IDC predicts top 10 digital trends in Australia in 2021

An IDC report has predicted the top 10 digital trends for Australia in 2021 and beyond. The report provides a look at COVID-19 impacts to the IT industry and the IT industry trend predictions over the next five years, while also providing strategic direction to Australian organisations on investment priorities for digital leadership as organisations recover from the impact of COVID-19.

Neha Ralhan, Research Manager for IDC Australia and New Zealand, predicts that in 2021, Australian organisations will solidify gains made during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when companies were pushed over the digital transformation tipping point.

“While the level of digital maturity will largely determine agenda, a strategic push to shore up digital resilience is at the forefront across industries. Hybrid working models, innovation at scale, training and addressing skill shortages, reallocating resources, and building up digital elasticity are key areas that Australian organisations will be focusing on to ensure they are ready for the new normal,” Ralhan said.

In 2021, digital transformation will be redefined as organisations adapt to an environment where building resilience to thrive in the next normal becomes a priority. IDC predicts by 2022, enterprises focused on digital resilience will extend services to respond to new conditions 50% faster than the ones fixated on restoring existing business and IT resilience levels.

Ralhan noted that forward-thinking organisations and those looking to ensure their competitive advantage will continue on the path of reconfiguring, and often reimagining, business models to better meet market needs and demands.

“The levelling up of lagging technology systems and processes has been the silver lining for many organisations in 2020. It is also important to note that the largest changes made by organisations, including cultural shifts and digital buy-in, are the ones that are more likely to last and deliver the greatest benefits longer term,” Ralhan said.

IDC predicts that by the end of 2021, 80% of Australian enterprises will put a mechanism in place to shift to cloud-centric infrastructure and applications twice as fast as before the pandemic.

Through 2022, coping with technical debt accumulated during the pandemic will shadow 70% of CIOs, causing financial stress, inertial drag on IT agility and ‘forced march’ migrations to the cloud.

Through 2023, the reactions to the changed workforce and operations practices during the pandemic will accelerate 80% of edge-driven investments and business model changes in most industries. IDC also predicts that by 2023, 75% of G2000 Companies will commit to providing technical parity to a workforce that is hybrid by design rather than by circumstance, enabling them to work together separately and in real time.

By 2023, an emerging cloud ecosystem for extending resource control and real-time analytics is forecast to be the underlying platform for all IT and business automation initiatives. By 2023, 15% of ASX companies are also forecast to acquire at least one AI software start-up to ensure ownership of differentiated skills and IP.

Through 2023, a third of enterprises’ hybrid workforce and business automation efforts will be delayed or will fail due to underinvestment in building IT/Sec/DevOps teams with the right tools or skills.

By 2024, IDC predicts that 75% of enterprises will overhaul relationships with suppliers, providers and partners to better execute digital strategies for the deployment of resources and for autonomous IT operations.

By 2025, 85% of ASX companies are also forecast to mandate reusable materials in IT hardware supply chains, carbon neutrality targets for providers’ facilities and lower energy use as prerequisites for doing business.

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