2017 technology and business trends

1. What to focus on in 2016
Rewind one year
In 2015, companies experienced all types of
disruptions. Cloud computing became mainstream and
a critical element of any company’s IT strategy
whether in a private, hybrid or public mode. Existing
providers, to startups, continued the trend to build
Mobile and Web Apps that run in the Cloud, driving
many businesses to rethink their core IT infrastructure

2. and application eco-system.
The battle for the public Cloud became a battle
between three giants while others shifted their focus
on bringing new offerings to the table that focus on
hybrid and managing the private enterprise Cloud.
These companies rely on a mass of commodity servers
and storage devices interconnected in global data
centers. Various service providers topped profit
estimates, as they became sellers of computing power
to a growing number of businesses of all types.
Equally, Social media and Omni-channel customers
continued to push for the dramatic rethinking of how
companies do business, their value and how they
consistently engage with customers. With that, the
role of the CIO also dramatically changed while new
roles such as the customer experience officer (CXO),
digital marketing officer (DMO) and others continued
to proliferate. The introduction of smart devices
marked the beginning of the next wave of smart,
location-aware, context-sensitive devices and
applications.
Streaming analytics also took center stage in 2015 as
companies drove greater competitive value by rapidly

3. adopting tools and methods to assess consumer and
market trends and driving intelligent actions across
global supply-chains.
The year 2015 was also marked by various mergers
and acquisitions. This trend is likely to continue in
2016 as the Tech industry continues to consolidate
and startups of the past mature both in structure and
service offerings.
While 2015 was an exciting year you can bet that 2016
will bring about even greater innovations especially in
the areas of Digital transformation, IoT, Mobility and
most notably artificial intelligence – “the dawn of
intelligent business machines.”
Fueled by the need for growth and differentiation,
many businesses will be stepping up investments in
innovation, while others will be clamping down on
investments. A strong U.S. dollar, potentially less than
stellar performance in the equities markets,
characterized by stagnant earnings us to predict that
IT spending, will likely be experiencing slower growth
than previous years, ranging on average about 2 to 3
percent.

4. Outlook for 2016
When selecting our predictions for 2016 we focused
on technology breakthroughs that will dramatically
disrupt businesses as we know them today. However,
more than just giving out 10 predictions, we sat out to
map four change drivers.
At the heart of these drivers is the notion that your
customer will continue to increasingly control and
influence your business more than ever before. They

5. will continue to shape your brand 24/7/365. More
than ever, customer sentiment, engagement, the
ability to dynamically predict demand and supply and
manage risk will make or break a business. Interacting
with customers will continue to evolve from a
transaction to an engagement model.
Increased Mobile commerce will also continue to
reshape companies as they restructure themselves to
deal with massive Social scale. At the same time, real-
time analytics coupled with intelligent M2M (machine-
to-machine) execution is starting to dynamically
manage supply chain flows and a company’s entire
order-to-cash cycle.
Taking these four drivers into consideration, we’ve
identified our favorite top 10 trends for 2016:
1. The Opportunity to create new digital
opportunities
2. Increased Security Threats
3. Advanced Machine Learning
4. Analytics & BI
5. IoT takes center stage
6. Multimedia Impact

6. 7. Digital transformation
8. Mobile Transformation
9. Changes at the Top
10. Cloud & Colocation Changes
1. The Opportunity to create new digital
opportunities
We believe companies will adopt new digital service
models (shared, on-demand), which is transforming
the transportation industry and others. The ability to
deliver everything as a service-on-demand, hand over
control to customers to select their service agents and
levels while enabling them to provide instant
customer feedback by grading the level of service
received is applicable to a wide range of industry
verticals. We believe this trend will continue in 2016
and drive a fundamental rethinking of how companies
do business and deliver value.
2. Increased Security Threats
We predict that IT organizations will spend more than
a third of their budgets on risk, security compliance.
Leaders will extend privacy from a risk and legal
consideration to a position to win customers.

7. Companies that relegate security and privacy as an
afterthought will play defense and face the risk of
losing customers and suffer reputation damage
because of disruptions and data theft. In 2016, top
management will require all business departments to
provide extensive plans that delineate their risk
management posture with a clear definition of
personal accountabilities as part of their ongoing
operations.
The majority of CIOs identify security as one of their
top concerns, especially taking into account the
increased number of security breaches and data theft.
To protect themselves proactively businesses will have
to adopt predictive modeling tools supported by big-
data analytics. Playing defense is no longer an option.
Having it as an afterthought invites greater issues and
potential for breaches. As businesses increasingly

8. embark on Mobile, Web and Social media
environments, leveraging information identified
through analytics will provide valuable insights into
impending risks. Companies will therefore largely
invest in adaptive security architectures.
The continued rise of Mobile payment solutions will
also likely drive up the need for businesses to further
tighten network security. Hiring and retaining key
security staff in this area will be a critical challenge for
the year.
3. Advanced Learning
To an increasing extent,
artificial intelligent (AI) systems
(supported by advanced
Inference engines) will take
center stage.
These systems supported by vast neural networks, will
not only collect data through Big data but also learn
from the process. Machines, elevating the analysis in
the process, will increasingly be doing much of the
analysis that typically required human involvement.
What is enabling the dramatic growth of advanced

