Internet connectivity to hit 212bn by 2020

Information Technology based organisations have been tasked to prepare ahead of the emerging trends as internet connections is projected to reach 212 billion by 2020.

Findings from Cisco’s first ever Technology Radar study, 2014, revealed what is tagged ‘Internet of Everything’ (IoE) as driving force facilitating interconnections of people, processes, data and things will offer $19 trillion opportunity, globally, in the next 10 years.

Speaking at a presentation of the study findings to a group of

journalists in Lagos, Head of Architectures and Enterprise, Emerging Markets Cisco, Dan Sullivan, said $14 trillion of this amount will be in the private sector while government activities in IoE will account for $4.6trillion.

He listed key trends set to make a mark in 2014 to include context aware computing, machine-to-machine connections, browsed based videos and collaboration, video mega trends, building the next internet with new architecture, security and mobile devices management.

Making reference to Gartner Inc. predictions that half of global

companies will enact Bring-Your-OwnDevice programmes by 2017, Sullivan said security will be critical for business growth and adaption to the new internet with companies likely to ramp up development of scalable, cloud based mobile device management solutions to protect personal and corporate information.

According to him, tapping into these opportunities will lead to

increased savings, increase in revenue and improved government-to-citizens’ interactions.

He said: “IT organisations across Africa need to prepare for the Internet of Everything (IoE), and what we are now seeing is the emergence of an application economy where the focus will no longer be simply on the hardware but also on supporting a larger number of applications on all connected devices.”