Techaisle Blog

Techaisle latest research US SMB & Midmarket Orchestration, Automation & Integration trends shows that roughly two-thirds of midmarket firms are using or planning to use hybrid cloud and nearly 90% of midmarket firms using/planning to use hybrid consider orchestration tools to be “critical” or “very important”.

In today’s multi-platform world, orchestration, automation and integration are non-optional components of a functioning IT environment. The number of possible connections between systems and data sources expand logarithmically with each new platform; as IT workloads migrate (or are born) in new cloud, hosted, virtual or conventional systems, IT managers need to establish processes for connecting, balancing and optimizing systems that aren’t bottlenecked by requirements for operator intervention.

Despite the clear and immediate requirement for orchestration, automation and integration, there is little current and reliable data available on adoption and usage trends, especially within the small and midmarket business segment. To address this gap, Techaisle conducted a survey of 1,076 US-based SMBs, quota sampled to ensure statistically-reliable representation for two small business segments (20-49 and 50-99) and three midmarket segments (100-249, 250-499, 500-999). By applying attitudinal segmentation within each e-size category, capturing information on current cloud and digitalization status and probing for orchestration and automation plans and activities, Techaisle is able to deliver a unique perspective on the current state and directions of orchestration and automation within the US SMB & Midmarket.

Research presented in the report, which addresses the general topic of IT orchestration, is focused on three major issues:

• Cloud workload orchestration: orchestrating workloads and associated processes across hybrid environments
• Cloud application/data orchestration and integration: SMB requirements for services supporting hybrid business applications/processes
• Supplier requirements, gaps and opportunities: market feedback and Techaisle evaluation of the offerings that will position suppliers as orchestration leaders in the SMB segment

Highlights from the findings presented in this report include:

Techaisle’s SMB & Midmarket IT maturity segmentation reveals that 52% of midmarket firms and 16% of small businesses (down from 31% two years ago) belong to Advanced IT segment and 37% of midmarket firms (up from 14% two years ago) and 0% of small businesses are in the Enterprise IT segment.

IT products are often described as having ‘a market’ – but ‘the’ IT market is comprised of many segments, each of which has its own approach to IT adoption. Some industry sectors (e.g., aerospace) tend to move faster than others (e.g., retail) and different countries and regions invest in new technologies at different rates. Until they are supplanted by new solutions, mature IT products are acquired at about the same rate by all buyers. These technologies generate the majority of ‘run rate’ revenue in the IT industry. When IT industry growth opportunities are discussed, the focus often turns to earlier-stage technologies. Sellers of these technologies tend to focus on advanced segments (large accounts, particularly in leading-edge industries). SMBs are generally viewed as a secondary market.

Four IT Maturity Segments

However, the SMB market is not a monolith. Techaisle research has identified four attitudinal/behavioral segments that have different approaches to IT adoption. Suppliers who understand the scope and characteristics of these segments are able to expand their target markets and develop strategies geared to reaching high-potential SMB prospects. These suppliers ultimately have access to an expanded TAM, and have the insight needed to align marketing investments with priority customers.

Comparing Dell and HPE offerings and ecosystems against the Techaisle SMB IT solution stack model

Techaisle’s latest report is designed to help SMB buyers and suppliers identify IT stack requirements, and to compare the offerings and ecosystems of the two current market leaders, Dell and HPE, against Techaisle’s definition of essential SMB & midmarket business technologies. The report is structured in three parts:

• The IT stack: the report begins by outlining the technologies that SMBs require – and require integration across – in order to support current and emerging business requirements
• Vendor comparison: an evaluation of Dell and HPE offerings, including core products, non-core products and partner-delivered capabilities, against the stack requirements
• Evaluating stack suppliers: advice on how to use the stack comparison, and additional Techaisle research findings, to evaluate Dell and HPE strengths

Security is a feature that needs to be present within each layer of the stack. Security, needs to permeate all layers of an IT solution stack. IT security isn’t a discrete category – it is a ubiquitous factor in all aspects of IT/business infrastructure. 

The most important IT-related development in 2018 and beyond will be a focus on connectedness – connected cloud, edge, applications, security, collaboration, workspaces and insights. Internet and the web are the navigation routes that we have been developing since the 1970s; the always-on, everywhere-connected Interwork© platform is the destination that we will be creating in 2018 and for years to come. Please read Future of Work - Interwork: the next step in connected businesses

If there is an evident downside to ubiquitous and constant connectivity, it’s security. In conventional IT environments, security followed a ‘castle keep’-type approach: IT security staff gathered all critical information assets at the core of the environment, and focused their resources on hardening the perimeter, in much the same way that ancient castles used a moat and wall to safeguard people and assets within a central tower.

Today, of course, nations do not use castles as fortifications – and in truth, the traditional approach to security is scarcely better attuned to contemporary IT security needs. With the rise of mobility, cloud and connected supply chains reaching from component suppliers to OEMs to distribution and consumers, there is no perimeter to harden; any sizeable enterprise will have literally thousands of shifting entry points capable of accessing one or more corporate systems. And the rise in the value of information has spawned a sophisticated cyber theft industry: ‘bad actors’ use many different types of tactics and advanced technology to infiltrate corporate IT environments, with an eye towards stealing customer credit card data or internal financial or engineering information, hijacking corporate IT resources or obtaining some other form of benefit.

Security is the most amorphous of IT market categories. Virtually all other technologies occupy a defined position within the solution stack. Today’s security strategies no longer resemble a ‘wrapper’ around assets – they are built into each element of the corporate IT stack and rely on connectedness to (as the NIST framework recommends ) identify threats, protect against attacks, detect intruders if/when they breach perimeter defenses, respond to security events, and recover information lost to theft, loss and/or malware.