Edge Computing: Transforming Government Operations

April 2021 | IDC Doc. #US47540921

Edge Computing: Transforming Government Operations

An IDC InfoBrief, sponsored by Lumen Technologies

Shawn P. McCarthyResearch Director, IDC Government Insights

RESEARCH BY:

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IDC InfoBrief, sponsored by Lumen TechnologiesApril 2021 | Doc. #US47540921

Executive Summary and Key Findings 3

Edge Computing Can Help Address Public Sector Challenges 4

Infrastructure and Security Drive Edge Deployments 5

Government Expects Edge to Bring Benefits 6

Investment Planning Horizon for Government Agencies 7

How and Where Government Organizations Deploy Edge Solutions 8

Private Clouds Preferred Over Public Ones 9

Edge Solutions Strengthen Compliance and Security 10

Let’s Get Started: The Strategic Road Map for Edge Computing 11

Essential Guidance 12

About the Analyst 13

Message from the Sponsor 14

Navigating this InfoBrief Click on titles or page numbers to navigate to each section.

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IDC InfoBrief, sponsored by Lumen TechnologiesApril 2021 | Doc. #US47540921 Table of Contents

Executive Summary Network edge locations in government systems can produce huge amounts of data. Sensors, video cameras, scanners, and other connected resources are being added every week, and the amount of data generated by these devices is skyrocketing.

For government, big data is most valuable when it’s extracted and analyzed in a timely manner When this process is automated, recommended action also can be delivered promptly

Video data in particular can have long transfer times when shuttled to a central location, and other data sources (transactions, local social media, geographical data) can also generate substantial volume Network latency can be an issue — milliseconds matter for some types of analysis

Key Findings: Edge systems can extract value and insights

from data right at the location where it is generated, even at peak data volume.

In many circumstances, datacenter-class processing capabilities may be needed at the edge, and advanced data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) can be a game changer when it comes to understanding data trends.

AI solutions can interact with, analyze, and enhance decision-making, right near the data source.

Stakeholders have access to more immediate and richer insights versus what was previously possible.

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Edge Computing Can Help Address Public Sector Challenges

Edge Computing: Processing that’s done at or near the source of data, reducing data transport time and network traffic.

Mobile devices

Monitoring devices

Internet of Things (IoT) sensors

Wearables

Public/privateinfrastructure

CORE EDGE ENDPOINT

Internet of Things (IoT) devices, including traffic sensors, security cameras, and building security devices, will soon create 95% of the growth in network traffic.

Edge computing, embedded analytics, and distributed AI capabilities are already growing rapidly.

Data collection raises multiple privacy, ethical, and legal concerns. Compliance rules for what is retained and how personably identifiable the data is can be built into edge processing.

Governments are becoming increasingly concerned with how companies leverage consumer data. Edge processing offers an advantage with security and adjustable compliance rules based on location and use case. Edge also facilitates environmental compliance and sustainability.

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18%

12%

11%

31%

28%

Infrastructure and Security Drive Edge Deployments

Security/data protection related to negative impact on operations/applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Deterministic latency and distance limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Continuous operation if network access is interrupted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Cost of bandwidth and centralized infrastructure can be prohibitive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Compliance with sovereign entities and industry regulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Notes: Managed by IDC’s Quantitative Research Group; data not weighted; use caution when interpreting small sample sizes. % corresponds to number of respondents; total may not sum to 100% due to rounding. n = 100, Source: IDC’s Edge Services Thought Leadership Survey, September 2020

Government networks are bogged down by edge data that has to be sent to a datacenter. Edge computing may be cheaper than broad network upgrades.

Edge security should be part of the conversation during the planning and buying process for computer network solutions.

Consider a software-defined perimeter (SDP) rather than a VPN. An SDP can improve support for a zero-trust framework for networking and security segmentation at micro levels. This in turn can provide secure enclaves for entities requesting network resources.

Q. What is your organization’s primary motivation for deploying edge solutions?

Thanks to Internet of Things (IoT), the data collected by government networks is skyrocketing. Some are seeing triple-digit growth in just two years.

66



26%

26%

28%

25%

18%

42%

38%

41%

28%

28%

Government Expects Edge to Bring BenefitsU.S. federal government agencies spent $212.6 million on edge security in 2019 and are forecast to grow to $281.9 million by 2024. State and local governments will increase from $94.2 million to $132.7 million.

Q. What benefits do you expect edge adds/will add to your organization?

Improve application performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Improve operational efficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Enable faster/better decisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Improve quality of products/services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Increase productivity through automated processes . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Create new revenue streams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Reduce infrastructure and/or operation costs and complexity . .

Improve security/compliance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Ability to support remote, connected workers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Improve customer experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Unified threat management at the edge is moving toward automated zero trust with AI-controlled connections that dynamically apply security policies and support zero-trust connections for devices and end users.

Adding data analytics and AI at the edge help improve the citizen experience by speeding important decisions that can have immediate citizen impact. Supporting the right APIs can help the edge system interact with traffic lights and other resources to improve government operations.

Notes: Managed by IDC’s Quantitative Research Group; data not weighted; use caution when interpreting small sample sizes. % corresponds to number of respondents; multiple dichotomous table; total will not sum to 100%. n = 100, Source: IDC’s Edge Services Thought Leadership Survey, September 2020

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Investment Planning Horizon for Government AgenciesMoving computing to the edge can happen quickly, but proper planning is needed. Agencies need to identify the problems that need to be solved and all teams should be part of the planning process.

Q. When is your organization planning its next investment in edge solutions?

Solutions should be customized to the agency’s needs. One size does not fit all. For example:

Stationary systems may operate in harsh environments.

