Type of Article: MacTech Blog

According to the new “Worldwide Semiannual Big Data and Analytics Spending Guide” from International Data Corporation (IDC), worldwide revenues for big data and business analytics will grow from nearly $122 billion in 2015 to more than $187 billion in 2019, an increase of more than 50% over the five-year forecast period. The new Spending Guide expands on IDC’s previous forecasts by offering greater revenue detail by technology, industry, and geography.

Technavio (www.technavio.com) is forecasting positive growth for many segments of the publishing and advertising market over the next four years as several markets, including mobile ad spending, programmatic ads, and advertising display, will witness an increase in revenues.

A survey shows cybersecurity fears about breaches, identity theft, and privacy violations are taking a severe toll on the public trust and online commerce.

On May 13, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) released more analysis of its 2015 survey of 41,000 Americans on the topic of online security and privacy. As Violet Blue (@violetblue) summed it up in a post on Peerlyst (https://www.peerlyst.com), “Trust in digital security is flatlining.”

Global sales of smartphones to end users totaled 349 million units in the first quarter of 2016, a 3.9% increase over the same period in 2015, according to Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com). Smartphone sales represented 78% of total mobile phone sales in the first quarter of 2016, notes the research group.

Sales were driven by demand for low-cost smartphones in emerging markets and for affordable 4G smartphones, led by 4G connectivity promotion plans from communications service providers (CSPs) in many markets worldwide.

Transitioning to a public cloud is a slow-moving process for most businesses, according to a new study by Softchoice, a managed services provider. The study, The State of Cloud Readiness, found that while progress is at hand, 61%of organizations are still experimenting with or have limited use of public cloud and less than 14% consider public cloud to be an internal corporate standard.