Digital Lifescapes

As more enterprise CIOs and CTOs transition to the cloud, the opportunities for managed service providers (MSPs) expanded. At the same time, the managed cloud services market has become more complex as organizations increasingly look to their service providers for superior solutions and business technology leadership. A worldwide survey by International Data Corporation (IDC) examined the service and business requirements that MSPs and their ecosystem partners need to optimize their growth opportunities and drive competitive advantage in the market for managed cloud services. Managed Cloud Services Market Development Due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic, leaders utilize public cloud capabilities (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS), innovative technologies and processes (IoT, edge computing, blockchain), and multi-cloud management platforms for their growth strategies and to ensure business resiliency. While very few organizations have shifted all of their IT applications and infrastructure to the cloud...

The commercial building management systems (BMS) market has been the epitome of a steady market for several years. However, growing BMS connectivity and rising energy prices now mean that this is a market that is closely mirroring developments within other technology driven markets. The growing integrated building management systems market is now estimated to be worth $34 billion, according to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research. More than eight million building management systems will be integrated with some form of Internet of Things (IoT) platform, software application or service offering by 2020. However, like many suppliers in established markets today, commercial building management system vendors face both opportunities and threats when navigating the emerging IoT ecosystem. The opportunity is IoT integration transforms the traditional BMS from an unconnected monolithic system to part of a wider and integrated sensing and control network. Support for ope...

Infonetics Research released its latest Service Provider report -- which analyzes telecom carrier capital expenditures (capex), operational expenses (opex), revenue per user, and subscriber trends by operator, operator type, region, and telecom equipment segment. "Telecom capital expenditures are bottoming out at $289 billion this year, and our cycle-based forecast model and conversations with service providers indicate that a new investment cycle will start in 2011 and last several years, with capex growing to $321 billion in 2014 before growth slows again" says Stephane Teral, principal analyst for mobile and FMC infrastructure at Infonetics Research. Overall, capital intensities will continue to slowly decline through at least 2014. because the world's telecommunications infrastructure is essentially built out. Infonetics market study highlights include: - From its peak in 2008, worldwide service provider capex declined 5.3 percent in 2009, and is on track to ...

The Internet Protocol (IP) phone market is actually a tale of two drastically different markets -- business and consumer -- with the former thriving and the latter diverging in a drastically different direction, according to the latest study by In-Stat. By 2012, 31 million voice-centric business IP phones will ship. However, the consumer side of the market is radically different. Among voice-centric IP phones, businesses will outpace consumers more than ten to one. The nascent consumer market for voice-centric IP phones is being subjugated by the introduction of IP media phones, such as the Verizon Hub and AT&T HomeManager that support both IP communications, as well as delivery of Internet information and multimedia content. IP-based communication is replacing TDM networks at a steady pace in the workplace, but adoption is slow among consumers. Even where Voice over IP (VoIP) is being used in the home, many consumers don't realize it because IP-based cable voice services are m...

The global recession will be a major factor behind every trend and development in the information technology (IT) and telecommunications markets in 2009. However, IDC predicts that the financial pressures felt by IT vendors and their customers will actually accelerate the industry transformation. "A slow global economy will act like a pressure cooker on the IT market, speeding the development and adoption of new technologies and business models," said Frank Gens, senior vice president and chief analyst at IDC. The reason why this will happen is simple -- the benefits offered by these disruptive offerings and models will be magnified. Suppliers and customers will migrate toward new solutions not because they are about the future, but because they offer practical benefits today. A deep global recession and a radical industry transformation are at the core of IDC's predictions for the IT industry in 2009. With economists forecasting dramatically slowing global GDP growth, ID...

Demand for managed network service (MNS) providers is growing fast as enterprises of all sizes grapple with increasing network traffic and complexity. At the same time, enterprises are seeing their services budgets shrink. This has created an intensely competitive landscape among global MNS providers, and even the industry's bellwether providers face new and significant competitive threats. In a new report, independent market analyst firm Datamonitor ranks 13 of the world's leading MNS providers based on their network services, end-user sentiment and market impact. The global MNS market is extremely competitive, particularly among the large telecommunications providers and conglomerate systems integrators that dominate it -- AT&T, BT Global Services, HP Services and IBM Global Technology Services. Yet new threats are emerging in the form of smaller, more agile rivals, such as CSC, Orange Business Services, Verizon Business and Vanco, despite the latter's recent financi...

