Type of Article: MacTech Blog

MetricStream Research (www.metricstream.com) has released a new report, “The State of Cybersecurity in the Financial Services Industry,” which reveals that 66.2% of financial organizations faced at least one cybersecurity attack in the last year.

According to a new forecast from the International Data Corporation (IDC) “Worldwide Semiannual Services Tracker, IT Services and Business Services,” revenues are poised to pass the $1 trillion mark for the first time in 2018. Worldwide services spending totals for 2016 are expected to stay within the $900 billion range and by 2020 expected to near $1.1 trillion.

Voice control became a standout, new category for smart home devices over the past 18 months, finds ABI Research (www.abirseearch.com).

But its future is even brighter due to its solid marketing efforts, as well as its ability to leverage digital assistant adoption on smartphones and deliver genuine consumer value. Voice control smart home devices, typified by the Amazon Echo, will represent almost 30% of smart home device spending by 2021, despite being a device category that barely existed two years ago.

Today’s IT organizations are divided into two camps: those that thrive by effectively leveraging digital technologies, new business models, and entrepreneurial cultures; and those that are saddled by technical debt, plodding business processes, and lack of a digitally-fueled vision for the future.

The market for connected LED or “smart” light bulbs is in its embryonic stage of development, with shipments totaling fewer than 2.5 million units in 2013.

However, falling LED prices and the endorsement of ZigBee Light Link as the preferred connectivity solution by a number of leading lighting manufacturers means that annual smart bulb shipments are set to increase to 223 million by 2020, achieving a total installed base of over 400 million, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).