Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2021. Read them in this 13th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
The year of consumerization of the enterprise
By Executive Team Members of Nutanix
2020 has been an unprecedented year of rapid digital transformation as companies quickly pivoted to remote work, and organizations have reinvented the way they interact with customers, partners, investors and even employees. As a result of this acceleration in DX efforts across industries, the leaders at Nutanix predict that in 2021, there will be a rise in the prevalence in AI, ML, cloud and edge computing, and with the expansion of cloud software, we’ll start to witness the increasing consumerization of the enterprise.
More predictions from Nutanix’s executives are listed below:
Dheeraj Pandey, Co-founder and CEO
- “2021 will see the biggest rise of AI/ML in the history of healthcare — pharma, biotech, life sciences — as humankind grapples with the current pandemic. We will blur the lines between computing and biotech for high-velocity advancements in the field of virology. This coming year, cloud computing will gain rapid ground in pharma companies to further enhance collaboration between competing firms sharing information and knowledge to expedite drug discovery.”
- “In addition, 2021 will continue the phenomenon of miniaturization of the enterprise office. Video, AR, and VR startups will mushroom in the coming year as the enterprise responds to an increasingly assertive digital worker who would like to balance work and life — also cost of living vs. commuting (to collaborate) — sitting at home, at least partially every week. The office facility thus becomes a hybrid environment, just like computing has come to become with private and public cloud datacenters.”
Rajiv Mirani, CTO
- “In 2021, IT will look for greater adaptability and flexibility in their infrastructure. As we settle into the post-pandemic new normal, IT will look to technologies that unlock applications from physical locations. This will happen for both traditional and modern “cloud-native” applications. Businesses will continue moving applications to the public cloud, but the cost of refactoring and rewriting applications will be larger than many enterprises anticipated. Enterprises will look to technologies that enable phased refactoring, rather than “big-bang” projects.”
Christian Alvarez, SVP, Worldwide Channel Sales
- “We are in the midst of a significant, lasting transformation in how companies go to market and how customers procure and consume technology. Partners who are at the front lines of these customer transformations will need to embrace the power of the cloud and cloud services, modernize legacy systems, move even more workloads to the cloud, and optimize access to data in the new era of the enterprise being everywhere. Proliferation of ‘everything-as-a-service’ models will require partners to reinvent themselves and adopt new economic business terms, to offer flexible consumption and subscription options for the customers of today and tomorrow. New heights in customer engagement, insights and telemetry will be powered by the combination of massive computing power, machine learning, artificial intelligence and 5G being brought to market.”
Tonya Chin, SVP Corporate Marketing and IR, and Chief Communications Officer
- “B2B companies have long focused on in-person events to ensure they kept their customers engaged, but that all changed in 2020. When all events became virtual earlier this year, the focus was often on optimizing for lead generation. Now we know better and I expect more and more companies will put more focus on maximizing customer engagement in the year ahead. In addition, while I expect in-person investor meetings to resume once COVID is under control, I also believe we’ll be moving to a model where 80% of interactions are remote and 20% are in person. This will mean rethinking how to effectively engage with investors, but I also expect it will result in the “democratization” of investor relations.”
Wendy M. Pfeiffer, Chief Information Officer
- “Society will increasingly rely on hybrid and hyperconverged technologies that allow people and companies to efficiently share resources and capabilities in both their private and public endeavors. For example with COVID-19, even with promising vaccines reaching the global supply chain this winter, it will take the better part of 2021 to vaccinate our global population. For this reason, we will need to continue to accommodate hybrid modes of work, school, social and family gatherings and retail shopping, etc. As some geographies, sectors and populations return to in-person interactions, others will remain online.”