According to the latest In-Stat market study, the U.S. business market currently devotes the largest part of managed services spending to managed infrastructure in 2008 at 35 percent. Most of this current spending is done by the enterprise market -- firms with more than 1,000 employees. While enterprises devote the largest portions of their managed services budgets to managed infrastructure services, at the other end of the spectrum SOHO and small businesses (fewer than 100 employees per firm) spend the bulk of their managed services dollars on Web and application hosting. Managed network services is the biggest slice of the pie among mid-sized businesses (100 to 999 employees per firm). The leading trend in managed services is the quickly increasing spending on the out-tasking of Web and application hosting among enterprises and, to a lesser degree, mid-sized businesses. Spending on Web and application hosting is expected to experience strong increases and a CAGR of 20 percent through...

The managed network services market is forecast to grow to over $34 billion by 2013, according to the latest market study by Informa Telecoms & Media. The developing regions such as the Middle East and Africa are expanding particularly strongly as new services are launched, while the established markets such as Western Europe are driven by the need to differentiate through marketing support and customer service. According to the Informa report author, Richard Jesty, one major trend which is currently emerging is the willingness of operators of all sizes to consider using managed services. He said "The future for managed services is vibrant, with new strategic deals now being struck with Tier 1 operators, and consultancy becoming a significant factor. But what makes this trend so exciting are the implications it has for the changing nature of the telecoms operator's business model and the opportunities this creates for service providers." External services already repr...

According to a Current Analysis report featuring competitive analysis of global service provider managed IP solutions for Europe-based multinational companies, offerings from BT and Orange Business Services lead the pack. However, the market study also shows solutions from T-Systems, AT&T and Verizon Business are very close behind, and that all are quickly rising to meet increased demand for outsourced network-based IT services. The study explores the market dynamics between global service providers and system integrators in a converged communications and IT market and the growing importance of who makes the best choices when it comes to systems integrator (SI) partnerships. Managed IP Service solutions are made up of a range of enterprise services provided by network operators, managed service providers and system integrators that manage network-centric applications that run over enterprise customer networks. These solutions are emerging to address the requirements of multination...

According to the Synergy Research Group, in the first quarter of 2008 worldwide total managed WAN CPE and network-based services sales posted a 4.9 percent increase of $1.4 billion and are projected to continuing growing throughout the year. The growth in the managed services market is fueled by businesses worldwide turning to service providers for managed metro Ethernet, IP VPNs, managed IP voice and IP security requirements. Enterprises are revamping their business models to increase their revenue, recognizing that their IT and networks are a critical component of their business profits. Additionally, they recognize that outsourcing their network management to service providers is one way to improve their business success and bottom line. Companies such as Cisco, Juniper and Alcatel-Lucent are working to educate service providers about the huge market in managed services and of the importance of providing end-to-end services for these businesses. Ray Mota, Chief Research Officer at S...

According to the latest IDC Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan) Enterprise ICT Outsourcing and Managed Services Forecast, the market is expected to exceed $29.5 billion in 2008, an 11 percent increase over 2007. IDC expects value added managed services -- or discrete outsourcing -- to outperform the market with 16 percent growth, reaching $9.1 billion in 2008. "Despite the drumbeat of economic and corporate earnings coming out across the world that points to an economic slowdown, we continue to be cautiously bullish that the industry can withstand the headwinds of a slowing economy" said Adrian Dominic Ho, Research Manager for IDC's Asia-Pacific Managed Services and Enterprises Networks. Cost savings continue to drive the outsourcing and managed services industry, which explains its resiliency. However, IDC expects a slight slowdown in business transformation engagements due to the growing economic uncertainty. Despite this, organizations are still eager for true and real inno...