Digital Lifescapes

Why are savvy CIOs and CTOs so focused on Hybrid IT infrastructure solutions? More enterprises are moving to hybrid and multi-cloud environments. According to the latest worldwide market study by 451 Research, the cloud services market will reach $53.3 billion in 2021, that up from $28.1 billion this year. The latest global survey found that cloud service adoption is now mainstream, with 90 percent of organizations surveyed using some type of cloud service. Moreover, analysts expect 60 percent of workloads to be running in some form of hosted cloud service by 2019 -- that's up from 45 percent today. Cloud Services Market Development This represents an ongoing pivot from DIY owned and operated on-premises IT, to a combination that includes cloud or hosted third-party IT services. 451 Research finds that the future of IT is multi-cloud and hybrid with 69 percent of survey respondents planning to have some type of diverse environment by 2019. That being said, the growth in mul...

More CTOs are being tasked to assess the commercial applications of augmented and virtual reality technologies. These systems are increasingly being applied, due to their ability to provide immersive training environments, accurately simulate dangerous situations, and avoid costly travel and equipment-related expenses. In many cases, consumer electronics Virtual Reality (VR) headsets, controllers, and tracking systems can be used in commercial settings with few modifications. That being said, it's likely that ruggedized versions of these products will be introduced for these situations. Commercial VR Market Development According to the ABI assessment, industries with high-risk working environments -- such as energy, industrial and manufacturing or construction -- are currently the early adopters of enterprise VR training applications. Technician training in industries such as the energy sector can be perilous, mainly due to the nature of the job where technicians work on of...

Digital ticketing will continue to be a high growth market. A mobile ticketing user is someone who either purchases and/or stores a ticket using their mobile handset for later redemption. In contrast, an online ticketing user is likely someone who purchases a ticket online via an Internet connected device, thereby replacing the prior conventional ticket purchase process. There's been substantial new growth in mobile and online ticketing, partly as a result of growing user adoption and usage momentum. While in some markets ticketing is a new service offering and users have simply never had this functionality open to them previously, in other markets these services are mature and well established. Digital Ticketing Market Development Online ticketing now accounts for majority of ticketing transactions in many markets across the globe, including both developed and developing countries. That said, mobile ticketing is fast becoming a popular method for transit fare collection and ...

The global networked economy thrives on new ideas and innovation. Across the globe, more nations are making technology-centered strategies the focal point of their economic development. Amid ongoing digital transformation, the world is entering the era of the digital economy, a trend that is very evident in China. Against this backdrop, the definition of the Four New Concepts, namely "new era, new balance, new way of thinking, and new grand goals" was proposed at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China held in October 2017, outlining the direction for China's future economic development. Five key terms were also mentioned in the report: "Cultural Revitalization, Digital Transformation, Innovation-driven Development, Globalization, and People's Well-being," serving as guidelines to the development of China’s digital economy for the years to come. China's Digital Transformation Agenda IDC predicts that in the next 3 to 4 years, a...

Information technology (IT) investment within the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region is on track to further growth.  IT spending in EMEA is forecast to reach $1 trillion in 2018 -- that's an increase of 4.9 percent from 2017, according to the latest market study by by Gartner. In 2017, however, all categories of traditional IT spending in EMEA under-performed the global averages. According to the Gartner assessment, currency effects played a significant part in the weakness during 2017, and will also contribute to the forecast shortfall in 2018. EMEA IT Sector Market Development "The UK has EMEA’s largest IT market and its decline of 3.1 percent in 2017 impacts the forecast heavily," said John-David Lovelock, research vice president at Gartner . "Weak Sterling and political uncertainty since Brexit are reducing UK IT spending in 2017, while other major IT markets in EMEA grew steadily." Another significant currency effect is the rapid appreciat...

