Data-hungry technologies, including IoT and generative AI, will drive spending on edge IT infrastructure and datacentres to $317 billion market globally by 2026 representing 107% growth from the 2020 market valued at $153 billion.

► More ‘edge datacentres’ will be needed to keep data close to endpoints

► Low latency and high bandwidth key along with security and privacy

The projection has been made by global real estate consulting firm JLL, which said that as well as ‘technology-based megatrends’ the need for faster data transfer and high computation, as well as increasing regulation will drive the growth. JLL also predicts that IoT devices will have a CAGR of 9.8% over the next five years.

JLL’s analysis of datacentre professionals found that requirements for low latency and high bandwidth (41%) as the most important factors for decision-makers, followed closely by data security and privacy (38.3%).

JLL noted that while enterprises use a combination of on-premises, colocation, cloud and edge data repositories, growth in data and connected devices is driving the need for increased resources located closer to endpoints.