Over the next several years, digital transformation is expected to reach a “macroeconomic scale,” affecting the local economy and transforming the way businesses function in Australia. As a consequence, as local companies and IT partners prepare to face a future dominated by the “digital transformation economy,” IDC has released its top ten technology forecasts for the local market.

10. The development of the 4th Platform According to IDC, one-third of healthcare, life sciences, and consumer-goods firms will begin creating the first wave of 3rd Platform-based products and services by 2020. IDC predicts that augmented humanity solutions will be commonplace by the mid-2020s.

9. Digital transformation standards according to IDC, all businesses’ performance will be judged by a new set of digital transformation-driven criteria by 2020, requiring 40%–60% greater company performance.

8. Channel partners or brokers in the digital transformation IDC expects that by 2020, channel partners or brokers will account for approximately 60% of cloud service providers’ incomes.

7. Developers of digital transformations according to IDC, by the end of 2018, over half of the top 500 Australian organizations will have dedicated teams for digital improvement and innovation.

6. Industry collaboration platforms According to IDC, the number of industry collaborating clouds will reach more than 50 by 2018. Via industry collaborative clouds, IDC predicts that more than 60% of the top 500 Australian enterprises would be digital service providers by 2020. (ICCs).

5. Immersive interfaces so according to IDC, augmented reality and virtual reality will be used by 60% of Australia’s top 500 consumer-facing companies as part of their marketing efforts in 2017.

4. AI everywhere According to IDC, cognitive and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities will underpin 40% of all digital transformation activities and 100% of all effective Internet of Things efforts by 2020.

3. Cloud 2.0 According to IDC, by 2020, the cloud will be dispersed, trustworthy, intelligent, industry-focused, and communication, with cloud-based products accounting for 67% of all business IT infrastructure and software investment.

2. By default, 3rd Platform technology and services will drive over 70% of IT investment by 2019, according to IDC, and will expand at double the pace of the market.

1 – The digital transformation economy according to IDC, half of Australia’s top 500 enterprises will be part of the digital transformation economy by 2020, as their capacity to produce digitally improved products, services, and experiences is critical to their success.

With a host of industry-specific cloud options for financial services, manufacturing, and non-profits, Microsoft has recently made a greater effort to improve its position in the cloud computing market.

In a video message, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the decision was prompted by the rising need for businesses to create their technological solutions to compete and flourish.

The industry cloud market, according to IDC, is one of the top vertical growth prospects for technology companies. Globally, more than 500 industry clouds have already been developed, and by 2022, the industry cloud market is estimated to generate more than $20 billion in revenue.

What makes cloud solutions in the sector distinct from what is already available to clients in other industries?

The recent introduction of Microsoft’s industrial clouds demonstrates the company’s long-term commitment to industries and investment in enabling digital transformation for customers and partners on their terms and to their requirements.

The Microsoft industry clouds are a collection of new and recently released industry capabilities that were created by combining Microsoft’s cloud services, such as Microsoft 365 and Teams, Azure, Microsoft Power Platform, Dynamics 365, and security solutions, with common industry data models, cross-cloud connectors, workflows, application programming interfaces (APIs), and industry-specific components and standards, with the breadth of Microsoft’s cloud services, such as Microsoft 365 and Teams, Azure, Microsoft Power Platform, Dynamics 365, and security solutions.

These are the goals of Microsoft’s industrial clouds:

• Deliver more value in less time, allowing businesses to quickly adopt new or improve existing solutions that are tailored to their sector.
• Helping organizations take a data-first strategy with a single data model that integrates data while conforming to industry compliance requirements, breaks down the data.
• With productivity workflows and business apps that give the appropriate information at the right time, you can maximize the effectiveness of every employee in your organization.
• Use industry-standard-compliant modular solutions to supplement an organization’s existing investments while also allowing it to expand and change as the company’s needs change.

Connecting experiences with a modular architecture that activates services like curbside pickup or independent services like intelligent suggestions, for example, would be a retail industry-specific capability.

Integrations of electronic health records and platforms, installation services, and healthcare software-as-a-service (SaaS) products are all examples of this in the healthcare industry. There’s also the new Teams Electronic Health Record link, which allows physicians to use their electronic health record system to arrange and launch virtual patient visits or consultations in Teams.

Microsoft’s solution for manufacturing is designed to provide features that meet the industry’s essential operations and requirements. These manufacturing solutions bring together Microsoft’s own and partner’s capabilities, as well as Microsoft’s own and partner’s solutions, to help businesses become more robust by connecting people, assets, workflows, and business processes seamlessly.

What does this mean for consumers in the Asia-Pacific area, particularly those in countries where Microsoft’s cloud services are not available?

The cloud continues to be a cornerstone of our region’s development, and companies are taking steps toward the next generation of cloud. According to GlobalData, the cloud industry in Asia will expand from $133 billion in 2019 to $288 billion in 2024, with a market size of $133 billion in 2019.

The benefits of utilizing the cloud and converting to becoming cloud-first organizations are still being reaped by our regional clients. Among them are Standard Chartered Bank and Myntra, an e-commerce platform that uses Azure to offer new and personalized capabilities for its customers, as well as Standard Chartered Bank, which uses cloud services to boost its capacity to be nimble and inventive.

It’s vital to remember that Microsoft’s industrial clouds aren’t logically or physically separated from other Azure instances. Through trusted and integrated capabilities, Microsoft industrial clouds enhance existing cloud services to give industry-specific value. Customers may transform insights into action by using these capabilities to automate and streamline high-value activities, as well as deep data analysis for both structured and unstructured data.

