Digital Lifescapes

The global Information Technology (IT) distribution sector has long been a barometer for the broader IT industry's health, reflecting shifts in end-user demand, enterprise investment, and technological innovation. Recent data from IDC research indicates a notable resurgence in this space, with fourth-quarter revenues returning to growth, driven predominantly by personal computing and software expenditures. IT Distribution Market Development The global distribution sector has experienced a significant uptick in customer investments. This resurgence underscores the demand for PCs, laptops, and related software solutions, even where mobile devices have become ubiquitous. Personal Computing returned to normal distributor revenue levels in 2024 after a significant contraction in 2023. The $3.75 billion in sales recorded in Q4 continues to be fueled by Artificial Intelligence (AI) PC configurations, which grew 141 percent year-over-year. The data suggests that businesses continue to inve...

The growth trajectory of artificial intelligence (AI) enterprise applications continues to accelerate, and its impact on global IT infrastructure spending is also remarkable. The recent market study by International Data Corporation (IDC) provides compelling evidence of AI's explosive growth and implications for the Global Networked Economy . By 2028, global investment in AI infrastructure is projected to surpass the $100 billion mark, underscoring the technology's pivotal role in shaping the future of business and society. Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Market Development This growth is not a sudden phenomenon but rather the result of sustained investment over time. The AI infrastructure market has experienced double-digit growth for nine consecutive half-years, with no signs of slowing down. In the first half of 2024 alone, organizations increased their spending on compute and storage hardware infrastructure for AI deployments by 37 percent year-over-year, reaching an...

The global manufacturing sector stands at the cusp of a significant information technology (IT) transformation. The sector is experiencing a data explosion, driven by the use of advanced technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and Generative AI (GenAI). These intelligent systems process huge volumes of data, presenting challenges and opportunities for manufacturer CIOs worldwide. AI Cloud Data Market Development Many manufacturers need help implementing AI and GenAI solutions due to data availability and quality. This gap between data generation and effective utilization represents a strategic opportunity for cloud data management providers to offer differentiated solutions. According to ABI Research , the manufacturing data management market is forecast to create $225 billion in opportunities globally. This figure underscores the importance of data management in modern manufacturing and highlights the potential for substantial growth. As manufacturer...

The global cloud computing market is undergoing new significant growth, driven by the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and the demand for flexible, scalable infrastructure. The recent market study by International Data Corporation (IDC) provides compelling evidence of this transformation, highlighting the accelerating growth in cloud infrastructure spending and the pivotal role of AI in shaping the industry's future trajectory. Shared Infrastructure Market Development The study reveals a 36.9 percent year-over-year worldwide increase in spending on compute and storage infrastructure products for cloud deployments in the first quarter of 2024, reaching $33 billion. This growth substantially outpaced non-cloud infrastructure spending, which saw a modest 5.7 percent increase to $13.9 billion during the same period. The surge in cloud infrastructure spending was partially fueled by an 11.4 percent growth in unit demand, influenced by higher average selling prices, primari...

The importance of data in today's business landscape fundamentally reshapes how CIOs invest in their IT infrastructure. A recent International Data Corporation ( IDC ) market study highlights this trend, revealing insights into spending patterns. The study indicates that structured database and data management workloads are the largest spending category within enterprise IT infrastructure. This is unsurprising, considering the foundational role these workloads play in managing digital business data. However, IDC's worldwide market study also sheds light on a noteworthy shift – spending in some categories witnessed a slight decline in 2023 compared to 2022. Data Workload Market Development This dip could be attributed to several factors. Organizations might optimize their existing data management processes, potentially leveraging more efficient storage solutions or cloud-based data management services. Additionally, the rise of alternative data sources, such as unstructured and ...

As new devices increasingly connect to the cloud for centralized storage, data analytics, real-time monitoring, and updates, we must ask: Are we prepared for the security implications of this brave new world? The number of Internet of Things (IoT) end-user devices and IoT edge nodes such as home appliances, personal wearables, industrial robots, and even connected drones is quickly increasing. ABI Research forecasts that by 2026, the installed base of connected devices will reach more than 70 billion installations, creating an expansive IoT attack vector in the IoT applications environment. IoT Security Market Development Most of these devices are low-power, storage limited, and with weak computational power, which means these devices are increasingly connecting to the cloud environment for centralized storage, data analytics, real-time monitoring, remote access, and updates in firmware and software. Connecting to the cloud environment creates yet another compromise vector for these de...

