Digital Lifescapes

In early 2020, as the world responded to the COVID-19 pandemic disruption, many organizations were forced to rapidly transform their communications networks and IT infrastructure to support an unprecedented shift to remote work. Before the pandemic, approximately 38 percent of employees were remote full-time or had a flexible work arrangement where they split time between home and office locations. During the pandemic, the percentage of remote workers that CIOs had to support reached almost 72 percent. Future Enterprise Technology Market Development Enterprise leaders have been forced to adapt to a new state, shifting from traditional office-based operations to distributed workforce environments that must still provide the same level of connectivity, security, and efficiency across the organization. According to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), addressing connectivity across geographies and transforming networks to become more virtual and agile...

The global mobile communication sector is in the midst of a significant network infrastructure upgrade to support the introduction of new high-bandwidth and low-latency broadband service offerings.  Telecom service provider data centers have an important role in fifth-generation (5G) network deployments. Providers undergoing their transition to Stand-Alone (SA) 5G must understand the technical demands of telco data centers and the key enablers of those offerings. According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, the major prerequisites of 5G and the emerging transport solutions would help operators position themselves to successfully capitalize on the new revenue opportunities from delivering differentiated 5G connectivity services. 5G Transport Network Market Development "The rise of the telco data center has a high degree of confluence with the requirements of SA 5G architectures. SA 5G and its increasing reliance on telco data centers can be attributed to the incr...

When you hire qualified talent for a key role and trust them to perform, you'll likely achieve the best outcome. Skilled and experienced people will deliver results, regardless of the challenges. That's a key lesson learned from the pandemic experience as most knowledge workers were asked to work from their homes. However, some resist returning to an open-plan office. It's unacceptable. Meanwhile, forward-thinking leaders decided a "return to normal" is undesirable, and in hindsight, everyone should aspire to be more accomodating than before. Therefore, location flexibility is okay. Hybrid Workforce Market Development How will people adapt to these changes? They'll apply the modern IT tools at their disposal. They'll learn new skills and thrive. Nearly 80 percent of employees are now successfully using online collaboration tools for work in 2021 -- that's up from just over half of workers in 2019, according to the latest market study by Gartner. This g...

Mobile communication channels are important for many enterprises that connect with customers, and new service providers have emerged that offer a comprehensive platform to enable the management of this ongoing interaction. These are the Communication Platform-as-a-Service (CPaaS) providers. Industry analysts define a CPaaS platform as a solution that enables an organization to communicate with clients via multiple outbound online and mobile channels via a singular platform. There are a number of services that can be considered part of CPaaS platforms, including messaging technologies such as Short Message Service (SMS), Rich Communication Service (RCS) and Over the Top (OTT) messaging applications. Also offered are push notifications, voice services, and email. CPaaS Platform Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, the global value of the CPaaS market will exceed $10 billion for the first time in 2022 -- that's rising from $8.6 billion...

Cloud computing infrastructure is moving out to the edge of enterprise networks as more organizations explore ways to re-engineer their architecture in support of new and emerging information technology (IT) use cases. Managed cloud edge services will become a high-growth market as enterprises look for low-latency edge services to address process efficiencies, support new applications, comply with data sovereignty, and deal with IT security threats. According to the latest global market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), worldwide revenues for managed edge services will reach $445.3 million in 2021 -- that's an increase of 43.5 percent over 2020. Over the 2021-2025 forecast period, the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for managed edge services will be 55.1 percent. Managed Edge Services Market Development Given the nascent demand for managed edge services, a wide range of IT service providers and business technology vendors are looking at this market as the next big r...

The retail and wholesale back-office infrastructure market is being transformed by technology. The warehousing industry has accelerated automation efforts due to the increased order volume and labor shortages driven by the global pandemic. In addition to technology solutions such as handheld devices with enhanced capabilities, autonomous, collaborative, and mobile robots are proving to be the fastest-growing productivity-enhancing solution in the warehouse workspace. Commercial Robotics Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, global commercial robot revenue in warehouses will have a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of over 23 percent from 2021 to 2030 and exceed $51 billion by 2030. "Mobile robots are at the heart of the warehouse robotics market and account for most shipments and revenue. These robots, made up of Autonomous Guided Vehicles (AGVs) and Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs), are being used to move goods within the warehouse a...

New research uncovers growing momentum for the "Great Resignation" phenomenon. As employers implement their forward-looking strategies, including decisions around hybrid work and increased flexibility, a gap is emerging between executive and employee perceptions, according to the latest market study by Gartner. "We examined the key areas crucial to planning for the future employee experience and discovered significant dissonance between employee and executive sentiment across all," said Alexia Cambon, director at Gartner . "If left unaddressed, this division may lead to a critical failure to build trust and employee buy-in for future of work plans." Flexible Work Market Development The Gartner survey shows that 75 percent of executive leaders believe they are already operating within a culture of flexibility, yet only 57 percent of employees indicate that their organizational culture embraces flexible work. Furthermore, nearly three-quarters of executives ...

