iPad, Windows 8 top ANZ infrastructure spend in 2012: IDC

The Australia and New Zealand ICT infrastructure market will be characterised by changing investment priorities due to economic conditions, according to the latest predictions from IDC Australia.

IDC Australian senior analyst, Trevor Clarke, said in a statement that while the Australian market is resilient to the economic woes of other regions, it is not immune and companies are likely to hedge their bets when investing in ICT infrastructure this year.

The following represents the top 10 key ANZ infrastructure predictions from IDC for 2012:

1.Android smartphones will take over Apple iOS in 2012

2012 will set the stage for an intense client operating system (OS) battle for smartphones.

2.Apple iPad will maintain its dominance in the media tablets market

Apple will hold the number one spot despite Android growing at a faster rate of 36.2 per cent year-over-year (YOY) with iOS tailing at 8.8 per cent YOY growth.

3.Windows 8 will help the PC market stay resilient in 2012 and beyond

The release of Windows 8 in the second half of 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). IDC expects MPS revenue to increase by 15 per cent in 2012.

5.Client virtualization to broaden to mobile virtualization as a result of bring your own devices (BYODs)

IDC believes in 2012, corporate users will introduce more consumer mobile device types than IT could effectively manage.

6.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 predicts commercial media tablets adoption in Australia to rise to more than 14.5 per cent of total shipments by 2013.

7.Opportunities in the mining sector for high performance computing (HPC) in the Cloud will accelerate in 2012

According to IDC, there will be an accelerated deployment of HPC in the Cloud by mining, 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 minimise costly islands of technology and instead focus on scalability and reliability.

9.Data variety will become a manageable entity in the enterprise

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

IT employment, now at 35 million, will grow by a factor of 1.3 worldwide during 2010–2014.

“This is a constraint in an industry that will grow by a factor of 1.1 by spending but by more than two by devices managed, five by information created, and eight by networked interactions between customers,” Clarke said.

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