Business Technology Roundtable

As 2011 comes to a close, many busy executives and IT managers will be pondering the continued adoption of cloud applications within their organizations. How can a business be adequately prepared for the anticipated increase in demand for managed cloud services ? Moreover, what are the key related market indicators that are shaping the future of emerging business technology deployments? The Cisco Global Cloud Index is an ongoing effort to forecast the growth of global data center and cloud-based IP traffic. The forecast includes trends associated with data center virtualization and cloud computing . From 2000 to 2008, peer-to-peer file sharing dominated Internet traffic. As a result, the majority of Internet traffic did not touch a data center, but was communicated directly between Internet users. Since 2008, most Internet traffic has originated or terminated in a data center. Data center traffic will continue to dominate Internet traffic for the foreseeable future, but the nat...

Cloud computing demand will drive new IT spending over the next five years, as public cloud service providers and the adopters of private cloud solutions invest in the supporting infrastructure, according to a recent market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Therefore, the leading managed cloud service providers have been busy expanding their service delivery platforms. Overall spending by public cloud service providers on storage hardware, software, and professional services will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23.6 percent from 2010 to 2015, while enterprise spending on storage for the private cloud will experience a CAGR of 28.9 percent. By 2015, combined spending for public and private cloud storage will be $22.6 billion worldwide. "Despite current economic uncertainties, IDC expects cloud service providers -- both public and private -- to be among the most expansive spenders on IT products and services as they continue to build out their f...

Telepresence and other forms of advanced visual collaboration technologies are moving further into the mainstream of forward-looking business practices. This increase in adoption has been a global phenomenon, as more business leaders follow the numerous application examples of the early-adopters. Infonetics Research released excerpts from its second quarter 2011 (2Q11) "Enterprise Telepresence and Video Conferencing" report. Their findings demonstrate the progress that's been made so far this year. Their latest market study provides insights on market size, vendor market share, and analysis for PBX-based video phones and software, as well as dedicated video conference infrastructure and endpoints -- including immersive telepresence and software. Forecast for Continued Double-Digit Growth For the first 6 months of 2011, enterprise telepresence and video conferencing equipment revenue is up 24 percent year-over-year -- and according to the current Infonetics market...

More capable smartphones and media tablets are now joining a variety of highly portable netbook computers that have already invaded the workplace. Many are being combined with mobile apps that tap into cloud-based productivity solutions. According to the latest market study by ABI Research , healthcare is one of the most dynamic sectors for mobile technologies, and manufacturing is now the largest sector for mobile enterprise applications worldwide. By 2016, manufacturing will generate approximately 23 percent of the nearly $5 billion in mobile enterprise application service revenues. Mobile enterprise applications, also called mobile B2E applications, include dashboard apps, work flow approval apps, and line-of-business applications for both the smartphone and tablet. ABI's mobile services practice director, Dan Shey, says, "Manufacturing beats healthcare for B2E app adoption and revenues because of its large employment worldwide and the breadth of occupations ...

The transition to managed cloud services is having a trickle-down effect on various stakeholders in the business technology landscape. As an example, in the evolving enterprise communications market, customer premise equipment (CPE) vendors must confront imminent erosion in their installed base -- as cloud services gain traction across the public, private, and hybrid cloud domains. According to the latest market study by ABI Research , 41 percent of all enterprise communications users -- or 386 million lines or seats -- will be on virtual infrastructure by 2016, which is posing a serious danger to the traditional CPE market. "For CPE vendors, the cloud threat is real," says ABI senior analyst Subha Rama. "By 2016, the communications CPE market will only grow 4.3 percent, while cloud communications will grow by over 21 percent, reaching $8 billion in revenues." Smaller vendors with point solutions will see cloud services rapidly displace their installed base...

Media tablet and smartphone software applications (apps) have entered the mainstream of business technology. In fact, results from recent market research by International Data Corporation ( IDC ) demonstrates that service providers are already reporting increasing enterprise and independent software vendor (ISV) activity -- centered upon the new commercial mobile apps ecosystem that has emerged. These latest developments are establishing mobile initiatives for a variety of horizontal and industry-specific business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) application scenarios. Enabling Mobile Enterprise Agile App Development Furthermore, third parties are increasing their mobile application life-cycle investments to meet the growing demand for mobile applications -- such as native, Web-based or cross-platform -- with an emphasis on accelerating client mobile applications to market at lower total cost of ownership (TCO) with higher productivity and quality. An insightf...

