1. Top 8 trends shaping
digital transformation
in 2021
M U L E S O F T R E S E A R C H
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2. Executive summary
The digital-ready culture
Organizations are under greater pressure to digitize services quickly at scale to meet rising
customer demands and create new revenue channels.
Democratization of innovation
Line of business users are trying to develop digital customer experiences faster. IT needs to
drive cultural change by empowering the business to self-serve and deliver solutions quicker.
Composable enterprise
Hyperspecialization has created a groundswell of applications, leading organizations to shift to
a composable enterprise to become more agile — where digital capabilities can be composed
from existing applications using APIs, rather than being built from scratch every time.
Automation
Organizations are using automation to drive operational efficiency and improve business
processes. APIs are key to driving automation and scaling productivity.
API security
The average enterprise has 900 applications. The proliferation of new endpoints creates new
avenues for intrusion, requiring robust API security.
Microservices
Organizations are turning to microservices to rapidly build new customer experiences.
Companies deploying microservices to production will require some form of service mesh
capabilities in order to scale.
The data divide
To keep pace with evolving customer expectations, organizations are looking for faster ways
to unlock data and gain insights. 2021 will be the year that data separates organizations from
their competitors and customers — the ability to unlock, analyze, and act on data will become
foundational to growth.
Data analytics
Organizations are investing in data analytics to transform customer experiences. The value of data
analytics will be dependent on the data they are fed.
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
2 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

3. About this report
IT’s role is more critical than ever in a world that’s increasingly dependent on digital. Organizations
are under increasing pressure to stay competitive and create connected experiences. According to our
Connectivity benchmark report, IT projects are projected to grow by 40%; and 82% of businesses are now
holding their IT teams accountable for delivering connected customer experiences.
To meet these rising demands, organizations are accelerating their digital transformation — which can be
defined as the wholesale move to thinking about how to digitize every part of the business, as every part
of the business now needs technology to operate. In order to drive scale and efficiency, IT must rethink its
operating model to deliver self-serve capabilities and enable innovation across the enterprise.
In this report, we will highlight some of the top trends facing CIOs, IT leaders, and organizations in their digital
transformation journey, sourcing data from both MuleSoft proprietary research and third-party findings.
3 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

4. Contents
Accelerated digital adoption
Trend 01 | The digital-ready culture
Trend 02 | Democratization of innovation
Executive summary About MuleSoft, a Salesforce company
About this report
The data imperative
Trend 07 | The data divide
Trend 08 | Data analytics
Architecting for agility
Trend 03 | Composable enterprise
Trend 04 | Automation
Trend 05 | API security
Trend 06 | Microservices
4 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

5. T R E N D N O . 1
The digital-ready culture
5 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

6. Customers want consistent engagement with
brands across their preferred channels...
of shoppers use more than
one channel during their
shopping journey.
Source: Harvard Business Review
of consumers expect consistent
interactions across all
departments of a company.
Source: Deloitte
of consumers who say they want
the ability to move between
channels when talking to a brand.
Source: Genesys
73% 75% 86%
T R E N D N O .1 | T H E D I G I TA L - R E A DY C U LT U R E
6 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

7. … especially through digital means
of customers are satisfied using
live chat services — making it the
support channel that leads to the
highest customer satisfaction.
Source: CustomerThink
of consumers use mobile devices
to connect with brands for
customer service — the number
jumps to 90% of Millennials.
Source: Genesys
of consumers expressed an intent
to embrace digital replacements
for in-person experiences, such as
telemedicine, in the longer term.
Source: McKinsey & Company
92% 78% 48%
T R E N D N O .1 | T H E D I G I TA L - R E A DY C U LT U R E
7 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

8. When you need support and contact organizations, what was your
main way of communicating (before/now/future)?
Organizations need to invest
in new digital methods of
customer service 40%
26%
Visiting their stores or branches
28%
20%
Phone call (I phone them)
14%
16%
Website
5%
10%
App
4%
7%
Email
1%
3%
Community-based support website
1%
5%
Messenger apps
1%
2%
Social media
1%
4%
Webchat
1%
2%
Video call
0%
1%
SMS chat
Source: KPMG
Before COVID-19
Future, once restrictions are lifted
Three times more consumers will use
these methods as their main channel
of communication in the new reality
vs. pre-COVID-19 (17% vs. 5%).
T R E N D N O .1 | T H E D I G I TA L - R E A DY C U LT U R E
8 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

