Increased Adoption of Advanced Technology
Next year, increased adoption of advanced technology will take place to satisfy the changing needs of enterprises and will give their clients entirely new experiences, according to Verizon’s top-business technology trends in 2013.
“As companies look to transform their businesses in the year ahead, Verizon is zeroing in on the most opportunities for our enterprise and government clients worldwide,” said David Small, senior vice president and chief platform officer for Verizon Enterprise Solutions. “Next year, we are continuing to sharpen our focus on harnessing the power of our advanced technology platforms to deliver industry-specific solutions that unlock productivity and value for our clients, their customers and society.”
Below are the Verizon Enterprise Solutions five top business-tech trends next year:
A Silver Lining in the Hybrid Clouds Distributed data centers and the intelligent wired and mobile networks that connect them now represent a substitute for standard virtual private network (VPN) techniques that so long have formed the backbone of dealt out enterprise communications for a generation. Next year, there will be a substantial switch from VPNs to public, private and, importantly, hybrid clouds.
“By 2013, more than 60 percent of all enterprises will have adopted some form of cloud computing,” according to a Gartner report. “To keep up with the changing demands of today’s enterprise, the ideal platform needs to be secure and easy to use and configure,” said Small.
“In 2013, if you can’t switch workloads between public and private clouds, you won’t be competitive. Next year will need a bold approach to embracing change and reengineering networks in support of cloud-based applications,” he added.
Cases of latest cloud developments consist of healthcare clouds that help the healthcare sector address the privacy needs under the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Another are clouds that help retail and other business dealings adhere to Payment Card Industry standards. And, clouds that help the public sector adhere to the Federal Information Security Management Act.
The Mobile Is Taking Over “A full 66 percent of employees now use two or more mobile for work,” according to a Forrester report. It has far-reaching implications.
“Employees have less separation between their work and private lives,” Small said. “Enterprises in 2013 must allow and prioritize this new demand for efficiency and productivity, and information technology departments will play a key role in meeting the growing appetite for professional mobility on a personal level.”
As a result, companies will significantly adopt cloud-based enterprise mobility strategies – creating “personal clouds” where employees can use enterprise applications to perform their tasks better. Further, companies will be more proactive in taking on the challenges related to addressing the division of employees’ private and professional lives, by using mobile-device management and private application stores to make a safer, mobile workplace.
The Internet of Things The “Internet of Things” is here, and it will still grow to satisfy particular market needs. “In 2011, over 15 billion things on the Web with 50 billion+ intermittent connections will grow by 2020 to over 30 billion connected things, with over 200 billion with intermittent connections,” according to a Gartner report.
Machine-to-machine (M2M) connections now include far more than smart energy delivery and smart cars. For instance, sophisticated networks of sensors with direct machine-to-machine connections now underpin linked healthcare and the first consumer-ready wave of automotive telematics.
“Verizon’s takeover of Hughes Telematics will help fuel this evolution,” said Small. “In 2013, this dramatic growth will extend to retail, finance and manufacturing.”
The ability to gather, store and analyze overwhelming amounts of data will define which enterprises extract the best ideas and create the most agile choices, to their benefit. Because of this, all enterprises – both business and government – will have to work with vendors getting strong and global ecosystems.
One example is, in Charlotte, N.C., Envision Charlotte Smart Energy Now and Smart Water Now projects, a private-public initiative in which Verizon is taking part in, describes the opportunity of connected machines to better handle important resources. Verizon is collecting energy and water-usage data from a network of machine-to-machine devices and is transporting near real-time information to kiosks using Verizon’s high-speed 4G LTE wireless network.
Networks: Smarter and Unseen “Improvements in network reliability and resiliency, coupled with intelligent end points, serve as the foundation for connecting smart machines and smarter people,” Small said. “We will see a shift in 2013 to more dynamic networks, pervasive IP connections, and purpose-built networks that serve businesses, consumers and society.
An intelligent fabric that connects everything and everyone will give fundamental networks unseen to end users, even as overall IP site visitors increases at a compound yearly growth rate of 29 percent through 2016, according to the Cisco Visual Networking Index.
“From retail transactions to high-speed trading to the digital signs that communicate with us daily, the network is omnipresent in the background. It continues to grow in importance, as well as just how much we take it for granted.”
Network Security: Arms Race 2.0 In 2013, security will move out of the expert realm and become a mainstream IT must-have. Security breaches span access, and apps. They happen on fixed and mobile networks. They effect physical, intellectual and financial capital. And the extent is worldwide, according to the” Verizon 2012 Data Breach Investigations Report.”
“We expect identity security to be a much more prevalent issue in 2013,” Small said. “Two-factor authentication is already gaining adherents, but it won’t be enough to oppose the increasing amount and intensity of criminal activity pursuing both intellectual property and financial gain.”
“The race is on to protect every endpoint, every device and everything connected to the Internet. While the Internet affords us countless opportunity it also comes with a price. No longer is strong security an option; it’s a mandatory requirement for all organizations to protect their intellectual and physical capital, customer identities and society at large,” Small said.
Verizon Enterprise Solutions creates global connections that generate growth, drive business innovation and move society forward. With industry-specific solutions and a full range of global wholesale offerings provided over the company’s secure mobility, cloud, strategic networking and advanced communications platforms, Verizon Enterprise Solutions helps open new opportunities around the world for innovation, investment and business transformation.
Verizon Communications is headquartered in New York, and delivers broadband and other wireless and wireline communications services to consumer, business, government and wholesale customers. It operates wireless network with nearly 96 million retail customers nationwide.
