Digital Lifescapes

Forward-looking leaders across the globe continue to apply digital transformation strategies for competitive advantage. The latest release of a regional IDC market study reveals that the recent acceleration in digital investments sets Asia-Pacific ahead of the rest of the world. Investments in new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, Internet of Things (IoT),  Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and blockchain are expected to contribute close to 40 percent of total ICT investments by the end of the forecast period from around 30 percent in 2020. Digital Transformation Market Development Compared to other regions in the world, this Asia-Pacific upside opportunity is the highest and represents close to 18 percent growth in dollar terms during the IDC forecast period of 2020-2025. "The pandemic induced digital-first shift in the region led to increased investments in new technologies and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future," says Vi...

Climate change is top of mind within many boardrooms, as executive leaders consider how to react to the predictable new government mandates. Some organizations around the globe have already created climate-related targets for reaching net-zero carbon emissions, including forward-looking telecom service providers. "These telco operators are at the intersection of communications and information technology, putting them in a unique position to offer connectivity and technological solutions that are not only lowering their own carbon emissions but also the emissions of their customers," said Kim Johnson, principal analyst at ABI Research . Telecom Infrastructure Sustainability Market Development Each of the market leaders has transitioned to using more than 50 percent renewable energy for global purchased electricity, and two have reached 100 percent penetration. The use of renewable energy has reduced the leaders’ total carbon emissions by 8.4 million metric tons of carbon dioxi...

Savvy enterprise security and risk management leaders will continue to protect their organizations against new and emerging threats in 2022 and beyond, according to the latest global market study findings by Gartner. "Organizations worldwide are facing sophisticated ransomware, attacks on the digital supply chain and deeply embedded vulnerabilities," said Peter Firstbrook, vice president at Gartner . The pandemic accelerated remote work adoption, challenging the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) to secure the distributed workforce -- while dealing with a shortage of skilled IT security staff. These big challenges create three overarching trends impacting cybersecurity practices: new responses to sophisticated threats; the evolution and reframing of an IT security practice; and rethinking business technology protection. IT Security and Risk Apps Market Development According to the Gartner assessment, the following IT security and risk-related issues will have a signifi...

Today's electronic commerce is an engine of the world’s Global Networked Economy. It experienced an uplift in 2020 and 2021 as a result of the disruption created by the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, business and consumer online transactions contributed to significantly greater growth momentum. According to a survey by The Economist, brick-and-mortar retailers have shifted rapidly to eCommerce. However, many traditional retailers are still recovering from the backlash of the ongoing pandemic. eCommerce Payment Market Development Juniper Research's latest market study has found the volume of global eCommerce transactions made via OEM Pay will exceed 30.7 billion by 2026 -- that's rising from 4.7 billion transactions in 2022. This outstanding market growth of 550 percent will be driven by rapidly increasing customer demands of frictionless retail checkout experiences across multiple eCommerce channels. Juniper's new research findings predicted that OEM Pays will benefit, ...

Almost one-third of the healthcare organizations in the Asia-Pacific region are well aligned with their ecosystem, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). However, sustainability lies in effectively handling the challenges of healthcare organizations, by sensing the future technological trends. IDC recently released its Asia-Pacific market outlook. The predictions provide the Digital Health trends in the region -- enabling healthcare organizations to be proactive, instead of merely being reactive. The study emphasizes a rapid shift from hospital-centric to patient-centric care delivery. Widespread deployment of Telehealth services led consumers in the region to look at integrated (hybrid) care.  Medical 'Care Anywhere' Market Development Although digital front door strategy plays a critical role across the care continuum, a combination of physical and digital access -- while defining and designing hybrid integrated care -- must be ensured f...

New wireless network technology is already a fundamental component of every enterprise CIO or CTO agenda in 2022. However, IT vendors and telecom providers must assess the broader enterprise connectivity technology landscape in order to determine where private cellular networks will add value. According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, the overall market for private cellular networks within enterprise industry verticals will reach $109 billion by 2030. This includes radio access network (RAN), edge networks, core network deployments, as well as vendor professional services revenues, which alone will contribute $47 billion (44 percent) to the overall market size in 2030. Private Cellular Network Market Development "These numbers essentially tell two stories," said Leo Gergs, senior analyst at ABI Research . "The first is that they illustrate the immense opportunity for cellular connectivity within enterprise verticals. The second is that the high perc...

