Technology Reseller v27

37 PREDICTIONS technologyreseller.co.uk rise even higher to around 1.7 billion at the beginning of 2020. Apple’s intention to switch its users to a 100% wireless experience speaks volumes. As we enter a new decade, wireless charging will be faster, we’ll hear rumours about laptop wireless charging and more and more consumers will be carrying wireless charging-enabled devices with the expectation of being able to power up seamlessly. In fact, research has revealed that 50% of employees expect wireless charging in their office space. The demand gives businesses an opportunity to monetise power – the critical foundation to the consumer experience. The deployment of a cloud-managed, smart wireless charging service can increase engagement, satisfaction and loyalty, enhancing service and driving revenue. Mass deployment of smart wireless charging can access and act on insight that Wi-Fi alone cannot. have tolerated unmanaged use of cloud solutions because they believe the biggest spend is still under control. However, what they don’t know is whether all that SaaS and cloud spend is creating unmanaged compliance and data risks. Without proper visibility and insight, businesses will struggle to manage these risks and that challenge is only going to grow and become more difficult over time. n Cloud overspend vs. ROI: There is a growing disconnect between an organisation’s understanding of usage and spend on cloud services, and how vendors are charging for those services. Azure and AWS are now tracked and billed by the hour, even the second. Yet many businesses are still trying to analyse usage data on a monthly or yearly basis. That creates a significant challenge for organisations trying to understand, manage and optimise spend. This dissonance will only increase as innovations like serverless technology take hold in the years ahead. n Serverless computing: Today’s cloud infrastructure is relatively easy to understand compared to what it will look like in 2020 and beyond. For example, when provisioning a cloud instance today, a user only needs a basic idea of how it operates and what it will cost. But when new cloud approaches like serverless become more popular, cloud usage will be managed by the people writing code. In serverless computing, the code drives the cost to deliver the service, and businesses are not yet prepared to deal with these new consumption models. This year, companies need to prioritise their understanding of consumption models because these will start to have a significant impact on their business. Wireless The tipping point for wireless power Dan Bladen, CEO and co-founder of Chargifi Never more than now has convenient access to power been in greater demand as a result of our ‘always on’ lifestyles. According to the latest survey by the Wireless Power Consortium, ‘battery anxiety’ remains high and has increased year-on-year, with 73% of consumers now experiencing battery anxiety. Apple’s announcement that all devices from the iPhone 8 upwards are to be shipped with wireless charging puts the number of wireless charging devices at around 1 billion. As we enter a new decade, all the signs are that this is set to increase, with the number expected to data centre development. But innovation happens everywhere, and a parallel digital ecosystem with notable differences is emerging in China. Data centres across Europe and other Asian and South Pacific markets, such as Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, are also evolving and diverging from traditional practices based on specific regional issues related to sustainability and data privacy and controls e.g. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance. This, and more vigorous attention to environmental impacts, are leading to new thinking about hybrid architectures and the value of on-premise computing and data storage. In China, some data centres have been running 240V DC power into manufacturer-modified servers to improve efficiency and reduce costs. DC power has long been a theoretical goal for U.S. data centres and it’s not hard to envision other parts of the world adopting the model being embraced today in China. Vertiv.com Enterprise technology A changing role for IT Sanjay Castelino, Chief Product Officer at Snow Software Enterprise technology continues to be at the forefront of innovation, driving technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and software-as-a-service (SaaS), and influencing IT decision-making, spending and governance. So, what is in-store for enterprise technology in 2020 and how will this influence the way businesses use such technology? n Line of business-driven IT spending: Traditionally, IT has focused on managing the capacity and availability of technology investments purchased by a business, acting as official gatekeeper. Recently, there has been a shift in this model, with individual business units driving technology buying decisions and the technology itself shifting towards cloud-based consumption models. As a result, IT now needs to help organisations better understand and more intelligently consume technology. That speaks to cost, productivity, risk mitigation and using technology to its greatest advantage. In the year ahead, we’ll see more organisations focus on consuming technology in a more intelligent way. n Software usage vs. compliance: Cloud offerings enable users to buy and consume what they want, when they want it, without centralised oversight. This creates new challenges for IT as they attempt to track and manage all the technology in their environment. To date, many organisations Dan Bladen IDC’s top 10 predictions for 2020 1 Spotlight on digital capabilities: By 2022, 25% of the top 500 European companies will have at least two board members with digital business excellence capabilities. 2 Digital investments: In 2020, European organisations will spend over $271 billion on digital transformation, but only 16% will deliver new revenue streams. 3 Data collected from connected devices: By 2022, data collected from connected devices will generate a revenue opportunity of $10.5 billion for the top 500 European organisations. 4 Core modernisation journey: By 2025, 60% of European organisations will modernise their core IT leveraging the cloud, resulting in a 25% business productivity improvement. 5 New technology leadership role: By 2022, 30% of European organisations will define a new technology leadership role combining CIO, CTO, CDO and innovation functions. 6 Processes to become more intelligent: By 2023, 70% of European intelligent process automation (IPA) initiatives will be infused by AI. 7 European organisations will replace KPIs with KBIs: By 2022, 60% of the top 2,000 European organisations will replace KPIs with KBIs (Key Business Issues) to accelerate employee and customer advocacy. 8 Accelerate cultural change: By 2022, a third of organisations will fail to accelerate business agility and innovation due to a copycat culture. 9 The role of the CISO: 2022 is the cut-off for CISOs to establish themselves as business leaders who can provide digital trust. 10 The ethical use of digital technologies: By 2024, 50% of European public companies will report annually on the ethical use of data, automation and AI in their organisations. https://uk.idc.com/trends/european-futurescape-2020