Fifth-generation (5G) wireless cellular technology is now being deployed by mobile network operators across the globe. Previous generations were developed with a consumer-oriented mobility focus. In contrast, 5G will enable numerous commercial use cases in the enterprise via fixed broadband access. 5G networks will also deliver high bandwidth and low latency data infrastructure for the next generation of mobile communications and developments in the Internet of Things (IoT) -- including applications like smart cities and autonomous vehicles. 5G Network Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, the total number of 5G connections will reach 3.2 billion by 2026 -- that's rising from 310 million in 2021. To maximize the potential of this significant growth in connections, Juniper predicts that mobile network operators will accelerate investment into standalone 5G networks to best position their services and manage future capacity. Standalone...

Across the globe, more leaders seek actionable insight from the customer data they've stored in huge data lakes. Worldwide spending on big data and business analytics (BDA) solutions is forecast to reach $215.7 billion in 2021 -- that's an increase of 10.1 percent over 2020, according to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Moreover, BDA technology investment will likely gain momentum over the next five years as the global economy recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for global BDA spending over the 2021-2025 forecast period will be 12.8 percent. Big Data Analytics Market Development "As executives seek solutions to enable better, faster decisions, we're seeing relatively healthy BDA spending across all industries. Leveraging data for insights into everything from internal business operations to the customer journey is top of mind and of strategic importance," said Jessica Goepfert, vice ...

High-speed internet access from home is essential to participate in the Global Networked Economy. The worldwide residential broadband service market reached a subscriber base of over 1.1 billion users in 2020 -- that's a 4 percent increase from the previous year. Clearly, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated demand for broadband connectivity. The need for high-capacity residential broadband will remain, even post-pandemic. According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, 5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) will be the fastest-growing residential broadband segment to increase at a CAGR of 71 percent, exceeding 58 million subscribers in 2026. Remote working, online learning, and virtual healthcare created new demand for high-speed broadband throughout 2020. The significant increase in the use of internet-based entertainment services also prompted broadband users to upgrade, while more households without broadband access subscribed for the first time. Residential Broadband Serv...

CEOs and Line of Business (LoB) leaders seek the fastest path to meaningful digital transformation advancement. Meanwhile, investment trends in cloud computing infrastructure continue to expand the capabilities, accelerating growth across all segments within the public cloud services market. According to the latest worldwide market study by Gartner, the four key trends are cloud ubiquity, regional cloud ecosystems, sustainability or carbon-intelligent cloud, and automated programmable cloud infrastructure. "The economic, organizational and societal impact of the pandemic will continue to serve as a catalyst for digital innovation and adoption of cloud services," said Henrique Cecci, senior research director at Gartner . "This is especially true for use cases such as collaboration, remote work, and new digital services to support a hybrid workforce." Global Cloud Computing Market Development Hybrid, multi-cloud and edge computing environments are growing and setting ...

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of IT solutions in healthcare. In particular, more people have accepted teleconsultations with healthcare providers -- including medical diagnoses performed through mobile apps and/or videoconferences. For more than a year, people were unable to access healthcare resources onsite due to either their virus vulnerability or because lockdown restrictions meant that they were unable to leave their homes. Numerous governments responded to the closure of healthcare facilities by loosening previous regulatory restrictions on the practice of telemedicine and online teleconsultations. Telemedicine Services Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, the number of teleconsultations performed globally will reach 765 million in 2025 -- that's rising from 422 million in 2021, representing 80 percent growth. The study found that, for teleconsultation services to become an integral element of healthcare prov...

The global pandemic changed how organizations provide information technology (IT) solutions for their knowledge worker and front-line employees that require access to software applications while working from home. It also accelerated the delivery of online education. To ensure access to those distributed IT use cases, traditional desktop and notebook PCs coexist with media tablets, Chromebooks, and a variety of smartphone devices. This device diversity also created the demand for better management. The second quarter of 2021 (2Q21) was another strong quarter for both Chromebooks and media tablets with both device categories recording growth despite a challenging year-over-year comparison. Unified Endpoint Management Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), Chromebook shipments grew 68.6 percent year-over-year with volumes reaching 12.3 million units. While this wasn't a record quarter for Chromebooks, it wasn’t far o...

