change where every business, and every
person, is using technology to change how
they get things done, lowering the barriers
to entry to new markets and enabling the
development of new business models and
services. e net result is unprecedented
levels of disruption and competition’.
Staying competitive in this context calls
on enterprises to be adaptable and open to
change, but for many organisations, this
change does not come easy, and it is large,
asset-heavy businesses that are especially
vulnerable to digital disruption. Many have
invested heavily, over many years, in their
company’s technology assets, often making
change or even integration, dicult, slow
and expensive. New market entrants can
easily be more agile, innovative and rapidly
scalable, and the certainties of legacy and
market share no longer exist.
e Cloud Industry Forum report
concludes that while enterprises still spend
a greater proportion of their IT budgets on
on-premise and legacy technologies, this
won’t remain the case for long and within
three years, respondents expect that cloud
infrastructure will consume almost twice
the budget of legacy implementations. And
with this shift, enterprises are starting to
look further up the stack, away from the
infrastructure to the applications that sit
on it, not least Articial Intelligence (AI),
blockchain, and the Internet of ings (IoT).
While it is still relatively early days for
these emerging technologies, enterprises are
starting to incorporate AI, blockchain and
IoT into their technology roadmaps, which
many see as critical to helping them meet
the needs of their customers and thrive in
the future.
ED SAYS…
In terms of channel advice, we echo the CIF message: Enterprises are
using more cloud-based services than ever before – and they are doing
so in pursuit of a wide range of benefits, chief among them the flexibility
and agility it provides. This shift towards procuring IT-as-a-service and
a greater reliance on trusted third parties is freeing up IT teams to focus
on activities that can help deliver wide-reaching business change, while
exploring new app development methodologies.
CLOUD SERVICES / SOFTWARE
that use cloud services will be more
vulnerable.
Public Cloud
According to IDC, the industries forecasted
to spend the most on public cloud services
this year are as follows:
• Discrete manufacturing ($19.7 billion)
• Professional services ($18.1 billion)
• Banking ($16.7 billion)
• Process manufacturing ($10 billion +)
• Retail industry ($10 billion +)
Here, enterprise advisory services rm
Intersog says that organisations within the
industries listed above are also expected
to leverage cloud services to build third
platform solutions like the Internet of ings
and big data and analytics.
eir advice is that by leveraging this
technology to enhance and optimise customer
journeys, these businesses can also lower their
operational expenses. is will provide an
excellent opportunity to dominate the market
(within their niche) in 2019 and beyond.
Staying Competitive
In their most recent report, Digital
Transformation in the Enterprise, the UK
based Cloud Industry Forum (CIF), makes
a number of industry insights we agree with
and applaud.
‘We are entering a period of fundamental
16 | Channel Profiles 2019 www.commsbusiness.co.uk
16 | Channel Profiles 2019 uk
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