possible. When cloud infrastructure is deployed too far from end recipients, users often experience high latency. This is especially troublesome for verticals requiring rapid transactions such as media and entertainment, gaming, and fintech. To solve for this, processing, storage, and networking capabilities should be deployed at the edge—as close to end targets as possible. In other words, businesses need to deploy cloud at the edge to ensure they have cloud networking, storage, and compute resources available.

Many Western organizations assume that the largest cloud hyperscalers—AWS, MS Azure, and Google—already have data center presence in every market, including in developing countries. However, that’s not necessarily the case. In reality, hyperscalers and other public companies base expansion on two key elements: profitability and ease of entry. Although they are major players in Western countries, hyperscalers often don’t establish a presence in new markets that pose financial or logistical risks with barriers such as government relations, national infrastructure, and resources. These economic pressures and geopolitical obstacles prevent the hyperscalers from being omnipresent. According to TeleGeography, of the 402 emerging market cities with a population exceeding one million, only 29 of those cities have a public cloud PoP present.

Organizations looking to deploy at the edge should consider providers that are experts in expanding at the edge and have the experience and resources to assist in expanding into hard-to-reach geographies. From streaming media and entertainment companies, to gaming and blockchain, to untapped business and healthcare software services and IoT developments that facilitate smart cities, businesses across multiple industries can use edge computing to improve their digital presence in formerly unreachable markets.

This is where edge cloud service providers come in. They are specialized in providing a multitude of points of presence (PoPs) in traditionally hard-to-access regions. They are the authority in providing services worldwide to reach new audiences. These include services such as global networking and IP transit, CDN networks and content acceleration solutions, as well as bare metal cloud, so providers have a dedicated cloud presence as close to their end targets as possible.

Local market partnerships

Establishing an organization and winning in emerging markets is challenging, especially if you’re used to doing business in developed markets. But the business and technical challenges can be overcome with a core set of best practices and key partnerships to help navigate through uncertainty. While the obstacles for companies looking to tap into these previously unreachable markets can be significant, they are not insurmountable.

To capitalize on the tremendous opportunities emerging markets present, innovative business leaders are working with partners with local market expertise and an established global footprint. A partner with a combination of global recognition and experience has already done the heavy lifting of building the important relationships that would otherwise require a team on the ground to get up and running in emerging markets and avoid imminent mistakes in the process. The most reputable and well-established edge cloud providers have in-depth understanding of local Internet exchanges, ISPs, telecommunications operators, and data centers in emerging markets. Some even have a bilingual technical support team for immediate problem resolution.

Right now, there remains a huge opportunity to garner market share in emerging markets. But the window is closing as more companies establish roots in these previously untapped markets. If you haven’t already gotten started, or if you’ve hit roadblocks, talk to an edge cloud services provider with expertise in fast-growing emerging markets to learn how they can help you navigate through the uncertainties and successfully deploy at the edge.