Digital Lifescapes

Enterprise data lakes are an essential component of many digital transformation projects. Numerous insights about customers, partners and other stakeholders are extracted from these significant commercial assets. Given the benefits, IT infrastructure and associated software investment will increase to support new use cases. According to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), revenues for big data and business analytics (BDA) solutions will reach $260 billion in 2022 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.9 percent over the 2017-2022 forecast period. BDA revenues are expected to total $166 billion in 2018 -- that's an increase of 11.7 percent over 2017. Big Data and Analytics Market Development The industries making the largest investments in big data and business analytics solutions throughout the forecast are banking, discrete manufacturing, process manufacturing, professional services, and federal or central government. Combine...

The Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) sector has experienced numerous mergers and acquisitions (M&A) within 2018 thus far. All sub-sectors are already showing signs of upside potential as new pockets of growth fuel the Global Networked Economy. By the end of the first half (H1) of 2018, global TMT values had reached $371.1 billion and 1,693 deals, representing a 19 percent share of global M&A. The strong results nearly surpassed H1 2015 record high of $383 billion, which represented a market share of 21 percent, according to the latest worldwide market study by Mergermarket . TMT Deal Sub-Sector Analysis The total deal value in the overall TMT sector also marked a 107 percent jump, when compared to figures from H1 2017 ($179.4 billion), though the deal count fell by 53 transactions (from 1,746). Technology sub-sector accounted for the largest share of TMT’s total deal value -- 46.2 percent with $171.5 billion, while the Technology deal count of 1,329 transa...

Cybercrime is a growing threat to corporations and their customers, who are increasingly using online web services and mobile apps. Several regulatory mandates, including GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) to PSD2 (Payment Services Directive 2), all require high standards of cybersecurity. From a compliance perspective, secure IT systems and data storage is now a 'must-have' requirement. In the event of a data breach, there are significant fines for non-compliance with the appropriate data protection guidelines. Due to ongoing regulation enforcement, some companies are already facing fines for not disclosing data breaches. Furthermore, the lingering damage to their commercial reputation may be difficult to quantify. Cybersecurity Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, over 33 billion records will be stolen by cybercriminals in 2023 alone -- that's an increase of 175 percent over the 12 billion records expected t...

For decades, Moore's Law has been driving the advancement of traditional computing systems development, leading to the proliferation of smart devices at the edge and centralized cloud computing. However, we're now reaching the limits of legacy computing technology, and the search for another high-performance computing platform has begun. Quantum computing is the next-generation. Total revenues generated from quantum computing services will exceed $15 billion by 2028, according to the latest worldwide market study by ABI research. Most of these services will be cloud-based offerings. Quantum Computing Market Development The demand for quantum computing services will be driven by some process hungry research and development projects as well as by the emergence of several applications including advanced artificial intelligence algorithms, next-generation cyber security encryption, traffic routing and scheduling, protein synthesis, and/or the design of advanced chemicals and ...

It's already clear that most savvy industry leaders have a greater understanding of blockchain technology than was the case a couple of years ago. This stems from a surge with internal research and development, in partnership with third parties, as blockchain has the potential to be deployed in a variety of use cases. As the number of Hyperledger pilot projects increased, so has awareness. It's improved among the project participants and elsewhere in their industries, with competitor companies beginning to consider whether they should seek to gain a competitive advantage from a blockchain deployment. Blockchain Applications Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, blockchain deployments will enable banks to realize savings on cross-border settlement transactions of more than $27 billion by the end of 2030, thereby reducing costs by more than 11 percent per on-chain transaction. According to the analyst's assessment, fina...

Becoming a Digital Business is very challenging because it demands new thinking, a willingness to evolve and bold ideas. As market leaders continue to embrace a digital transformation agenda, they're finding that the transition requires significant changes to organizational culture and internal systems. A recent Gartner survey found that a relatively small number of organizations have been able to successfully scale their digital business initiatives beyond the experimentation and piloting stages. "The reality is that digital business demands different skills, working practices, organizational models and even cultures," said Marcus Blosch, research vice president at Gartner . "To change an organization designed for a structured, process-oriented world to one that's designed for ecosystems, adaptation, learning and experimentation is hard." Gartner has identified six barriers that CIOs must overcome to transform their organization into a truly digital b...

Smart City initiatives are one of the most important developments worldwide in public sector digital transformation. Given the crucial role that cities will play in both overall digitization efforts and the development of national economies, the largest or fastest-growing use cases have the attention of municipal leaders across the globe. Smart City initiatives will attract technology investments of more than $81 billion globally in 2018, and spending is forecast to reach $158 billion in 2022, according to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Smart City Initiatives Market Development "We are now delivering detailed sizing of 25 named use cases, as well as the first release of a new database of spending at City level," said Serena Da Rold, program manager at IDC. Intelligent transportation and data-driven public safety remain the largest investment areas, but IDC analysts report they are also finding significant pockets of investme...

