An IT talent shortage already beleaguers 69% of enterprises, and the COVID-19 pandemic and global recession will exacerbate the problem. According to Everest Group, 75% of enterprises believe there will be a talent shortage for key roles in IT, analytics and special skills areas post-COVID-19. In fact, 67% of enterprises think new skills gaps will emerge as a result of the structural changes in business occurring in response to the pandemic.

Frost & Sullivan’s recent analysis, Global Big Data Analytics Market Fueling Artificial Intelligence, 2020, finds that the demand for Big Data Analytics (BDA) will surge exponentially. Data security is a prime concern across sectors with the increasing deployment of the Internet of Things and proliferation of devices, which create copious amounts of data.

Due to the nature of cyber-physical systems (CPSs), incidents can quickly lead to physical harm to people, destruction of property or environmental disasters. Gartner analysts predict that incidents will rapidly increase in the coming years due to a lack of security focus and spending currently aligning to these assets.

The worldwide public cloud services market, including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS), grew 26.0% year over year in 2019 with revenues totaling $233.4 billion, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Semiannual Public Cloud Services Tracker.

Research identifies the importance of TV streaming platforms and devices in the emergence of internet video services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Hulu. Streaming video is increasingly viewed on TV screens rather than mobile devices, particularly during the pandemic, and TV streaming platforms will become a dominant force in video streaming in many countries as demand for traditional pay TV, broadcast and home video platforms declines.

The 2020 Gartner, Inc. Hype Cycle for Endpoint Security features two technologies that will have transformational impact on global businesses within the next 10 years. Bring your own PC* (BYOPC) security will reach mainstream adoption in the next two to five years, while it will take five to 10 years for mainstream adoption of secure access service edge (SASE) to take place.

Global spending on artificial intelligence (AI) is forecast to double over the next four years, growing from $50.1 billion in 2020 to more than $110 billion in 2024. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), spending on AI systems will accelerate over the next several years as organizations deploy artificial intelligence as part of their digital transformation efforts.

“COVID-19, digital transformation, sudden facility shutdowns or an expansion into a new market – all of those incidents disrupt supply chain organizations. A strong culture of quality is critical during times of transformation,” said Bryan Klein, research director with the Gartner Supply Chain Practice.

The worldwide public cloud services market, including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS), grew 26.0% year over year in 2019 with revenues totaling $233.4 billion. Spending continued to consolidate in 2019 with the combined revenue of the top 5 public cloud service providers capturing more than one third of the worldwide total and growing 35% year over year.

B2B CMOs are challenged by B2B buyers who are facing multiple layers of environmental uncertainty when they consider a major purchase, which is leading to delays or smaller deals, according to Gartner, Inc. In fact, a Gartner, Inc. survey revealed that 81% of B2B buyers already experienced moderate to high levels of environmental uncertainty, even before facing the coronavirus crisis and probable global recession.

The 30 must-watch technologies on the Gartner Inc. Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, 2020 include technologies that enable a composable enterprise, aspire to regain society's trust in technology, and alter the state of your brain.

Worldwide spending on security products and services will see solid growth in 2020 as organizations invest in solutions to meet the needs of a much larger remote workforce and a wide range of security threats and requirements. Worldwide spending on security-related hardware, software, and services will be $125.2 billion in 2020, an increase of 6.0% over 2019. As the global economy recovers from the impact of COVID-19, worldwide security spending is set to reach $174.7 billion in 2024.

The worldwide market for artificial intelligence (AI) software will expand to $98.8 billion by 2025, rising by a factor of six from $16.4 billion in 2019, despite the varying effects of the COVID-19 pandemic across different industries, according to research from Omdia.

Widespread home-based working will result in the elimination of billions of commuter journeys and a decline in office-based working environments of 22%, according to a new study by Strategy Analytics.

Nearly three quarters (72%) of remote workers say they are more conscious of their organisation’s cybersecurity policies since lockdown began, but many are breaking the rules anyway due to limited understanding or resource constraints, according to research from Trend Micro, a global leader in cybersecurity solutions.

Worldwide PC shipments totaled 64.8 million units in the second quarter of 2020 (2Q20), a 2.8% increase from the second quarter of 2019 (2Q19), according to preliminary results by Gartner. After a significant decline in the first quarter of the year (1Q20) due to COVID-19-related supply chain disruptions, the PC market returned to growth as vendors restocked their channels and mobile PC demand increased.

Strategy Analytics forecasts global consumer spending in 2020 on smart home related devices will drop to $44 billion in 2020, from $52 billion in 2019, due to the economic downturn as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. However, the market will recover in 2021, and consumer spending will increase in 2021 to $62 billion. Strategy Analytics forecasts the global smart home device market will continue to grow at a CAGR of 155, reaching $88 billion in 2025.

Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in Europe are competing for the top position in the connected car segment as its two key domains, connected services and human-machine interfaces (HMI), unlock tremendous growth prospects by offering new revenue streams, as revealed by Frost & Sullivan’s recent analysis. Telematics services are expected to achieve a penetration of 90% in Europe, while more than 60% of vehicles will have wider (12.3+ inch) infotainment displays controlled by touch or gestures, with artificial intelligence (AI)-based digital assistants being omnipresent, by 2025.

The global pro AV industry took a $20 billion hit thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic but will grow $56 billion from its 2019 peak by 2025, according to the latest research from AVIXA and Omdia. In its 2020 AV Industry Outlook and Trends Analysis (IOTA), industry association AVIXA in conjunction with Omdia, said the global market would not return to its 2019 peak of $259 billion until 2022.

82% of company leaders intend to permit remote working some of the time as employees return to the workplace, as revealed by a Gartner survey of company leaders from HR, Legal and Compliance, Finance, and Real Estate departments. For many organizations with employees working both onsite and remotely, adapting to a new, more complex hybrid workforce is the challenge as how people work together to get their job done evolves.