Gold Magazine April - May 2013, Issue 25 | Página 64

ict

The transformation
from data to
information will help
us make faster,
more intelligent
decisions, and
control our
environment
more effectively
Gold: Isn’t there a danger that e-commerce
and online transactions may lead to an end
to bricks-and-mortar shops and businesses?
Is this inevitable?
M.J.S.: The “new normal” world of retailing
is challenging retail players to reverse vacancy
rates and sales declines, create enhanced customer experiences, reduce labour and construction costs, deepen brand differentiation,
optimize small urban formats, and justify
investment in innovation. Sales are shifting
dramatically from brick-and-mortar stores to
the Internet. Highlighting the power of this
market transition, Forrester Research expects
online clothing sales to grow at 10% CAGR
while offline sales are projected to increase at
a rate of just 3%. In the United States, early
retail adopters of e-commerce are already
showing strong online revenues. Forrester Research states, “Online shopping will continue
to cannibalize in-store shopping as consumers
become more familiar and begin, in many
cases, to prefer the convenience of online shopping.” As these trends continue in force, retail-

ers should look for new solutions to
mutually reinforce and grow both
in-store and online sales.

Gold: Governments around the
world are trying to be more efficient and productive and to push
economic growth in these difficult
global times. How essential is ICT to the
success of their strategy?
M.J.S.: Across the globe, the public sector –
including government, defence, education,
healthcare and public safety, to name some of
the key verticals – all face one clear and present challenge: the reality of increased service
requirements bonded to constrained or even
declining budgets. Demographic shifts, increased social expectations, and a dramatically
more complex and dangerous world are driving enhanced Public Sector requirements to
serve the citizenry. However, global economic
volatility – including the real or perceived need
to reduce deficit spending – is reducing public
sector leaders’ ability to pay for these services
utilizing traditional models. Indeed, the public
sector actually offers several examples of where
they will lead the private sector in transformational approaches, including cloud computing
services, cyber security, mobility, and video.
The 4 critical market drivers are:



1) The financial crisis forcing and
accelerating the level and rate of change,

64 Gold the international investment, finance & professional services magazine of cyprus

2) The growing maturity and availability
of Cloud and XaaS offerings,

3) An increased focus on foreign and
domestic terrorism and cyber security, with its
increasing implications for private sector, and

4) Governments looking to technology
to improve the efficacy and efficiency of service
delivery in key mission areas - Intelligence,
Defence, Economic Development, Education,
Healthcare, and Safety.
Gold: How significant is Cloud Computing
going to be in the next decade?
M.J.S.: In the second annual Cisco Global
Cloud Index (2011-2016), Cisco forecasts
global data centre traffic to grow fourfold and
reach a total of 6.6 zettabytes annually by
2016. Global cloud traffic, the fastest-growing
component of data centre traffic, will grow
sixfold, from 683 exabytes of annual traffic in
2011 to 4.3 zettabytes by 2016. This year’s
forecast confirms that strong growth in data
centre usage and cloud traffic are global trends,
driven by our growing desire to access personal
and business content anywhere, on any device.
When you couple this growth with projected
increases in connected devices and objects, the
next-generation Internet will be an essential
component to enabling much greater data
centre virtualisation and a new world of interconnected clouds.