Arguably the three key players in the global ICT research and analytics space are Gartner, Forrester and IDC. These three companies undertake vast amounts of research and analysis pertaining to current and future trends and predictions for ICT and business environments. Throughout the course of any given year, these well respected organisations release their analysis, insights and predictions that every organisation should consider as part of their strategy and planning.
In evaluating and cross referencing the publically available information that has been released from these key players over the last 12 months, there are four high level overlapping themes that emerge which are common across all three organisations.
These are:
- Cloud
- Internet of Things (everything)
- Big Data
- Mobility
Whilst these themes are high level and of little surprise to many, they provide insight into technologies and strategies that every organisation should consider when undertaking technology research, planning and innovation initiatives. The following content provides some snippets of these key themes…
1. Cloud
Gartner
- “Enterprises should look to model themselves off of the cloud leaders Amazon, Google & Salesforce. IT organizations should align with and emulate the processes, architectures, and practices of these leading cloud providers.”
Forrester
- “Public Cloud will be the default backbone for the Internet of Things”.
- Forrester predicts that Software as a Service will become the new de-facto for buying new applications.
IDC
- The worldwide revenue from public IT cloud services grew four times more than predicted.
- “By 2015, one of every seven dollars spent on packaged software, server and storage offerings will be through the Public Cloud”.
2. Internet of Things (everything)
Gartner
- “The Internet is expanding into enterprise assets and consumer items such as cars and televisions. The so called “Internet of Things” will be succeeded by the “Internet of Everything.”
Forrester
- “Sensors & devices will draw ecosystems together”.
- “The Internet-of-Things will move from hype to reality with the ubiquity of connectivity and proliferation of devices, and wearable computing will go from niche to broader use”.
IDC
- “The global Internet of Things market is expected to grow by more than $5 trillion over the next six years”.
- IDC research predicts “that the global IoT market would hit $7.1 trillion by 2020, as people around the world – and particularly in developed nations – develop an affinity for full-time connectivity”.
3. Big Data
Gartner
- “Big Data – information of extreme size, diversity and complexity – is everywhere and is destined to help organisations drive innovation by gaining new and faster insight into their customers.
Forrester
- “Firms that embrace big data concepts are creating the next generation smart systems. Cheaper, more agile, collaborative, and adaptive methods for analytics and data sharing are key. Important to design “predictive apps able to sense their environment and respond in real-time, anticipate user action, and meet users in their moment of need.
• Mobile contextual data will offer deep customer insights and is a key driver of big data.
IDC
- IDC expects the Big Data technology and services market to achieve a compound annual growth rate of 39.4%, or about 7 x the overall ICT market.
4. Mobility
Gartner
- For mobile application environments, Gartner for 2014 predicts the future lies in HTML5 and the browser .
- With more users wanting to work across multiple devices, Gartner recommend app developers work to create “building blocks” that can be assembled to fit the needs of different devices.
- Gartner predicts there will be more popularity in smaller, more targeted apps than more comprehensive, one-size fits all apps.
Forrester
- Leading organisations are moving to deliver mobile, cloud and big data solutions more readily. Contextual data will offer deep customer insights and is a key driver of big data.
- Competitive advantage in mobile will shift from experience design to big data and analytics.
IDC
- By 2015, the worlds mobile worker population will reach 1.3 billion.
- Nearly 1 billion smartphones will be distributed globally in 2015.
- Predicts Windows Phone will capture the number 2 spot in market share by 2015
Some other interesting information that was released…
- API’s will become the digital glue by providing open access to useful functionality through network-based services.
- The smart machine era will be the most disruptive in the history of IT. This will include the proliferation of: contextually aware, intelligent personal assistants; smart advisors; global industrial systems; autonomous vehicles.
- Gartner statistics predict 3-D printing to grow 75 percent in 2014 alone, with the number of unit shipments doubling in 2015. 3-D printing is a real, viable and cost-effective means to reduce costs through improved designs, streamlined prototyping and short-run manufacturing.
The above content provides just a fraction of the available information released by Gartner, Forrester and IDC, however when all major research companies are banging on the same drum, we should all sit up and take notice.
Ben Ward 