What 2018 trends does IDC forecast for Australia’s IT industry?

Digital transformation (DX) and the rise of data services lay at the heart of Australia’s IT industry development, according to a new study.

The International Data Corporation (IDC) has revealed its 2018 predictions in its report titled IDC FutureScape: Worldwide IT Industry 2018 Predictions — Australia Implications.

DX is a key feature throughout the analysis, which is broken down into 10 key trends. Among the standout figures is that 80% of Australia’s largest companies will be generating revenue from data-as-a-service, while 50% of the top 500 companies will be in full DX mode by 2021.

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The 10 trends identified by IDC are as follows:

1. DX economy tipping point

IDC: “By 2021, at least 60% of Australia's GDP will be digitised, with growth in every industry driven by digitally enhanced offerings, operations, and relationships; by 2020, investors will use platform/ecosystem, data value, and customer engagement metrics as valuation factors for all enterprises.”

2. DX platforms 

IDC: “By 2020, 50% of AU500 will have fully articulated an organisationwide digital transformation platform strategy, and will be in the process of implementing that strategy as the new IT core for competing in the digital economy.”

3. Cloud 2.0 — distributed and specialised 

IDC: “By 2021, enterprises' spending on cloud services and cloud-enabling hardware, software, and services will more than double to over A$9.8 billion, leveraging the diversifying cloud environment that is 35% at the edge, over 15% specialised (non-x86) compute, and over 65% multicloud.”

4. AI everywhere 

IDC: “By 2019, 50% of digital transformation initiatives will use artificial intelligence services; by 2021, 85% of commercial enterprise apps will use AI, over 65% of consumers will interact with customer support bots, and over 60% of new industrial robots will leverage AI.”

5. Hyper-agile apps 

IDC: “By 2021, enterprise apps will shift towards hyper-agile architectures, with 85% of application development on cloud platforms (PaaS) using microservices and cloud functions (e.g., AWS Lambda and Azure Functions) and over 90% of new microservices deployed in containers (e.g., Docker).”

6. HD interfaces 

IDC: “By 2020, human-digital interfaces will diversify, as 25% of field service techs and 20% of info workers use augmented reality, nearly 35% of new mobile apps use voice as a primary interface, and nearly 55% of the consumer-facing AU500 organisations use biometric sensors to personalise experiences.”

7. Blockchain and digital trust 

IDC: “By 2021, at least 25% of ASX organisations will use blockchain services as a foundation for digital trust at scale. By 2021, at least 25% of Australian financial service providers, 40% of supply chain, 40% of agribusiness, and 20% of healthcare organisations will use blockchain networks in production.”

8. Everyone's a data provider 

IDC: “By 2020, 80% of large enterprises in Australia will generate revenue from data as a service — from the sale of raw data, derived metrics, insights, and recommendations — up from nearly 35% in 2017.”

9. Everyone's a developer 

IDC: “Improvements in simple ("low-code/no-code") development tools will dramatically expand the number of nontech Australian developers over the next 36 months; by 2021, these nontraditional developers will build 20% of business applications and 30% of new application features.”

10. Open API ecosystem 

IDC: “By 2021, more than half of the ASX companies will see an average of 45% of their digital services interactions come through their open API ecosystems, up from 10% in 2017 — amplifying their digital reach far beyond their own customer interactions.”

Sabharinath Bala, Senior Research Manager IDC Australia, commented: “The pace at which organisations generate digitally enhanced products and services will amplify their reach in the market and be key to their success.

“The ability to deliver digital at scale and across the enterprise is critical to win in the DX economy. The increased complexity in measuring the success of DX outcomes will force the C-suite and the digital leadership teams to establish unambiguous metrics and KPIs as part of their DX road map.”