The 5G edge network value chain of players has an upside opportunity to generate new revenue and gain visibility in a market that includes IT data center companies, enterprise end verticals, public cloud service providers, and content delivery network (CDN) providers. 5G edge networks will play a key role in unlocking the commercial potential of new use cases such as private wireless communications. According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, 5G private networks revenue will grow from $1.6 billion in 2021 to $65 billion in 2030, with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 60.1 percent. 5G Edge Network Market Development "With 5G edge networks, every enterprise engagement is a custom job. Consequently, communications service providers (CSPs) and vendors seek to establish business models that are governed by different KPIs, both technical and commercial," said Don Alusha, senior analyst at ABI Research . This opportunity stands in contrast with product-led ...

Where CEOs choose to apply cost savings is important. According to the latest market study by Gartner, organizations that balanced workforce cost savings with targeted talent investments outpaced organizations that solely focused on cost reduction. These progressive companies’ revenue rebounded from 3Q20, and they have outpaced industry peers that solely focused on cost reduction. "Successful organizations did more than target reactive cost savings to improve performance metrics in the short term," said Seyda Berger-Böcker, director at Gartner. They also optimized costs and funded new investments. This balance between cost savings and bold talent investment opportunities is vital for protecting an organization’s continued digital growth capabilities. Digital Enterprise Talent Market Development As organizations continue to emerge from the turbulence of 2020, human resource (HR) leaders charged with managing cost and budget measures should focus on three key takeaways: Compani...

In the recent past, banking relationships have traditionally been at the epicenter of the consumer economy. Banks have also been important due to their risk absorption functions for businesses and their value in helping to shape public policies. However, with new fintech startups disrupting the relationship between customers and their financial institutions, legacy banks are now required to evolve and adapt their business model much faster. As progressive government policies eroded the barriers of entry for service introductions by fintech players, several forms of traditional banking transformation have accelerated in demand and growth. Online Financial Services Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, 53 percent of the world’s population will access digital banking services in 2026 -- reaching over 4.2 billion digital banking users, that's up from 2.5 billion in 2021. The research study identified an increase in digital transformation...

The rapidly growing demand for modern enterprise software development skills and experience exceeds the current supply of qualified candidates. This increase has created a seller's market, where talented developers have the upper hand in negotiations with prospective employers. Moreover, the roles and responsibilities of developers continue to expand. International Data Corporation (IDC) survey results show that developers are the architects and visionaries of digital transformation and have an end-to-end line of sight into the processes that govern the creation of digital business solutions. This finding underscores the importance of software developers to both information technology (IT) vendors and buyers because developers have insights into how the operational efficiency of development processes can be improved. Enterprise Software DevOps Market Development "Given their role in designing, building, and executing digital strategies, developers have become indispensable to ...

The overall business technology market experienced significant growth last year.  However, 2020 was a challenging year for edge Artificial Intelligence (AI) vendors. Both market demand and deployment have slowed due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Compared to the cloud AI chipset market that experienced 68 percent year-on-year growth in 2020, the edge AI chipset market only grew by 1 percent during the same period. Regardless, the market is expected to bounce back. According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, the edge AI chipset market will reach $28 billion in 2026, with a CAGR of 28.4 percent between 2021 and 2026. Edge Artificial Intelligence Market Development "The demand for edge AI is not going away anytime soon. Edge AI devices can process raw data locally, reducing the reliance on constant cloud connectivity. Consumers appreciate the enhanced user experience brought by low latency and data privacy," said Lian Jye Su, principal analyst at ABI Resear...

As the Global Networked Economy continues to evolve at an accelerated pace due to the ongoing pandemic, organizations that resist the inevitable transition to a distributed workforce will become the Neo-Luddites of the 21st century. According to the latest global market study by Gartner, 51 percent of all knowledge workers worldwide are expected to be working remotely by the end of 2021 -- that's up from 27 percent of knowledge workers in 2019 that had adopted a flexible working model. Moreover, Gartner analysts now estimate that remote workers could represent 32 percent of all employees worldwide by the end of 2021. That's a significant increase from the 17 percent of all employees in 2019. Remote Worker IT Market Development Gartner defines knowledge workers as those involved in knowledge-intensive occupations -- such as writers, accountants, or engineers. Gartner also defines a remote worker as an employee working away from their company, government, or customer office site ...

Given the current trends across the globe, organizations that depend upon the continued growth of personal vehicle ownership will need to consider a plan-B scenario. While some companies will be able to adapt, others may find that their traditional business model has been totally disrupted. According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) will displace over 2.2 billion private car journeys by 2025 -- that's rising from 471 million in 2021. Juniper believes that for MaaS to enjoy widespread adoption, subscription or on-the-go packages need to offer a strong combination of transport modes along with feasible infrastructure changes, high potential for data collection and low barriers to MaaS deployments. Mobility-as-a-Service Market Development The concept of MaaS involves the provision of multi-modal end-to-end travel services through a single platform by which users can determine the best route and price according to real-time traffic ...