Digital Lifescapes

The public cloud computing sector is in a constant state of evolution, as vendors design new IT infrastructure architectures and service providers deploy them in their own unique hyperscale data center facilities. According to the latest analysis of cloud pricing by 451 Research, for the majority of new applications, a serverless solution offers a lower total cost of ownership (TCO) than both virtual machines (VMs) or containers. Severless Cloud Market Development When analyzing serverless offerings from the leading public cloud service providers, 451 Research determined that IBM generally offers the least expensive service, with Microsoft leading for certain other configurations. According to the 451 Research assessment, the TCO of serverless tends to be lower than VMs, even when the VM is hosting containers, because there is no need for developers to provision, configure and manage the infrastructure. As an example, when a serverless function is active for just three quarte...

As the wearables market evolves, total shipment volumes will maintain their growth momentum. Vendors will ship a total of 125.5 million wearable devices worldwide in 2017, that's a 20.4 percent increase from the 104.3 million units shipped in 2016. According to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), the wearables market will nearly double before reaching a total of 240.1 million units shipped in 2021, resulting in a five-year CAGR of 18.2 percent. Wearables Market Development "The wearables market is entering a new phase," said Ramon T. Llamas, research manager at IDC . "Since the market’s inception, it’s been a matter of getting product out there to generate awareness and interest. Now it’s about getting the experience right – from the way the hardware looks and feels to how software collects, analyzes, and presents insightful data." According to the IDC assessment, this means that users will be treated to second- and third-gen...

Having trouble staffing your digital transformation project team? Well, you're not alone. More organizations report a digital business skills gap within their workforce, but many can't find a viable solution to the IT talent shortage, according to the latest market study by CompTIA. Forty-six percent of the executives surveyed believe that the digital business skill challenges within their organizations have grown over the past two years. Moreover, the skills gaps are not confined to technology. Executives also reported digital skills issues in marketing, sales or business development, operations, customer service, accounting and finance. Digital Skills Market Assessment "The skills gap is often a catch-all phrase for other workplace challenges, such as a labor supply gap or generational differences in work styles," said Charles Eaton, executive vice president at  CompTIA . "But whatever the cause there is clearly a wide chasm between the skills employers...

The convenience and global reach made possible by online channels has led to the development of a broad set of digital eCommerce services. However, the accessibility of the Internet and the ability to commit fraud remotely creates an environment for cyber criminals to prosper. Meanwhile, the potential attack surface for miscreants is enormous -- about 94 billion transactions were made for remote goods purchases in 2016, which is only a fraction of the total eCommerce landscape. That said, advanced security measures are increasingly being implemented to protect against fraud carried out at physical locations. It's for these reasons that fraudsters have developed, and are continually developing, new methods to illegally siphon cash over the Internet. Online Payment Protection Market Development Juniper Research has found that retailers stand to lose $71 billion globally from fraudulent Card-Not-Present (CNP) transactions over the next 5 years. Their latest worldwide market st...

Managing urban transportation challenges in large metropolitan areas has motivated local government leaders to consider alternative solutions to traditional public transit. More major cities across the globe now have programs in place to test the applications of autonomous vehicle (AV) technologies. According to the latest worldwide market study by Canalys, four cities are leading the way to being prepared for autonomous vehicles. To date, San Francisco is out in front, followed by Shanghai, Singapore and London. These rise to the top of a group of cities that, due to their size and populations, have some of the most complex transport networks in the world. The leaders have a significant need for autonomous vehicles to transform and evolve their transit systems, combined with the ability and desire to make it happen. Autonomous Vehicles Market Development These conclusions come from the recently published Autonomous Vehicle Readiness Index (AVRI), which ranks, weights and score...

Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) continue to gain momentum in the emerging technology marketplace. Dedicated AR and VR headsets are now expected to grow from just under 10 million units in 2016 to about 100 million units in 2021 -- that's a 5-year CAGR of 57.7 percent. VR headsets have led the device shipment volume to date, according to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation, (IDC). Within that category, screen-less viewers (VR headsets powered by a smartphone), which are the least expensive available form factor, have been leading the charge. AR and VR Market Development The second half of 2016 saw an increase in volume from three market leading VR device products - the Sony PlayStation VR, the HTC Vive, and Facebook's Oculus Rift. The next few months will further advance the VR market as PC vendors introduce tethered headsets and high-end standalone VR headsets also enter the market. With lower hardware requirements on the ...