There's a huge upside opportunity for digital payment innovation in America. As of December 2017, Juniper Research estimates that only 9 percent of the total payment cards in circulation within the U.S. market was contactless-enabled -- this translates into just over 100 million cards. While this is a significant installed base -- around 13 percent of total chip cards issued in the U.S. market -- Juniper estimates that only 5.5 percent of the cards were actually used to make contactless offline point-of-sale purchases in 2017. This translates into about 6 million contactless cards used for payments. That's relatively low in comparison with more advanced markets such as Canada (60 million) and the UK (108 million). Contactless Payment Market Development Juniper Research forecasts that driven by payment cards and mobile wallets, in-store contactless payments will reach $2 trillion by 2020 -- that represents 15 percent of the total point of sale transactions. Furthermore...

Home-based healthcare options have exploded since the availability of internet access has become pervasive. Moreover, as healthcare shifts from reactive to proactive patient care, a huge market is ready for automation products that can help deliver health and wellness services through smart home solutions. The ubiquity of broadband connectivity, development of smart sensors, and the decreasing costs of devices have already made it possible to offer aging-in-place, chronic disease management, and post-acute care services in smart homes. Smart Healthcare Market Development However, digital health vendors are striving to take telehealth to the next level by developing solutions that will allow caregivers to check on the health of all the residents of the house, not just the patient's, monitor diet and nutrition, the environment, and overall wellness, and be integrable with existing and newer systems. "Patients are conscious of their health quotient and want to be involved...

Manufacturers have traditionally been considered the primary drivers of new robot technology investment. Robots are now infiltrating other business sectors. The robotics industry gained new momentum in 2017 with total venture capital (VC) investment reaching $2.7 billion, according to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research. "While the growth in investment from 2016 to 2017, at 23.2 percent, slowed from growth between 2015 and 2016, this was affected by applying a narrower understanding of robotics, leaving out categories like autonomous cars," said Rian Whitton, research analyst at ABI Research . Robotic Technology Market Development Had the same definition of robotics been used as in previous years, total investment would have exceeded $5 billion. Given the narrower definition, the sizeable increase in investment is a further indication of the growing confidence in the robotics industry, and the sense of urgency investors have in funding these key technologi...

The dramatic increase in internet-connected devices has created a significant attack surface for hackers and cybercriminals. Applications for the Internet of Things (IoT) are growing. As a result, the related challenges associated with IoT data security and privacy will increase with time. Whether their motive is simply mischief, theft, or some other goal, the impact of IoT-related criminal activities can be far-reaching and very costly. Vendors of cybersecurity software and services will, therefore, experience growing demand for their offerings. IoT Security Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, spending on IoT cybersecurity solutions is forecast to reach over $6 billion globally by 2023. The analyst has highlighted rapid growth, with spending by product and service providers (in consumer markets) and end-customers (in industrial and public services markets) to rise nearly 300 percent over the forecast period. Ju...

The consumer electronics and mobile device vendors have experienced a significant slowdown in demand, due to a number of related factors that result in the ongoing downward trend. This is a global phenomenon, where few markets across the globe are likely to drive significant new growth opportunities. The combined personal computer (PC), media tablet and smartphone markets are on pace to record 0.9 percent growth and eventually reach 2.28 billion units in 2018, according to the latest worldwide study by Gartner. The PC and tablet market is estimated to decline by 1.2 percent in 2018, while the mobile phone market is forecast to increase by just 1.4 percent. Digital Device Market Development "The PC market is still hindered by the undersupply of the DRAM market for all of 2018, due to the lack of new wafer capacity coming online. As a result, PC vendors will continue to increase their prices throughout 2018," said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner . "Larger ...

A blockchain acts as a digital distributed ledger of transactions or records. The ledger, which stores the information or data, exists across multiple participants in a peer-to-peer network. There's no single, central repository. Distributed ledgers technology (DLT) allows new transactions to be added to an existing chain of transactions using a secure cryptographic signature. Worldwide spending on blockchain solutions is forecast to reach $11.7 billion in 2022, according to the latest global market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Blockchain Market Development IDC expects blockchain spending to grow rapidly throughout the 2017-2022 forecast period, with a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 73.2 percent. Moreover, worldwide blockchain spending will reach $1.5 billion in 2018 -- that's double the amount spent on the emerging technology during 2017. The United States will see the largest blockchain investments and deliver more than 36 percent of...

