The Covid-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on millions of businesses globally. A recent research from International Data Corporation (IDC) has revealed interesting insights about the impact of this pandemic on the tech sector in general and Cloud in particular.
Research report by IDC is titled, “The Future Enterprise: The Next Normal Priorities Driving Technology Investments”. The report clearly highlights the need for digital transformation for businesses that want to serve customers in the new environment..
Projections for IT Spending
The report forecasts overall information and communications technology (ICT) spending to show a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5%, right down to the year 2024. Overall IT spending is forecast to show a growth of 1% year on year.
Although this may seem insignificant, the interesting part is that this growth is opposite to the initially expected decline in IT spending by 3%. A large part of this investment boost can be attributed to integration of cyber security solutions to enhance protection levels.
Also Read: Covid-19 Pandemic Proves a Catalyst for Growth in DaaS
Effects of Covid-19 Pandemic
The report notes that most organizations initially scrambled for stop gap arrangements to sustain their operations. In these solutions, the main priority was lesser lead times but as the pandemic prolonged, these temporary solutions required thorough re-factoring.
As per the report, the key lacking factor in most remote work solutions was the lack of cyber security. This prompted cyber miscreants to exploit gaps in security, mostly opened up due to hastily implementing Work from Home solutions.
The report also notes the shifting trends of consumers. Now, most present day consumers are extremely conscious about their own health and safety priorities. They now expect businesses to re-design their products or services with a safety first approach.
Also Read: Desktop as a Service (DaaS) to Exhibit Strong Growth
Contactless – The New Business Norm
IDC’s research report clearly outlines that businesses will have to adopt technology driven, contactless means of delivering their service and products to consumers. Initially, this may have been a rarity but now, customers expect this when purchasing goods or services.
Work from Home Trends
The report has also touched the extremely crucial aspect of remote work trends. As per its findings, only 14% of the workforce was working remotely prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, this figure has increased to 45% and is expected to rise further.
A shifting trend is that if coming up physically to the workplace is not required, then its preferable for such employees to work from home (WFH). This is further supported by the fact that most key decision makers plan to make remote work a permanent feature.
Industry Specific Trends
Towards the end, let’s discuss the industry specific impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and how the report foresees the future.
Small to Medium Businesses (SMBs)
The report forecasts nearly 30% of SMBs to go out of business by 2021. However, this trend will be replaced with the strong resurgence of microbusinesses. These businesses may be as small as a single employee and leverage cloud technologies for productivity.
Healthcare
According to the report, it is expected that nearly one third of consumers will adopt telemedicine solutions to seek health advice. Most telemedicine platforms are likely to be powered by cloud providers like dinCloud.
Retail
The retail sector will see a major shift in consumer trends, as an overwhelming majority of them will demand contactless payments. It is expected that by the year 2023, nearly 85% retailers will be offering at least two contactless payment methods to customers.
Also Read: Virtual Desktop Market to show Strong Growth till 2022 and Beyond
Conclusion
The Cloud is likely to remain at the center stage of digital transformation initiatives. Organizations that want to align themselves with the new digital landscape will have to make themselves remote ready, while ensuring top notch cyber security.
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