The notion of Connected Cars refers to devices installed in a vehicle which allow Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication. Moreover, M2M is typically wireless communication between two single machines or systems, without requiring any human interaction. In relation to vehicle telematics, this capability enables data to be sent from the vehicle to another location and thereby used for vehicle conditioning, or to monitor the vehicle driver's behavior. Beyond the connected car ecosystem, there are opportunities for integration with other emerging technology ecosystems -- such as the smart home and smart city technology. The ultimate commercial value of the ecosystem will be determined by others, such as government policymakers and Mobile Network Operators (MNOs). Connected Car Market Development A new market study by Juniper Research has revealed that, by 2022, 50 percent of consumer vehicles on the road will have at least one connectivity service -- such as telematics, vehicle...

Wearable technologies are entering the workplace. ABI Research forecasts enterprise wearable device revenue -- such as smartwatches, smart glasses, and wearable scanners -- will exceed $55 billion in 2022, which is growing from an estimated $10.5 billion in 2017. With a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) that surpasses 39 percent, these devices will improve productivity, reduce errors, and save time training both new and seasoned enterprise workers. The implementation of strong supporting IT platforms is now essential to ensure proper employee access, storage, and security of all wearable device data. Enterprise Wearables Market Development "Wearables have much less in-built security and authentication protocols than other devices and so require robust security platforms to ensure data safety," said Stephanie Lawrence, research analyst at ABI Research . Supporting platforms enable IT teams to determine what business information the wearables can access, monitor th...

Many enterprises across the globe are not creating mobile applications. According to the findings from a recent Gartner survey, 39 percent of respondents said they had not built, customized or virtualized any mobile apps in the previous 12 months. "Many IT teams will have significant backlogs of application work that need completing, which increases the risk of lines of business going around IT to get what they want sooner," said Adrian Leow, research director at Gartner . "Development teams need to rethink their priorities and span of control over mobile app development, or risk further erosion of IT budgets and the perceived value of IT development." Enterprise Mobile App Market Development According to the survey, those enterprises that have undertaken mobile app development have deployed an average of eight mobile apps, which has remained relatively flat when compared with 2016. On average, another 2.6 mobile apps are currently being developed and 6.2 are ...

Effective IT infrastructure security is a growing concern to most organizations that have expanded their use of eCommerce applications. It's especially important to senior executives at public companies that are held responsible for security breaches and any related impact on customers. IT security expertise demand is increasing worldwide, including managed services. As an example, the Latin American managed security services (MSS) market is transforming as CIOs focus on higher levels of security and risk management for their IT infrastructure. According to the latest market study by Frost & Sullivan, this is due to increasing threats such as targeted Internet attacks, advanced persistent threats, more sophisticated distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, and of course ransomware. IT Security Services Market Development "Traditionally, the mindset about cyber security in Latin America has been more reactive rather than proactive, with investments occurring af...

The emergence of hyperscale cloud service providers transformed the enterprise computing environment. IT infrastructure vendors have learned to adapt to shifts in market demand and embrace the ongoing changes that have affected the data center server and storage markets. Enterprise CIOs and CTOs have also modified their traditional budget allocations. Total worldwide enterprise storage systems factory revenue was down 0.5 percent year-over-year, reaching $9.2 billion in the first quarter of 2017 (1Q17), according to the latest global market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Data Center Storage Market Development Total capacity shipments were up 41.4 percent year-over-year to 50.1 exabytes during the quarter. Revenue growth increased within the group of original design manufacturers (ODMs) that sell directly to hyperscale data center operators. This portion of the market was up 78.2 percent year-over-year to $1.2 billion. In contrast, sales of server-based storage w...

Compliance with IT security and data privacy regulation is of growing concern to most European organizations. Businesses large and small are scrambling to assess their General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) readiness, with less than a year to go until its implementation on 25 May, 2018. GDPR is a regulation by which the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission intend to strengthen and unify data protection for all individuals within the European Union (EU). The new framework demands a reassessment of the everyday operational structure for businesses that handle personal data in the EU. The aim of the GDPR is to protect all EU citizens from privacy and data breaches in an increasingly data-driven world that is vastly different from the time in which the 1995 directive was established. Although the key principles of data privacy still hold true to the previous directive, many changes have been proposed to the regulatory policies. Penalti...

