Computex 2022: Sustainability reporting, edge, and IT as OPEX will be key for enterprise in the years ahead, IDC forecasts

Global market intelligence firm IDC has predicted that environmental and social governance (ESG), migration to edge computing, an increased focus on AI in IT projects and IT becoming an operational rather than a capital expense are among the key changes that enterprises face in the years ahead.

Speaking at a Computex2022 ‘trend and predictions’ event, at which it was confirmed that one of Asia’s biggest trade shows will be taking place as a physical event in Taiwan this May, analyst Matthew Eastwood gave his IDC’s tech predictions for businesses in 2022 and beyond.

One of the most significant changes, according to Eastwood – IDC’s senior VP for enterprise, data centre, cloud infrastructure and developer research groups – will be increased emphasis on ESG as companies are expected to play their role in understanding sustainability initiatives.

By 2024 IDC forecasts that 75% of the world’s largest public companies (as defined by Forbes Global 2000) will require vendors to provide progress on ESG and sustainability initiatives in digital infrastructure proposals and will rely on infrastructure vendors to help them meet their ESG goals.

“Understanding resource usage, and areas to eliminate waste depends on the ability to gather and analyse data we advise our customers and their CIOs to seek partners that provide details on their resource usage, and on their progress on short-term and longer-term sustainability goals,” said Eastwood.

Edge computing will undergo an unprecedented scale and shift in the next two years, according to Eastwood, as over 65% of the Global 2000 adopt “an edge-first approach to data management” to ensure that their businesses can harness IoT, 5G, and real-time analytics at scale.

Eastwood also predicted that by 2026 automation would combine with artificial intelligence in IT operations to help Global 2000 CIOs automate remediation and workload placement decisions that include cost and performance metrics.

The IDC’s final prediction was around budget lines, as the industry becomes increasingly software-as-a- service focussed, Eastwood estimates that within three years 60% of enterprises will fund lines of business and IT projects through their OPEX budgets.

“We advise vendors to develop guidance for a line of business and finance about the decision processes for adding capacity for defining when to purchase, lease or adopt consumption-based models with very clear objectives,” Eastwood added.

At the Computex 2022 event show manager Scully Wang also unveiled the key themes of this year’s event – which is set to run from 24 May to 27 May.

These include Accelerating Intelligence, Connected X-Experience, Digital Resilience, Innovative Computing, Sustainability, and Innovations and Startups.

Tech companies that have declared their support for participating this year’s event include Acer, AMD, ASUS, Delta, GIGABYTE, Micron Technology, MSI, NVIDIA, NXP.

Given Taiwan’s strict COVID laws which currently require a prolonged period of isolation for visitors entering the country, delegates and exhibitors will also be able to take part in the show virtually via Computex virtual tradeshow platform DigitalGO – which will be live between 24 May to 6 June.

The Taipei event is co-organized by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) and Taipei Computer Association (TCA).