Small devices are constantly on the move. An edge solution provides the ability to distribute infrastructure.

Within 6 to 12 months

Within 6 months

17%

25%

45%

13%

Notes: Managed by IDC’s Quantitative Research Group; data not weighted; use caution when interpreting small sample sizes. % corresponds to number of respondents; total will sum to 100%. n = 100, Source: IDC’s Edge Services Thought Leadership Survey, September 2020

No current plans

Within 1 year or more

88



11%

12%

45%

31%

35%

How and Where Government Organizations Deploy Edge Solutions

Q. Which of the following best represents your organization’s adoption of edge solutions?

Q. Where are your organization’s edge solutions deployed?

In production in multiple

locationsCurrently Pilot/Proof of Concept

40%38%

In production in a single location



Colocation service provider datacenter . . . . . . .

Communications service provider datacenter/edge facilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

In the field (retail store, factory, warehouse, industry-specific location, etc.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

On-premises facility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Cloud service provider datacenter . . . . . . . . . . . . .

22%

99



37%

33%

21%

40%

63%

57%

39%

Private Clouds Preferred Over Public Ones

Telecommunications providers are playing a larger role in distributed infrastructure. They may support 5G networks or enable new enterprise services like multi-access edge computing (MEC).

There will be greater adoption of virtualized network functions and cloud-native network functions.

Content delivery networks (CDNs) offer distributed general compute services that augment cloud service providers and extend the reach of cloud.

1%

Public cloud (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, etc.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Application hosting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Content delivery network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Virtualization services (edge hosted) . . . . . . . . . .

None of the above . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Private cloud (HPE, VMware, Dell EMC, Oracle, IBM, Microsoft, Cisco, NetApp, etc.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Network and software-defined connectivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

CDN edge compute (WAF, Botnet Manager, API Protection) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Q. What key enabling technologies are relevant to your environment?

Notes: Managed by IDC’s Quantitative Research Group; data not weighted; use caution when interpreting small sample sizes. % corresponds to number of respondents; multiple dichotomous table; total will not sum to 100%.

n = 100, Source: IDC’s Edge Services Thought Leadership Survey, September 2020

1010



39%

58%

32%

38%

47%

39%

Edge Solutions Strengthen Compliance and SecurityQ. What key compliance benefits would

security (edge) services provide?Q. What types of security vulnerabilities are

most important to mitigate?

CostConformance to standards

AuditingReporting

16%30%

13% 41%



Intrusion detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Domain name system (DNS) attacks . . . .

Application programming interface (API) protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Unauthorized access to sensitive data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Phishing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Let’s Get Started: The Strategic Road Map for Edge Computing

WHY: WHO: HOW:WHAT:

Edge computing improves bandwidth, latency, and security, enabling public sector organizations to increase their operational resilience.

CIOs, CTOs, CISOs, and key line-of-business executives, traffic engineers, and security experts should help define requirements.

A distributed computing architecture features processing and storage resources closer to where data is generated and consumed.

All critical stakeholders and domain experts define key performance metrics by use case to justify the investment.

17%of government organizations are planning their next investment in edge computing within 6 to 12 months.

45%of government organizations will make such plans within 1 year or more.

while

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Essential Guidance

Agencies are not using data that would otherwise be useful in order to save time, effort, or network stress. Edge processing can help make that data accessible and valuable.

Agencies need to determine what additional data sources would be added, how they would be used, and the point at which the data collected would exceed the agency’s ability to deal with it using direct human interaction. They should also consider what decisions an AI system would need to make when examining the data.

The most successful government use cases achieve a positive return on investment compared to older systems. Organizations should study the costs, the equipment used by other successful operations, and how the various pieces of the systems have been integrated.

Some cities already have seen success from edge deployment of AI, such as fewer traffic deaths, parking revenue, and regulatory compliance. It’s almost certain government AI adoption and growth at the edge will continue.

Flourishing government operations continuously monitor and improve their edge deployments. Agencies need to establish processes to enable ongoing maintenance and upgrades beyond the initial setup, especially to deal with patching and new security issues.

Creating new, data-driven services leads to measurable benefits to citizens, including health monitoring, quick reaction to events, border monitoring, defense perimeters, and more.

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Shawn is responsible for collecting and assessing government market data, providing IT investment and positioning strategies for both government and vendors, and market sizing for tech suppliers. His core coverage area includes U.S. federal and state and local IT budgets, agency-level technology priorities and government enterprise architecture standards. He also covers government use of blockchain solutions. He manages the IDC Government Insights: United States Government Infrastructure and Systems Optimization Strategies research advisory service, which includes technology recommendations and key industry forecasting for government IT systems. He also issues IDC’s semi-annual U.S. Government IT Spending Guides (federal, state and local and education).

More about Shawn P. McCarthy

Shawn P. McCarthy Research Director, IDC Government Insights

About the Analyst

https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=PRF004840

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Table of Contents

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Message from the Sponsor

IDC InfoBrief, sponsored by Lumen Technologies April 2021 | Doc. #US47540921

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Lumen is a technology company that enables organizations to benefit from emerging applications that power the 4th Industrial Revolution. We provide the fastest, most secure platform for next-gen applications and data that integrates network infrastructure, cloud connectivity, edge computing, connected security, voice, collaboration, and enterprise-class services into an advanced application architecture across industries. As data is dramatically shaping the future of all humankind, Lumen is working to relentlessly unleash the potential of data, leading to more capable and efficient edge computing and pervasive technologies across devices, systems, and workloads.

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Edge Computing: Transforming Government Operations

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