CDS POV: 2021 Prediction Evaluations & What’s Next
While 2020 taught everyone that predicting the future is like rolling dice, it also proved the resiliency of many organizations. 2021 can be described as ‘a push to normal.’ As we’ve rounded the midyear turn, wading deeply through pent-up vacation mode, and inching closer to pre-pandemic society, it is time to re-examine 2021 predictions and consider what may be in store for the stretch run that businesses worldwide are anticipating.
1. IT Spending
Last September, Forrester was predicting a 6.8% downturn in IT spending from late 2020 into 2021, based on prolonged recession fears that were never realized thanks largely to successful vaccine development. Luckily, this turned out to be off the mark. Gartner forecast in early April that worldwide IT spending is growing across all segments would reach $4.1 trillion in 2021, an 8.4% increase over 2020 spending. As 2021 progresses, we see that IT spending will be up for the year. However, from conversations we’ve had, CIOs keep saying they will be looking for greater value in how they spend their precious IT budget, ensuring that all spend helps continue to push innovation forward to meet the broader goals of the business.
2. Democratization of technology
Having a single pane of glass view into your IT infrastructure is no longer a nice-to-have, but a need to have. According to Accenture, in 2020 86% of executives agreed that their organization needs to train people to think like technologists -- diagnose problems at a glance and be empowered to do something to fix them. This doesn’t mean the entire workforce needs to become level 3 engineers, but it does make a case for easy-to-use customizable technology solutions for companies, so that individuals diagnose potential problems quickly and get help when needed. We see this self-service model continuing to gain in popularity, so people can handle minute tasks more easily and rapidly and keep their focus on the big ones.
3. Doing more with less: improving IT capabilities through talent development
CIOs are making due with the budgets they have, trying to balance the company’s need for innovation with the important tasks of ensuring all mission-critical aspects are still running smoothly. Delivering on digital transformation and innovation requires a new approach to IT services. The challenge is that, as they work to create and enable improved customer and employee experiences, IT teams typically lack the bandwidth and/or expertise to drive innovation, especially with the current bulky tools they have.
Per a recent Forrester study, 49% of companies cite improving existing IT capabilities for agility and innovation as a key driver of digital transformation efforts. Companies recognize there is a need to enable their IT staff to focus on the innovative, bottom-line business-growing tasks outside the day-to-day maintenance and operations. Reskilling and upskilling employees is going to be more important than ever to meet the rapid demand of innovation companies need to stay ahead of their competition.
Organizations actively investing in ongoing talent development, and free-up time so their best engineers can focus on business-driven initiatives, the more of an edge they will have on their competitors.
4. The end of the survival mindset and the rise of partner trust
As more people exit the survival mindset 2020 instilled, we will see a rise in the importance of trust between customer and service provider. It’s well known that in sales, customers buy from people -- not necessarily organizations. As CIOs get more selective with their IT partners, trust will be at the core of this experience. We saw a disturbing trend over the last year, with many third-party maintenance providers souring their relationships for short-term gain. However, as we see it, the role of a partner is not only to fulfill the SLA, but to also advise on the best courses of actions to help our partners succeed.
5. Increased value of the cloud, edge
From the distribution of cloud deployments, types of AI models and wide range of edge devices, to the design (and even basic physics) of hardware and computation, enterprises have more decisions than ever to make with regard to their data center stack.
Throughout this year, we’ve seen organizations double down on investments in edge computing, moving applications and data closer to users and connected devices to enhance the user and application experience and make better use of network capacity. The pandemic proved that we can all work remotely, and it’s expected that the number of remote workers will triple from pre-pandemic numbers. This rise in remote work -- which opens up talent pools to people all over the world -- will only increase the value of the edge, and working together in the cloud.
6. AI & Humans Working Together
AI continues to play a growing role in informing business choices, and as more data becomes available it will guide business leaders to make the best choices. While there is no equivalent for a ‘gut feeling,’ AI provides data to help make these informed decisions.
CDS has been in business for more than 20 years, and has supported hardware from DEC VAX and Alpha servers to Evergreen Storage™. This proprietary maintenance information paired with AI has helped us better our customer experiences, tailoring the maintenance plans and experience to ensure that all of their mission-critical parts are up and running 24x7.
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How do you see the rest of 2021 unfolding? Want to discuss any of our predictions, and how a comprehensive multi-vendor services approach can help? Leave a comment below or contact us to discuss further.