9. By what percentage are you finding the number of projects
you are being asked to deliver in your organization is
increasing?
Average increase
2018 30%
2019 32%
2020 40%
There is increased
pressure on IT leaders
to deliver on digital
initiatives
Source: MuleSoft
T R E N D N O .1 | T H E D I G I TA L - R E A DY C U LT U R E
9 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

10. 89%
One of the biggest
challenges to digital
transformation efforts is
integration
of IT leaders report data silos are creating
business challenges for their organizations’ digital
transformation initiatives.
of IT leaders report integration challenges are
hindering their digital transformation efforts.
85%
Source: MuleSoft
T R E N D N O .1 | T H E D I G I TA L - R E A DY C U LT U R E
10 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

11. Using an API-led approach to quickly compose new
digital experiences
“At BaptistCare, we are always looking at ways of improving
and simplifying our customer service and delivery across
our aged care and home services clients. With MuleSoft,
we’re able to move fast and better serve our customers
by leveraging API-led connectivity. We are quickly and
easily integrating various applications and data — from our
CRM system to our YouChoose tool where customers can
customize the services they need online within minutes —
providing connected customer experiences and reducing
project delivery timelines from months to weeks.”
“The whole integration behind visual applications to me
is much more important because if I have the right data,
I can develop 10, 12, 20 applications from the same data,
choose the best, decommission the rest. If I want to be
able to compose and create these new applications, I
don’t want — and I don’t have — the budget every time
to start from zero. I need to be able to have the pieces
of functionality and pieces of data and compose the
right applications.”
Daniel Pettman,
CIO, BaptistCare
Yanna Winter,
CIO, Generali
T R E N D N O .1 | T H E D I G I TA L - R E A DY C U LT U R E
11 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

12. 3 industry leaders tackling
integration to meet digital
demands and scale
17x more stores
with new contactless delivery
Casey’s was able to roll out a third-party food delivery service to 600 stores, up from
just 35 at the start of its pilot program.
WatchBox stood up an eCommerce platform and reused the same APIs to
serve five new regions.
50% faster expansion
into any new region
With MuleSoft, RBC was able to tap into critical data in legacy systems and build
solutions to eliminate paper-based processes and cumbersome manual data entry.
24 min average
onboarding time
T R E N D N O .1 | T H E D I G I TA L - R E A DY C U LT U R E
12 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

13. T R E N D N O . 2
Democratization of
innovation
13 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

14. of LoB users believe IT and
LoBs should jointly drive digital
transformation.
of LoB users are frustrated at
the speed their organizations’ IT
department can deliver digital
projects.
of LoB users agree that discoverable
data and IT capabilities would be
beneficial to digital initiatives.
68% 51% 80%
Lines of business (LoBs) are participating
in digital transformation
T R E N D N O .2 | D E M OC R AT I Z AT I O N O F I N N OVAT I O N
Source: MuleSoft
14 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

15. In addition to IT, which groups or roles within your
organization have integration needs?
Integration needs are
increasing across all
business functions
Outside of IT, the top three business roles with
integration needs include business analysts, data
scientists, and customer support.
T R E N D N O .2 | D E M OC R AT I Z AT I O N O F I N N OVAT I O N
Engineering
None
Sales
HR Marketing
Finance
Customer
support
Data
science
Business
analysts
40%
38%
38%
36%
35%
34%
32%
Product
31%
30%
6%
IT
Source: MuleSoft
15 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

16. “By 2023, the number of active citizen developers at large
enterprises will be at least four times the number of
professional developers.”
Organizations need to
enable innovation beyond
the four walls of IT
Source: Gartner*
Professional developer
Citizen developers
T R E N D N O .2 | D E M OC R AT I Z AT I O N O F I N N OVAT I O N
*Future of Applications: Delivering the Composable Enterprise, Dennis Gaughan, Yefim Natis, Gene Alvarez, Mark O’Neill, 11 February 2020
16 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