Demand and spending on Artificial Intelligence (AI) ) within the Asia-Pacific region will grow to reach $78.4 billion in 2027, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). The increase in AI spending reflects a shift toward leveraging technology to transform operations, improve customer experiences, and maintain a competitive edge in a rapidly changing market. IDC forecasts a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25.5 percent for the period 2022-2027. Artificial Intelligence Market Development With a market share of 28.5 percent in 2023, the Professional Services industry is the primary leader in AI application adoption, growing at a CAGR of 22.4 percent during the forecast period. AI investment in professional services is on AI infrastructure provisioning, where end-users gain access to the resources for computing and storage, and for AI system development or the provision of AI services. In the banking industry, AI is revolutionizing customer experien...

In the manufacturing industry, cloud computing can help leaders improve their production efficiency by providing them with real-time data about their operations. This has gained the attention of the C-suite. Total forecast Industrial Cloud platform revenue in manufacturing will surpass $300 billion by 2033 with a CAGR of 22.57 percent, driven by solution providers enhancing platform interoperability while expanding partner ecosystems for application development. ABI Research found the cloud computing manufacturing market will grow over the next decade due to the adoption of new architectural frameworks that enhance data extraction and interoperability for manufacturers looking to maximize utility from their data. Industrial Cloud Computing Market Development "Historically, manufacturers have built out their infrastructure to include expensive data housing in the form of on-premises servers. The large initial upfront cost of purchasing, setting up, and maintaining these servers is ...

Public cloud computing solutions are moving closer to the edge of networks where CIOs and CTOs are hosting new apps. The edge journey is well underway for forward-looking organizations as they seek to connect with customers, improve operational efficiency, and adopt digital business technologies to drive innovation. The latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC) found that three-quarters of organizations plan to increase their edge computing spending over the next two years with an average increase of 37 percent. A combination of factors is driving this increased spending at the edge. Cloud Edge Computing Market Development The performance requirements of expanding workloads and new use cases that leverage artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) demand greater compute capacity at the edge. In addition, the amount of data being stored in edge locations are rapidly expanding, and organizations plan to keep this data longer. As a result, the numbe...

Cloud computing solutions continue to move closer to the edge of networks across the globe, where compute and storage are located near the source of the data. Worldwide spending on edge computing is forecast at $176 billion in 2022 -- that's an increase of 14.8 percent over 2021. Enterprise and service provider spending on hardware, software, and services for edge solutions is forecast to sustain this pace of growth through 2025 when spending will reach nearly $274 billion, according to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). IDC defines edge as the technology-related actions that are performed outside of the centralized data center, where edge computing is the intermediary between the connected endpoints and the core IT environment. Characteristically, the edge is distributed, software-defined, and flexible. Edge Computing Market Development "Edge computing continues to gain momentum as digital-first organizations seek to innovate outside of...

According to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation ( IDC ), spending on compute and storage products for cloud computing infrastructure -- including dedicated and shared environments -- decreased 2.4 percent year-over-year in the second quarter of 2021 (2Q21) to $16.8 billion. This decrease comes after six quarters of year-over-year growth, and most notably compares to the 39.1 percent annual growth seen by the market in 2Q20, when the world just entered the pandemic with the first wave of business and country closures causing a spike in investments in cloud services and infrastructure. In contrast, investments in non-cloud infrastructure increased 3.4 percent year-over-year in 2Q21 to $13.4 billion recovering from a 7.2 percent decline in 2Q20. Proving, once again, that the demand for Hybrid IT infrastructure continues to fluctuate from quarter to quarter and year to year. Cloud Computing Infrastructure Market Development Spending on shared cloud infrastr...

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...

As more CEOs of forward-looking organizations accelerate their digital business growth agenda, the adoption of cloud computing continues to gain momentum as savvy CIOs and CTOs seek the most effective ways to support the demand for just-in-time IT computing and storage resources.  Vendor revenue from sales of IT infrastructure products for cloud environments -- including public and private cloud -- increased 34.4 percent year-over-year in the second quarter of 2020 (2Q20). Meanwhile, investments in traditional, non-cloud, IT infrastructure declined by 8.7 percent year-over-year in 2Q20, according to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation ( IDC ). These growth rates show the market response to major adjustments in business, educational, and societal activities caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the role IT infrastructure plays in these ongoing adjustments. Cloud IT Infrastructure Market Development Across the globe, there were massive shifts reported to...

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 ...

