As enterprises become increasingly connected, keeping tabs on changing technologies is key to staying at the forefront of innovation. Tangoe®, the leading Enterprise Technology Management company helping customers centralize, comprehend and control their technology environments, today reveals its predictions for the trends that will influence the enterprise in 2020, including more businesses capitalizing on IoT, automation and the next wave of digital transformation — thanks to support from 5G and the cloud.
Tangoe cites these five trends that will transform the enterprise over the next 12 months — and beyond:
1. IoT leads to an explosion of endpoints and the urgency for centralized management. The total installed base of Internet of Things (IoT) connected devices is projected to amount to 75.44 billion worldwide by 2025 — a fivefold increase in 10 years. Many of these will be in the enterprise, with more types of devices entering the mobile conversation — moving beyond current standards of tablets, smartphones and laptops to tech like wearables, connected machines and VR devices. Both the quantity and the types of devices will add complexity to how an organization manages all the endpoints on its network, leading to the potential for security, spending and inventory gaps. Any “thing” with connectivity is, by definition, a mobile device and needs to be managed and treated as an endpoint, which will change the principles of IT management. Companies will need to implement more robust cybersecurity policies and mobility management strategies to ensure the safety of business-critical processes and data. Centralized endpoint management will be a critical part of connected enterprises as they strive to be more efficient, connected and personalized.
2. Companies realize the need to control cloud spending. Gartner estimates by 2020, organizations that lack cost-optimization processes will average 40% overspend in public cloud — a significant amount of money for any enterprise. Overspending on cloud happens when there isn’t sufficient visibility into capacity, services, applications, assets and usage, and/or when there are too many separate systems to manage IT expenses, contracts, licenses and usage effectively. To control spending, enterprises will reevaluate what they really need for cloud capacity and assets and will look to tools that create a consolidated view of their organization’s infrastructure. This information will be used to identify which applications or platforms are being used, and — more importantly — which are being under-used, to eliminate unnecessary services. As understanding of cloud usage becomes less siloed, companies will have the opportunity to centralize and control their cloud spend.
3. The role of automation and artificial intelligence (AI) in enterprise solutions will expand. As more consumer-facing companies employ chatbots to solve customer issues, people are becoming more comfortable with automated experiences. As people increasingly trust automation and AI, their uses will expand to other areas of business operations. In the area of enterprise technology management solutions, bots will be further integrated, allowing AI to perform tasks like negotiating contracts or restructuring bill payments to save organizations time and money – all without humans needing to get involved.
4. 5G is finally here. The long-awaited fifth generation of mobile internet connectivity has promised more reliable connections and faster download and upload speeds. With some of the biggest names in telecom (AT&T, Qualcomm, Verizon, Nokia and others) keeping global deployments on pace, 2020 will be the year 5G proliferates. Its value won’t be limited to mobile devices; it also is poised to accelerate advancements in industrial IoT (IIoT) — autonomous driving, smart cities, Industry 4.0 and other bandwidth-hungry applications. 5G will be available over a wired connection as well, leading to the convergence of fixed and mobile technologies. As 5G comes online, this more complex digital ecosystem will require enterprises to maintain control and visibility over their inventory. Additionally, enterprises will need to track down and terminate unnecessary/redundant 4G devices and circuits to find cost savings across their organizations.
5. Companies approach the next wave of digital transformation. While the first phase of digital transformation focused on big data, mobility, new applications and ubiquitous connectivity, the second wave — digital transformation 2.0 — will incorporate even more cutting-edge technologies like machine learning, AI, advanced robotics, wearables, autonomous devices and automation into enterprise and consumer ecosystems. While 1.0 was based on legacy infrastructure and architectures, the on-demand, bandwidth-heavy 2.0 will be supported by cloud computing and 5G mobile connectivity. Digital transformation 2.0 will revamp the enterprise ecosystem by empowering employees and further digitizing the workspace.
“With these rising trends driving a highly mobile, connected workplace environment, enterprises will have to contend with new challenges and complexities in how they manage devices and people,” said Yaakov Shapiro, Tangoe CTO. “It’s not just about being on the leading edge of technology implementation; you also need to be able to control the technology to ensure it works for you. Companies that not only adopt these technologies, but also apply best practices to understand and effectively maximize their investments, will rise above the rest in the coming years. Tangoe looks forward to helping our customers identify these opportunities to improve their workforce’s productivity while protecting the connected endpoint environment — today, tomorrow and far into the future.”
About Tangoe
Tangoe provides Enterprise Technology Management solutions to the world’s biggest brands, helping them streamline complex technology environments — for fixed, mobile and cloud. Tangoe manages $40 billion in technology expenses and 10 million technology assets across the globe – five times more than its three closest competitors, combined. Nearly half the Fortune 500 trust Tangoe to increase productivity, lower expenses, reduce costs, and take control of assets to improve efficiency. The Tangoe Platform includes Telecom Expense Management (TEM), Managed Mobility Services (MMS), and Cloud Expense Management (CEM) solutions. To learn more about Tangoe and its Enterprise Technology Management solutions, visit www.tangoe.com