Digital Lifescapes

Enterprise CIOs and CTOs continue to explore the use cases and business applications for cloud edge computing. Moreover, CEOs and CFOs continue to fund IT digital transformation initiatives that support new growth and increased profitability. Worldwide spending on edge computing will reach $208 billion in 2023 -- that's an increase of 13.1 percent over 2022. Spending on hardware, software, and services for edge solutions will sustain this pace of growth through 2026 when new investment is forecast to reach $317 billion, according to the latest global market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Edge Computing Market Development IDC defines edge as the technology-related actions that are performed outside of the centralized data center, where the edge is the intermediary between the connected endpoints and the core IT environment. The cloud computing edge is distributed, software-defined, and flexible. The value of edge is the movement of computing resources to the physical...

As more organizations adapt to a hybrid working model for their distributed workforce, enterprise CIOs and CTOs are tasked with delivering new productivity-enabling applications, while also seeking ways to effectively reduce IT cost, complexity, and risk. Traditional IT hardware infrastructure is evolving to more software-based solutions. The worldwide software-defined infrastructure (SDI) combined software market reached $12.17 billion during 2020 -- that's an increase of 5 percent over 2019, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). The market grew faster than other core IT technologies. The three technology pillars within the SDI market are: software-defined compute (53 percent of market value), software-defined storage controller (36 percent), and software-defined networking (11 percent). "Software-defined infrastructure solutions have long been popular for companies looking to eliminate cost, complexity, and risk within their data cente...

The public cloud market has shown renewed enterprise IT investment. Meanwhile, converged systems' growth continues. Worldwide converged systems market revenue increased 4.5 percent year-over-year to $3.9 billion during the first quarter of 2020 (1Q20), according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). "The overall converged systems market showed resilience during a difficult macro environment in the first quarter of 2020," said Sebastian Lagana, research manager at IDC . While the hyper-converged system market expanded, the 'Certified Reference Systems & Integrated Infrastructure' segment posted its best quarter of growth since the second quarter of 2019 (2Q19) on the strength of sales for demanding workloads in industries such as healthcare and telecommunications. Converged Systems Market Development Regarding market segmentation, the IDC converged systems view includes three vendor segments: certified reference systems ...

As more CIOs and CTOs prepare for the data deluge that's driving demand for enterprise storage solutions, savvy IT infrastructure vendors are already offering next-generation systems that meet the evolving requirements of their customer's digital transformation projects. Software-defined storage (SDS) is one of several new technologies that are rapidly penetrating the IT infrastructure of enterprises and cloud service providers. SDS is gaining traction because it meets the demands of the next-generation data center much better than legacy storage infrastructure. As a result, International Data Corporation (IDC) forecasts the worldwide SDS market will see a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.5 percent over the 2017-2021 forecast period, with revenues of nearly $16.2 billion in 2021. Enterprise Storage Market Development Enterprise storage spending has already begun to move away from hardware-defined, dual-controller array designs toward SDS and from traditional on-...

Telecom service providers in the Asia-Pacific region are actively virtualizing their network architecture. A flurry of new applications development is driven by open source communities -- such as OPNFV and ONAP -- as well as from individual efforts by telcos. According to the latest market study by ABI Research, the network function virtualization (NFV) market in the Asia-Pacific region will grow to $9.24 billion in 2022. NFV Market Development in Asia-Pacific Japan is the largest single market within the Asia-Pacific region, constituting 25.7 percent of the total NFV revenue. This is followed by South Korea and China, at 22.7 percent and 14.6 percent of the revenue growth respectively. "Japan leads in the region, not only because of the desire to design resilient and reliable networks in preparation for future disaster threats, but also to prepare for the 2020 Summer Olympics," said Lian Jye Su, senior analyst at ABI Research . South Korea and China are actively pr...

Enterprise IT infrastructure requirements continue to evolve as CIOs and CTOs seek ways to support their agile DevOps methodologies. Meanwhile, IT vendors are attempting to remove complexity from the typical provisioning and deployment process via automation. The worldwide converged systems market revenues increased 4.6 percent year-over-year to $2.67 billion during the first quarter of 2017 (1Q17), according to the latest global market study by International Data Corporation (IDC) . The market consumed 1.48 exabytes of new storage capacity during the quarter, which was up by 7.1 percent when compared to the same period in 2016. Converged Systems Market Development "Converged systems have become an important source of innovation and growth for the data center infrastructure market," said Eric Sheppard, research director at IDC . "These solutions represent a conduit for the key technologies driving much needed data center modernization and efficiencies such as fla...

The senior executives who approve the purchase of business technology, and the industry analysts that influence them, have been very clear that they expect IT vendors to understand and respond to complex digital transformation agendas. That said, many vendors have a go-to-market strategy that hasn't evolved in a decade or more, and it's impacting their growth potential. The few that are attuned to the IT market of today are reaping the rewards. Meanwhile, 451 Research indicates that while 49.4 percent of enterprises are undergoing major IT transformation initiatives, which often include migration of current workloads to public cloud services, server spending remains steady. IT Server Market Development However, many IT buyers say their server vendors must demonstrate that they understand their business requirements, which is an increasingly important factor with cloud services and low-cost infrastructure underpinning software-defined IT environments. "There is a ...

