Gartner analysts predict an “increasingly chaotic” organizational environment between now and 2020. That this going to have some clear implications for providers of communication services and for the design of enterprise communication networks.
For starters, it just isn’t going to be as easy as it once was to predict usage and therefore size transports and access pipes. The increasingly-chaotic nature of work life will meand that demand fluctuates wildly at times, always a problem for any long-term planning of where to put assets.
Since Gartner expects a shift in teamwork to include people both inside and outside an organization, as well as a more-unpredictable composition of task forces, workgroups and temporary teams, enterprises will require much more flexibility in terms of their communications services.
In addition to demand that is more spikey, demand also will arise unexpectedly, at unanticipated times and places, placing a possibly-heighted demand on mobile solutions.
“Work will become less routine, characterized by increased volatility, hyperconnectedness, ‘swarming’ and more,” said Tom Austin, Gartner fellow and VP.
“By 2015, 40 percent or more of an organization’s work will be ‘non-routine’, up from 25 percent in 2010.” said Austin. Greater non-routine volume will mean communications demand will be “spikey” and less location-specific. The former trend meand more need for bursting bandwidth and temporary bandwidth, the latter trend obviously plays to mobility and on-demand services.
“People will work with others with whom they have few links, and teams will include people outside the control of the organization,” he added. “Swarming” might be more conmon. Swarming might be called a flurry of collective activity by anyone that can to add value to solving a particular problem. Call it “throwing everything at the wall.”
Read more at http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1416513.