Robots replacing our jobs? Microsoft’s Cortana is creating them

Conversational computing platforms are not displacing workers just yet !

As #Alexa (Amazon), #Siri (Apple), #Cortana (Microsoft) & #Assistant (Google) all battle for attention

“The conversational computing arms race starts with generalisation, reaches contextualisation and ends in personalisation. Privacy vs Personalisation remains the key trade off ” Chas Dhami

 

 

Digital Disruption and Enterprise IT

This is part 3 of a series of articles on: ‘Cisco, IBM, HP: still a cloud of uncertainty?’  Here are parts one and two

 

IT market in general

  • The IT industry is renowned for its fierce competition. With seemingly never ending cycles of rapid commoditisation and innovation.
  • Startups regularly challenge the status quo with ground breaking business models, technology & platforms
  • But the need to remain dynamic in the IT industry is nothing new. So what is else is going on to have investors worried about HP, Cisco & IBM ? 

 

Digital Disruption

  • The Digital workplace is having a fundamental impact on businesses & consumers. All industries are impacted. Some are calling it the dawn of a new Industrial age
  • And it’s not just Digital technologies like Cloud but: Social media; Internet of Things (IoT); the growth of smart machines; machine learning; mobility; 3D printing; and Big data analytics/insight
  • There have been platform shifts from traditional technology vendors to on demand and virtual infrastructure, as pioneered by the likes of Amazon Web Services (AWS)

According to Sam Palmisano (former CEO of IBM):

  • Platform based models of consumption have sprung up across various industries (eg Uber, AirBnB)
  • Data & analytics complexity is increasing; Barriers to entry have dramatically fallen and there is rapid globalisation by startups

In short, the Disruptive digital economy is here to stay.

Gartner’s key strategic technology trends for 2016 indicate that it’s not just hype.

 

The Term Disruption  

By the way, a point on the word ‘disruption’.

Harvard Professor, Clayton Christensen thinks the word is over used today and often misunderstood. 

He says:

  • Disruption is a process, not a moment in time;
  • Disruptive innovation does not guarantee success; and
  • Whilst “incumbent companies do need to respond to disruption if it’s occurring, but they should not overreact by dismantling a still-profitable business”

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is seen by many as the original disrupter of the IT industry

 

Enterprise IT prospects

  • The lucrative Enterprise IT market is becoming crowded. Huge scale is a critical factor for success. Relentless innovation alone is not enough
  • Earlier this year, Gartner forecast $1.4 trn worldwide IT spend in 2015 for Data Center, Enterprise Software & IT Services. If you include Telecom Services that’s whopping $3.8 trn spend in 2015.
  • Cloud IT infrastructure expenditure (Server, Storage and Ethernet switch) is forecast by IDC to grow 15.6% per year to reach $54.6 billion by 2019, with spending on non-cloud IT infrastructure declining at 1.4% per year.
  • IDC forecasts Public Cloud to drive that growth, as Public Cloud service providers invest in expansion of their Datacenters & Service offerings

 

Long term competitive threats in Enterprise IT

  • The cost of computing continues to decline, whilst IT operations continue to shift to the Cloud
  • Traditional IT vendors are losing their pricing power, and AWS continues to have a deflationary impact on the market
  • The rise of open source software has only added to the pressure
  • Amazon, Alphabet (parent company of Google) & Facebook have built a new breed of IT hardware and software to scale their own businesses
  • This infrastructure is seen as a serious long term threat to the traditional Enterprise Tech giants
  • Traditional Tech giants are inhibited by: proprietary technology; old business models; outdated Sales compensation models; and some suggest the wrong generation of leaders

 

Coopetition, Cannibalisation & Consolidation:

  • Are strategies adopted by traditional Tech titans like Cisco, IBM and HP in response to these challenges
  • They’re using Digital technologies to move up the stack and deepening business relationships in Enterprise IT by driving business outcomes for customers, instead of competing on price
  • IoT (Internet of Things), Big Data Insight/Analytics and Security offer hopefor the future
  • And the pace of acquisitions in this space will accelerate as the battle for top talent and technology hots up in 2016...

 

In part 4, we’ll be looking at ’The AWS factor’ (Amazon Web Services) in terms of the Enterprise IT landscape

 

What did I miss in terms of the IT market and Digital Disruption ? 

 

(All views are my own)

Meg Whitman: 'Dell will need to pay roughly $2.5 billion a year in interest alone'

HP knows only too well that big bang mergers don't always succeed. 

Its notable also that Cisco shuns huge takeovers. The real winners will be Enterprise customers with more choice and lower prices. 

In the meantime IT market consolidation, innovation and restructurings will only intensify...