9. machine learning and AI is the availability of powerful
and affordable computing power, which will continue
to move from being prohibitively expensive to
relatively cheap. The end business result will be the
ability to dramatically process large quantities of data
to further drive real-time decision-making and
flipping Michael Porter’s five competitive forces on
its head.
Not surprisingly we predict a dramatic increase in the
potential for intelligent machines to continue to
surpass humans in their ability to undertake human
tasks – not just routine ones but also key decision-
making actions.
4. Analytics & BI
The creation of relevant key performance indicators and
their use in management will continue to be a key topic.
More importantly, businesses will use analytics as a
competitive asset to deliver “real-time personalized
services” across human and digital touch points that
dynamically morph based on user interaction patterns.
Continued advances in semantic tools such as graph
databases and other emerging data classification and
information analysis techniques will start to bring order

10. to the massive data collection chaos.
Data analytics will be embedded in most critical Mobile
and Web Apps enabling contextual understanding and
driving automated smart decisions and actions.
5. IoT Takes Center Stage
The Internet of Things (IoT) has moved from concept
to reality and is rapidly becoming the third major
Internet wave. Lower cost of sensors and processing
power and cheap ubiquitous connectivity to connect
devices are enabling billions of devices to come online
every day, while Smartphones are becoming to IoT
solutions.

11. However, most businesses are still struggling to create
new value propositions for their customer that
leverage a wide variety of data that is now available
on Smart devices. While some companies are
launching new products and services that leverage IoT
as a driver for incremental revenue streams – whole
new service industries are being created overnight.
Others will continue to leverage IoT to improve
productivity and reduce operating costs. Businesses in
the manufacturing, transportation, retail, healthcare,
consumer electronics, financial services and others
are creating completely new service models and
Apps that leverage data that is now available from
billions of devices worldwide. These devices will
request support, respond to service requests and
spawn entirely new service industries.
This year will likely also usher in an age of so-called
“predictive living’” where organizations can anticipate
potential issues and problems in every aspect of our
lives and act accordingly to create greater customer
trust and engagement.
IoT devices and solutions have the potential to
redefine competitive advantage in every industry. This

12. will drive the creation of new winners while leaving in
its wake a host of losers who were simply unable to
redefine their value proposition by launching new
services in a connected world.
6. Multimedia Impact
The IT, telecommunications, consumer electronics,
Social media, and entertainment will undergo further
conversion. This will be driven by a significant shift in
the economic, cultural and Social paradigms that
encourage consumers to seek out new information,
interact with each other on a Social level, use various
media platforms to create new experiences and
content both at the business and personal level.
This year will also be marked as the year that Virtual
reality starts to take shape. Virtual worlds will allow
users to enter a completely immersive computer-
generated environment. In 2016 we will see a whole
new breed of immersive games. However, that is just
the start. Virtual reality will make it possible for
people across the globe to virtually meet both on a
personal and business level, travel to far away places
or create impossible adventures.
Streaming services, IoT, multi-media interaction, an
ever-expanding Social media phenomenon, and

13. Virtual reality will drive telecom companies to
dramatically grow their network backbones to
deliver high-quality ubiquitous broadband
technology (and higher bandwidth levels) and
services. Proactively expanding the Telecom, cable,
and satellite infrastructures that carry traffic through
broader Wi-Fi networks will be critical to avoid
collapse. When networking and connectivity fail,
people lose their primary source of connection, the
ability to work, communicate and be entertained.
Addressing continued connectivity growth will require
significant investments in infrastructure at a point
where bandwidth pricing continues to experience
downward pressures. Monetizing new and advanced
infrastructures will be a key challenge for both
telecom and tech companies for the foreseeable
future.
7. Digital Transformation
This trend will continue for the foreseeable future.
Research shows that only about 25% of today’s
businesses have a coherent digital strategy that maps
out the customer journey and identifies how a
company creates customer value as a digital business
– and we are not talking just cool Mobile Apps or

14. other customer-facing technology. We are referring to
the complete overhaul of a company’s order-to-cash
(OTC) cycle to deliver new “As-a-Service” offerings.
We expect that the percentage of businesses that are
creating advanced Digital transformation initiatives
to more than double in 2016 as these companies race
to deliver new value through an Omni-channel
services model leveraging analytics, and IoT.
B2B industries will start to close the digital gap to their
B2C peers as they too are confronting rapidly rising
partner expectations for closer connectivity.
Companies that embrace end-to-end Digital
transformation to redefine their value proposition will
differentiate themselves from those that dabble in a
set of digital services that are merely intended to
augment traditional business models.

