Category Archives: Economic growth

Big Data, Economic growth, Government agency, Government Technology, New York, Research, Smart city

Study: Big Data, Cloud will Transform City Government

Around the world, city leaders face the challenge of delivering economic growth while meeting sustainability targets and rising expectations about the quality of municipal services, often in the face of drastic budget reductions. This is forcing many city leaders to improve efficiency and drive further innovation in the creation and delivery of services. According to a recent report from Pike Research, a part of Navigant’s Energy Practice, new platforms for communication, data sharing, and application development – particularly cloud computing and data analytics – will play a key role in this transformation.

Cumulative investment in smart government technology between 2011 and 2017 will be almost $4.8 billion, the report finds. Annual investment in smart government technologies in North America alone will surpass $1 billion in 2017, and annual investment in cloud services for smart cities will reach nearly $1.4 billion worldwide by 2017.

“Cloud-based computing, in particular, offers new options for cities that reduces capital expenditure, provides access to new skills, and reduces time-to-deployment of new solutions,” says research director Eric Woods. “Cloud-based systems also enable cities to take advantage of the huge amounts of operational data they collect to improve efficiency and develop new services.”

City leaders are also looking at investment in technology as a means of spurring economic growth. This includes a range of strategies: making the city a center of cleantech development and innovation (e.g., Denver, Copenhagen, and Amsterdam); creating new types of digital commerce and development (e.g., New York and Manchester); being at the leading edge of technology adoption (e.g., Barcelona and Friedrichshafen); becoming an exporter of technology (e.g., Seoul); or retaining or establishing a position as a regional trading hub (e.g., Singapore and Songdo). Each of these approaches, the study concludes, requires a vision of where the city is heading, an investment in infrastructure, and a commitment to innovation.

Pike Research’s report, “Smart Government Technologies”, analyzes the global market opportunity for smart government technologies. It assesses the business drivers, market forces, and technology trends that are transforming the use of information and communication technology and related technologies in smart cities and communities. The study forecasts the size and growth of the market for smart government technologies through 2017, and it also forecasts the growth in smart government data analytics and cloud-based services between 2011 and 2017. The report includes profiles of major smart government initiatives around the world and also examines the strategies of key players in the smart government market including government agencies, IT companies, telcos, and infrastructure providers. An Executive Summary of the report is available for free download on the firm’s website.


Economic growth, Information technology, Research

Research and Markets: United States Information Technology Report Q2 2012

Research and Markets  has announced the addition of the “United States Information Technology Report Q2 2012″ report to their offering.

Business Monitor International’s United States Information Technology Report provides industry professionals and strategists, corporate analysts, information technology associations, government departments and regulatory bodies with independent forecasts and competitive intelligence on United States’s information technology industry.

USA IT spending is expected to reach US$558bn in 2012, up 5.5%, with BMI upwardly revising its forecast due to macroeconomic factors. Overall moderate growth in budgets is expected in 2012, but much depends on the economic situation. Despite a drive to cut expenses across government, many public sector organisations have appeared willing to continue to spend on IT. US businesses remain cautious, but there is pent-up demand from projects delayed as a result of the economic situation and cloud computing is expected to be increasingly important.

IT vendors will be concerned when it comes to the effect of the ongoing US federal deficit issue and the failure of politicians to agree a deficit reduction programme.The November 2012 elections will also create uncertainty about the trajectory of future government IT spending.

In 2012 there are expected to be many more contracts for provision of cloud services, following contracts awarded in 2011 by the cities of New York and Los Angeles, and the General Services Administration (GSA) of the federal government. The recession may have had a lasting effect on the IT market by encouraging consideration of cloud computing models such as SaaS.

US PC sales are forecast to report single-digit growth in 2012, after an annualised contraction in Q411, closing off a difficult year. The market slowdown was due in part to base effects, but a contributory factor was disappointing sales in the consumer segment, particularly notebooks. Meanwhile, a shortage of harddisk drives resulting from floods in Thailand is forecast to restrain market growth in H112, with faster growth likely in H212.