Much has been written about the ongoing rise of public cloud computing across the globe, as more senior business leaders choose to deemphasize investment in on-premises IT infrastructure within traditional data centers. How did this happen, and what did enterprise CIOs and CTOs learn from this transition? Well, this transition was inevitable. Legacy IT organizations could have focused more on the Line of Business leader's desired business outcomes that investment makes possible, rather than the technical features and functions of IT solutions. Of course, the same could be said for legacy IT vendors. Some learned, the hard way, that terms like "Shadow IT" and "Rogue Users" were the wrong way to refer to and respond to the initial adoption of unsanctioned Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offerings. They also learned that upskilling IT staff to speak the language of business is now mandatory.  So, here we are at this point in time. What happens next is predictable (e.g...

Today's cellular Internet of Things (IoT) services enable an upside opportunity for mobile network operators to leverage their infrastructure for a new revenue stream. This is most likely with 5G service launches, which were featured at MWC this week. According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, the global value of the cellular IoT market will reach $61 billion by 2026 -- that's rising from $31 billion in 2022. 5G IoT Apps Market Development The Juniper study identified the growth of 5G infrastructure and cellular Low-Power Wide Area (LPWA) technologies as key to this 95 percent increase in growth over the next four years. The new study findings also expect carrier billing spend on content bundling to enable operators to further recoup investments into 5G by charging a premium to facilitate high-quality digital video and online game streaming over 5G cellular networks. According to the Juniper assessment, in order to pursue this new opportunity, mobile ne...

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data are the foundation for smart technologies and business analytics. Moreover, AI combined with human ingenuity is now viewed as the differentiator for enterprises to scale and thrive in the era of Digital Transformation. Worldwide revenues for the AI market -- including software, hardware, and services -- are forecast to grow 19.6 percent year-over-year in 2022 to $432.8 billion, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Furthermore, the market is expected to break the $500 billion mark in 2023. However, the upside opportunities are also being hampered by numerous practical solution deployment challenges.  Artificial Intelligence Market Development "AI has emerged as the next major wave of innovation. AI solutions are currently focused on business process problems and range from human augmentation to process improvement to planning and forecasting, empowering superior decisioning and outcomes. Advancements...

More organizations are exploring machine vision use cases. Machine vision combines hardware and software to provide operational guidance to devices in the execution of their functions based on the capture and processing of images. Machine vision is rapidly becoming an enabling technology for emerging automation requirements in automotive, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, smart buildings, smart cities, transportation, and logistics applications. The total revenue of machine vision technology in the seven major global markets is expected to reach $36 billion by 2027 -- that's up from $21.4 billion in 2022. This growth translates to a CAGR of 11 percent, according to the latest market study by ABI Research. Machine Vision Market Development Traditionally, machine vision was primarily focused on surveillance and security, asset monitoring, and defect inspection. These mature applications continue to drive the main bulk of total camera shipments within the enterprise market. However, ...

In hindsight, a CEO's incessant quest for a "return-to-normal" business environment now seems odd. Today's global economy is unforgiving to the leaders who are unwilling to take remedial action in response to significant market disruptions. Clearly, applying a legacy status-quo mindset is unwise. Furthermore, long before the COVID-19 pandemic erupted, some enterprise employers already had concerns about their declining employee engagement. And, a few policymakers warned that moving essential manufacturing to the lowest-cost foreign provider was very risky. Regardless, it appears that "common sense" risk appraisals were relatively uncommon. Global Pandemic Ongoing Impact Assessment Executives are now very concerned about their ability to deliver substantive value propositions that satisfy employees, and a subsequent inability to retain and recruit talent, according to Gartner's latest 'Emerging Risks Monitor' report. Talent risks topped pandemic-r...

Online commerce transactions are the essential fuel that drives the Global Networked Economy.  Digital business growth experienced an economic uplift as a consequence of the economic challenges that accompanied the global health crisis brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, the digital transformation of consumer transactions contributed to even greater upward momentum. Even as more legacy retailers shifted to eCommerce, the last 24 months have been the most difficult time for mid-market retailers as they recover from the pandemic disruption. Global eCommerce Market Development   According to the latest market study by Juniper Research , the value of global eCommerce payment transactions will exceed $7.5 trillion by 2026 -- that's up from $4.9 trillion in 2021. This growth rate of 55 percent over the next five years will be driven by retailers offering compelling omnichannel retail experiences that increase user eCommerce spending. Omnichannel retail is a model ...

Many organizations will need to accelerate the modernization of IT infrastructure and operations to build a sustainable competitive advantage in the next 2 to 3 years, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). The ability to align to the digital business transformation paradigm is contingent upon investing in next-generation cloud-native IT infrastructure technologies, platforms, and solutions -- also it depends on how CIOs will help transform commercial operations. The rapid proliferation of data-driven edge workloads, the growing number of ransomware and malware attacks, and the growth of structured or unstructured data are creating significant challenges -- IDC says by 2023, most C-Suites will implement business-critical key performance indicators (KPIs). Digital Infrastructure Market Development "The CIO and IT decision-makers will need to do some serious thinking beyond modernizing the technology building blocks and platforms if they truly ...

