an evolution in hybrid cloud infrastructures. How should enterprise draw the line between on-prem and cloud? What is driving demand for hybrid provision? How are cloud providers evolving their product to support customers? And how does this impact the business model underpinning cloud economics?
Chair: Wylie Nelson, VP – Product and Land Acquisition, EdgeCore Internet Real Estate
Yonit Goldberg, Co-Founder, 11Stream
Joshua Noll, Director Internet Performance Engineering Group, Netskope
Daniel Szcześniewski, CEO, Atman

Data center cooling has always been an integral part of operations and efficiency, with continuous advances over the years. Here we explore how different models and methods are evolving to meet the challenges of increasingly diverse data center deployments – from hyperscale to edge – and the workloads in the data center itself.
Chair: Rabih Bashroush, Director, Enterprise Computing Research Lab, University of East London
Alberto Carpita, Data Center Business Developer, Siemens
Henry Daunert, Senior Consultant, Datacenters, Systemair
Daniel Pope, CEO, Submer Immersion Cooling

Data center and cloud – along with all communications infrastructure – is almost by default a sector that spans the globe. Whether that be through single portfolios or interconnect and interdependent networks. However this also means exposure to multiple regulatory and governance regime. Here we pick out some of the recent global developments impacting data center and communications infrastructure and the implications there could be for service investment and management.
Chair: Kemal Hawa, Partner & Shareholder, Greenberg Traurig LLP
Garry Connolly, Founder and President, Host in Ireland
Dr. Lutz Schreiber, Partner, Eversheds Sutherland
Michael Winterson, Managing Director, Equinix; Board Member, EUDCA

Efficient use of resources has always be keen to the running and TCO of data center infrastructure. However, as data centers have risen in profile so too has their position as large energy consumers, adding a CSR element to business operational imperatives. How can data centers position themselves as good environmental citizens? What is the real impact of heat recycling, grid and utility integration and renewable energy sourcing? Is there active collaboration between data centers and energy/utility providers? Does legislation recognise the reality of data center energy consumption? And beyond good publicity, what is the business advantage of going ‘green’?
Chair: Jeff Omelchuk, Executive Director, Infrastructure Masons
Rick Abrahamsson, Group Business Development, Vattenfall
Alexander Patt, Director Direct Sales and Project Management Power Generation, MTU
Ivan Pineda, Director of Public Affairs, WindEurope
Fredrik Rosenqvist, Director of Business Innovation, E.ON Nordic
Fabien Vieau, Principal, Data Centers Energy & Location Strategy, EMEA, Google

In the past, purchasing budget for DC and cloud related services have sat squarely with the CIO or IT Director. However increasingly the trend is moving to involve more functions within companies, becoming a more collaborative approach. Decisions are based not just with technical decisions makers, but also finance, sales and company marketing teams. How should the evolving nature of service sourcing impact the manner in which the sector markets itself?
Chair: Nicola Hayes, Founder, Andrastra
Angela Leavitt, Founder/CEO, Mojo Marketing
Barb Mitchell, VP, Canadian Market and Account Strategy, JSA

Dr. Sebastien Goulard, Consultant and Manager, Cooperans

The West is currently conscious of an explosion in the use of AI to drive innovation and growth and the transition of data analysis and manipulation to edge IOT devices, all of which are shaping the future of the hyper scale. But less is known about the advances already in place in China and other Asia Pacific hi-tech countries, many of which are technologically ahead of our western developments and already bringing social and economic advantage. JD.com's 20 minute order to delivery in some Chinese cities for instance has been in place whereas Amazon Prime Air is still in trial in the West. China has already committed to be the world leader in AI, investing $16bn into a city not even heard of by many in the West. Come and hear our vision of how this propulsion will impact the rest of the world...
Oliver Jones, Co-Founder and CEO, Chayora

Zoe Zhuang, VP & CFO, Chindata

Michel Fraisse, VP, Europe, Huawei

The world’s most populous country has risen to be a force to reckon within digital technology as homegrown innovators position themselves in market leading positions both domestically and internationally. Within China, a burgeoning middle-class and digitally engaged population is driving requirements for infrastructure development. Hear where China sits in the move to digitization, key programmes underway and supporting infrastructure that is enabling growth and adoption of advanced services.
Chair: Jonathan Berney, COO, Chayora
Jia Ying Ju, VP – China, International Business, HGC Global Communications
Yali Z. Liu, Vice President, ChinaCache
Lichang Zheng, Peering Leader, IDC Developer, Tencent

Outbound investment into international markets have been a key strategy in developing China’s digital strategy. The Digital Silk Way project is proving pivotal project in exporting digital services and developing global economies. Here we explore how cooperation between Chinese and the broader international tech community in developing global service delivery.
Chair: Michael Tobin, Industry Entrepreneur
Dr. Sebastien Goulard, Consultant and Manager, Cooperans
Robert Wallin, Managing Director, Telecom Sector, Asia Pacific, Natixis
Guy Willner, Founder and CEO, IXcellerate
Joe Zhu, Founder and CEO, Zenlayer