2017 Australia - Data Analytics, IoT, Cyber Crime and Data Centres

Australia progressing as a major APAC data centre hub

BuddeComm describes ‘big data’ as looking at intelligent outcomes that can be achieved from data collaboration. The most critical issue here is strategic management, rather than technology. Big data has become a vital tool as competition is forcing many companies to transform their organisations from a company-centric approach to a customer-centric one.

The fact that this development is being driven by data-rich organisations such as Google, Apple, Amazon, Facebook, eBay and many others operating in the digital economy is an indication that data management is a critical factor here. In other words, if you don’t have your company’s data systems and structures organised in a customer-centric way you won’t be able to deliver a good customer experience.

Connected information management, however, can go much further. There are many other players involved in the broader ecosystem, and by sharing and combining relevant data sets and then analysing those large data sets we can find new correlations that can be used to spot business trends, assess customer behaviour, prevent diseases, combat crime and so on.

Key emerging trends for 2018 in data analytics include: embedded analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), behavioural analytics and predictive analytics.

The arrival of cloud computing, Big Data, M2M and Internet of Things (IoT) allowed for a large range of new services and applications in the data centre market, especially aimed at small and medium organisations.

These developments have given an enormous boost to the data centre market, with investments totalling $5 billion over the 2011-2017 period.

The Government continues to increase in maturity in their understanding of cloud technologies, how to use cloud to the best of their advantage, and how to optimize their existing infrastructure. Spending in the cloud government segment is expected to rise over the next few years as the government pushes its cloud-first agenda.

Australia has progressed to now be one of the four major sub-markets for data centres in Asia alongside Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan. Greater diversity however has led to the fact that it is now harder to serve the entire region from one location. The Asia-Pacific region is currently undergoing very strong wholesale colocation growth driven by large-scale global cloud providers including Amazon Web Service (AWS), Google, Microsoft and IBM as they expand aggressively in major hubs.

Sydney has emerged as the cloud connection capital of the Asia Pacific region, home to the most number of direct connections to public cloud services.

Growth of data centres is largely driven by the shift to cloud computing, as companies of all sizes scoped out new ways to boost efficiency, foster innovation and find a competitive edge.

The ‘Internet of Things’ (referring more to personal devices such as wearables and smartphones) and M2M (referring to a more industrial use based on sensors) are going to be real game-changers. They will transform every single sector of society and the economy and it will be out of this environment that new businesses – and indeed new industries – will be born. LTE and later on 5G will take a leadership role in the development of M2M but the NBN is also a key infrastructure element as more and applications will require high quality video. These developments are closely linked to big data, data analytics, cloud computing and data centres and these elements all play a fundamental role in the success of this new infrastructure.

Demand in IoT is expected to be driven by three vertical industries: automotive, utility and security applications.

High growth sectors to 2021, are likely to include smart home technologies, airport facilities automation, electric vehicle charging and in-store contextual marketing.

Key developments:

• Embedded analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), behavioural analytics and predictive analytics are emerging trends in data analytics.
• Data centre customers are migrating from co-location services and managed hosting to cloud services.
• Cloud providers are the fastest growing segment of most Australian data centre providers.
• Spending in the cloud government segment will rise as the government pushes its cloud-first agenda.
• Demand in IoT will be driven by automotive, utility and security applications.
• High growth IoT sectors include smart home technologies, airport facilities automation, electric vehicle charging and in-store contextual marketing.

Key companies mentioned in this report:

Airtrunk, Canberra Data Centre (CDC), Australia Data Centres, Telstra, Optus, HP, Macquarie Telecom, Datacom Systems, Global Switch, Fujitsu, Hewlett Packard, Equinix, NextDC, Polaris, Digital Realty, IXnet, Metronode, Nextgen Networks, Vocus, Optus, Telstra, IBM, Vodafone, CSIRO, Jasper, Bechtel, UniSA, Cobra, ARTC, Sydney Water, Sense-T.