With all the ink that's been spilled over the concept, it is perhaps a surprise that the Edge is still an emerging sector. Over the last several years, we've monitored the evolution of the concept of Edge computing as it approached reality.

All along the basic pitch remained the same: there are some applications which require low latency, and these applications will need resources placed close to devices and data.

This supplement explores the Edge through the following features:

• The arrival of the 5G Edge 5G promised great things, but hit hurdles on the way to market
• Advertorial: Edge of the metaverse Virtual words could not be built without fast, low-latency local communications
• IoT - the Edge savior IoT gives operators new revenue - and might help save the planet
• Putting the Edge in a box Edge data centers aren't all in ISO shipping containers