D6.2 – Market Outlook and Forecast Report

This deliverable, which is the first release of the market analysis and forecast report for AI-SPRINT, provides a detailed assessment of the market status-quo and market forecast for edge computing with a specific focus on AI and other enabling technologies. It also gives a deep dive into the market forecast of the three main use-cases of the AI-SPRINT project. The European enterprise edge market has grown significantly in the last couple of years, with new solutions developed to address specific industries and use cases as more organisations have started to understand the benefits and opportunities behind edge and other emerging  technologies. The COVID-19 pandemic has reshuffled the investment plans of many organisations in the world, in some cases stimulating the need for edge to ensure business continuity, to improve the decision-making process and to support remote operations. European enterprise edge spending is expected to reach €39.6 billion by 2025, driven by the tremendous role of edge in enabling low latency use cases, deployments in locations that are either remote or without IT support staff, and supporting new vendor propositions and a supply chain that is being built up.

Major findings in this document include the following:

• European enterprise edge spending will grow from €18 billion in 2020 to €39.6 billion in 2025, with a five-year  Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 18%, outpacing the total ICT market average that is forecast to grow at single digits over the same period.
• Compared with Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), Western Europe sees a more established and developed edge scenario. Nevertheless, edge adoption in CEE is expected to increase over the forecast period, especially within key verticals.
• Within the three main technology groups, services (including professional and provisioned services) will continue to make half of the total market spending. Hardware will outpace the market average, reaching a fourth of the market, as new hybrid edge infrastructures drive innovations at the edge.
• Edge supports a wide array of other emerging technology markets referred to as domains, that are driving the overall edge market and generating value outside core data centers. These are Internet of Things (IoT) as the largest domain within the European edge market, followed by artificial intelligence (AI) with tremendous capabilities on real-time data processing, augmented reality (AR)/virtual reality (VR), robotics and drones.
• The distribution and services sector along with manufacturing and resources have the largest share of European  enterprise edge spending. Despite the pandemic heavily hitting some industries within those sectors, edge use cases linked to the Internet of Things (IoT) and AI domains will drive developments, especially in edge environments where edge bridges the gap between IT and operations technologies (OT).

The report double clicks into the market dimension for edge solutions by type of edge technology, and by industry, looking also at the AI domain in the context of AI-SPRINT. In particular, the report provides a detailed analysis on the three use cases in the AI- SPRINT context: maintenance and inspection, personalised healthcare and farming 4.0, looking also at the drivers and the barriers for the edge market overall and in the context of specific industry use cases. In the market context chapter, the report presents the significant market developments for the edge market but also an analysis of how the ecosystem is a pivotal point for deploying edge solutions, particularly in the context of the three AI-SPRINT cases.