2016 in Canada will be a year of IoT but not for cognitive computing, apparently, according to IDC.
The market research firm has released its 2016 predictions for the Canadian ICT industry, including the prospect that application development for IoT will take off in 2016, a positive trend. However, just as Canada was slow to fully embrace cloud, the emergence of cognitive computing in 2015 will remain a curiosity rather than become part of digital strategies among Canadian businesses.
Hybrid cloud adoption will surpass CAD $1 billion in the upcoming year as enterprises, two third of which say they are in early stages of digital transformation, advance in their journey. This is in spite of a smartphone slump and less pronounced ICT growth that the firm predicted earlier this month.
Consumer spending on tech and tech-based services will also surpass that on clothing next year, as entertainment, fitness, health, connected cars, home automation and security become connected.
Here’s the full list of IDC’s 2016 predictions:
- Digital Transformation Becomes Boardroom Topic As C-Suite Drive for Competitive Advantage in 2016: more than two-thirds of enterprises are in the early stages of the Digital Transformation journey, few organizations are ‘advanced’.
- Different Industries, Regions and the 3rd Platform Drive Growth: IT services and Software will contribute strongly to growth in 2016, driven largely by as-a-Service offerings and telecom.
- Spending on hybrid cloud will surpass CAD $1 billion in 2016 and will become the dominant cloud operating model in Canadian enterprise in 2-3 Years: in Canada new workloads around Big Data, analytics, IoT, and mobile business applications will drive demand for hybrid cloud solutions.
- Internet of Things – 2016 will be the Year of the Developer: Globally over the next five years there will be more than 250,000 unique IoT applications created. Embracing the developer is one positive way to advance Canada’s innovation agenda.
- Canadians Experiment with Cognitive Computing in 2016 but Mainstream Adoption Lags to 2020: IDC forecasts that cognitive software platform worldwide spending will be over US$1 billion this year.
- Security spending will surpass CAD $2 billion in 2016 but Canadian businesses will still not be investing in all the right places: organizations must take a holistic approach to designing a security strategy, and ensure that end-user security training is prioritized and implemented.
- Vendor and partner ecosystem disruption – realignment of preferred vendor relationships begins in 2016: by 2020 30 per cent of vendors will not exist as we know them today.
- Mobile business apps take off: by 2018, 60 per cent of new applications will be “Mobile First”, but Canadian businesses must move forward now to develop and deploy mobile apps quickly, securely, cost effectively to become more competitive globally.
- Connected Life: Canadian consumers to spend more on tech and services than clothing in 2016: connected consumer entertainment, fitness, personal health, connected cars, home automation, security and tracking are areas of new spending growth in Canada.
- On the Horizon – Innovation Accelerators Drive Pervasive Change: By 2020, 70 per cent of drone deployments are expected to be driven by industry automation such as pipeline management, surveillance, farming, and offshore drilling.
