The Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) ICT infrastructure market will be characterised by further revitalisation and transformation in ICT initiatives in 2012. Although market volatility and uncertainty underpins IDC's outlook for this year we still expect growth in the region and investment in ICT to continue.
"Whilst the industry has been undergoing a period of transformation and cost reduction, 2012 will be the year Australian organisations look to reap rewards of the infrastructure investments and transformation they have undergone in the past two years," said IDC senior analyst, Trevor Clarke.
The Australian market is resilient to the economic woes of other regions, but not immune, and companies are likely to hedge their bets when investing in ICT infrastructure in 2012.
"As consumers and workforces are becoming smarter and more demanding, companies will need to match their efforts with intelligent infrastructure spending," said IDC analyst, Cheryl Looi.
The following represent the top 10 key ANZ Infrastructure predictions from IDC for 2012. IDC believes these trends will have the biggest commercial impact on the ANZ ICT infrastructure market:
1. Android Smartphones Will Take Over Apple iOS in 2012
2012 will set the stage for an intense client OS battle for smartphones.
2. Apple iPad Will Maintain Its Dominance in the Media Tablets Market
Apple will maintain its dominance in the media tablets market in 2012 despite Android growing at a faster rate of 36.2% year-over-year (YOY) with iOS tailing at 8.8% YOY growth.
3. Windows 8 Will Help the PC Market Stay Resilient in 2012 and Beyond
The release of Windows 8 expected in 2H 2012 will set in motion the extension of personal computing beyond conventional platforms and form factors while also fuelling enterprise mobility.
4. 2012 Will Be the Year Channel Partners Take Managed Print Services to the SMB Market
Channel partners will increase the penetration of Managed Print Service (MPS) in small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) in 2012. IDC expects managed print services (MPS) revenue to increase by 15% in 2012.
5. Client Virtualisation to broaden to mobile virtualisation as a result of BYOD and Consumerisation of IT
IDC believes in 2012, corporate users will introduce more consumer mobile device types than IT could effectively manage.
6. 2012 is the year mobility will come of age in Australia.
Mobility will be at the top of the CIO priority list in 2012, and it can be either in the form of application requirements or hardware device strategies in the workspace. IDC expects commercial media tablets adoption in Australia to rise to over 14.5% of total shipments by 2013.
7. Opportunities in the mining sector for "high performance computing (HPC) in the cloud" will accelerate in 2012.
IDC believes there will be an accelerated deployment of HPC in the cloud by mining and oil and gas organisations in 2012.
8. Server Platform Decisions to Dominate in 2012
IDC believes organisations will increasingly focus on evaluating server platform opportunities for their workloads with a view to minimising costly islands of technology and focusing instead on scalability and reliability.
9. Data Variety Will Become a Manageable Entity Ushering in a New Set of Decision Platforms for Organisations
IDC expects a newer wave of platforms to emerge – both hardware and software – to address the Big Data opportunity.
10. 2012 will be the year enterprises automate their environments en mass.
During 2010–2014, IT employment, now at 35 million, will grow by a factor of 1.3 worldwide. This is a constraint in an industry that will grow by a factor of 1.1 by spending but by more than 2 by devices managed, 5 by information created, and 8 by networked interactions between customers.