17. Enterprises look to low-
code development tools to
improve productivity
of large enterprises will be using at least
four low-code development tools for both
IT application development and citizen
development initiatives, by 2024.
of application development activity will be as a
result of low-code application development, by
2024.
65%+
75%
Source: Gartner
T R E N D N O .2 | D E M OC R AT I Z AT I O N O F I N N OVAT I O N
*Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Low-Code Application Platforms, Paul Vincent, Kimihiko Iijima, Mark Driver, Jason Wong, Yefim Natis, 8 August 2019
17 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

18. Citizen integrator tools
will reach mainstream
adoption in the next 2 to 5
years
“Technology services of the future will be assembled and
composed by the people that actually use them.
“Citizen integrator tools, which enable expert business
users with minimal IT skills to handle relatively simple
application, data and process integration tasks by
themselves through very intuitive, no-code development
environments.”
T R E N D N O .2 | D E M OC R AT I Z AT I O N O F I N N OVAT I O N
Innovation trigger Peak of inflated
exceptions
Trough of disillusionment Slope of enlightenment Plateau of productivity
Time
Expectations
Plateau will be reached:
Less than 2 years 2 to 5 years 5 to 10 years More than 10 years Obsolete before plateau
*Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, 2020, Brian Burke, Marty Resnick, Arnold Gao, 24 July 2020 Source: Gartner
Workplace analytics
Smart basics
Knowledge graphs
Digital experience monitorin g
Voice of the employee
Digital experience monitorin g
Data literacy
Employee experience tech (EXTech )
Employee productivity monitoring
Virtual events
Peer IT support
XLA
Ambient virtual meetings
Internal talent marketplaces
Content flow
Microapps
Emotion AI
Citizen integrator tools
Smart workplace
Content integration services
Digital adoption solutions
Citizen data science
Conversational user interfaces
Workstream collaboration
Collaborative work managemen
t
Employee wellness
Employee recognition and reward system
s
Robotic process automato
n
Virtual assistants
Chatbots
Desktop as a servic
e
Intranet as a service
Citizen developers
Team collaboration devices
Insight engines
Meeting solutions
Enterprise
social network
-
ing applications
Immersive workspaces
Hype cycle for the digital workplace, 2020
18 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

19. Skilling up teams across the enterprise to
democratize innovation
Eileen Rizzo,
Senior vice president of IT,
Ashley Stewart
19 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021
“At Ashley Stewart, we believe that by skilling up our employees
on integration and APIs, we not only help them thrive in
their career but also help our business thrive for the future.
API-led connectivity is the most critical skill and concept to
learn to create connected customer experiences and bring
new innovations to market. As we broaden the Integration
Trailblazers within our team, we will be able to accelerate our
digital transformation initiatives, particularly as we expand our
SaaS solutions.”
T R E N D N O .2 | D E M OC R AT I Z AT I O N O F I N N OVAT I O N

20. T R E N D N O . 3
Composable enterprise
20 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

21. Hyperspecialization has
created a groundswell of
applications
There are around 8,000 apps in the marketing technology
landscape alone.
Source: Chief Martec
T R E N D N O .3 | CO M P O S A B L E E N T E R P R I S E
9,000
8,000
7,000
6,000
5,000
4,000
3,000
2,000
1,000
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
2011 2020
150 350
947
1,876
3,874
5,381
6,829
7,040
8,000
21 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

22. Enterprises face
application proliferation
1,000s
of SaaS applications
that can be used to manage almost every aspect of a company’s internal operations.
that enterprises use to manage functions like finance, customer support, and more. Each of these
major platforms is supported with a variety of highly specialized apps.
10-12
large application platforms
Source: CIO.com
T R E N D N O .3 | CO M P O S A B L E E N T E R P R I S E
22 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

23. Businesses will need an
integration strategy to
drive value from existing
assets
52% of organizations say that IT has generated the most
business value by building reusable integration assets that
save time and money on future projects.
T R E N D N O .3 | CO M P O S A B L E E N T E R P R I S E
Source: MuleSoft
23 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

