Digital Lifescapes

In the past, most CIOs and CTOs would consider Wi-Fi infrastructure as the primary mode of delivering wireless local area network connectivity to their organization. Now, the development of fifth-generation (5G) cellular technologies has created alternative modes of wireless networking. Moreover, the demand for private networks in the enterprise domain continues to rise. According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, private cellular network deployments within the enterprise domain will generate equipment revenues of more than $64 billion by 2030. While very large enterprises will likely drive the market for the next 10 years -- accounting for 50 percent of private networks by 2030 -- companies with annual revenues between $250 million and $1 billion will account for 40 percent of private networks by 2030, with their proportion expected to rise further beyond the forecast period. Private Cellular Network Market Development "These numbers underline the huge momentu...

While many organizations are concerned about cash flow and other financial metrics, given the current economic environment, the most forward-looking leaders plan further investments in strategic Digital Transformation projects.  Sixty-nine percent of enterprise boards of directors (BoDs) accelerated their digital business initiatives in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic disruption, according to the latest market study by Gartner. Almost half anticipate changing their organizations’ traditional business model as a result of the pandemic. The '2021 Gartner Board of Directors Survey' was aimed to understand how boards of directors view digital business model evolution in their enterprises, along with the role of the CIO and other executive leaders, specifically in the context of responding to the current economic crisis. Digital Business Market Development "BoDs play a strong role in helping the executive leadership team focus beyond the short-term risks associated with this...

The global pandemic has accelerated the expansion of eCommerce deployments and the adoption of new and innovative online payment methods. Moreover, instant or real-time payments are having a disruptive effect on the traditional payments market by enabling rapid transaction processing. However, the transition to instant payments is not happening in a universal way. Rapid payment schemes tend to be updated versions of legacy payment settlement approaches that were created by individual authorities in countries. Debit card payments, while certainly fast, do not tend to lend themselves to the same use cases as instant payment applications, given the requirement for the supplier to accept the card transaction -- which historically include significant transaction processing fees. Instant Payments Market Development While instant payments are somewhat unique -- in terms of replacing old payment schemes to enable faster payments -- the outcome of this approach is not unique by any means. Acros...

Courageous leadership is most valuable when others fail to act, due to fear and uncertainty. As an example, when a pandemic disrupts the Global Networked Economy, there's still an opportunity for bold and brave executives to lead an investment in platforms that enable sustainable digital growth. Global spending on artificial intelligence (AI) is forecast to double over the next four years, growing from $50.1 billion in 2020 to more than $110 billion in 2024. Investments in AI systems will accelerate as more organizations deploy new platforms for digital transformation projects, according to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for AI technologies and associated platforms will reach 20.1 percent during the 2019-2024 forecast period. Artificial Intelligence Market Development "Companies will adopt AI -- not just because they can, but because they must," said Ritu Jyoti, vice president at IDC . ...

The Work from Home (WFH) phenomena has fueled the need for more devices, better internet access, and secure networking technologies. Plus, the COVID-19 pandemic is now driving demand for Wi-Fi customer premise equipment (CPE) as millions of people work and learn from their homes. According to the latest global market study by ABI Research, the closely related worldwide Wi-Fi CPE market will see vendors ship more than 223 million units in 2020 -- that's a surge of 10 million units from 2019 reported growth. "Stay-at-home orders imposed in the first quarter of 2020 forced millions of consumers to work from home and students to do home-based learning, creating the need for ultra-reliable broadband and Wi-Fi connectivity in households worldwide," said Khin Sandi Lynn, an analyst at ABI Research . Wi-Fi CPE Market Development There has been a sudden spike in the adoption of Wi-Fi routers and wireless network extenders as consumers seek a reliable Wi-Fi connection that can simu...

Given the strategic significance of digital transformation, IT security leadership is a really important role. And yet, only 12 percent of Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) excel in all four categories of the 'CISO Effectiveness Index', according to the latest worldwide market study by Gartner. Gartner analysts presented their global survey findings and discussed the key traits of top-performing CISOs during their recent 'Security & Risk Management Summit'. "Today’s CISOs must demonstrate a higher level of effectiveness than ever before," said Sam Olyaei, research director at Gartner . "As the push to digital deepens, CISOs are responsible for supporting a rapidly evolving set of information risk decisions, while also facing greater oversight from regulators, executive teams and boards of directors." IT Security Market Development These significant enterprise challenges are further compounded by the pressure that the COVID-19 pandemic h...

The application of new technology is an opportunity for traditional retailers to enhance customer engagement via digital transformation. Many of these established retailers are confronted by disruptive competition from eCommerce. Savvy retailers are evolving their business model into an omnichannel offering, where they combine the best of their offline experience and supplement it with an online shopping experience. Therefore, retailers that intend to maintain a physical in-store presence must operate more effectively. There are several technologies being combined to enhance the way retail store operations function -- including self-checkout apps, beacons, RFID tags, robotics, and artificial intelligence (AI). That said, the current global economic environment requires retailers to become more agile and decisive. Retailer Technology Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, the value of transactions processed by smart checkout technologies, ...

