Digital Lifescapes

Business spending on information and communication technologies (ICT) may evolve over the next five years as the global economy puts pressure on organizations to increase technology investment because growth and competitiveness are increasingly dependent upon digital transformation, artificial intelligence (AI), and data analytics leadership. Worldwide ICT spending on hardware, software, services and telecommunications will reach $4.6 trillion by 2022, representing average growth of 4 percent per year. Commercial customers will represent around 63.5 percent of total spending by 2022 ($2.9 trillion), while consumers will still account for 36.5 percent ($1.7 trillion), according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Global ICT Market Development Consumer spending growth will lag behind business and government spending due to increasing saturation in smartphones and media tablets. The fastest growth will come from the professional services segment (7 pe...

The worldwide cloud computing infrastructure market had another strong quarter in Q4 2018, as spending grew 46 percent to nearly $23 billion. The total outlay on cloud infrastructure in 2018 exceeded $80 billion -- that's up from $55 billion in 2017 according to that latest market study by Canalys. This investment makes cloud computing services one of the most important sectors in the IT industry, not just by the rate of growth, but also due to its expanding size. Cloud Computing Infrastructure Market Development Amazon Web Services (AWS) remained the dominant cloud service provider in Q4 2018; its market share of customer spend unchanged at 32 percent. Microsoft Azure grew its share to 16 percent against 14 percent in the same period a year ago. Google Cloud reached 9 percent for the first time, while Alibaba Cloud maintained its 4 percent share. IBM, Salesforce, Oracle, NTT Communications, Tencent Cloud and OVH rounded out the top 10 cloud service providers. "Cloud...

With supply chains becoming increasingly global, complex, and competitive, the role of new business technology will be essential as companies attempt to drive greater efficiency, visibility, and intelligence throughout their operations. As a result, CIOs and CTOs need more information and guidance to understand the application of transformative technologies and how they will impact the supply chain now and in the future. Over the next 5 years, revenues generated by technology in the global supply chain will increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11 percent, reaching $440 billion by 2023, according to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research. Supply Chain Automation Market Development Suppliers, manufacturers, retailers, and logistics service providers (LSPs) will continue to adopt increasingly sophisticated and impactful digital technology strategies to deliver value along the entire logistics value chain. Combining both technologies and services, the supp...

It's a proven fact, digital transformation is not possible in a large enterprise organization where legacy middle-managers do everything within their power to resist any change to the status quo. A lack of culture change will typically result in no meaningful progress. According to Gartner, a proactive and adaptive culture is a critical asset and some CIOs will likely play a role in establishing the right mindsets and practices within their organizations. Gartner predicts that by 2021, some CIOs will be as responsible for culture change as chief HR officers (CHROs). Organization Change Management Goals “A lot of CIOs have realized that culture can be an accelerator of digital transformation and that they have the means to reinforce the desired culture through their technology choices,” said Elise Olding, research vice president at Gartner . “A partnership with the CHRO is the perfect way to align technology selections and design processes to shape the desired work behaviors.”...

Across the globe, CEOs and line of business leaders are seeking new ways to adopt business technology that enables digital innovation. However, American organizations are forecast to invest 1.75 times more than European organizations on information technologies (IT) from 2018 through 2022. According to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), China is also set to outpace Europe in key areas of business technology investment. While European entities will invest more in IT than their Chinese counterparts through 2022, the latter will invest 47 percent more into innovation accelerators. Digital Business Market Development "That Europe trails the U.S. in its use of digital technology is often accepted as a given. What's worrisome is the size and potential widening of the gap between the two," says Mark Yates, research manager at IDC . "And, of course, there are companies out there that are able to do more with less or that have n...

Digital ticketing adoption is growing in two core areas -- Mobile ticketing and Online ticketing. A mobile ticketing user is someone who either purchases and/or stores a ticket using their mobile handset for later redemption, at the point of travel, the event venue, the cinema, etc. In contrast, an online ticketing user is typically someone who purchases a ticket online via any Internet-connected device, thereby avoiding the conventional offline ticket purchase process. Digital Ticketing Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, users of mobile ticketing will total 1.9 billion by 2023, up from 1.1 billion in 2019. In comparison, the total number of digital ticketing users across mobile, online and wearable channels will reach 2.2 billion by 2023. According to the Juniper assessment, mobile ticketing has become a primary driver of Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) -- which is considered as the future of urban transportation-related mobilit...