Adoption of cloud computing services continues to accelerate as organizations move from limited deployments to comprehensive solutions, according to the latest market study by CompTIA, the non-profit trade association for the information technology (IT) industry. More than half (56 percent) of the organizations surveyed for the CompTIA study said their investment in cloud computing will increase by 10 percent or more over the next 12 months. “This additional investment will likely be accompanied by greater complexity in the overall cloud strategy, such as moving to a hybrid cloud model or adopting more advanced services beyond Software as a Service (SaaS),” said Seth Robinson, director, technology analysis, CompTIA. ”Organizations may begin exploring options such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS), which will allow them to experiment with custom application development.” IT departments are often a key driver behind the transition to ...

Mobile communication related activity is now considered the number one business technology issue on the minds of IT professionals in the Asia-Pacific region, according to the latest market study by IDC. Their analysts have been exploring, in depth, what mobility really means for organizations and how utilizing a variety of commercial mobile applications will become the norm in the near future. Clearly, enterprise mobility has been a familiar topic for savvy business and technology leaders within most multinational organizations. For many companies it means mobile email, perhaps some form of unified communications (UC) or fixed mobile convergence (FMC). Moreover, for the more adventurous IT leaders, they have already embarked on extending workplace applications into the mobile environment. How Mobility Supports Operational Business Goals Tim Dillon, IDC's Associate Vice President for Asia-Pacific says, "That's yesterday's view. It's changed. Organization...

The healthcare and social services vertical marketplace is extensive. It includes companies that provide medical care and social assistance for individuals -- which includes ambulatory healthcare services, hospitals, nursing and residential care facilities, and social assistance services. Healthcare has been a growth vertical in U.S. business markets. According to the latest market study by In-Stat , research supports a forecast of continued growth, with healthcare spending $518 million on Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) in 2015. Overall telecom spending by the healthcare and social services vertical was just under $16 billion in 2010. Wireless communications is the largest of the product categories, comprising about 40 percent of telecom spending in the healthcare and social services vertical. Cloud computing and managed services is the fasting growing component. Wireline data and wireline voice comprise the remainder of the telecom spend. Increased Demand for Man...

The hospitals in Talcahuano (Las Higueras), San Carlos and Linares have inaugurated Cisco TelePresence units -- the high-definition video technology that allows them to interact with their patients via tele-consultations, examinations and interviews. The TelePresence technology also helps them find solutions for cardiovascular pathologies, the main public health problem facing Chilean society that has resulted in great human and economic impact. This HD video communication solution enables the hospitals in Linares and San Carlos to connect with specialists in Las Higueras Hospital in Talcahuano and carry out remote specialized consultations -- as a result accelerating the process of attending to patients. As an example, now the time taken for a specialist's first response has been significantly reduced (from 12 months to 54 hours), as well as the time taken to resolve the problem that gave rise to the initial consultation (from as long as two years down to one month). Ena...

This week, the world's financial markets have been negatively impacted by continued concerns about the global economic outlook. There has been little good news about the economy lately, particularly regarding the U.S. jobs forecast. That said, enterprise related IT spending has apparently been one positive forward-looking market indicator -- particularly the current and planned use of managed cloud services . According to the latest market study by In-Stat , enterprise business spending on IT and telecom services -- which include cloud computing, wireless, wireline voice, wireline data, and business IP/VoIP -- will move in a positive direction in 2011, increasing by healthy 6 percent. "There will be positive growth across all 20 verticals with education and healthcare & social services leading the surge with growth of 10 percent and 9 percent respectively,” says Greg Potter, analyst at in-Stat. These forecast increases in spending are across all product groups e...

The cloud computing phenomenon now includes a set of services and technologies that enable the delivery of on-demand computing services over the Internet in real-time, allowing end-users instant access to data and applications from any device with online access. Although still in its infancy, gaining traction has not been a problem. According to the latest market study by In-Stat, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is set to grow to roughly $4 billion by 2015. "Growth is expected in all public cloud service segments," says Greg Potter, Analyst at In-Stat . Many Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications have been around for a long time, but now with the advent of entire platforms for these applications they're gaining the necessary visibility among businesses to reach renewed momentum in the marketplace. Infrastructure-as-a-Service (SaaS) is also gaining increased traction, especially in the small business market. In-Stat's latest market study includes ...

According to the findings from a global market study, the healthcare sector has a highly complex IT environment that's supporting a very diversified professional user population (i.e., clinicians) -- along with their patients in life-critical situations. The industry is currently facing growing economic and regulatory pressures that make its IT infrastructure primed for change. Therefore, all organizations will likely consider the potential benefits of migrating to cloud computing. Improvement in the quality of healthcare services is a key driver for managed cloud service adoption. Billions of dollars of federal incentives are provided for the delivery of quality healthcare services, and expanding the use of electronic health record (EHRs) systems -- as well as providing the basis for the exchange of information and data across and between the providers. These EHR systems are expected to be used extensively by 2014. Another significant opportunity is the consumer-oriented c...

