Issue link: http://cp.revolio.com/i/760098
28 | THE DATA CENTER JOURNAL www.datacenterjournal.com 1. amazon continUes to go Big and tells everyone else to go home w orldwide spending on the cloud will continue to grow, and Amazon will continue to be the leading provider. Synergy Research Group recently revealed that the Amazon Web Ser- vices (AWS) public cloud is twice as big as the Microso, Google and IBM offerings combined, becoming the industry's clear frontrunner and leaving competitors in the dust. e same research shows that although Microso and Google may be increasing their public-cloud revenue faster than AWS, they also have a long way to go to even come close to catching up. For the next year, AWS will continue to dominate the market, leaving others to question the cost of entry to compete in this market. 2. Beyond the cmo: the cio and cfo still oWn data ere is a lot of speculation over who is leading digital- transformation initiatives in the enterprise. As most companies struggle to make digital a competitive advantage, internal leader- ship must align departmental stakeholders behind a clear vision. But who is in charge of driving this change? According to the 2016 State of Digital Transformation report by Altimeter, the digital transformation is led primarily by the CMO, who is leading in 34 percent of organizations. But to stay aligned, businesses need to remember that CFOs, partnering with CIOs, play a critical role in driving innovation, as they have the keys to expanding business-driven strategy and approving the necessary budgets to appropriately support them. According to the CFO research study "riving in the Digital Economy: Four Reasons Why Finance Is Excited About the Future," 60 percent of finance executives and professionals indicate that they are ill-equipped to produce meaningful business analysis and reporting that can keep up with the pace of change the rest of the company is experiencing. As businesses evaluate how best to drive their company into the digi- tal revolution, the CFO is an important part of the conversation, equal to the CIO and CMO. 3. google gets serioUs aBoUt the enterprise Google has ramped its cloud offerings by collaborating with Box and will continue to buckle down and get serious about similar expansions in 2017. e partnership enables integration of Google Docs and Google Springboard, which will deliver a seamless working experience and collaboration for enterprises. e search giant's goal is to grow business to appeal to enterprise needs and transform how companies will work in the cloud. Google's eyes on the prize in the messaging and collaboration space will mean more cloud transitions, and it shows that market growth and the evolution of business communications expected to accelerate in 2017 and beyond. Whether Google will become another main contender depends on its overall approach. e fact that the company already has a strong brand and sales funnel is an indicator that it's well positioned to make a splash this year in the enterprise cloud realm. Let's not forget that along with having a well-known and trusted brand, Google is also a source of innovation. If we look at companies such as Oracle that continue to buy up legacy platforms and models while upgrading on the fly to Google's in- novative pathways, we can see that they face many roadblocks to expanding their foothold in the cloud. Google, however, has a ripe opportunity to fill a viable gap in the enterprise cloud quadrant. Both Google and Amazon are looking at their own on- premises cloud strategies, and they will be the ones to watch in 2017 as the "Cloud Wars" continue. Google has the capabilities and talent to create better web cloud services that can success- fully serve in data center and hybrid applications. If its innova- tion, branding, talent and execution all stay on point in 2017, the company will become a powerful force to beat in the enterprise cloud industry. 4. greater importance of service providers in helping BUsinesses rUn smarter With the increased amount of data in today's IT environ- ment, from machine data to social-media data and more, the need for managed-service providers to make sense of all of the informa- tion has never been more important. e increasing ability to analyze data and automate tasks—and more to be expected as artificial intelligence sees more widespread application and adop- tion—means service providers will take on greater responsibility and accountability for both functional support and business-trend modeling. We've seen infrastructure and database support already become utilities that are frequently outsourced; analytics is next on the horizon. Managed-service providers will become an impor- tant resource for the modern enterprise to better understand the wealth of available data and to identify ways to improve efficien- cies, find new markets, differentiate from competitors and drive the business. 5. increased collaBoration across BUsiness netWorks In the next year, analytics will serve more widely and collab- oration will become more prominent across business networks as companies increasingly adopt SAP S/4 HANA. Having powerful cloud-based platforms allows companies to use predictive analyt- ics and analyze business operations more closely. Companies are just now skimming the surface of what's possible when aggregat- ing data from outside their walls—pooling information from sup- pliers, for example—to make real-time operational adjustments. is capability will be an ongoing source of competitive advantage in 2017 and beyond. Previously, only big names (e.g., Walmart, NFL and Under Armor) have used these techniques, but in 2017 the benefits of running on the cloud will be increasingly accessible to small and especially mid-market companies as they make larger investments in data analysis. Don't wait until next year to consider these trends. By taking these developments into consideration, you will be better informed to make pivotal decisions while you move your IT infrastructure into the digital age. Making the right decisions means being well informed and learning how to keep your IT infrastructure innovative, compliant and positioned to grow in your industry. To be successful, you'll need partners to act strategically with regard to decisions concerning budget, IT capabilities, and timelines to meet goals and expectations. By outsourcing some of these IT services, you'll find that you will regain the time you need to concentrate on business management and growth. n