What innovation will most disrupt the telecom landscape this year? Is this the year that the industry will begin to see cloud-as-a-service offerings? How will public clouds be secured, and which companies are poised to take advantage of the Internet of Everything (IoE)? Answers and predictions vary, but there simply is no singular telecom trend to anticipate this year. Expect, instead, a set of interconnected advancements that will delineate the forward-thinking providers from those stymied by tradition.

1. Telecom Trends & Forecasts for 2014
2014 is certain to be rife with changes for the telecom industry.
The Forecast
Gartner expects that this year will usher in the era of “the most disruptive
[development] in the history of IT”—the “smart machine.”
InfoWorld’s Eric Knorr is basing the majority of his 2014 telecom predictions on the
cloud. “All big industry shifts have been driven by new computing platforms,” Knorr
says, and, this year, that platform is the cloud.
As the cloud assumes more prominence, expect public cloud-related services to be in
greater demand. Security is sure to top that list.
All of this is connected to big data. The big data market is expected to hit the $5.4
billion revenue mark within the next five years, according to Gartner. Where there is
big data, there is management of big data. How will all this revenue-generating big
data be managed?
People, data, processes, and things are becoming seamlessly integrated as the Internet
of Everything (IoE) evolves, and only those who anticipate this pervasive trend will
benefit from it.
While predictions about these changes have varied, what‟s agreed upon is this: There is
no single telecom trend to anticipate in 2014. Rather, there‟s a host of interconnected trends that
will propel some businesses forward—and relegate others to the sidelines. And solutions that
cablecos provide will enable that forward-progression to happen.
Smart Machines
Gartner‟s seemingly apocalyptic smart machine read like the stuff of bygone science
fiction novels. These machines, Gartner says, will “begin to fulfill some of the earliest visions for
what information technologies might accomplish — doing what we thought only people could do
and machines could not.” Think not of Ridley Scott‟s Blade Runner but of “intelligent personal
assistants [and] smart advisors.” Think of advanced global industrial systems and driverless
vehicles, which Gartner expects to be on the market by 2020.
Cloud-as-a-Service
Such advancements would not be possible without the cloud. From public clouds to
private and hybrid clouds, in 2014, expect the cloud to claim the spotlight—as it already has
begun to do. Watch for the cloud to join the ranks of „as-a-service‟ solutions by the end of the
year. Hybrid clouds are expected to assume greater prominence, and personal clouds will
emerge. As a result, the importance of the exact device through which one obtains access to his
or her personal cloud will diminish, Gartner says.
The Public Cloud
This year holds tantamount changes for the public cloud. InfoWorld predicts that
businesses will utilize the public cloud to achieve “massive scalability” and total virtualization.
Businesses will demand more and better APIs (application programming interfaces) to manage
the cloud—and security will top the list of those demands. “Military-grade encryption
technology”—like that offered by Time Warner Cable Business Class (TWCBC)—will gain

2. prominence. Identity management will accompany this, ensuring that a business‟s public cloud is
as proprietary and controlled as possible.
Big Data & Data Management
The projected CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of the big data market is expected to grow
50 percent from now until 2019, according to Market Research Reports. The big data market
holds “enormous promise,” Knorr says, and it “goes way beyond optimizing e-commerce to
embrace all kinds of verticals, from manufacturing to transportation to the electrical grid.” Other
dilemmas accompany this news about big data: How should it be tracked? How can it best be
managed? Data management will become as critical as the data being managed.
The Internet of Things becomes The Internet of Everything
Cisco estimates that there is $19 trillion at stake in the Internet of Everything (IoE) within the
next nine years. Who is most poised to benefit from the expansive IoE?
“The problem,” Gartner says, “is that most enterprises and technology vendors have yet to
explore the possibilities of an expanded internet and are not operationally or organizationally
ready.” Those who anticipate this trend—vendors like TWCBC—will enable their customers to
get in on the ground floor of the IoE. Offerings like metro Ethernet, telemedicine / virtual
doctor‟s visits, and varied Internet speed tiers for its New York City customers illustrate that this
cableco‟s forward-thinking approach to the IoE will enable its customers to thrive.
Conclusion
Perhaps the new computing platform won‟t be isolated within the cloud as predicted. Perhaps it
will reside within the networks of the Internet of Everything, which, in a sense, implies that the
“Everything” of the IoE is itself the new platform.
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