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the Digital Transformation trends. Savvy CIOs and CTOs that were an early adopter of public cloud computing technologies now have a significant strategic market lead over their competitors. Moreover, a few dominant IT platform providers continue to benefit from this trend. The worldwide public cloud services market -- including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS) -- grew by 26 percent year-over-year in 2019 with revenues totaling $233.4 billion, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Spending continued to consolidate with the combined revenue of the top five global public cloud service providers -- Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Salesforce.com, Google, and Oracle -- capturing more than one third of the worldwide total and growing at 35 percent year-over-year. Public Cloud Services Market Development "Cloud is expanding far beyond niche e-comm...

A multitude of new devices have been connected to the Internet already this year, and many more will connect in the coming weeks and months. That said, the Internet of Things (IoT) gateway has become an important link in the IoT security and device authentication value chain. They've emerged as a crucial conduit for intelligent network operations across the entire IoT ecosystem, and will very likely increase the demand for more edge computing infrastructure investment. Now the new wave of next-generation smart IoT gateways has arrived at an opportune time, enabling a breadth of novel security, intelligence, and authentication operations at the edge, causing IoT vendors to revisit their deployment and IT management strategies. IoT Gateway Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, there will be 21.4 million next-gen smart IoT gateways shipped in 2025. "Smart IoT gateways are currently caught amid a greater transformative evolution, furthe...

Are you still unable to fully launch that Digital Transformation project that your CEO approved months ago? The savvy CIOs and CTOs know that business model innovation progress is achieved by better people, process, and technology advancements -- specifically in that order. Are you ready now? If your current 'team' of employees are unprepared, well you're not alone. Furthermore, many organizations are struggling to hire 'quality talent' as only 16 percent of new hires possess the needed skills for both their current role and the future, according to the latest worldwide market study by Gartner. Moreover, what's the likelihood that this 'cream of the crop' wants to work at your company? Ongoing Quest for Aptly Skilled Talent To hire quality talent, recruiting leaders must shift their strategies from replacing the workforce to instead 'shaping the workforce' by defining needs based on skills, sourcing talent more broadly and creating responsive emp...

How businesses pay each other is an essential process for all organizations. They have suppliers, and therefore all need access to effective payment systems. That said, the lack of meaningful digital transformation within the business-to-business (B2B) payments sector has challenged the established systems. In this context, the digital disruption of the traditional B2B payments ecosystem is now more important, to enable companies to perform financial transactions as efficiently as possible. Fortunately, there's a multitude of forces developing in this market, with more new vendors attempting to drive innovation. B2B Payments Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, the volume of B2B payments facilitated by non-banks will exceed 53 billion in 2022 -- that's up from a COVID-related low of 38 billion in 2020; representing 42 percent growth. These new vendors will account for 12.6 percent of B2B payments by volume in 2022. Despite the s...

A distributed workforce, and ongoing work-from-home mandates, have evolved the charter of corporate information technology (IT) organizations. CIOs are now tasked to support flexible working arrangements that require them to reconsider prior assumptions about securing the combined infrastructure that enables an employee to perform work remotely. Enterprise spending on IT security products and services has experienced new growth in 2020, as many organizations invest in solutions to meet the needs of a much larger remote workforce, and a wide range of online security threats that create additional requirements. According to the latest global market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), worldwide spending on security-related hardware, software, and services will be $125.2 billion in 2020 -- that's an increase of 6 percent over 2019. IT Security Market Development As the global economy recovers from the impact of COVID-19, IDC expects worldwide security spending to reach $174...

As more devices are connected to the public internet, mass quantities of data are being produced. Capitalizing on those data assets, expansion in the advanced analytics market has been enabled by new technology, products, and related services.  The inherent value of data is increasing, and that value is stimulating the Internet of Things (IoT) advanced analytics market, with the emergence of accessible out-of-the-box and off-the-shelf machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions. Vendors are now easing access to ML and AI toolsets by expanding availability through deployment options that include edge computing, on-premises infrastructure, private cloud, Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).   IoT ML and AI Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, the IoT ML and AI market will reach $1.09 billion in 2020 and grow to reach $10.6 billion by 2026. Edge ML/AI is more prevalent in manufacturing...