24. The composable enterprise
is crucial to becoming agile
and delivering innovation
In Gartner’s Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies,
composable enterprise is named a key technology for
business resilience and operating at scale with speed.
“This modular business model enables organizations
to move from rigid, traditional planning to active agility.
Composable enterprise thinking creates more innovation,
reduced costs and better partnerships.”
Innovation trigger Peak of inflated
exceptions
Trough of disillusionment Slope of enlightenment Plateau of productivity
Time
Expectations
Plateau will be reached:
Less than 2 years 2 to 5 years 5 to 10 years More than 10 years Obsolete before plateau
*Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, 2020, Brian Burke, Marty Resnick, Arnold Gao, 24 July 2020 Source: Gartner
Hype cycle for emerging technologies, 2020
Bring your own identity
Low-cost single-board computers at the edg
e
DNA computing and storage
Generative adversarial networks
2-way BMI (brain machine interface)
Al-assisted design
Ontologies and graphs
Authenticated provenance
Self-supervised learning
Health passport
Biodegradable sensors
Private 5G
Social data
Adaptive ML
Composite Al
Generative Al
Packaged business capabilities
Citizen twin
Digital twin of the person
Multiexperience
Responsible Al
Al augmented development
Composable enterprise
Embedded AI
Data fabric
Secure access service edge (SASE ) Social distancing technologies
Explainable Al
Carbon-based transistors
T R E N D N O .3 | CO M P O S A B L E E N T E R P R I S E
24 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

25. Public sector organizations composing new
capabilities
Kevin Jones,
CIO, Indiana Department of
Child Services
25 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021
“Within eight hours, my team built a tracking software for all 92
counties to determine who’s in the building, when they check-
in and check out to meet social distancing limits, as well as how
much hand sanitizer or how many masks we need.”
The Indiana Department of Child Services is now leveraging reusable integration
assets with MuleSoft to ensure safety for its employees — managing building
operations for the 92 state office buildings with APIs.
T R E N D N O .3 | CO M P O S A B L E E N T E R P R I S E

26. 26 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021
Public sector organizations composing new
capabilities
Simon Moorhead,
CIO, Rail Delivery Group
“New, more modern-format and better-managed APIs have
enabled us to [go] faster, in a more cost-effective way that we
couldn’t have achieved before.... Because once we’ve made
interfaces and connections and APIs, we know we don’t want to
be remaking them — and this way, we generally won’t need to.”
Rail Delivery Group turned to MuleSoft for its digital railcard project. The digital
ticketing project made use of components and programming practices that can be
built upon and reused.
T R E N D N O .3 | CO M P O S A B L E E N T E R P R I S E

27. T R E N D N O . 4
Automation
27 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

28. Automation is top of mind to enable innovation...
of IT organizations will automate
more tasks to allow team members
to focus on innovation over the
next 12-18 months.
Source: Salesforce
of organizations say they are
at least piloting automation of
processes in one or more business
units or functions.
Source: McKinsey & Company
of IT decision makers say that
automation is a key business initiative
tied to digital transformation.
Source: MuleSoft
81% 57% 30%
28 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021
T R E N D N O .4 | A U TO M AT I O N

29. … and boost productivity
McKinsey estimates that automation could raise
productivity in the global economy by up to 1.4% annually.
Salesforce finds that 70% of service agents believe
automating routine tasks would allow them to focus on
higher value work.
T R E N D N O .4 | A U TO M AT I O N
Management reporting
40% 4%
27% 2%
23% 5%
23% 12%
23% 19%
22% 9%
21% 6%
21% 10%
21% 12%
13% 8%
5% 6%
0% 11%
Tax accounting
Credit management
General accounting
Billing
Budget & forecasting
Business analysis
Financial reporting
Accounts payable
Payroll
Accounts receivable
Finance strategy & planning
Automation potential Wasted time
The PwC Finance Effectiveness Benchmarking report finds that up to 40% of time in the
finance function can be reduced with automation and behavior change.
29 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

30. Companies across
industries are
experimenting with
automation
Proportion of organizations implementing automation
at scale by sector
Automotive
Industrial
manufacturing
Retail
Utilities
Consumer packaged
goods manufacturing
Public/
government
Global
average
T R E N D N O .4 | A U TO M AT I O N
Source: Capgemini
15%
14%
13%
8%
16%
(as a percent of organizations experimenting with or implementing automation)
15%
25%
30 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

31. However, integration
challenges automation
60% of LoB users admits that failure to overcome challenges
associated with connecting IT systems, applications, and data will
hinder automation initiatives.
T R E N D N O .4 | A U TO M AT I O N
Source: MuleSoft
31 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

