There is an often-quoted economic theory that describes the balance that occurs when competitors in a market of a fixed size win or lose share depending on the success or failure of the other. The “zero sum game” (as it is known) has been cited so often since the financial crisis of the late 2000’s slowed global growth, that its continued use is becoming something of a cliché.
To differentiate in the crowded B2B marketscape, marketers are leaning more heavily on content marketing techniques. In fact, content marketing is now the 3rd largest marketing spend, behind advertising and events. There’s a lot of content marketing noise for buyers to wade through, which is why so many marketing teams are looking for ways to make content more relevant for their audiences throughout their buyer journeys.
The enterprise infrastructure market is crowded and complex, with several market segments that organizations must take into account when evaluating their infrastructure needs. IDC’s definition of the enterprise infrastructure market shows the wide array of technology suppliers currently in the market, and how specialized needs have become.
Seeing the wide array of vendors inhabiting the enterprise infrastructure space can be overwhelming. However, through this exercise, IDC has been able to identify emerging market trends in the space:
Public Cloud Demands are Reshaping the Space
Rapidly increasing demand for public cloud services is shaping how enterprise infrastructure solutions and related services are packaged, sold, deployed and managed by enterprise IT or outsourced IT teams. Public cloud is becoming increasingly heterogeneous and developer-friendly, which enables enterprises to adopt a multi-cloud strategy for packaged, off-the-shelf products as well as custom applications.
While the demand for on-premises infrastructure remains strong, this request stems mainly from enterprises choosing to keep certain systems in-house, while they explore public cloud options for the rest.
The Edge Offers Growth Opportunities for both Suppliers and Users
Edge both as a deployment model and as a location is rising in prominence, with application continuity and performance at the enterprise/IoT edge becoming business critical. Edge Infrastructure, including computing, networking and storage, provides new growth opportunities to vendors and service providers alike.
The transition from hardware to software with network infrastructure is starting to gather momentum; now that as-a-service subscription models for network software are available from key network equipment providers, network infrastructure that can support this shift will continue to be important.
Want to learn more about the current state of the enterprise infrastructure market, and see where IDC predicts the market will grow? Then tune into IDC’s Worldwide Enterprise Infrastructure Predictions webcast, on-demand now:
The proliferation of data types and quantities should be a major advantage for enterprise organizations. More data and more types of data should offer complex insights into challenges and opportunities in how the business runs and should lead to better decisions and business outcomes. However, ask any data analyst, and they’ll share this reality: data analysts spend a bulk of their time on search, data preparation, management, and governance activities, and not on data analytics where the true value lies.
Seven years ago, I embarked on my smart home journey, although I didn’t know it at the time. Being an avid gamer and student in college, I subscribed to a broadband internet service and setup my wireless home network. This allowed me to compete in online video games through my gaming console, connect my laptop to the internet, and stream movies on my tablet. What I didn’t realize back then was that I had just laid the necessary infrastructure in my home to support a lifestyle of comfort, convenience, security, and cost savings that I would come to enjoy seven years later.