The legacy enterprise networking environment within enterprise data centers continues to transition away from proprietary platforms to more open standards-based solutions. Traditional hardware vendors will gradually embrace the trend, as their customers seek to lower networking costs and improve performance. Software-defined networking (SDN) is approaching adoption by an early majority of enterprises and will compose nearly 40 percent of global enterprise network infrastructure revenue -- that's about $12.7 billion by 2020 -- according to the latest market study by Technology Business Research (TBR). Vendor revenue displacement will be incremental during this time, as SDN solutions largely coexist with legacy networking technologies. However, the ongoing virtualization of network functions is already starting to disrupt the incumbent status-quo. SDN Market Development Opportunities "Today’s business environment is characterized by globally distributed pools of informat...

Organizations with smaller IT teams, and many others, have already adopted hyper-converged technologies. According to the latest market study by 451 Research, hyperconverged infrastructure is used at 40 percent of companies, with more deployments expected during the next two years. Nearly one quarter of survey respondents indicated that they have these systems either in a current pilot, or included in future plans. The research uncovered that hyperconverged systems are evolving from prior network edge applications into a primary component of Hybrid IT infrastructure. The latest quarterly survey results indicate that 74.4 percent of the respondent organizations currently using hyperconverged have deployed the solutions in their central data centers, signaling a key transition. Hyperconverged Systems Market Development "Loyalties to traditional, standalone x86 servers are diminishing in today's IT ecosystems as managers adopt innovative technologies that eliminate multip...

Telecom service providers are embracing open source software and are moving beyond trial deployments. Moreover, they're seeking ways to free themselves from the technology constraints and associated costs of maintaining legacy networking equipment. Three-quarters of carriers participating in a survey of software-defined networking (SDN) technology demand say they've already deployed, or will deploy, in 2016 -- plus, 100 percent say they plan to deploy at some point in the future. Ongoing SDN Market Development The top drivers for service provider SDN investments are simplification and automation of network and service provisioning. Meanwhile, most operators are moving from initial SDN proof-of-concept evaluations to their first commercial deployments in 2016 and 2017. According to findings from the latest survey of carrier SDN strategies by IHS Markit , it’s clear that service providers around the globe are investing in SDN as part of a larger move to transform their in...

Traditional telecom networking equipment vendors have been preparing for the ongoing transition from hardware-centric business models of the past to a more software-oriented model. Meanwhile, the leading telecom service providers continue to adopt low-cost commodity hardware and open source software. According to the latest worldwide market study by IHS Markit , 100 percent of the telecom service providers participating in their recent survey say they will deploy Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) at some point, with 81 percent expecting to do so by 2017. Moreover, 59 percent of telecom network operator respondents have already deployed or will deploy NFV this year. However, integrating NFV into existing networks is an issue for a majority of survey respondents, as is the perceived lack of carrier-grade products. Regardless of these concerns, telecom service providers around the globe are rapidly moving toward NFV, which the latest study by IHS Markit bears out. NFV and SDN M...

Server, storage and networking hardware revenue decreased 1.1 percent year-to-year in the first quarter of 2016 (1Q16), due to ongoing software prioritization in the IT data center market, according to the latest market study by Technology Business Research (TBR). Year-to-year growth in the industry-standard server (ISS) and networking product segments was not enough to drive overall revenue growth during the quarter, due to steep declines in the legacy proprietary server segment. Software functionality is very important in the migration to hybrid cloud-enabled and data-centric IT business models, as enterprise buyers seek to mitigate complexity and management challenges. This change in demand is causing a significant shift away from proprietary servers and legacy storage technologies. Data Center Market Development Transition "Customers target high business growth areas to make strategic IT investments, but at the same time, they face budget restraints," said Krista ...

The exponential growth of data within the typical enterprise presents a huge challenge for CIOs that must seek new ways to fund and deploy comprehensive storage solutions. Enterprise IT organizations are embracing a range of Flash-optimized architectures as they continue to transform their storage infrastructures, according to the latest market study by 451 Research. Overall, almost 90 percent of these organizations now have some form of Flash-based storage installed in their data centers, while "all Flash" approaches are becoming increasingly standard to support transactional applications. Meanwhile, more enterprise IT leaders are assessing the merits of creating an optimal hybrid storage solution, where object storage platforms are deployed for warm or cold data in active archive applications. These lower-cost solutions can free-up IT budget that was otherwise allocated for legacy SAN and NAS upgrades. Quest for Unified Storage Transformation "Organizations of ...

