In total, 90 percent of small business owners said their company is not utilising edge data centres, according to the independent commissioned by Volta Data Centres (https://www.voltadatacentres.com/), with just 17 percent saying they were likely to deploy the technology in the next five years compared to 51 percent of larger companies.

The ‘Data Loss and Downtime are putting Hybrid and Edge Computing Strategies at Risk’ report, produced by Sapio Research, highlights the growing technology gap between SMBs and large enterprises.

Although 45 percent of firms overall said they are using Edge data centres, just a quarter of companies with less than 100 employees are utilising the technology – this rises to 68 percent of 100-199 sized companies, 59 percent of 200-499 and 57 percent of 500+.

The report highlights the reasons for edge data centre adoption, with security (68 percent) being the primary factor ahead of faster delivery (57 percent) and cost efficiency (56 per cent).

Jon Arnold, Managing Director at Volta Data Centres said: “Companies investing in edge computing are seeing huge benefits from the collection of operational information from IoT devices at the edge. But this report highlights the growing gulf between small and large companies, revealing the need for an improved understanding of the IT infrastructure available to small businesses.

“An ‘industry inequality’ is emerging that threatens to profit the biggest companies while leaving the rest far behind. In the long-term, these small businesses might lose employees frustrated with what they perceive as inadequate data centre and IT resources, as well as customers equally frustrated with slow, unreliable access to information. Education on and the witnessing of benefits around Edge computing will be essential to help plug this gap, helped by the smaller businesses that plan on adopting the technology in the future.”