Predictions 2017 - Infrastructure Services

As digital transformation strategies take shape, many organisations will realise their underlying infrastructure lacks the capability to support their objectives. The first important hurdle to Unlocking the Intelligence, therefore, is the creation of the systems that can host, store, protect, and deliver the key digital services that allow organisations to release the value held in their prized data stores.

Within this context, here’s what we expect to see in 2017:

• New possibilities for Hybrid IT. With an increasing number of options for implementing blended cloud and on-premise environments – some of which do not require significant investment – we think 2017 will see many more organisations create Hybrid IT environments. The ultimate objective is to link together existing systems with modern applications and services to unlock a whole raft of new possibilities.
• Demand for cloud services brokers swells. As more organisations commit to a Hybrid IT strategy - or in the very least realise their organisation requires a multi-cloud approach - a common challenge will be the lack of internal capability to select and manage the right services. The implication for IT services providers is that they will increasingly be required to become the experts that select, supply and help organisations seamlessly manage multiple cloud services.
• Hyper-scale cloud competition intensifies. This year we expect to see the hyper-scale public cloud players intensify their attack on the traditional corporate IT budget even further. Their emphasis has shifted from pricing (i.e. who can be the cheapest) to capabilities; AWS, for example, talks about the provision of a “feature-rich utility”. The pure-plays are successfully positioning themselves as strong contenders for Unlocking the Intelligence and the traditional players must find more ways to fight back.
• IoT data analysis pushed to the public cloud. In 2017 we will see much more analysis of IoT-driven data take place in the public cloud, helping organisations unlock more of the intelligence held within IoT sensors and devices. General public cloud market evolution is partly responsible for this trend. However, we also believe there is much greater acceptance that public cloud offers the kind of enterprise grade security able to protect these important data assets. Furthermore, suppliers such as IBM, AWS and Google are stepping-up their IoT capabilities, helping users to build their own IoT applications.
• Action taken to ease the digital skills gap. What became increasingly clear in 2016 was that both IT services suppliers and buyers were suffering from a cloud-related skills shortage. But as we enter 2017, there are reasons to feel more optimistic. For example, we expect to see much greater effort to retrain IT staff (by both buyers and suppliers). This is because many now acknowledge that acquisitions and new hires alone just can’t provide the scale of talent to match market opportunities.

We’ll be publishing our regular Predictions Compendium report early next week, which will include extended versions of all of our analysts’ predictions. This report will be exclusively available to TechMarketView subscrption service clients.

If you would like further information, please contact our Client Services team at sales@techmarketview.com.

Posted by Kate Hanaghan at '08:24' - Tagged: cloud   skills   infrastructure