Mobile communication service providers across the globe have been eager to uncover new sources of subscriber revenue as over-the-top (OTT) apps continue to disrupt their traditional business model offering voice calling and text messaging. These operators are currently under pressure due to investment in emerging technologies, including 5G and M2M networks. Thus, they must develop and deploy new capabilities that can leverage their networks to both increase revenues from voice services and reduce OPEX (Operational Expenditure). That said, the latest worldwide market study from Juniper Research has found that operator-billed mobile voice revenues will fall from $354 billion in 2018 to $197 billion by 2023 -- that's an average annual decline of 10 percent. Mobile Services Market Development The new research, Mobile Voice: Operator Strategies & Vendor Opportunities 2018-2023, identified a series of new opportunities which collectively would enable mobile network operators t...

Worldwide spending on robotics and drones solutions will reach $201.3 billion in 2022 and achieve a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.6 percent over the 2017-2022 forecast period, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Spending on robotics solutions is expected to total $86.6 billion in 2018 and will account for more than 85 percent of all spending throughout the five-year forecast. Industrial robotic solutions will account for the largest share of robotics spending (more than 57 percent), followed by service robots and consumer robots. Discrete and process manufacturing will be the leading industries for robotics spending at more than $54 billion combined in 2018. The resource and healthcare industries will also make significant investments in robotics. That said, the retail and wholesale industries will see the fastest robotics spending growth over the forecast with CAGRs of 32.7 percent and 30.7 percent, respectively. Robotics and ...

While much of retailer digital transformation continues to drive online commerce applications, innovation is advancing the whole sector. Retail point of sale (POS) technologies is an example, as more CIOs and CTOs seek ways to improve in-store product or service payment transaction processing. According to the latest worldwide market study by Berg Insight, the market for NFC-ready POS terminals continued to show strong momentum in 2017 with annual shipments reaching an estimated 24.7 million units worldwide. Retail POS Market Development The attach rate for near field communications (NFC) was highest in EU28+2 and North America markets, where 90 percent and 88 percent respectively of the POS terminals shipped featured NFC. NFC was also a very popular feature in many other major markets worldwide -- including Brazil, Turkey and China. On a global basis, almost three out of every five POS terminals shipped in 2017 included NFC. Berg Insight projects the global installed base of...

The global adoption of public cloud computing services, the increased performance of smartphones and the demand for Chromebooks continue to negatively impact the rest of the consumer electronics market and to a somewhat lesser degree the enterprise IT marketplace. Results for the second quarter of 2018 (2Q18) showed shipments of traditional personal computers (PCs) totaled 62.3 million units -- that's a year-on-year growth of just 2.7 percent, according to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). While it's a relatively small improvement, it's actually better than IDC's initial forecast of 0.3 percent growth. Personal Computing Market Development Although helped to some extent by a weak second quarter in 2017, which was somewhat impacted by key component issues, the 2Q18 results reversed the trend from the previous three quarters, which had the market hovering slightly above or below flat growth. Business volume appeared to be t...

Savvy CIOs and CTOs in the the retail sector have embraced new technologies that enable them to evolve their business models -- both in-store and online. In particular, automation applications that improve productivity are likely to receive significant IT investment. Artificial Intelligence (AI), computer vision and robotics will ultimately enable retailers across the globe to provide improved customer experiences, streamline legacy business processes, and increase diminishing profit margins. Smart Retail Tech Market Development Brick and mortar retailers can, therefore, improve their chances of remaining competitive if they employ these technologies correctly, prioritizing long-term investment over short-sighted strategies, according to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research. "The high-cost barrier associated with AI, computer vision and robotics will ultimately be overcome by the potential for these technologies to offset the inherent disadvantages facing phy...

Automation can improve commercial productivity by achieving exponential improvements in business performance. Within the digital transformation realm, chatbots hold the potential to replace the tasks of many human workers with Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities that are able to conduct fluent conversations. Analysts describe chatbot technologies as computer-based interactive services that utilize software apps designed to simulate conversational capabilities, which may also include automated business processes triggered from these interactions. Chatbot Application Market Development Chatbots are becoming increasingly influential in our day-to-day life. They have been developed to assist a range of industries, from simple banking transactions, to retail customer service enquiries. In fact, the financial services and retail sector are considered most likely to explore chatbot apps. Online retailers, in particular, are being attracted to the technology by the potential for ...

As more progressive business leaders choose to support mobile, team-oriented and non-routine ways of working, an increasing number of them are looking for assistance in adopting digital workplace technology. But why are they searching for actionable information and qualified guidance? According to the findings from the latest Gartner survey, only 7 to 18 percent of organizations possess the 'digital dexterity' to adopt New Ways of Work (NWOW) solutions -- such as virtual collaboration and a mobile workplace. Furthermore, it's already apparent that forcing employees to accept rigid and inflexible workplace mandates are a recipe for poor performance. Ongoing Change Reshapes the Workforce According to the Gartner assessment, an organization with high digital dexterity has employees who have the cognitive ability and social practice to leverage and manipulate media, information and technology in unique and highly innovative ways. By country, organizations exhibiting the...