IDC FutureScape shows how companies and the IT industry will have to react to the consequences of Corona in the future. International Data Corporation (IDC) today published its global forecasts for the IT industry for 2021 and beyond.
The forecasts are in the new IDC FutureScape report, which Rick Villars, IDC Group Vice President Worldwide Research, presented in a live web conference. Both the report and the video recording of the web conference can be found at https://www.idc.com/events/futurescape.
This year's predictions are marked by the severe effects of the corona pandemic, which will dramatically change the global economic system in the next 12 to 24 months (and beyond). The consequences of Corona are omnipresent and also influence the external factors that are driving change. However, despite the disruptions from the global pandemic in 2020, the global economy is still on track towards its “digital destination” as most products and services are based on a digital delivery model or require digital augmentation to remain competitive.
$ 6,8 trillion in IT spending from 2020 to 2023
This change means that 65% of global GDP will be generated digitally by 2020, resulting in $ 6,8 trillion in IT spending from 2020 to 2023.
In order to successfully master this phase of change, CIOs and digitally ambitious board members have to concentrate on three areas over the next five years. In the short term, you need to fix all quick fixes and deficiencies in IT that arose during the initial crisis response. You need to identify where the crisis and the response to it accelerated IT transformation in your organization and hold on to that progress. Most importantly, you need to find ways to adopt new technology to capitalize on industry-wide upheavals and expand your business in the “Nearest Normal” with enhanced skills.
Future company sales depend on responsiveness
“The Corona pandemic has clearly shown that the ability to adapt quickly and react to unplanned and unforeseen disruptions to business operations will be a clear success factor in our increasingly digitized economy,” explains Villars. "A large percentage of future business revenue depends on the responsiveness, scalability, and resilience of corporate infrastructure, applications, and data resources."
A detailed look at the top ten global IT industry forecasts from IDC shows
The shift towards centralization in the cloud is accelerating
By the end of 2021, based on recent experience, 80% of companies will introduce a mechanism to switch to cloud-centric infrastructures and applications twice as fast as before the pandemic. CIOs need to accelerate the transition to a cloud-centric IT model in order to remain competitive and make the company more digitally robust.
Edge becomes a top priority
By 2023, responses to changed ways and places of work during the pandemic will be the dominant factor driving 80% of all IT edge-oriented investments and business model adjustments in most industries. The need to provide infrastructure, application and data resources to end users will drive the introduction of new cloud-centric edge and network solutions. These enable faster reactions to current business requirements and at the same time form a better basis for significantly improving the “digital resilience” in the long term, scaling the business and ensuring greater business flexibility.
The intelligent digital workplace
By 2023, 75% of the 2000 largest companies worldwide will undertake to equip their employees technically so that they can work together in real time from the outset (and not first forced by external circumstances). That will result in better informed, collaborative, and more productive employees.
The IT legacy of the pandemic
By 2023, dealing with hasty IT actions during the pandemic will lead to financial stress, lower IT agility and forced cloud migrations for 70% of CIOs. Experienced CIOs will look for ways to develop new digital platforms that modernize and coordinate infrastructure and applications, while at the same time creating flexible options for products, services and applications for employees and customers.
Resilience is crucial in the future
In 2022, companies with a focus on digital resilience will be able to react to disruption and adapt their services 50% faster than those that have focused on restoring their previous business and IT resilience. Leading companies need to be able to react very quickly to radical changes, build digital skills to keep operations going, and quickly use the changing conditions to their competitive advantage.
A change to independent IT services
By 2023, emerging cloud systems for the comprehensive control of IT resources and real-time data evaluations will form the technical basis for all IT and business automation projects. These goals require an aggressive integration of proactive, AI / ML-based analysis technology, the introduction of policy-driven automation and greater use of serverless low-code workflows in order to create a uniform, self-regulating infrastructure.
Preferred AI expansion
By 2023, a quarter of G2000 companies - driven by the goal of bringing more intelligence to products and services - will acquire at least one AI software startup in order to secure specific skills and knowledge. Successful companies may sell industry-specific software and data services developed in-house on a subscription basis, using their vast expertise to generate profitable new revenue streams.
Review of business relationships
By 2024, 80% of companies will reassess their relationships with suppliers, providers and partners in order to be able to implement their digital strategies of universal use of resources and independent IT services. Re-evaluating the relationships between technology, services, and providers in an IT ecosystem undergoing profound change is critical to long-term success.
Sustainability is gaining in importance
By 2025, 90% of G2000 companies will specify reusable materials in IT hardware supply chains, CO2 targets in production and lower energy consumption as a prerequisite for business relationships. As IT takes more responsibility for positive change within the business, it will become even more important to ensure that IT vendors and data center partners share similar goals and help accelerate progress.
People remain important
By 2023, half of the efforts to automate business processes will be delayed or fail completely because too little is invested in building IT / Sec / DevOps teams with the right tools and skills. To address the lack of developers and data analytics professionals, companies will turn to flexible resource sources, crowdsourcing, and in-house staff to meet their development, automation, advanced analytics and innovation needs.
Directly to the report at IDC.com
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