Digital Lifescapes

As we look to the future, more robots are likely to appear in the typical workplace. These robots will perform repetitive tasks that were once performed by humans. This automation promises to improve productivity significantly. In some cases, robots will also augment human capabilities. With the popularization of mobile robotics in a wide range of industries, more organizations will store the collected data from these robots in public cloud services, and then use that data to train more advanced AI algorithms that enable robot cognition. According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, the robot-related services powered by cloud computing will reach $157.8 billion in annual revenue by 2030. Mobile Robotics Market Development "Since 1961, most commercial robots have been wired or tied to external infrastructure for movement. The next generation of robot deployments will be increasingly mobile, tied to cellular and Wi-Fi connectivity, will consume vast troves ...

Just when industry analysts were starting to believe that the buyers of cloud computing services were motivated more by upside business opportunity, and less by cutting IT infrastructure costs, a new price war has erupted that's driven yet another vendor race to the bottom. In its latest analysis of cloud computing services, 451 Research revealed that the cloud price battlefield has shifted from virtual machines (VMs) to cloud object storage. The analyst firm predicts that other services -- particularly databases -- will undergo the same pricing pressures over the next 18 months. Cloud Services Market Development Until recently, the prices of cloud related services beyond compute held steady in the face of intense vendor competition, according to the latest market study by 451 Research. Virtual machines have been the traditional battleground for price cuts, as providers have sought to gain attention and differentiation. The tide has now turned, with cloud object storage pri...

Machine-to-Machine (M2M) connectivity has become a key product offering from global telecom service providers and a significant new revenue stream. They've also developed complex service propositions, designed to reduce costs and increase efficiency for their wireless network customers. Unique business models will apply emerging technology concepts to enable innovative applications for the Internet of Things (IoT). As an example, in-vehicle infotainment services, such as Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, will generate large amounts of new cellular M2M mobile data traffic. Exponential Growth of M2M Data Traffic Over the next five years, this explosion of new mobile applications will account for up to 98 percent of all M2M data traffic, according to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research. Most of that new data will be saved in hyperscale cloud object storage platforms. Their study found that data intensive applications -- such as Internet radio, music streaming a...

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 ...

Converged systems infrastructure is gaining increased adoption for data center workloads and large-scale consolidation projects, according to the latest worldwide market study by Technology Business Research (TBR). As a result, global converged systems revenues will grow at a CAGR of 11 percent from 2015 to 2020 reaching nearly $22 billion. The forecast growth will likely occur at the expense of traditional, stand-alone server, storage and networking infrastructure. "The value of converged systems in reducing critical IT pain points such as costly and complex IT deployment and management is well known, leading to a period of mainstream adoption," said Krista Macomber, senior analyst at TBR . Moreover, TBR says that the long-standing hardware OEMs seek to maximize the success of their converged systems businesses as a strategic priority. More Converged System Use Cases Customers are deploying converged systems optimized for key use cases such as big data analytics. T...

Many traditional IT vendors were challenged in 2015. The average revenue and gross profit margin slipped year-to-year as demand for legacy hardware vendor implementations declined, according to the latest worldwide market study by Technology Business Research (TBR). However, the study's benchmarked IT vendors still achieved $23 billion in revenue and avoided more severe declines by adjusting their go-to-market portfolios and selling models to capture emerging technology opportunities. "Industry-standard server (ISS) has a growing impact on the global data center hardware market, composing an increasing share of the data center market and retaining the largest share of total revenue," said Krista Macomber, senior analyst at TBR . TBR analysts estimate that average ISS unit shipments increased by just 1.8 percent year-to-year, indicating the growing impact of hardware commoditization and the reactive low-price strategies used by many vendors. Legacy IT Storage De...

More people are wearing new personal activity tracking devices. According to the latest market study by The NPD Group, annual 2015 unit sales of connected activity trackers experienced impressive growth of 85 percent versus 2014 -- that's despite a hike in the average selling price (ASP) from $96 to $109. "The increase in ASP speaks to these devices becoming more sophisticated, and that consumers are looking for better-quality devices, not just entry-level products," said Ben Arnold, executive director at The NPD Group . "This, combined with unit growth, shows that prices aren't falling to drive demand -- demand is increasing along with rising prices." Fitbit remained the leading brand in connected activity trackers in 2015, accounting for 79 percent of sales. The company has been the market leader in connected activity trackers since 2014, growing market share by more than 20 points since that time -- despite the entrance of new competing products in th...

Now there's an effective approach to making sense of all the unstructured 'big data' that many organizations have captured and stored, but have yet to interpret and apply in a meaningful way. Cognitive systems and cloud-based object storage technologies are going to transform the analysis of very large data sets. It's a very significant breakthrough. International Data Corporation (IDC) has identified cognitive computing as one of six 'innovation accelerators' that will drive digital business transformation by opening new revenue streams, creating information-based organizations, and changing the way work is performed in a variety of key industries. IDC has forecast that global spending on cognitive systems will reach nearly $31.3 billion in 2019 with a five year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 55 percent. The latest projections expand on IDC's previous cognitive software forecasts by including expenditures for cognitive-related hardware and servic...

Digital business transformation requires an investment in new people, process and technology. That being said, typically the most expensive part of achieving a bold digital strategy is overcoming the resistance from passive-aggressive middle managers that try to hold back progress. Once a CEO and their leadership team have exposed the worst change-blocking cynics -- and removed them from the equation -- then the remaining two steps in the transformation agenda can proceed. Obsolete processes can be streamlined or eliminated and essential IT systems can be updated or replaced. Investments in modernizing IT infrastructures will be critical to most businesses, driving up global data center server and storage array revenues at a 1.2 percent CAGR from 2015 to 2020 -- reaching $88 billion in revenue, according to the latest market study by Technology Business Research (TBR). Criteria for Selecting Digital Transformation Partners "Emerging business requirements, such as increased...

Worldwide, many enterprise IT organizations are experiencing an exponential growth of data storage requirements as employees create more digital content. Multimedia asset storage is a key driver -- in particular, a variety of video content. In today's enterprise, video is a primary method for engaging with customers, employees and channel partners, via a wide range of media assets. Common video applications include online webcasts, conference sessions or keynotes, training sessions or educational webinars and new customer care use-cases. Demand for object storage systems has blossomed as a results of the growing need to archive unstructured data, such as video and other forms of multimedia content. This growth has fueled the deployment of new cost-effective storage solutions that can scale to support hundreds of petabytes and beyond. Enterprise IT Storage Market Development According to the findings from the latest 451 Research 'Voice of the Enterprise' survey, org...