The UK’s recent IIAR Forum saw both IDC and Ovum present their predictions for the IT industry in 2012.
Cloud came through as the area of focus for 2012 and will be the dominant platform. While SaaS spend will be more discretionary, PaaS will be the fastest growing platform accounting for 80% of the volume of new applications distributed by the cloud, according to IDC. Ovum also put cloud as one of their key 2012 Super Themes saying there will be an evolution in the cloud with a focus on how to build the private cloud. Their feeling was, as with IDC, was that PaaS would be the fastest growing cloud segment and that enterprise adoption of the public cloud would significantly increase over the year.
Jane Doorly, VP of IDC discussed the industry’s shift to the “third platform” built on mobile, cloud, social, and Big Data technologies which will accelerate in 2012 forcing the industry’s leaders to make bold investments and fateful decisions. Worldwide IT spending will grow 6.9%, surprisingly solid growth in a fragile, recovering economy. Mobile devices and apps and emerging markets will be the biggest growth drivers, while European debt issues will dominate downside risks. Emerging markets IT spending will grow 13.8%, driving 53% of IT growth. In the second half of 2012, China will supplant Japan as number two in the IT market. IDC also commented that mobile devices will outship PCs by more than two to one and generate more revenue than PCs for the first time. 85 billion mobile apps will be downloaded, and mobile data network spending will exceed fixed data network spending for the first time.
Another key focus area for both analyst firms was growth in the telcos market. Ovum encapsulated the change as a redefinition in the acronym PC from meaning personal computer to personal cloud. They felt the main driver behind this would be the consumer as adoption of smart phones, tablets and other such devices would grow to exceed that of the laptop. In fact the launch of Windows 8 would be a last chance saloon for Microsoft to make an impact on this market.
Richard Edwards, Principal Analyst at Ovum said, “It will be the year of the personal cloud…The savvy tech vendors have already recognised that the corporate employee is a perfect channel to market when trying to take new technologies to the CIO. That’s how Microsoft windows found its place in the workplace and how the new vendors will bring their software into the enterprise.”
Following the analyst presentations, the IIAR hosted a networking event with the analysts, very kindly sponsored by Metia. It was a nice way to end the year and to wish all a Happy Christmas.
The IIAR would like to thank Jane Doorly, Richard Edwards and Tim Jennings for their time and presentations as well as to Robert De Souza (IPsoft) for hosting the meeting and Richard Cookson(Metia) for sponsoring the networking event.
IIAR members can view the full presentations and listen to Ovum’s presentation again via huddle.
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