BUSINESS
Pixabay
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While
SEPTEMBER 2017
14
The increasing prevalence of digitisation in the mining and construction sectors increases the potential impact of cyberattacks on connected systems and networks.
ransomware attacks in 2016 were estimated to have raked in around USD1-billion, the number is likely to be much higher this year.”
Increasing ICT and IoT spend
According to global ICT research and consulting services firm International Data Corporation( IDC), spending on big data and analytics in the Middle East and Africa will increase by 11.0 % in 2017 to reach USD2.2-billion, compared to USD1.98-billion in 2016. This data comes from IDC’ s latest Worldwide Semiannual Big Data and Analytics Spending Guide. The growth is expected to reach approximately USD3.20-billion in 2020— a compound annual growth rate( CAGR) of 10.0 % over the 2016 – 2020 period.
IT and business services accounted for 55.1 % of overall spending, with software the next biggest spender. According to Megha Kumar, research director for software at IDC MEA, there is a lot of focus around customer and operational analytics, and uptake around advanced and predictive workloads. Kumar says that this shows that organisations in the region acknowledge the need to leverage data for strategic decisions, but face challenges in finding skills to support big data and analytics deployments, with the majority of software spending focused on solutions for end-user query as well as reporting and databases.
Geographically, 22.7 % of this investment was generated in South Africa, second only to Saudi Arabia, with 24 %. Industries with longer-term potential include discrete and processed manufacturing, resource industries, and transportation, while construction has shown very little spending in this area.
IDC’ s Worldwide Semiannual Internet of Things Spending Guide forecasts that the IoT market will grow 19.6 % year-on-year in 2017 to total USD7.8- billion, compared to the 18.1 % growth seen in 2016. IDC attributes this to the proliferation of digital transformation initiatives across the region as businesses and government entities strive to boost productivity and improve efficiency.
According to Wale Babalola, research analyst for telecommunications, IoT, and digital media at IDC MEA,“ IoT now offers a myriad of industry-specific solutions that can be easily deployed by organisations in a bid to stay ahead of competition.”
IDC forecasts that manufacturing operations will account for more than 51 % of the projected IoT-related spending of USD1.3-billion from manufacturing organisations in 2017. The transportation industry is also forecast to see IoT-related spending of around USD1.3-billion in 2017, with freight monitoring expected to account for USD849-million, highlighting the increasing importance of monitoring goods and improving productivity.