Enterprise IT security leaders need to protect endpoint devices from cyber attacks. Moreover, they want to offer effective and secure remote access for employees who are now working from home. Besides, this demand will continue to grow as more organizations embrace flexible working models.  According to the latest worldwide market study by Gartner, two trends will have a transformational impact on global businesses within the next 10 years. Bring Your Own PC (BYOPC) security will reach mainstream adoption in the next two to five years, while it will take five to 10 years for mainstream adoption of Secure Access Service Edge (SASE). "Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was little interest in BYOPC," said Rob Smith, senior research director at Gartner . "At the start of the pandemic, organizations simply had no other alternative." Endpoint Security App Market Development The urgent need to enable employees to work from home and a lack of available hardware b...

It's estimated there are over 1.1 billion personal vehicles currently in use globally. Juniper Research predicts steady growth for all eight key regions, with vehicles on the roads reaching 1.2 billion around the world in 2025. North America, West Europe, and the Far East & China have the highest number of vehicles in use per 1,000 persons of the population. In recent years there have been changes in the market, with higher adoption of hybrid and fully electric cars which require more complex operational monitoring technology. Plus, with more people embracing remote and flexible working models, the car can become a mobile office with all the associated business requirements, including reliable broadband connectivity. Connected vehicles can utilize several types of technology. Among those, existing mobile communications network infrastructure already plays a key role, in some cases, in tandem with short-range technology, such as Road-Side Units (RSUs). Connected Vehicles M...

During the remainder of this year, executive leadership teams will be focused on IT infrastructure that enables the "Future of Work", hybrid work models, and flexible working methodologies that make it possible for knowledge workers to access essential corporate applications from anywhere. Meanwhile, fueled by an ongoing digital transformation investment, worldwide revenue in the enterprise software applications market grew 7.5 percent year-over-year in 2019 to reach $224.6 billion, according to the latest global market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). As more businesses undergo digital transformation to meet the challenges of the current economic disruption, modern software with its properties of automation, connectivity, and visibility has become critical to achieving a competitive edge. Enterprise Software Applications Market Development Enterprise applications are the engine of the business, providing the data, intelligence, and computational tools n...

More computing power is moving to the edge of mobile networks and it's going to be amazing. 5G Edge Computing will provide a foundation for the development of enterprise use cases and industry vertical applications. To capture the value at stake, Communications Service Providers (CSPs) will use new data. CSPs are seeking sustainable growth as a source of competitive advantage in the Global Networked Economy. That demands an IT and network infrastructure that's conducive to data collection, storage, processing, and analysis. A key element of this data infrastructure is a data management facility available on a 24/7 basis. That's an essential first step to fully capture the value of data, according to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research. 5G Edge Computing Market Development The quest to pursue new revenue streams and the need to streamline telco operations are the driving forces behind a 5G data infrastructure layer. Many CSPs are already on a journey to...

Leading public cloud service providers continue to gain market share across the globe. The cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) market grew 37.3 percent in 2019 to reach $44.5 billion -- that's up from $32.4 billion in 2018, according to the latest worldwide market study by Gartner. Amazon (AWS) retained the number one position in the IaaS market in 2019, followed by Microsoft (Azure), Alibaba, Google and Tencent. The remaining cloud service providers are essentially niche players, by comparison. "Cloud underpins the push to digital business, which remains at the top of CIOs’ agendas," said Sid Nag, vice president at Gartner . “It enables technologies such as the edge, AI, machine learning and 5G, among others." Public Cloud IaaS Market Development Each emerging technology requires a scalable, elastic and high-capacity infrastructure platform like public cloud IaaS. In 2019, the top five IaaS providers accounted for 80 percent of the market -- that's ...

Among the key assets of a mobile telecommunications service provider are its network infrastructure and its billing relationship with their customers. While its role as a retailer of content has declined, Direct Carrier Billing (DCB) offers a new revenue stream. Even though it will not provide a wholescale solution to the underlying profitable revenue challenges of mobile network operators, it may eventually equal or exceed MNO content revenue pre-storefront. According to the latest market study by Juniper Research, DCB could benefit players across the value chain -- including content developers, content publishers, aggregators, and consumers. This includes increasing the incremental revenue opportunities for the providers of both digital and physical goods. Mobile Content Payment Market Development Juniper Research has found that total spend over direct carrier billing will reach $100 billion for the first time by 2025 -- that's rising from $37 billion in 2020. They anti...

Within the business-to-business (B2B) realm, large enterprise corporate events are often a major component of the marketing organization's operating budget. These events are frequently held at resort hotels or conference centers in popular destinations, such as Las Vegas. They're very expensive to produce. What are the typical event goals? How does this investment deliver results? In many cases, these events are funded as 'sales progression' activities. Meaning, the company invites key contacts from their existing customers that they know are already likely to purchase products and services. In reality, there's very little 'selling' that takes place. More often than not, the event execution actually revolves around scheduled hospitality (meals, cocktails, and entertainment) rather than a definitive business objective. Keynote sessions set the tone for the remainder of the event. Education and certification opportunities are sometimes offered to attende...