IDC Predicts the Future of Big Data Industry

The significant feature of the platform shift in the worldwide IT market is that particular sub-segments of the IT market are contracting while some other sub-segments are expanding. On the 3^rd Platform, as defined by IDC in 2011, we witness disruptive technologies continuously challenging traditional models. As the global IT market space continues to contract for specific technologies and expand for others, it opens up new and different opportunities for different players. There’s an increasing disruptive divergence in the structure of physical and virtual IT markets.

 
In IDC Predictions 2013: Competing on the 3rd. Platform, IDC presents a broad outlook for the overall technology marketplace for the next eight years till 2020. This well-researched document is the result of the combined analytical strength of over 1,000 IDC analysts with their expert views on what’s in store for the 3^rd Platform technologies, specifically the big data technologies, in the coming years.
 

IDC’s Historical Predictions

IDC has closely watched the market movements and shifts in the global IT market for the period 2008 -2013, witnessing some key trends move away from focus, while other new and emerging trends fill up the gap. In IDC’s 2008 top-10 predictions, the emergence of the ICT industry was described as a hyper-disruptive or a once in every 2025 years phenomenon— indicating a radical shift towards a newly emerging technology platform for growth and innovation. In IDC’s 2011 top-10 predictions, the post-disruption IT world—primarily built on the mobile network and apps market, cloud services, social media technologies, and big data analytics—was defined as the 3rd Platform.

From now on, any reference to the 3^rd platform directly refers to the big data-driven IT market—big data technologies, products, and services.

Source: IDC Report

IDC’s Predictions for the 3^rd Platform big data technologies

IDC also predicted that by 2020, the entire ICT industry will spend $5 trillion, over $1.3 trillion more than it does today, from which,  40% of the industry’s revenue, and 98% of its growth will be driven by 3rd Platform technologies that today represent just 22% of ICT spending.

At the beginning of 2013, IDC made some definite forecasts for the emerging 3^rd Platform and its core technologies—suddenly taking center-stage in the global technology marketplace. The significant elements in this New Chapter have been the definition of new rules of the game, the discovery of new customer segments, and of course big data.

According to IDC, the 3rd Platform will drive about 90% of the $1.5 trillion-IT market growth from 2013 to 2020.

At the end of 2012—although 78% of the IT market rested on 2nd Platform technologies—this market  was destined to witness steady decline in growth, well below worldwide GDP growth rates over the period of next few years. Thus, 2013 onwards, these IT-market indicators set forth the battleground for 3rd Platform technologies, of which big data-driven technologies are a significant part.

Now is the time to move beyond exploration and experimentation in big data, cloud services, or social technologies, towards developing higher competence in the marketplace with products, services, or solutions that provide quick proofs of concepts to expectant customers.  The big part of this evolving phase is the new set of rules for the 3rd Platform marketplace, as you may review in IDC Predictions 2013: Competing on the 3rd. Platform. Pg. 17 of this report contains all the big data market forecasts for 2013.

Two Key Predictions for the 3^rd Platform big data technologies 

These two excerpts from the IDC report indicate two major market trends for big data-driven technologies, products, and services:

1.  In 2013, there will be much greater urgency as the market moves way past the exploration stage to full-blown large stakes competition.

Here the question is has the platform shift in IT industry—from core 2^nd Platform technologies to the disruptive, 3^rd platform technologies— managed to move beyond just strategies and knowledge sharing to competitive, marketplace positioning.

2. By the end of 2013 — a year of great opportunity and peril in IT — we’ll see a dramatic separation open up: between those contending to lead the IT industry in the 3rd Platform era (aligned with the predictions and new rules we’ve shared in this document) and those who are doomed to ride the ebbing growth of the 2nd Platform to obscurity. Let the real competition for the new IT marketplace begin!

The general patterns for 3^rd Platform technologies, a big part of which is big data, are high growth, wide impact and penetration in different sub-segments of the IT market, and major structural changes within organizations and enterprises to create game-changing, competitive advantages. Please review all the predictions for the big data market on page 17 of IDC Predictions 2013: Competing on the 3rd. Platform.  

Now it’s your turn. How far in your opinion, has the 3^rd platform, more specifically the big data industry, has fulfilled the IDC predictions?

As IDC noted, their primary goal behind reporting these global IT market prediction was to draw your attention to the major, evolving future developments that are gradually reshaping the IT marketplace for the next decade and beyond!  More IDC predictions on the future trends of big data provided at www.idc.com/research/Predictions13/index.jsp