Every enterprise IT best practice eventually reaches obsolescence as new methods disrupt the legacy status-quo -- virtualization has reached that turning point. The worldwide x86 server virtualization market is expected to reach $5.6 billion in 2016 -- that's an increase of 5.7 percent from 2015, but demand has shifted, according to the latest worldwide market study by Gartner. Despite the overall market increase, new software licenses have declined for the first time since the virtualization market became mainstream more than a decade ago. Growth is now being driven by software maintenance revenue, which indicates a rapidly maturing market segment. "The market has matured rapidly over the last few years, with many organizations having server virtualization rates that exceed 75 percent, illustrating the high level of penetration," said Michael Warrilow, research director at Gartner . Virtualization Market Development Challenges The server virtualization market is ...

Enterprise networking is experiencing a significant transformation, similar to the telecom service provider sector. The data center and enterprise software‑defined networking (SDN) market increased by 82 percent in 2015 from the prior year -- reaching $1.4 billion, according to the latest worldwide market study by IHS. New SDN use cases continue to emerge, with 2015 including the establishment of the SD-WAN market. Many new startups vendors, WAN optimization appliance vendors and some enterprise networking vendors have entered the market, now IHS has forecast SD-WAN revenue to reach $1.3 billion by 2020. Growth for SDN-capable Ethernet switches and SDN controllers continues to grow, with early players, pure-play SDN startups and traditional switch vendors gaining traction as customer deployments escalate. Enterprise SDN Market Development Trends Regionally, North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Asia-Pacific and the Caribbean and Latin America (CALA) were all...

Enterprise IT infrastructure investment is now more software-defined within the typical data center. The market for hyper-converged integrated systems (HCIS) will grow 79 percent to reach almost $2 billion during 2016, according to the latest worldwide market study by Gartner. HCIS will be the fastest-growing segment of the overall market for integrated systems, reaching almost $5 billion by 2019. Although the overall integrated systems market is growing, other segments of this emerging market will likely experience cannibalization from hyperconverged systems. Gartner defines HCIS as a platform offering shared compute and storage resources -- based on software-defined object storage, software-defined compute, commodity hardware and a unified systems management interface. Gartner believes that hyperconverged systems deliver their greatest value through software tools, and thereby commoditizing the underlying hardware. Hyperconverged Systems Market Development "The integrate...

The Telecom Infrastructure Services (TIS) market in North America will decline from $30.4 billion in 2015 to $27.4 billion in 2021 at a CAGR of -1.7 percent, according to the latest market study by Technology Business Research (TBR). Telecom network operators will shift their focus to software-mediated networks, specifically orchestration, automation, SDN and NFV. Fifth generation (5G) networks will begin to be deployed commercially in 2020, but ongoing rollouts will be use case-driven rather than a nationwide build-out like what occurred in previous generations of wireless technologies, providing little relief to the market. Software-Defined Networking Momentum Decommissioning of legacy infrastructure -- and the  implementation of NFV and SDN -- will accelerate the decline in the maintenance market. Telecom network operators are decommissioning legacy infrastructure, with Tier 1 service providers leading the charge to an all-IP environment. "The deployment and maintenance...

Technology Business Research (TBR) forecasts revenue of $12 billion in 2020 for the global enterprise software-defined networking (SDN) market, that's a CAGR of 70.2 percent from 2015 to 2020. Moreover, it's going to become a substantial portion of the overall enterprise networking infrastructure market, as it displaces legacy technologies. Large enterprise organizations are in the early stages of SDN trials to reduce network bottlenecks. As the technological and business value of the SDN architecture is established, ongoing user adoption will expand over time. Notably, vendors will need to help their customers evolve their internal organization silos to support digital business transformation projects and enable SDN to flourish. Open Networking Systems Gain Momentum "Adoption is still fairly small and concentrated," said Krista Macomber, senior analyst at TBR . But 2016 will be a telling year as standards bodies, such as the Open Networking Foundation, matu...

Major car manufacturers and their key suppliers are changing legacy business models to better accommodate the evolving market demand for personal transportation. The automotive industry will undergo several transformative paradigm shifts over the next 25 years. These stages include the connected software-defined car, sensors and big data, cooperative mobility, Internet of Things (IoT), electrification, car sharing and driverless cars. While the first phases are already underway, the latter phases will start to drive the market forward within the next 10 years. Car manufacturers are currently revamping vehicle electronics and networking architecture to ensure every sub-system is connected and software-defined, according to the latest market study by ABI Research. Moving toward the next decade, the automotive industry will achieve cooperative mobility. Cars will communicate with each other, surrounding infrastructure and environments. Electrification will then change the way cons...

Software is the key to advancing digital business transformation progress. According to the latest worldwide market study by 451 Research, 67 percent of enterprises will increase spending on software defined infrastructure (SDI) during 2016, resulting in a 14.4 percent growth of the related IT budget investment. SDI involves the virtualization of all hardware resources, combined with elastic scaling and IT management automation. As such, 451 Research analysts found that SDI is typically realized via the implementation of multiple technologies, products and associated professional services. Though computer server virtualization within data centers has been the customary SDI starting point for most enterprises, additional software-defined approaches have emerged in recent years -- including software-defined networking (SDN) and software-defined storage (SDS). Exploring SDI Market Development Drivers The majority of respondents to the study (65 percent) cited improved agility and...