What are the components of the cloud stack in the industry? How much freedom does Microsoft provide its clients to choose among the various components of the industrial stack?

Customers can adapt the features they demand across all industrial clouds.

For example, in the retail industry, the solution is modular, allowing merchants to add features as needed, such as using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Connected Store to better understand their consumers or other features that can be scaled with other SaaS or platform-as-a-service (PaaS)-based solutions.

Second, Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services is a platform for the financial services industry that is based on a common data model and allows for a robust partner ecosystem to easily add value to the platform by providing additional solutions and addressing the most pressing issues that each industry is currently facing.

What is the go-to-market strategy for industry cloud in APAC?

For the last mile of execution, our industrial clouds will be launched in the same way that our cloud services are and will be expanded through our worldwide partner network.

Microsoft industrial clouds also enable new opportunities for our partners to improve and expand for the final mile of industry execution because of the breadth and depth of the Microsoft partner ecosystem. To create customized solutions for particular consumer demands, partners bring innovation and experience to the table.

What is Cloud Computing?

Any type of hosting service that is offered through the internet is referred to as cloud computing. Servers, databases, software, networks, analytics, and other cloud-based computing tasks are frequently included in these services.

Users of the service may access files and applications stored in the cloud from any location, removing the requirement to be physically present at all times. User-created documents and spreadsheets, for example, had to be saved to a physical hard drive, USB drive, or disk in the past. The files were unavailable outside of the machine on which they were created unless there was some form of a hardware component. Few individuals are concerned about fried hard drives or USB drives that have been lost or ruined as a result of the cloud. Because the papers are stored on a network of hosted computers that transport data over the internet, cloud computing makes them accessible from anywhere.

Cloud Computing Service Types

SaaS (software as a service), platform as a service (platform as the service), and infrastructure as the service are the three main types of cloud computing services (IaaS).

Software-as-a-Service

The most popular sort of cloud service is SaaS. We all utilize it regularly. The software can be accessed via a web browser or an app using the SaaS model. Although some SaaS services are completely free, others demand a monthly or annual fee to keep the service running. SaaS solutions are major popular in the corporate sector since they don’t require any hardware installation or upkeep. Salesforce, Dropbox, and Google Docs are just a few examples.

Platform-as-a-Service

It’s a cloud-based platform that allows you to create and deploy web applications. Users may create, test, deploy, maintain, and upgrade apps over their entire lifespan using PaaS. Development tools, middleware, and business intelligence solutions are all included in the package. Windows Azure, AWS Elastic Beanstalk, and Google App Engine are just a few examples.

Infrastructure-as-a-Service

Users can utilize IaaS to access fundamental computer infrastructure features such as data storage, servers, and hardware in the cloud. Businesses may use IaaS to access huge platforms and apps without having to build their physical infrastructure. DigitalOcean, Amazon EC2, and Google Compute Engine are just a few instances of IaaS.

How Does Cloud Computing Work?

The cloud is essentially a satellite network that allows people to share information in a decentralized manner. The hosting business is in charge of managing the vast data centers that offer the security, storage capacity, and processing power required to keep all of the data that customers transmit to the cloud safe.

Major firms such as Amazon (Amazon Web Services), Microsoft (Azure), Apple (iCloud), and Google (Google Drive) are the most well-known cloud providers, but there is also a slew of smaller and larger businesses. In addition to offering the end-user an ecosystem that can communicate between devices and programs (e.g., download a song on your laptop and it’s instantly synced to the iTunes software on your iPhone), these hosting companies can sell the rights to use their clouds and store data on their networks.

Generally, cloud computing follows three delivery models:

Public

This is the most common, and all of the above-mentioned players (Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, and Google) have public clouds that can be accessed from any location with the correct web app and login credentials.

Private

The infrastructure needs (hosting, data storage, IT personnel, etc.) are provided by the firms or consumers of the service, and this model gives the same level of flexibility as the public cloud. The private model also has an added degree of protection due to the restricted access and hands-on supervision of hosting.

Hybrid

The public and private cloud computing paradigms are combined in hybrid cloud computing. The two forms of cloud are connected via the internet and can exchange resources as needed (e.g., if the private cloud reaches storage capacity or becomes corrupted, the public cloud can step in and save the day).

Uses

Cloud computing is used in some interesting and innovative ways by both businesses and people. Here’s a short look at several more major application areas, in addition to some of the instances already mentioned.

Communication & Collaboration

From Google Calendar to Gchat, the whole Google suite of services is cloud-based. Popular programs like Skype and WhatsApp are also available, allowing users to interact and work on a worldwide scale.

Entertainment

Netflix and Hulu, which store massive databases of movies and TV episodes available via the cloud, have emerged as a result of a combination of cloud computing and dramatically increased internet bandwidth. These and other firms, such as Spotify and Tidal, can operate because of the cloud.

Big Data Analytics

Using big data to find patterns and insights was a time-consuming and costly process before the cloud. All of this has changed thanks to the cloud, which has eliminated the necessity for in-house development resources when it comes to data compilation and analysis. Companies may now collect data from some sources, connect it to the cloud, and search for real-time insights.

Business Processes

Innovative applications such as Salesforce, Slack, and a slew of others meant to improve and streamline the day-to-day operations of businesses would not be possible without the cloud.

Backups

The issue of data loss and recovery on traditional hard drives is being addressed by cloud computing. The majority of people who have had a computer have had to deal with the worry of losing important information. Cloud computing provides an easy-to-access backup option for keeping data secure, whether it’s a term paper, family photographs, or corporate payroll.