The cable industry long ago widened its ambitions beyond video, addicting millions of customers to cable modems and more recently adding voice over internet protocol telephony to its menu. Insiders call this video-voice-data combo the "triple play" strategy. So with a trifecta of moneymaking schemes on its plate, the cable guys must be pretty satisfied, right? Uh, no. "We're all still waiting for that aha moment in which we have a portable device that came from the cable company," said Dale Fox, vice president of digital phone at Time Warner Cable. That's right. The cable industry wants you to chuck your cable -- at least when you're outside the house. The addition of a fourth wireless component to the cable package is now affectionately known as the "quadruple play." At the annual meeting of CTAM, the cable industry's top sales and marketing folks gathered in Philly this week to figure out new ways to get at your wallet. And while the conference focused on many topics, including better customer service, VOIP, video on demand and improving cable-modem speeds, the big buzz was about mobility. After all, customers now want to take their entertainment and communications with them everywhere they go. The last thing cable operators want is to be left out of that party.
The importance of data in today's business landscape fundamentally reshapes how CIOs invest in their IT infrastructure. A recent International Data Corporation ( IDC ) market study highlights this trend, revealing insights into spending patterns. The study indicates that structured database and data management workloads are the largest spending category within enterprise IT infrastructure. This is unsurprising, considering the foundational role these workloads play in managing digital business data. However, IDC's worldwide market study also sheds light on a noteworthy shift – spending in some categories witnessed a slight decline in 2023 compared to 2022. Data Workload Market Development This dip could be attributed to several factors. Organizations might optimize their existing data management processes, potentially leveraging more efficient storage solutions or cloud-based data management services. Additionally, the rise of alternative data sources, such as unstructured and