Predictions about the potential for an economic slowdown in 2019 apparently haven't impacted digital business growth aspirations. As more CEOs focus their executive team attention toward digital transformation investments, IT vendors are preparing for the new demand. Worldwide IT spending is projected to total $3.76 trillion in 2019 -- that's an increase of 3.2 percent from 2018, according to the latest market study by Gartner. "Despite uncertainty fueled by recession rumors, Brexit, and trade wars and tariffs, the likely scenario for IT spending in 2019 is growth," said John-David Lovelock, vice president at Gartner . "However, there are a lot of dynamic changes happening in regards to which segments will be driving growth in the future." IT Infrastructure Market Development Spending is moving from segments such as mobile phones, personal computers and on-premises data center infrastructure to cloud services and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. IoT...

Apps for the Internet of Things (IoT) technologies will create huge amounts of data. That valuable asset is frequently the target of criminals that seek to exploit this rapidly growing resource. It's a scenario where the battleground continues to shift. Amid the turmoil of these cybersecurity threats and ongoing hacking attempts that leverage the power of the IoT against itself, more organizations are forced to realize that they are on the losing side of this war. As such, IT vendors have no choice but to enhance their cybersecurity arsenal with more sophisticated software tools which allow a deeper understanding of their users, devices, and systems. Security Analytics Market Development This momentum will drive the security analytics market toward an impressive revenue of $12 Billion by 2024, according to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research. Advanced-level data analytics, bolstered by technological advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems, permeate ...

The Juniper Research digital healthcare ecosystem model highlights the flow of products and services from service providers to their patients and the flow of influence from the patients. The dynamics of the ecosystem are changing with patients having more influence on how they are treated and providing information back to developers, vendors and healthcare service providers. Digital Healthcare Market Development New findings from Juniper Research reveal that wearables, including health trackers and remote patient monitoring devices, are set to become ‘must haves’ in delivering healthcare, with $20 billion forecast to be spent annually on these devices by 2023. Meanwhile, assistive hearables, or connected hearing aids made available via healthcare providers, as well as directly to customers at varying price models, will mean this sector generates revenues of over $40 billion by 2022. Their latest market study found that adoption of healthcare wearables will be driven by improv...

The technologies associated with the internet of things (IoT) and machine to machine (M2M) connectivity are enabling a new wave of wireless networking applications within the industrial automation sector. According to the latest global market study by Berg Insight, annual shipments of wireless devices for industrial automation applications reached 4.6 million units worldwide in 2018, accounting for approximately 6 percent of all new connected nodes. Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.3 percent, annual shipments are expected to reach 9.9 million in 2023. Moreover, the installed base of wireless IoT devices in industrial automation applications reached 21.3 million units in 2018. Industrial Automation Market Development While wired networking solutions are still predominantly used for industrial communications between sensors, controllers and systems, wireless solutions have gained a strong foothold in a number of applications. Wireless solutions are used for...

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...

More CIOs and CTOs are exploring commercial applications for artificial intelligence (AI) use cases that enable the rapid analysis of vast amounts of video content, thereby creating demand for new digital video surveillance solutions. As the video surveillance industry continues its transition toward IP camera systems with on-device analytics capabilities, savvy solution providers continue to offer connected products and services with vastly better value propositions than traditional, legacy analog video systems. Video Surveillance Market Development As a result, ABI Research now forecasts that enterprise video surveillance camera connections will top 348 million by 2023 and that these systems will generate value-added services revenues of $12 billion. “Success within IoT is largely dependent on the ability of providers to create highly specialized, value-added solutions based upon clearly defined use cases supported by market demand,” said Ryan Harbison, research analyst at AB...

The digital payments arena is undergoing rapid change, owing to a combination of factors. Transactions are growing rapidly year-on-year as convenience improves, and regulatory changes help to drive adoption. Meanwhile, the scope of different payment types is increasing. Traditionally, payments were made via Card Not Present (CNP) transactions, or through digital wallets such as PayPal. Presently, the wallet landscape has expanded dramatically since the early days of PayPal, while new pay-by-bank schemes such as SCT Inst in the EU, or Zelle in the U.S. market have created more choice for consumers. Additionally, the banking world is becoming more open -- an API-driven world has created banking-as-a-service opportunities and enabled new financial service firms to enter the market as a result. Digital Payments Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, retailers across the globe are now forecast to lose $130 billion in digital CNP fraud ...

Many new internet apps will be deployed during this year. Worldwide spending on the Internet of Things (IoT) is forecast to reach $745 billion in 2019, that's an increase of 15.4 percent over the $646 billion invested in 2018, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). The next chapter of IoT is just beginning, with a shift from digitally enabling the physical world to automating and augmenting the human experience within the online world. Therefore, IDC expects global IoT spending will maintain a double-digit annual growth rate throughout the 2017-2022 forecast period and surpass the $1 trillion mark in 2022. IoT Market Development "Adoption of IoT is happening across industries, in governments, and in consumers' daily lives. We are increasingly observing how data generated by connected devices is helping businesses run more efficiently, gain insight into business processes, and make real-time decisions," said Carrie MacGilliv...

