Edge cloud is rapidly becoming a key component of digital transformation strategies across industries. At a recent trade show, I had the privilege of moderating a conversation on edge cloud go-to-market strategy with Vinod Nair, Founder and CEO at Q Meridian Consulting, and my colleague Anirban Chakravartti, Senior Vice President and Global Head of Enterprise Sales at Rakuten Cloud. Their expert insights shed light on why organizations across industries are now treating edge cloud as a central pillar of their digital transformation agendas.
To set the stage, I first asked: “Where is edge cloud computing heading?”
"What we’re starting to see,” Nair said, “is that as volumes increase and the cost of doing work in the cloud rises, there are very strategic efforts to bring specific workloads closer to where the data is created.”
“AI is triggering a set of requirements where decisions must happen right at the moment—at the point of interaction. For industries like retail, manufacturing, and banking, delays in data processing as the data travels to the cloud and back can translate into missed opportunities and negative customer experiences. By the time it happens, the objective is lost.” – Anirban Chakravartti, SVP, Global Head of Enterprise Sales at Rakuten Cloud
This shift marks a growing awareness of the operational benefits of edge cloud. According to Nair, whether through hybrid architectures, on-premises setups, or true edge nodes, customers are seeking ways to reduce latency and increase autonomy.
Chakravartti echoed this view, adding that the move to edge cloud is driven by evolving customer expectations and the rise of real-time AI.
“AI is triggering a set of requirements where decisions must happen right at the moment—at the point of interaction,” he said. For industries like retail, manufacturing, and banking, delays in data processing as the data travels to the cloud and back can translate into missed opportunities and negative customer experiences. As Chakravartti put it, “By the time it happens, the objective is lost.”
This simple observation is key to understanding why edge cloud is now a business imperative.
When I asked Nair about the practicalities of processing data at the edge, he pointed out several trade-offs: constrained compute environments, tighter security requirements, and latency-sensitive decision-making. Many of these challenges have solutions, and the benefits of edge cloud outweigh any drawbacks
Chakravartti illustrated this with an example from the automotive industry. “If there's a 30-minute stoppage on a car production line, the cost exceeds the value of the entire infrastructure supporting it. Now imagine realizing a defect a month later—you’re looking at a massive recall.”
Edge processing can catch those anomalies in real time, preventing faulty rollouts and reducing downstream financial damage. This applies to companies in multiple industries—from semiconductors, where real-time yield improvements are critical, to healthcare, where latency could impact a life-saving insulin delivery.
“How do you avoid needing massive capital outlays every time there's a tech update? With edge, you can make this a predictable operational expense,” – Vinod Nair, Founder and CEO at Q Meridian Consulting
Security is an imperative. In addition to encryption and other security features, the edge cloud solution has the unique advantage of providing an air-gapped environment that still delivers edge-level performance.
Innovations like Google Distributed Cloud and the Rakuten Cloud-Native Platform are enabling these secure, high-performance edge deployments even in disconnected environments.
Chakravartti added another advantage for edge cloud: regional contextualization. “You can’t launch a North America-specific promotion and expect it to work in Asia,” he said. “Edge lets you push centrally defined strategies and adapt them locally—in real time.”
The ability to test, tweak, and optimize campaigns at the micro-edge level enables global brands to build stronger local relevance. “In cities, different neighborhoods have different buying patterns. Edge helps you act on that level of granularity.”
Nair reminded us that the edge is not only a performance lever but also a business model innovation tool. “How do you avoid needing massive capital outlays every time there's a tech update? With edge, you can make this a predictable operational expense,” he said. That consistency—in performance, deployment, and cost—gives technology leaders a scalable way to support distributed business environments.
Chakravartti rounded out the conversation: “When someone walks into your store, you don’t want them to leave empty-handed. Edge computing helps you understand who that customer is, what they’re looking for, and how to serve them better—right then and there.”
As edge computing matures, it’s becoming a mainstream compute option that rivals public cloud computing for certain workloads. Successful workloads are those that drive responsive, intelligent, and resilient enterprise operations. From semiconductor fabs to neighborhood pharmacies, from global supply chains to local promotions—edge is enabling outcomes that the centralized cloud model simply can’t support on its own.
There was more to our conversation, and you can watch it all right here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McsM4QilTc
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