15. Companies will be increasingly faced with ensuring
global interoperability of their various products and
services; developing new Omni-channel solutions and
services; building alliances to launch new technology-
enabled products (i.e., IoT); platforms and market
segment penetration strategies; and product analytics.
8. Mobile Transformation
We will continue to see a trend where users interact
and to some extent work solely via Mobile devices
(instead of desktops). The implications for how sites
are developed, maintained and secured will be
significant. The reality is that without a sound Mobile
strategy, many businesses will be left behind in 2016.
Couple this with the transition from a “pull-based” to
a “push-based” Web, it's not hard to see that the
model where your entire Mobile device screen is
jammed with App icons is changing dramatically.

16. The current Web is "pull-based” – we initiate searches
(assuming we know what we are looking for), and visit
websites. Highly customized products and services are
produced on-demand and delivered to consumers
through one-on-one digital relationships. That version
of the Internet is rapidly disappearing.
The future Web is "push-based,” - the Web is coming
to us and is being transformed from a large
repository of records to an intelligent engine that
notifies us of what is happening or what is relevant
to us. Content, products services find you, rather than
you having to search for them. Instead of visiting
websites, customers are proactively notified of what is
relevant to them and asked to engage. Considering

17. that the Mobile platform is becoming the most
prevalent gateway to the Web, clear that this year we
will see a whole new era of Mobile Apps that are
“push-based.”
Companies that adopt a Mobile strategy will build
systems that interconnect, have intelligence and
leverage intelligent notification cards that enable full
product experiences and independent workflows right
inside the card. Apps will live in the background,
pushing content onto our experience. Apps that are
standalone and do not engage the user will likely not
meet expectations.
9. Changes at the Top
CEOs can be expected to make significant changes to
their leadership teams as hanging on to current
leadership structures may limit transformation and
growth in a new Digital world. This year most CEOs
will have Digital transformation at the center of their
corporate strategy and will actively participate in the
recruitment of the best software developers, as
Mobile and Web Apps become key competitive
differentiators. We see CEOs making a concerted
effort to integrate various digital initiatives across the

18. enterprise and create a clear digital roadmap that
specifies how the business will deliver revenue
generating digital experiences.
Businesses with a digital transformation strategy will
deem it too critical for functional area to own and thus
appoint an independent corporate executive to
oversee the transformation. This position represents a
great opportunity for the business-savvy CIO. The
successful CIO will adapt to an increasingly market-
facing role and partner with his/her peers in ways
never before envisioned. CIOs will likely adopt an

19. outside-in approach and make customer journey
mapping and design thinking part of their everyday
job.
Not surprisingly we predict that over 50% of IT
resources will be spent on the creation of new digital
revenue streams (through Mobility, IoT, and Analytics)
while line-of-business executives will control a large
portion of total IT spend. Regardless of who leads the
Digital transformation agenda, CIOs have an
opportunity to guide the process by engaging,
collaborating, and innovating with a broader
ecosystem of internal and external partners.
IT’s growing role within individual business segments
to enable Digital transformation will likely marginalize
the central IT organization but could also make it a
true change agent and a transformation engine by
helping to select best-of-breed products, defining
architecture standards, consolidating expensive
infrastructure and overseeing security. Enterprises will
increasingly place business unit CIOs as embedded
ambassadors for the corporate CIO and play the role
of major change agents.

20. Enterprises pursuing Digital
transformation initiatives
will more than double the
size of their software
development teams,
focusing those developers
almost entirely on digital
initiatives. Mobile App
development, analytics, and creative design are sure
to be this year’s table stakes for successful IT
organizations. Also, not surprisingly most projects will
shift to fast-cycle development efforts.
10. Cloud & Colocation Changes
Corporate datacenter build projects will continue to
be fewer in favor of third-party Colocation and Cloud
models. Several years ago, Fortune 500 companies
were still talking about building new data centers.
Those construction projects are all but gone.
Datacenter space is at a premium and there are plenty
of choices. For 2016, new Colocation providers will
come onto the scene, and existing providers will
continue to build new structures in more markets.

21. The software-defined data center (SDDC) will
become a reality as virtualization of , storage and
networks all become part of the corporate IT strategy
for forward-looking companies. Historically,
computing power was virtualized through servers.
Subsequently, storage virtualization came into play.
What was missing was the virtualization of the
network.
For an SDDC to exist, all of the main components
(compute, storage and networks) must be software-
defined (virtualized). In 2016, expect to see broader
adoption of SDN-based approaches by large service
and solution providers as corporate clients
aggressively realize the benefits of a complete SDDC.
This next iteration of the data center is essential to
support many of the strategic initiatives that
businesses are pursuing, such as Mobile, Big-data
analytics and greater use of Cloud services.
We predict that this year at least 40% of IT spending
will be Cloud-based. The most functionally rich IT
offerings will be found in the Cloud. Most businesses
will use a Cloud access security broker and service
orchestration engine to provision, meter, monitor and
manage their use of SaaS and other forms of Cloud,

22. instances.
While there will be continued consolidation in the
public Cloud market, there will be a rapid proliferation
of industry Cloud platforms.