Factory automation is evolving, once again. Machine vision technology remains popular in the manufacturing environment, due to its proven track record of results. However, the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) technology and machine learning applications will transform many conventional factories. The emergence of deep learning apps creates expanded capabilities and flexibility, leading to more cost efficiency and higher production yield. Deep learning-based machine vision techniques within smart manufacturing will experience a CAGR of 20 percent between 2017 and 2023, with revenue that will reach $34 billion by 2023, according to the latest market study by ABI Research. Machine Vision Market Development  Manufacturers need to improve their production yields and workflow efficiency. Legacy machine vision is easy to implement but is somewhat limited. Current solutions that are widely deployed in quality control, safety inspection, predictive maintenance, and industr...

Adoption of mobile internet access, combined with the development of innovative cloud services and wearable devices, has created a multitude of new consumer and business use cases that will drive demand, according to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Global shipments of wearable devices are forecast to reach 125.3 million units in 2018 -- that's up 8.5 percent from 2017. The growing popularity of smartwatches and greater wearables adoption in emerging markets will combine to produce a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11 percent with shipments jumping to 189.9 million units in 2022. Wearables Market Development "The transition from basic wearables to smart wearables will continue over the next five years as the two approach parity in terms of market share by 2022," said Jitesh Ubrani, senior research analyst at IDC . "The rise of smart wearables will not just be in mature markets, but also from emerging mar...

The emerging new applications of the global positioning system (GPS) and the internet of things (IoT) are only limited by a savvy vendor's imagination. Exploring the full potential of these enabling technologies is resulting in significant new upside revenue opportunities. According to the latest market study by Berg Insight, the market for consumer GPS pet trackers and services in Europe and North America is forecast to grow from € 60 million in 2017 to reach about € 340 million in 2022. GPS Tracking Market Development The European market is slightly larger than the North American market. At the end of 2017, there were around 270,000 active pet tracking devices in Europe and 240,000 devices in North America. The number of active pet trackers is estimated to grow at a compound average growth rate (CAGR) of 48 percent in Europe and 52 percent in North America, to reach around 1.9 million active units in each region at the end of the forecast period. Annual shipments of pet...

How can artificial intelligence (AI) technology improve traditional medicine? With 97 percent of all drug discovery programs reportedly failing, the development of a single new therapeutic involves an average cost of $2.6 billion. Helping to improve that process is a huge upside opportunity. Today, the complex research framework that's involved in the discovery and development of new therapeutic products makes drug innovation an extremely laborious process, according to the latest worldwide market study by Frost & Sullivan. Pharmaceutical AI Market Development More than 60 percent of known diseases remain untreatable. Meanwhile, life sciences companies are making progress in the fields of gene and cell therapies, omics technologies, and smart molecules approaches, creating the need for advanced, cost-effective technologies that can parse large quantities of data. "Pharmaceutical companies are increasingly recognizing the value of deploying AI-based platforms that c...

While the wearables trend began with the wristband device, sensor miniaturization has now progressed to a wide range of form factors. As an example, the 'hearable' or ear-based wearable device combines these sensor inputs and additional computing power with a variety of new use cases for the ear. More miniaturization will help drive the capabilities of the market, as well as push hearables capability into the mid-tier device market. This sector is uniquely positioned, with more mainstream market pricing, to change both the wearables space and the existing ear-based device sector. Being able to successfully navigate this evolving landscape will require both a clear vendor vision on what the sector can achieve and an awareness of what existing technology partners can bring to the market. Hearables Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, there will be an estimated 417 million hearables in use by 2022. This includes fitness-fo...

I read the book “ Connecting the Dots ” by John Chambers from the perspective of an industry insider, having worked within the internet sector since the mid-90s, and also previously as an employee at Cisco Systems for six years. I believe that Mr. Chambers was instrumental in helping to make ‘strategic communications’ an essential part of the company’s high-growth culture. Therefore, I’ll elaborate on a key topic, highlighted in Chapter Four of the book -- “Embrace Your Purpose, Not Your Products.” Cisco is often referred to as a ‘bellwether’ stock, meaning it’s a leading indicator of the direction of the economy, or of a sector of the market, or the market as a whole. How did Cisco achieve that eminence with a remarkable internet-enabled worldview? It was partly via commercial storytelling . "Together, we did play a critical role in changing how the world works, lives, learns, and plays." - John T. Chambers Rise Above the Me-Too Vendor Noise In an industry that...