Companies across the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem are seeking to overcome the inevitable commoditization of their niche area of specialization. Ascending the IoT value chain inevitably involves becoming a connectivity supplier. Connectivity Management Platforms (CMPs) are part of the vendor offerings. They allow connectivity to be intelligently packaged for sale to IoT customers. Although CMPs are table stakes abilities for any company wishing to become an IoT service provider, development has not abated, and the market is becoming more competitive. ABI Research has identified sixty-two companies offering CMPs, operated either proprietarily or commercially available to license. These companies span from connectivity resellers and aggregators to enterprise software developers, IoT service providers, and carrier-grade infrastructure manufacturers. IoT Connectivity Management Market Development "The largest CMP vendors such as Cisco and Ericsson, and their products have always ...

Supply chain issues are top-of-mind within many C-suites and for good reason. We now know that a 'status quo' mindset was fraught with inherent supply chain risks which were exposed by recent events that disrupted the Global Networked Economy. Sixty-one percent of supply chain leaders believe that the acceleration of remote work due to the global COVID-19 pandemic will create a permanent hybrid work model, even at the frontline, according to the latest market study by Gartner. The annual Gartner 'Future of Supply Chain' survey of 983 supply chain leaders identified the changes to the prior status quo that will likely shape global supply chains in the months and years to come. Supply Chain Transformation Market Development "In an environment of talent and labor shortage, supply chain leaders anticipate employee expectations to become more demanding and feel that they must prepare to meet those expectations – or lose to competitors that do," said Suzie Petrusic,...

Digital identity is constantly evolving and increasingly combined with allied areas, such as online security, privacy, and the management of identity-related data. Digital identity is essentially an online persona of a subject, or a unique representation of a subject, engaged in an online transaction. However, digital identity presents a more complex picture when current multi-use ecosystems that are heavily dependent on the sharing of identity credentials are considered. Such an identity is made up of identifiers and patterns that are unique to the subject of identity, which is broadly described as attributes. These attributes (inherent or ascribed) are core biographic data (e.g. name and address) and certain biometric features (e.g. fingerprints, iris scan) electronically captured in the context of personal digital identity. Digital Identity Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, revenue for digital identity vendors will exceed $53 bill...

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...

Enterprise network management complexity grows as more devices require connectivity from more locations. Case in point, the remote working phenomena has driven demand for software-defined solutions to reduce networking costs, improve scalability, and enable the integration of security. Although the emergence of Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) -- which integrates SD-WAN with edge security -- has caused some vendors to rethink their solutions, market opportunity remains across the software-defined networking sector for innovative vendors to explore vertical industry demand. Established networking vendors already lead the SD-WAN market. Next, the cloud-native innovators will drive growth by also offering solutions that shift end-user computing and integrated security to the cloud, enabling CIOs and CTOs to develop versatile enterprise networking strategies. SD-WAN Market Development Cloud-based solution providers will become increasingly important, given the benefits that shifting netwo...

Many senior executives remain upbeat about the potential of a business technology investment to drive digital business growth. Worldwide information technology (IT) spending is projected to total $4.5 trillion in 2022 -- that's an increase of 5.1 percent over 2021, according to the latest market study by Gartner. Despite the potential impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and commercial disruption fueled by the Omicron variant, economic recovery with high expectations for digital market prosperity will continue to boost technology investments. Hybrid Enterprise IT Market Development "2022 is the year that the future returns for the CIO," said John-David Lovelock, vice president at Gartner . "They are now in a position to move beyond the critical, short-term projects over the past two years and focus on the long term." Simultaneously, staff skills gaps, wage inflation, and the demand for digital transformation talent will push CIOs to rely more on consultancies and ma...

The healthcare sector has advanced technological innovation. But the fragmented way in which many hospitals acquire solutions can introduce cost, time, and resource inefficiencies that hinder care delivery and the ability to meet strategic objectives. Therefore, the last several years have seen healthcare providers around the world embrace the concept of the 'smart hospital' as a means of optimizing multiple aspects of their IT performance. However, hospital implementation of new technologies can present significant challenges for the adopting organizations in terms of cybersecurity, interoperability, and execution. Smart Hospital Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, smart hospitals will deploy 7.4 million connected Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) devices globally by 2026 -- that's estimated to be over 3,850 devices per smart hospital. This global figure represents total growth of 231 percent over 2021 when 3.2 million dev...