The Digital Economy is no longer a just a concept, but rather an operational reality for more and more firms, research firm IDC told its attendees at its annual Directions conference this week. In a variety of presentations, analysts discussed how technology is impacting enterprises and the overall economy, with the research firm predicting that within three years, more than half of global GDP will be driven by "digitally transformed" enterprises.

Because of concerns about the coronavirus, the conference was held online, and IDC President Crawford Del Prete said the group now expects that IT growth in 2020 will probably end up at 2.5 to 3 percent, a couple points lower than the firm was expecting before the virus outbreak.

Del Prete said the digital economy is increasingly being driven by more powerful platforms, with ecosystems gaining lots of developers, as well as buy-in from major enterprises. As a result, he said innovation has accelerated, particularly the ability to target the specific needs of customers.

We are moving to a more data driven world, but success involves transforming data into insights. Customers today expect engagement, personalization and simplicity, and it is incumbent among suppliers to provide these capabilities.

He described the "fast five" big trends of today's digital economy.

AI is everywhere, with the technologies being incorporated into more and more products. Everyone is a developer, with more people able to create applications and more applications being created today than ever.

The cloud is no long seen as a location, but rather as a platform, which includes edge devices and needs to be managed. Trust now includes more than just security. Customers want to work with you to create automated solutions as quickly as possible.

Riffing off the common comment that "data is the new oil," he said, "Data will no longer be viewed as 'oil,' but as water. It is essential for life but needs to be accessible and clean."

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source: uk.pcmag