Small businesses account for two-thirds of all new employment in America, according to the historical U.S. government statistics. Developing trends within this key sector are therefore a leading market indicator of the nation's economic stability and forward-looking performance. That said, new U.S. business spending research, that was performed by In-Stat, would indicate that some things are starting to trend upwards. According to the latest market study by In-Stat , small and medium businesses (SMBs) plan to increase their spending on wireless data services by 42 percent from 2010 to 2015. Moreover, U.S. small office and home office (SOHO) businesses will lead the category, forecast to increase their spending by over 46 percent on wireless data from 2010 to 2015. New Productivity Oriented Wireless Data Applications "Voice has become a commodity, with growth in voice services essentially being stagnant across all sizes of business," says Greg Potter, In-Stat Dat...

Cisco has introduced the AppHQ -- an application ecosystem built specifically for Cisco Cius that provides new ways to create, manage and rapidly deploy tablet applications in the enterprise. Cisco Cius, an Android-based tablet created for the enterprise, combines voice, video, collaboration, and virtualization capabilities unlike any other tablet on the market today. With Cisco Cius, organizations can now deliver an optimized tablet with enterprise-grade security, as a natural extension of the enterprise network. The device provides customers with mobility, centralized manageability, virtual content creation and computing capabilities, and a comprehensive suite of collaboration applications. AppHQ provides developers with tools and resources to create, test and market applications for Cisco Cius, and allows IT managers to control which applications can be used on the devices. Additionally, companies can create private, custom-branded application storefronts for th...

According to the latest market study by International Data Corporation ( IDC ), cloud computing will continue to reshape the business technology landscape over the next five years -- as spending on public cloud services expands at a CAGR of 27.6 percent, from $21.5 billion in 2010 to $72.9 billion in 2015. That said, apparently the trend and resulting impact of cloud services will extend well beyond information technology (IT) spending. Managed cloud services are a critical component in a much larger transformation that IDC expects will be instrumental in driving IT industry growth for the next 25 years. "Cloud services are interconnected with and accelerated by other disruptive technologies, including mobile devices, wireless networks, big data analytics, and social networking," said Frank Gens, senior vice president and chief analyst at IDC. This collective group of technologies are merging into the industry's third major platform for long-term growth. Similar to...

Verizon Communications is extending the range of its TelePresence offering to enable virtual face-to-face collaboration in more locations around the world, made possible by a new agreement with Tata Communications. The collaboration enables meetings to take place between Verizon's telepresence customers and any public or private telepresence room on the Tata Communications Global Meeting Exchange -- one of the broadest telepresence networks accessible today and a gateway to the company's public room network spanning 31 cities on five continents. This will supplement Verizon's telepresence offering powered by its expansive global Private Internet Protocol (IP) Network service. Similarly, Tata Communications telepresence customers can use Verizon's facilities to communicate with Verizon customers. Enterprise TelePresence replicates face-to-face interactions so realistically that it feels as though everyone is in the same room, even though they may be hundreds or t...

Broadband service providers gained a 5 percent share of nearly $20 billion annual cloud services market, with 25 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) forecast to 2013 -- according to the latest aggregated market research assessment by STL Partners . Based upon their observations, most market forecasts estimate that the total cloud services market will reach $45-50 billion revenue by 2013 or 2014 -- including the Bain forecast that was previewed at the "Americas Telco 2.0 Brainstorm" event, which was hosted by STL Partners in April 2011. At their EMEA brainstorm event, the attendees were given an overview of the component cloud markets and examples of different cloud service approaches . They were then asked for their views on the potential share that service providers might garner from the addressable cloud revenue opportunities within each category. In total, the attendee consensus view amounted to service providers gaining 18 percent of the revenue for cloud ser...

We're clearly in a period of global IT market transition. Enterprises are moving more applications, data and associated services to the central data center. Meanwhile, more small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are relying on managed service providers to deliver various types of hosted service offerings . These trends are driven by cost savings that are realized through consolidation -- the impact reaches beyond basic data processing requirements, as it also impacts traditional voice communication needs. SMBs are turning to hosted Centrex service, and enterprises are moving PBX capability and SIP trunking -- a VoIP solution based on SIP protocol -- to the unified data center . Looking to support less infrastructure on-site, branch offices and SMBs are able to consolidate multiple services into a multi-service business gateway (MSBG). According to the latest market study by In-Stat , they have forecast that the growth of MSBG revenues in the SMB market will exceed $1 billio...

 If you're like many multinational business leaders today, then your company exists within a complex network of vendors, customers and other collaborators. This business ecosystem is as vital to you as your employees and intellectual property. Keeping it healthy helps you maintain and grow your market share, navigate challenging economic conditions, and explore new business opportunities. In many commercial scenarios, conducting international business and staying in touch with all your key stakeholders requires regular face-to-face communications. But sometimes you can accomplish your personal interaction objectives without the need to travel to distant places. Infonetics Research released its current Enterprise Telepresence and Video Conferencing report, which provides insight and analysis of dedicated videoconference infrastructure and endpoints -- which includes the latest immersive telepresence applications. Collaborating in a Global Distributed Organization "Comm...

