The Forecast is “Cloudy” for Large Companies

Cloud Adoption among Large Companies is set to accelerate according to several McKinsey Studies.

• Over one-third of companies will use public infrastructure as the primary environment for at least one workload by 2018
• Large Enterprise Cloud Adoption Set to Accelerate, McKinsey CIO Study Finds
• Past and future predictions for UCaaS growth

Past predictions didn’t hold true. Adoption of unified communications, and specifically Cloud and hosted unified communications, has been markedly below industry forecasts.  Data shows that market adoption of UCaaS is less than 25% of what was predicted by Gartner five years ago.  Why the low growth curve?

A number of reasons could have led to low UCaaS adoption:

• Companies didn’t want to try what was “new” until it was proven and mature.
• A shift in technology leaders and decision makers made it a difficult time to change technologies.
• Past investments in multi-vendor technologies were too expensive to “dump” for a nearly equipment-free Cloud solution.

Future predictions are more credible. According to the most recent industry data, 60% to 70% of businesses will make a Cloud decision in the next two years.  Add to that the 25% of the companies who already use Cloud, but will consider new vendors as subscriptions expire, and we’re looking at about 90% of business that may be moving to the Cloud 2018.

As of late 2015, however, less than 25% of companies had made a firm Cloud decision. If the trends of the last five years continue UCaaS will grow as predicted?

UCaaS growth predictions are more believable than before because:

• Cloud has become a mature product; the years have proven the challenges and benefits of Cloud solutions.
• The big players are on board with Cloud; Cisco to Microsoft to Amazon, and many in between, have mature cloud computing and data center technologies that are on the brink of breaking out.
• ROI is easier to forecast and implementation costs are minimal.

Sources: Continuant; Mckinsey; Gartner

Mike Schiano is founder and Managing Partner of Green Rain Media.

 

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Forrester: Americans Continue To Adopt Digital Lifestyle

Largest Annual Consumer Survey Offers Insight For Consumer Market Research Professionals

Cambridge, Mass., September 2, 2009 . . . Americans of all ages continue to adopt a digital lifestyle according to the largest annual survey of consumers’ technology adoption and attitudes by Forrester Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR). “The State Of Consumers And Technology: Benchmark 2009, US” is a graphical analysis of Forrester’s North American Technographics® Benchmark Survey, 2009 (US, Canada) of nearly 48,000 respondents. A rich data asset for Consumer Market Research professionals’ product planning and go-to-market strategy assessments, the survey includes more than 1,400 data points and data on 378 US brands. It is the largest ongoing survey in the world to explore consumer attitudes, ownership, and use of technology.

Highlights of the report include:

• Devices. High-definition televisions (HDTVs) and home networks were two of the fastest-growing consumer technologies in 2008. Over the next five years, nearly 39 million US households will get their first high-definition set and more than 30 million homes will add network connectivity. Forty-four percent of US households have a laptop, and the average American family owns two personal computers.
• Media consumption. While media consumption among all Americans is split evenly between new and traditional media, on average, consumers younger than 40 spend almost 2 hours a week more with new media than they do with traditional media.
• Mobile. Four in five US households now have a mobile phone; families with older children have nearly three mobile phones per household, the most of any age segment. Eight percent of consumers own a smartphone.

“US consumers are making an inexorable transition to an all-digital, Internet-powered world,” said Forrester Research Principal Analyst Charles S. Golvin. “The Internet pervades all aspects of Americans’ lives, from how we shop and buy, how we communicate, how we entertain ourselves, and how we seek out information to how we manage our personal relationships. While today these digital activities are constrained to the home and the office, in the next several years consumers will increasingly rely on a ubiquitous Net that is instantaneously accessible on a wide variety of devices, from mobile phones to laptops to new form factors such as eReaders.”

This is the 12th annual Consumer Technographics Benchmark mail survey. This year, Forrester performed a life stage analysis of the data that looks at technology adoption of singles and families, both young and old.

“The breadth of the survey, in conjunction with its sample sizes, allows Consumer Market Research professionals to examine and trend the behaviors and attitudes of even the most niche target markets,” said Forrester Research Consumer Insights Analyst Jackie Anderson.

Read more about the report on The Forrester Blog For Consumer Market Research Professionals.

About Consumer Technographics

Forrester Consumer Technographics is the largest and longest-running survey of technology’s impact on consumers. Since 1997, Forrester has surveyed more than 2 million households and individuals worldwide and today provides data and insights on consumers in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Latin America. Marketing and strategy professionals rely on Forrester’s Consumer Technographics data for unique insights into how technology affects the way consumers select, purchase, use, and communicate about products and services.

About Forrester Research

Forrester Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR) is an independent research company that provides pragmatic and forward-thinking advice to global leaders in business and technology. Forrester works with professionals in 20 key roles at major companies providing proprietary research, customer insight, consulting, events, and peer-to-peer executive programs. For more than 26 years, Forrester has been making IT, marketing, and technology industry leaders successful every day. For more information, visit www.forrester.com.