Open IT solutions are gaining momentum. Most savvy CIOs and CTOs already have plans to increase their applications for open-source software projects. While that software is an established component of on-premises enterprise data centers, the untapped opportunity is open IT hardware infrastructure. Worldwide revenue from the Open Compute Project (OCP) infrastructure market will reach $33.8 billion in 2024, according to the latest global market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). While year-over-year growth will slow slightly in 2020 due to capital preservation strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic, the market for OCP compute and storage infrastructure is forecast to see a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.6 percent over the 2020-2024 forecast period. Open IT Hardware Market Development The IDC forecast assumes a rapid improvement for this market in 2021-22, fueled by a robust economic recovery worldwide. However, a prolonged crisis and economic uncertainty co...

Digital business growth continues to fuel the Global Networked Economy, which requires a corresponding investment in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure. Despite the trade war between the United States and China, purchases of ICT systems and services will maintain steady growth over the next five years. According to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), ICT spending on hardware, software, services, and telecommunications will achieve a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.8 percent over the 2019-2023 forecast period, reaching $4.8 trillion in 2023. ICT Infrastructure Market Development Digital transformation and the adoption of automation technologies will be driving ongoing investment in applications, analytics, middleware, and data management software -- as well as increasing demand for IT server and storage capacity. Commercial purchases will account for nearly two-thirds of all ICT spending by 2023 -- that...

The world of high-performance computing (HPC) will continue to evolve, as enterprise CIOs and CTOs anticipate the future demands for IT Infrastructure capable of supporting new workloads. That said, there isn't enough computing capability today to process the amount of data being created and stored, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). The processing power required to convert the flood of structured and unstructured data into useful and valuable insights, for a new class of digital business workloads, must now scale faster than Moore's law ever predicted. HPC Platform Market Development To address this gap, the computing industry is taking a new path that leverages alternative computing architectures like DSPs, GPUs, FPGAs for acceleration and offloading of computing tasks in order to limit the tax on the general-purpose compute architecture in the system. IDC believes these architectures are key to the enablement of artificial i...

Most enterprise CIOs and CTOs now operate in a 'coexistence environment' where traditional data center (non-cloud), private cloud and public cloud all are an essential part of their IT infrastructure. This technology mix will continue in the foreseeable future. Furthermore, this mix will change slowly. According to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), vendor revenue from sales of IT infrastructure products for cloud environments -- including public and private cloud -- grew 11.4 percent year-over-year in the first quarter of 2019 (1Q19), reaching $14.5 billion. IDC also lowered its forecast for total spending on cloud IT infrastructure in 2019 to $66.9 billion – that's down 4.5 percent from last quarter's forecast – with slower year-over-year growth of 1.6 percent. Cloud Infrastructure Market Development Vendor revenue from hardware infrastructure sales to public cloud environments in 1Q19 was down 13.4 percent compared to t...

According to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), vendor revenue from sales of IT infrastructure products for cloud computing environments -- including public and private cloud -- grew 28 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2018 (4Q18), reaching $16.8 billion. For 2018, annual spending on public and private cloud IT infrastructure totaled $66.1 billion, slightly higher (1.3 percent) than forecast in Q3 2018. IDC also raised its forecast for total spending on cloud IT infrastructure in 2019 to $70.1 billion – that's up 4.5 percent from last quarter's forecast – with year-over-year growth of 6 percent. Cloud IT Infrastructure Market Development That said, quarterly spending on public cloud IT infrastructure was down 6.9 percent in Q418 compared to the previous quarter but it still almost doubled in the past two years reaching $11.9 billion in 4Q18 and growing 33 percent year-over-year, while spending on private cloud infrast...

As more enterprise CIOs and CTOs embrace hybrid multi-cloud deployment strategies, business technology vendors and cloud service providers must continue to evolve their go-to-market approach -- in recognition of the prevailing IT infrastructure investment trends. Vendor revenue from sales of IT infrastructure products for cloud environments, including public and private cloud, grew 47.2 percent year-over-year in the third quarter of 2018 (3Q18), reaching $16.8 billion, according to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Cloud IT Infrastructure Market Development IDC also raised its forecast for total spending (vendor revenue plus channel mark-up) on cloud IT infrastructure in 2018 to $65.2 billion, with year-over-year growth of 37.2 percent. Quarterly spending on public cloud IT infrastructure has more than doubled in the past two years reaching $12.1 billion in 3Q18 and growing 56.1 percent year-over-year, while spending on private cloud inf...