32. APIs are key to driving
automation
APIs have emerged as the most elegant means of
scaling controlled access to a defined scope of data
or functionality, abstracting the complexities of the
underlying systems. Each API can be treated as a
discrete component representing a part of a business
process, an entire business process, or a bundle of
business processes. To conduct business activities,
an API brokers the contract between two systems to
provide the requested data or service.
Experience
layer
Process
layer
System
layer
Customer
identifier
Customer
sales,
services,
collections
Customer pre-
qualification
Loans Historical
data
Customer
credit
assessments
Create
customer or
prospect
Book
loan
Identify
customer
Pre-qualify
customer
for loan
Global decision system
Accounts
Customer data layer Core business applications Partners
Sales
representative
portals
Customer portal
for loans
Retail
partners
Partner
eCommerce
platform
Web Indirect
EDW
Source: MuleSoft
T R E N D N O .4 | A U TO M AT I O N
32 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

33. Benefits of using APIs for
automation by the numbers
22 min
home loan application process
To automate the home loan process, Tic:Toc used APIs to unlock data from an e-form
application as well as 21 other systems. Customers can now receive full home loan
approval in as little as 22 minutes, compared to the 22-day industry average.
TIAA embarked on a digital transformation journey using Anypoint Platform, with the aim
to reduce the complexity of the service implementations through API-led connectivity. The
typical client on-boarding time is now roughly 2.5x faster due to automation.
2.5x
faster client onboarding time
L&G Insurance took an API-led approach to integration in order to automate the
entire home insurance quote process. Home insurance advisers and customers get an
accurate quote in 90 seconds, and sales opportunities have increased by twofold.
90 sec
home insurance quotes
T R E N D N O .4 | A U TO M AT I O N
33 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

34. The future of automation: declarative programming
Uri Sarid,
CTO, MuleSoft
“The mounting complexity brought on by an explosion
of co-dependent systems, dynamic data, and rising
expectations demands a new approach to software. More
is expected for software to just work automatically, and
more of us expect automation of our digital life and work.
In 2021, we’ll see more and more systems be intent-based,
and see a new programming model take hold: a declarative
one. In this model, we declare an intent — a desired goal or
end state — and the software systems connected via APIs
in an application network autonomously figure out how to
simply make it so.”
T R E N D N O .4 | A U TO M AT I O N
34 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

35. T R E N D N O . 5
API security
35 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

36. Security is an important
factor for customer loyalty
Eighty-four percent of customers are more loyal to
companies that have strong security controls.
T R E N D N O .5 | A P I S E C U R I T Y
Source: Salesforce
36 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

37. Security is also a top
enterprise technology
investment 57%
55%
49%
41%
36%
30%
29%
25%
25%
24%
23%
22%
21%
19%
16%
16%
Security
Big data/analytics
Internet of Things
Multi-cloud strategy
AI/machine learning
Blockchain
Streaming big data
Microservices
Virtual reality/augmented reality
API monetization
Business as a Platform
Bots (chatbots + RPAs)
Voice recognition
CI/CD and monitoring
BYO PaaS (PCF, OpenShift)
Streaming events
Top technology investments
T R E N D N O .5 | A P I S E C U R I T Y
Source: MuleSoft
37 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

38. Web app attacks are one of the leading
causes of large security breaches
number of vulnerabilities in an
average web app.
Source: Contrast Security
of data breaches this past year
were the result of a web application
vulnerability.
Source: Verizon
number of data breaches from
last year due to web application
vulnerabilities.
Source: Contrast Security
26.7 43% 2x
T R E N D N O .5 | A P I S E C U R I T Y
38 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

39. APIs can be the weak
link for serious security
hacks
of web-enabled applications will
be more exposed to attack by API
weaknesses than via the user interface.
Source: Gartner*
90%
*How to Build an Effective API Security Strategy, Dionisio Zumerle, Jeremy D’Hoinne, Mark O’Neill, 08 December 2017
According to Gartner, by 2022, API abuses
will be the most-frequent attack vector for
enterprise web applications data breaches.
T R E N D N O .5 | A P I S E C U R I T Y
39 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

40. API proliferation increases risk of attack
T R E N D N O .5 | A P I S E C U R I T Y
of web traffic is now API traffic.
Source: Akamai
public APIs are available.
Source: ProgrammableWeb
applications in an average
enterprise.
Source: MuleSoft
900
83% 23K+
40 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

