JustUpdateOnline.com – As businesses increasingly shift toward decentralized computing and real-time digital services, the expansion of edge-native data centers is reaching unprecedented levels. Recent projections suggest the global edge market could reach a valuation of $317 billion by 2026. Furthermore, industry analysts at Gartner anticipate that 75 percent of all data will be generated outside of traditional centralized clouds within this year. However, despite this massive momentum, the technical and structural foundations required for a sophisticated edge ecosystem remain inconsistent.
Lalit S. Chowdhary, the Chief Technology and Innovation Officer at Lightstorm, has highlighted the various hurdles—technical, operational, and legal—that continue to prevent edge deployments from scaling effectively. These challenges are particularly pronounced in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, which is a highly fragmented market. Although APAC is on track to host approximately 40 percent of the world’s total data center capacity, the region’s connectivity infrastructure remains a significant bottleneck. This is compounded by issues such as limited land availability, energy constraints, and a shortage of specialized technical talent.
While the expansion of subsea cables is ongoing, many areas still struggle with "last-mile" connectivity gaps and high latency when data crosses borders. These inefficiencies make it difficult to achieve the seamless interconnectivity required for modern digital applications.
The Current State of Network as a Service (NaaS)
The industry has seen a rise in Network as a Service (NaaS) as a solution for on-demand provisioning and agility. However, Chowdhary noted that current NaaS models are often not yet robust enough for the most demanding corporate environments. Because many of these services operate on shared infrastructure with abstracted layers of control, enterprises often find it difficult to maintain full visibility or enforce strict service level agreements (SLAs) regarding path diversity and speed.
Additionally, routing data through multiple countries introduces complex compliance and data residency issues. Chowdhary believes that for NaaS to become a true alternative to traditional networking, the industry must improve regional point-of-presence density and develop more rigorous enforcement of performance standards.
The Road to Edge-Native Frameworks
Despite the rapid physical rollout of edge facilities, a truly "edge-native" architecture is likely several years away. Chowdhary argued that market growth alone cannot bridge the architectural gaps currently present in the ecosystem. While latency and network density are frequently discussed, other critical factors—such as distributed security governance, multi-jurisdictional compliance, and a lack of industry-wide standardization—are often overlooked.
He emphasized that "ecosystem readiness" is perhaps the most vital factor for success. This involves aligning security models, APIs, and operational frameworks across various stakeholders. Without this synchronization, even the most advanced fiber-optic networks or power-efficient facilities will fail to scale sustainably.
Strategic Importance of Neutrality and AI
In the current landscape, carrier and cloud neutrality have evolved from regulatory checkboxes into essential strategies for operational resilience. In a multi-cloud world, neutral architectures allow businesses to avoid vendor lock-in and maintain consistent performance across different platforms. Chowdhary warned that industry consolidation could potentially centralize control, making it even more important for enterprises to demand programmable, vendor-agnostic infrastructure.
Looking toward the future, the next phase of evolution will likely be driven by the intersection of artificial intelligence and network automation. API-driven systems are expected to enable self-provisioning and predictive maintenance, allowing networks to remediate issues automatically.
Ultimately, while the industry is adding edge capacity at a record pace, the promise of a fully automated, low-latency edge architecture depends on the maturation of foundational layers that are still being built. Until standardization and regulatory coherence catch up with physical expansion, the full potential of the edge may remain just out of reach.