Published on the 26/11/2015 | Written by Newsdesk

Head of research shares insights on what to expect next year…

At the top of the list of expectations for 2016 from Frost & Sullivan’s ANZ head of ICT research Audrey William is security, which she says will be the biggest issue in the industry, driven by rapid adoption of Cloud, Mobility and the Internet of Things.

The Ashley Madison incident brought about greater awareness of cyber security threats; in response, expect more cyber insurance policies with features that go beyond compensation and protection from liability. Increased adoption of Smart Home solutions will equip people to use mobile devices to control power, cooling, heating, lighting and security…while opening up new security challenges.

Targeted attacks on Industrial Control Systems (ICS) are the biggest threat to national critical infrastructure. Attacks of this nature in recent years have not been publicised, however, with the best known instances including Stuxnet on an Iranian nuclear plant and the Shamoon attack on Saudi Aramco.

In 2016, expect market players to acquire specialist security vendors or grow their own practices to tackle diverse security issues.

Secondly, said William, expect the disruption of the Enterprise Communications Market by an emerging class of startups.

Although traditional vendors still dominate in the voice space, Microsoft is taking market share with Skype for Business. Frost & Sullivan expects more companies to embrace this service as a replacement for legacy communications platforms.

Start-ups such as Acano, Pexip and Slack are disrupting the traditional conferencing and collaboration space; expect more start-ups to emerge offering new ways of delivering voice, video, contact centre and collaboration capabilities by taking advantage of the cloud to deliver dynamic, collaborative and social platforms.

Thirdly, William pointed to the Internet of Things which she said will lead to a tsunami of data driving massive developments in big data. Sensors are being embedded in physical objects ranging from medical devices, wearables, highways, cars, industrial machines to mobile phones and connected to high speed networks. This data will increasingly change how things are done – from healthcare, to agriculture and the way cities are run.

Fourthly, William said the rise of Smart Machines will accelerate. These include drones, driverless vehicles and as efficient robots. As costs pressures rise, smart machines will reduce the need for staff. Smart machines will be put into widespread use across various industries, but whilst it will drive efficiencies and help reduce costs, it will also start having a negative impact on jobs.

Fifthly, Cognitive Computing and Artificial Intelligence platforms will find favour across industries, according to William. She said Cognitive Computing mimics human decision-making by intelligently identifying patterns and acting on that information. But, whilst artificial intelligence solutions will be adopted in contact centres and healthcare, the human element is still important.

Intelligent Personal assistants are also gaining ground, with Facebook’s M and Baidu’s Duer. The battleground for Intelligent Personal assistants will increase with nearly every large technology company investing in developing an intelligent personal assistant platform. Other popular solutions in this space vying for a share in this market include Siri, Cortana and Google Now. These platforms will offer a wide range of services which include booking a taxi, ordering food, groceries and other online goods.