More IT managers will turn to cloud services to accelerate their responsiveness to business needs. Quicker IT deployments, end-user self-service, and reduced start-up costs equate to faster time-to-market for many organizations. Others will want to take advantage of the ability to pivot more quickly and adapt to market changes. Beyond the desire for better, faster and cheaper processes, cloud services will enable entirely new business models and associated revenue streams. Acceptance will advance as cloud architectures prove out the opportunities for real business innovation and new functionality. There is no single journey to cloud adoption, but rather a wide variety of entrance ramps and paths. On the demand side, organizations have different starting points and different objectives. Fortunately, public cloud computing services can unleash an exciting mix of new technologies, architectures, and organizational approaches. Let’s consider the needs of the evolving media sector. ...

Surviving the economic pressures of today has been difficult for most businesses, especially the smallest. But despite the economic downturn, Home-Based Business (HBB) appears to be a high growth sector for employment in the U.S. market. Moreover, American HBBs are showing strong signs of sustained growth plans into the foreseeable future. According to the latest market study by AMI-Partners , there was an 11 percent increase in those who started their home-based business due to corporate downsizing last year. When some employees are downsized from their employment at larger companies, they are motivated to create their own future employment path -- by starting their own company, based out of their home office. "What's interesting is that 80 percent of those who became HBBs because of downsizing from a larger company do not plan to return to the corporate workforce," says Jessica Efta, manager of market development at AMI-Partners. Committed to Ongoing Self-Employ...

The promise of cloud computing and application hosting benefits are already delivering practical solutions to very real business problems, according to the latest market study by In-Stat . In fact, many small businesses are using managed cloud services as their primary method to solve a variety of IT requirements. "Web hosting and data storage are the most obvious IT needs that can be addressed by public cloud services" says Greg Potter, Research Analyst at In-Stat. "With the advent of Software as a Service (SaaS) offerings many businesses are realizing that much of their IT needs can be fulfilled without the need for expensive networking equipment and high-end computers." Moreover, many small businesses are now re-visiting the use of thin clients for most of their employees, as the need for increased computer processing power is rendered moot by the cloud. SMB IT Applications Transition to the Cloud For the SOHO and small business market, there is consid...

Busan Metropolitan City launched a center to host a variety of services for its citizens. Operating like an app store for developers, the Busan Mobile Application Development Center (BMAC), marks the first phase of their deployment of Smart+Connected Community (S+CC) services -- in collaboration with Cisco and a local service provider, Korea Telecom (KT). The plan is part of the Busan Green u-City (ubiquitous city) blueprint, which is in line with the national agenda to support environmentally sustainable economic growth in the country. Busan, a bustling city of approximately 3.6 million residents, is located on the southeastern tip of the Korean peninsula. The second-largest city in South Korea, Busan occupies about 300 square miles (766 square kilometers), 8 percent of the entire Korean peninsula. Busan also has the country's largest container-handling port (fifth largest in the world) -- thanks to its accessibility from the Pacific Ocean, deep harbor and gentle tides. Ci...

Theoretically, all types of organizations should be predisposed to consider the transition to managed cloud services -- due to the numerous anticipated benefits. However, based upon the results of recent market research in the United States, it now appears that some sectors are much more likely to be part of the growing early-adopter movement. International Data Corporation ( IDC ) announced the findings of a new market study, which forecasts that from 2009 to 2014 the U.S. public IT cloud services revenue will grow 21.6 percent -- rising from $11.1 billion to $29.5 billion. According to IDC's market assessment and forecast, the professional services, communications & media, and discrete & process manufacturing sectors will drive the greatest market adoption -- generating the most public cloud services revenue. Broad Appeal of SaaS Offerings Will Continue IDC believes that the professional services market, in particular, will be the primary beneficiary of increased ...

Telecommunication service providers will likely consume their own cloud services. After all, every organization can gain something from the proven benefits of infrastructure and application out-tasking. However, their primary role will be to implement and deliver the services that their end-customers will seek from public, virtual private, and hybrid clouds. Service providers have the opportunity to extend their current offerings, which may already include hosting, communications, media, and software application services. Moreover, cloud offerings enable service providers to extend their reach beyond their traditional areas of operation. That said, service providers must be prepared to address customer concerns ranging from policy compliance, to end-to-end security, to quality of service management, and to technical customization. They must be able to deliver a flexible range of functionality , service levels, and payment models. Enterprise Cloud Use-Case Scenario Many enterpris...