Edge computing: why companies are moving away from relying solely on the cloud

The cloud is essential for scaling, storing, analyzing, and deploying global services. But many critical operations increasingly require proximity, low latency, autonomy, and local control. As a result, edge computing is seeing growing adoption. Although its implementation is not yet uniform, it is no longer an experimental technology. It is advancing particularly in sectors where low latency, operational continuity, and local data processing are critical.

For businesses, it is not a matter of choosing between the cloud or the edge, but rather of securely managing a hybrid and distributed model. And in this landscape, the network becomes the layer that enables the connection, protection, and organization of the digital infrastructure. For Saima Systems, this transformation confirms that the more distributed a business is, the more strategic its network becomes—especially with advanced capabilities like the SAIWALL Secure SD-WAN solution.

For years, the cloud has helped companies digitize more quickly, without relying as heavily on their own servers or on local infrastructure that is difficult to scale. But the growth of data, automation, and the need to operate in real time are reshaping the landscape of digital infrastructure.

Several indicators point to this evolution. The European Commission identifies the cloud and edge computing as key technologies for the evolution of Europe’s digital infrastructure. It notes that the gradual shift of data and cloud services toward the edge is part of the development of secure, sustainable, and interoperable cloud infrastructures. Another interesting fact: European spending on edge computing reached 33.5 billion euros in 2022 and is projected to reach 56.8 billion by 2026, with a compound annual growth rate of 14.1%, according to EUCloudEdgeIoT.

This expansion is already evident in specific cases:

• In industry, edge computing is beginning to be used for predictive maintenance, real-time quality control, and anomaly detection on production lines.
• In retail, it can be applied to inventory management, store analytics, loss prevention, and business continuity at the point of sale.
• In logistics, it is linked to automated warehouses, goods tracking, and fleet management.
• In healthcare, it involves connected devices, remote monitoring, and image analysis.
• In smart video surveillance, it enables the processing of large volumes of video near the camera, without having to send everything to the cloud.

The growing interest in edge computing stems from a very specific reality: companies are generating more and more data outside of traditional data centers. The connected industry, smart retail, advanced logistics, digital healthcare, video surveillance, predictive maintenance, and AI systems applied to operations all require processing information in increasingly distributed environments.

In many of these scenarios, sending all the data to the cloud is not always the most efficient option. It can create unnecessary latency, drive up transmission costs, increase reliance on connectivity, or make it difficult to control certain information flows.

Its goal is not to replace the cloud, but to complement it:

• The cloud remains essential for storing large volumes of data, training artificial intelligence models, centralizing corporate applications, and deploying services at scale.
• Edge computing brings processing power closer to the points where businesses need to act quickly, efficiently, or autonomously. It adds proximity, speed, and responsiveness right where the activity takes place.

The European Commission also links the evolution of cloud and edge computing to the development of more interoperable, secure, and reliable digital infrastructures. Within the framework of the European Data Strategy, this shift toward the edge is part of building a European ecosystem better equipped to manage and share data securely, as well as building digital sovereignty.

There is increasing talk of the cloud-edge continuum to describe this new phase. The concept refers to a model in which the cloud, the edge, IoT, data centers, corporate headquarters, and connected devices are all part of the same distributed architecture.

In this model, workloads are located wherever it makes the most sense to run them: in the cloud, in a corporate data center, at a headquarters, in an industrial plant, or on the device itself. The decision will depend on factors such as latency, security, cost, process criticality, connectivity availability, or regulatory requirements.

The European Union is actively promoting this convergence between cloud, edge, and IoT. The EUCloudEdgeIoT initiative focuses on developing the Cloud, Edge, and IoT Continuum, fostering cooperation among research projects, suppliers, developers, user companies, and potential adopters of this new paradigm.

For businesses, this shift means that digital infrastructure is no longer concentrated in a few locations but is distributed across multiple layers. Data is generated at the edge, can be partially processed there, travel to cloud platforms, integrate with corporate applications, and return as an operational decision.

Edge computing adds value when a company needs to act quickly, reduce dependencies, or better manage data at the source.

Key benefits:

• Reduced latency. When a machine must shut down due to an anomaly, a camera must detect a risk, or an industrial application must react within milliseconds, processing data close to where it is generated can be critical.
• Improved operational continuity. Processing certain data locally allows critical operations to continue even in the event of connectivity issues.
• Optimization of traffic and costs. Not all data has the same value. In many cases, it can be more efficient to process information at the source, filter out what is relevant, and send to the cloud only what truly needs to be stored, analyzed, or integrated with other systems.
• Enhanced security and control. Processing certain data close to its source can help limit unnecessary exposure, better segment information flows, and apply policies more tailored to the context of each location, device, or application.
• Strengthening digital sovereignty. Deciding where data is processed, under what conditions, and with what level of control is becoming a strategic factor.

As infrastructure becomes more distributed, the network takes on a more strategic role. It is no longer just about connecting users to applications, but about connecting offices, clouds, devices, machines, sensors, data, and distributed workloads.

This forces companies to reevaluate their connectivity architecture. A cloud-edge model requires networks capable of providing traffic visibility, centralized control, segmentation, encryption, prioritization of critical applications, high availability, multi-carrier management, and the ability to integrate offices, the cloud, and edge environments.

Complexity increases especially in organizations with many branch offices, industrial plants, points of sale, remote users, or hybrid environments. In these cases, the network must be flexible enough to adapt to different scenarios, but also sufficiently manageable to maintain security, traceability, and continuity.

In this scenario, SAIWALL Secure SD-WAN, Saima Systems’ SD-WAN solution, enables companies to move toward connectivity that is better suited for distributed architectures. Its value lies in facilitating centralized network management, securing communications between locations, enforcing security policies, strengthening business continuity, and improving visibility into corporate traffic.

In a cloud-edge model, these capabilities are particularly relevant. The company must decide which traffic goes to the cloud, which processes should remain close to the data, how communications between locations are protected, and how service is guaranteed when the digital infrastructure is spread across multiple locations.

SAIWALL Secure SD-WAN helps build a more secure, resilient, and governable network—one capable of supporting the company in this environment where applications, data, and decisions no longer reside in a single location.