It’s hard not to get caught up in the cacophony about edge computing. Whether you’re exploring the newest open source projects, watching provocative keynotes, perusing the most recent tidal wave of vendor press releases, or merely having casual discussions with customers and peers, one thing is clear: everyone is in a rush to define, understand and conquer the edge. But what is the edge really?

We posit four principles

• The edge is a location, not a thing;
• There are lots of edges, but the edge we care about today is the edge of the last mile network;
• This edge has two sides: an infrastructure edge and a device edge;
• Compute will exist on both sides, working in coordination with the centralized cloud.

It is in this context that we, as well as our colleagues at Ericsson (UDN), Arm, and Rafay, created the inaugural State of the Edge report to cut through the noise, bring some order to the discussion, and build a community that cares deeply about edge computing and the innovations that will be required to bring its promise to fruition.

When it comes to evolving the internet, there is no finish line. This is an ongoing community effort. We encourage you to join our Slack group and help shape future editions of the State of the Edge report as well as participate in offshoot projects, such as the Open Glossary of Edge Computing.