Taking Media to the Edge

Harnessing the power of edge computing and next-generation networks

In the media business, innovation is a key component to staying competitive. Businesses must adopt emerging technologies as part of their short-term and long-term strategies. With today’s data-hungry user base, adopting edge computing will be of the utmost importance to businesses. Here’s how business on edge will transform the media industry.

‍Let’s talk costs

‍When businesses adopted cloud strategies, the idea was to centralize data for distribution—often across hundreds if not thousands of miles. The costs associated with bandwidth were severely underestimated, creating budgetary constraints limiting the products’ potential. Apps relying on large amounts of data would have to upload information to their cloud servers, wait for the data to be processed, and finally have it sent back to the device and displayed to the user. It’s a costly and time-consuming process that often creates unnecessary UX challenges. With edge computing, many of these processes can be done partly or entirely on the device itself, saving company data and processing costs. The relatively affordable expenses tied to the processing and saving of data allow for more efficient real-time applications that drive much of today’s businesses.

Reducing latency

The business of media today brings customers a wide range of consumption choices. Whether it’s music on demand, video, or even video games, there has never been more instant access to a world of options. The availability of all this data has also brought new challenges to media companies trying to meet their customers’ needs. Many of today’s offerings are constrained not by availability but by access and bandwidth limitations. Edge computing can help mitigate these problems by using edge data processing clusters closer to their users to help carry the weight that would otherwise strain data networks. As edge computing matures and develops, this could lead to a latency-free future for the service provider and the consumer.

Breaking new ground means getting personal

Speaking of deploying edge data centers, these new centers will be vital for businesses to expand into new markets and support and improve existing ones. Edge data center deployments offer businesses unprecedented personalization to meet their data needs. Whether that means providing access to untapped rural markets or adding additional network support for crowded, high-use urban centers, edge computing makes it possible while keeping things within budget. The fact that edge data centers can quickly and easily be customized to meet your business’s changing demands means that as the needs of media companies change, they can rely on edge processing to keep up with their customer’s demands.

On the edge of a new security paradigm

While we may not know how customers will consume digital media in the future, we know that consumer and provider data will be under attack. As we’ve seen during the pandemic, user data and platform access were high on cybercriminals’ list of targets. As edge computing matures, it will be a critical component of zero-trust security models. Cybercriminals are looking at new ways to compromise your systems, and relying on real-time security that edge computing can provide will be an increasingly important part of your business’ security plan.

The future: Machine learning, 5G, and beyond

At Edgio, we’re tapping into the power of edge computing to bring latency-free experiences to all our enterprise customers. By transforming our network and Super PoPs to enable compute power closer to the end user—which helps reduce processing times—customers can develop next-generation technologies like machine learning, augmented reality and remote experiences without the lag and costs of centralized data processing. As our world becomes ever more interconnected, we’re building the technology and infrastructure to support businesses’ digital ambitions. From OTT applications to security and authentication capabilities, the future of business is on edge—are you?