The global retail sector has been greatly impacted by the shift to online eCommerce. That being said, remarkable in-store innovation continues to transform the retailer employee and customer experiences. Retailers are beginning to use wearable technology to improve processes and customer satisfaction. Retailer wearables provide in-store employees with access to information such as stock levels, as well as to facilitate communication with team members. This allows shopper requests to be resolved faster and ensures that the employee continues to interact with the customer, improving the overall shopping experience. Retail Wearables Market Development ABI Research forecasts enterprise retail wearable shipments will reach nearly 10 million in 2022, increasing from just 2 million in 2017 -- that's a CAGR of 38 percent. This makes retail one of the fastest growing enterprise wearable verticals, with numerous devices improving store operations. Devices such as smartwatches, smar...

The ongoing shift to cloud computing continues across the globe. The worldwide public cloud services market grew 28.6 percent year-over-year in the first half of 2017 (1H17) with revenues totaling $63.2 billion, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). "Public cloud adoption is accelerating in large part as enterprises recognize that the cloud has become the launchpad for virtually every new IT innovation in the last 24 months -- including AI, blockchain, quantum computing and more," said Frank Gens, senior vice president and chief analyst at IDC . Public Cloud Market Development While stronger than expected growth was seen across all regions, Asia-Pacific saw the highest regional growth at 38.9 percent and this market now represents 11.5 percent of all public cloud services revenues. Strong public cloud spending in China, which saw 55.6 percent year-over-year growth in the first half of 2017, is a key driver. Among the three prima...

Since the first online banner advert in 1993, advertising on digital platforms has seen significant developments. According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau, in 2013 digital advertising revenues overtook cable TV advertising within the U.S. market. The process by which advertisements reach their target audiences has advanced from being the advertiser and publisher, and now includes a plethora of ecosystem stakeholders in between. That said, it's not an easy task to fully understand the workings behind current digital advertising value networks. There's a significant degree of ongoing consolidation, as operations begin to become siloed. Digital Advertising Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, digital advertising spend will grow by an 18 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the next five years -- rising from $184 billion in 2017 to $420 billion in 2022. This include advertising spend across mobile, desktop,...

Private cloud services are gaining new momentum, partly due to the demand for hybrid IT solutions on-premises. 451 Research predicts that IT vendors with OpenStack private cloud revenue will exceed revenue from service providers with OpenStack-based public cloud implementations in 2018. From a regional perspective, deployments in China and the Asia-Pacific region are now growing faster than in the rest of the world. While not the primary driver, a contributing factor is the Chinese government advocating for OpenStack deployments. Private Cloud Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by 451 Research, OpenStack revenue will exceed $6 billion by 2021, as it experiences a growth rate of 30 percent CAGR. Moreover, OpenStack is benefiting from the increase in hybrid cloud environments with 61 percent of the enterprises surveyed utilizing a hybrid IT approach. Certain industry verticals and regions that are less enthusiastic about exclusively using hyperscale...

Become the disruptor of your industry's status quo, or face the consequences. To succeed, CEOs need to know the answer to a key question in 2018 and beyond. Does our CIO and/or CTO have what it takes to contribute to a meaningful and substantive digital transformation agenda? As digitally-fueled disruptors reshape industries, the clear mandate for every enterprise is to re-imagine itself to compete in the increasingly digital economy that's platform-powered and ecosystem-enabled. To help CIOs and CTOs through this period of multiplied innovation, International Data Corporation (IDC) published its Worldwide CIO Agenda 2018 Predictions. Top 10 Strategic IT Planning Changes They outline IDC's vision for the ten most important shifts that will happen in IT organizations over the next 36 months, and will guide IT executives in the formation of their three-year strategic IT plan. According to the IDC assessment, lines are being drawn that separate industry laggards from...

Research in quantum computing is closely tied to the discipline of information theory, a mathematical concept concerned with communication, coding, and encryption. Various applications of quantum information theory were developed in the last 50 years. As a result, quantum computing has been high on the research agenda of governments and technology organizations worldwide. In a quantum computing model, the basic unit of information is called the quantum bit (qubit), which can be represented by photons. Using qubits and quantum gates, the development of a quantum circuit model of computation has been made possible, enabling the use of algorithms to theoretically solve highly complex mathematical problems in a much shorter time frame than is currently possible. Quantum Computing Market Development Most experts now agree that the creation of a quantum computer is simply a matter of engineering, and that the theoretical application will happen. Optimistic estimates for commercializ...