Advances in network technology and applications are expected to support a surge in the global connected workforce, according to Strategy Analytics.
Wireless communications continues to infiltrate and empower the enterprise market, enabling employees – for good or bad – to always be connected in some form or another to work.
A new report from Strategy Analytics predicts the number of connected workers will surge from 1.45 billion this year, or 38.8% of the total global workforce, to 1.87 billion in 2022, or 42.5% of the earth’s employees. The firm cited increased globalization and ongoing advances in network technology and application as driving mobility “among executives, consultants, sales and field professionals, and other mobile professionals in all regions.”
In terms of regional differences, Strategy Analytics cited an aging workforce in the U.S. and Canada, with the number of workers bumping along at the same rate of population growth; developed portions of Europe was noted as having an aging and shrinking workforce; while Asia – outside of Japan and South Korea – the Middle East and South America were said to be growing and getting younger.
Despite what sounds like uninspiring data coming from developed markets, the research firm noted those regions are more likely to take advantage of the latest in mobile technology as part of their jobs.
“If we compare regional data, North America and Western Europe are still the leading regions in terms of leading the mobile worker penetration,” explained Andrew Brown, executive director of Enterprise Research at Strategy Analytics. “The mobile workers in these developed regions adopt and use far more mobile technologies (e.g. laptops, smartphones, tablets, mobile device security, enterprise mobility management, business mobile applications, [“internet of things”], big data analytics, mobile cloud and virtual reality) than any other regions. Businesses are also continuing to take advantages of telecommuting and offering employees flexible working environments.”
Software is another area enterprises are expected to continue investing in, with a report earlier this year from Technology Business Research predicting global enterprises were on pace to spend $12 billion on software-defined networking by 2020.
Despite claims enterprises are still in the early phases of trialling SDN equipment, the report forecasts a 70.2% compound annual growth rate in enterprise-related SDN revenue between 2015 and 2020, with a majority of spend on infrastructure and “displacing legacy technologies.” However, to reach this growth, TBR states vendors will need to be more proactive in helping enterprises move beyond legacy business practices.
“Adoption is still fairly small and concentrated,” said Krista Macomber, a data center senior analyst at TBR. “But 2016 will be a telling year as standards bodies, such as the Open Networking Foundation, mature and a growing number of success stories from trial deployments are cultivated. This will pave a path to accelerated customer adoption, increasingly at the expense of legacy technologies.”
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