The shift to public cloud computing continues to impact on-premises IT data centers. Vendor revenue in the worldwide server market declined 4.6 percent year-over-year to $11.8 billion in the first quarter of 2017 (1Q17), according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Overall server market growth continues to slow down with most hyperscale service providers waiting until the second half of the year for new investment. High-end server sales continue to be a drag on overall market performance. The market has also been negatively affected by DRAM pricing issues. Worldwide server shipments increased 1.4 percent year over year to 2.21 million units in 1Q17. That said, one customer accounted for more than 10 percent of the servers shipped in 1Q17. IT Server Market Development Volume server revenue declined by 3.4 percent to $9.5 billion, while mid-range server revenue grew 16.5 percent to $1.3 billion. Demand for high-end systems experienced a year-over-...

The mobile internet continues to drive mobile network infrastructure investment. 4G LTE will grow from approximately 30 percent of global mobile subscriptions in 2017 to 50 percent in 2024, according to the latest worldwide study by ABI Research. The most advanced LTE service, Gigabit LTE, is expected to near two million subscriptions globally in 2017, which is less than 5 percent of LTE Advanced Pro subscriptions in 2017. Gigabit LTE devices, launched in 2017, will far exceed the subscription numbers, as few cell sites are expected to reach Gigabit LTE speeds in 2017. Gigabit LTE is a pivotal piece of an advanced 4G mobile network that can support an operator’s mobile service goals over the next six to eight years and beyond. LTE Network Market Development "Gigabit LTE is a specific configuration of the LTE Advanced Pro standard and is expected to account for 70 percent of LTE Advanced Pro subscriptions by 2026," said Prayerna Raina, senior analyst at ABI Research . ...

Global sales of smartphones to end users totaled 380 million units in the first quarter of 2017 -- that's a 9.1 percent increase over the first quarter of 2016, according to the latest market study by Gartner. Gartner analysts believe that mobile phone buyers are spending a little more to get a much better device, resulting in the rise in average selling prices of smartphones across the globe. The shift in buyer preference is positively affecting Chinese manufacturers -- such as Huawei, Oppo and Vivo -- in their strategy to build desirable features into devices at very affordable prices. Smartphone Market Development That being said, the combined market share of the Chinese vendors in the first quarter of 2017 accounted for 24 percent -- that's up by 7 percentage points year on year. "The top three Chinese smartphone manufacturers are driving sales with their competitively priced, high quality smartphones equipped with innovative features," said Anshul Gupta...

Worldwide shipments of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) headsets grew to 2.3 million units in 1Q17, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). With more products scheduled to ship in the second half of 2017, IDC is forecasting triple-digit growth for the full year. VR represented more than 98 percent of headsets shipped during the first quarter. Within VR, about two-thirds of all headset shipments were screen-less viewers -- such as Samsung Gear VR and Google Daydream View. Tethered VR headsets, such as the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and Sony PSVR, accounted for one third of the market. AR and VR Market Development "The VR market is still very young and consumers seem to be taking a cautious approach," said Jitesh Ubrani, senior research analyst at IDC . "With plenty of headset options already in the market and even more coming soon, hardware isn't the issue." According to the IDC assessment, the bigger chall...

A new market study by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) examined the commercial software environment and summarized the findings, assessing the IT DevOps and Continuous Delivery (CD) practices and related tools most relevant to managing online business services. "As the pace of business continues to accelerate, coordination across DevOps processes, practices, and tools becomes increasingly important," said Julie Craig, research director at EMA . DevOps and CD Tools Market Development This research provided insights into the ways in which high performing IT organizations are accelerating delivery of key business services and, in doing so, impacting the business bottom line. Research on these topics is particularly critical at this point in time. EMA is actively tracking what has amounted to a digital transformation movement -- and an accompanying revolution in software delivery -- that has occurred over the past five years. Today's rapidly changing and fast-...

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have compelling reasons to invest in IT security solutions, and telecom service providers are able to offer these new services, according to findings from the latest market study by Analysys Mason. Their report of the study findings explore the opportunity for traditional telecom network operators to sell IT security services to their SME customers. The analyst believes that IT security services offer a way for these network operators to stem the decline in other service revenue. However, selling security to SMEs is not straightforward and telecom operators have a low share of this market. According to the Analysys Mason assessment, only 13 percent of SMEs that buy IT security solutions do so from a local communications service provider (CSP). Reported study findings include: strengths that operators can exploit to sell to SMEs. security portfolio design and the need to build awareness of cyber-security solutions. case studies of two...