41. The consequences of insecure APIs
APIs can be used to expose
sensitive data.
API communications can be
intercepted.
Backend servers can be taken offline
due to DoS attacks through an API.
T R E N D N O .5 | A P I S E C U R I T Y
Source: TechBeacon
41 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

42. 5 ways to ensure data
and API security
T R E N D N O .5 | A P I S E C U R I T Y
It’s critical to implement best practices to
keep their integrations and the data that
travels between systems under tight lock and
key. Learn more about best practices here.
Source: MuleSoft
42 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021
1
Multi-factor
authentication
3
Digital
signatures
2
Token-based
credentials
4Public-key
cryptography
5Digital
certificates

43. T R E N D N O . 6
Microservices
43 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

44. Microservices emerge as
a way to rapidly build new
customer experiences
by exposing data and
functionality
Microservices expose data and functionality as
a collection of loosely coupled services. With
microservices, organizations can quickly adapt to
changing customer requests and demands, as well as
offer services that create a competitive edge.
The value comes from bringing together various
microservices to solve business needs. Organizations
can only realize the benefits of a microservices
architecture by eliminating the custom code and
complexity that comes from managing all of these
disparate services.
Source: MuleSoft
T R E N D N O .6 | M I C RO S E R V I C E S
44 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

45. Organizations double down on microservices
of organizations are using or plan
to use microservices.
Source: Dimensional Research
of Financial services CIOs plan to
increase spending on infrastructure
technologies, such as microservices,
APIs and cloud in the coming year.
Source: Gartner*
of enterprises rate microservices as
their most important cloud-native
technology.
Source: 451 Research
91% 65% 49%
T R E N D N O .6 | M I C RO S E R V I C E S
*Bank and Investment CIOs Risk Misalignment With Business Priorities as They Navigate Crisis Response, Nicole Sturgill, 20 May 2020
45 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

46. Migration of application stack or portfolio to
microservices - by Industry
Microservices adoption
is increasing across
industries
T R E N D N O .6 | M I C RO S E R V I C E S
75% or more
Manufacturing 9% 55% 36%
High tech 22% 33% 45%
Retail/hospitality 9% 46% 45%
67% 33%
9% 48% 33% 10%
Retail and CPG 14% 43% 36% 7%
Oil & gas 10% 74% 11% 5%
Healthcare 6% 56% 25% 13%
Electric utilities 67% 33%
Communications, media, & services 25% 31% 31% 13%
Technology 34% 44% 13% 9%
Other 7% 50% 22% 21%
50-75% 25-50% Less than 25%
Source: 451 Research
FSI
Transportation
46 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

47. CPG and microservices by
the numbers
Unilever is supporting operations across its global
portfolio of 400 brands with a microservices approach.
1,000 apps
connected using microservices with APIs
Unilever paired microservices with APIs to create an application network that connects its legacy systems,
such as SAP, with its eCommerce applications, such as NetSuite and Google Analytics.
Source: MuleSoft
With API-led connectivity, Unilever created a network of reusable services, enabling self-service across various
brands. This supported the launch of a newly acquired pure play eCommerce entity.
Source: MuleSoft
6 months
time to launch
Even though Unilever is a 130-year-old brand with monolithic systems, a microservices architecture allows it
to adapt at the pace of its more nimble competitors.
Source: MuleSoft
3-4x faster
speed of deployment for new initiatives
T R E N D N O .6 | M I C RO S E R V I C E S
47 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

48. Healthcare and
microservices
Legislative, market, and technology pressures make
it imperative for healthcare organizations — including
hospitals and health systems, payers, and life sciences
companies — to become more agile with microservices.
2 weeks
NSW Health Pathology sought to expand testing from laboratories to healthcare facilities, so patients can
get quality-endorsed results faster. The team reused 10 existing APIs and a “large library of healthcare
microservices” to rapidly build and deploy a solution in just two weeks that automatically delivers test
results to patients.
Source: MuleSoft, IT News
reduction in repeat admission rates
4x
Sutter Health adopted a microservices architecture powered by MuleSoft, developing a set of reusable
APIs that care teams, developers, and partners could easily consume. Projects that used to take 18
months at Sutter Health now take less than 4 months.
Source: MuleSoft
faster increased project delivery speed
T R E N D N O .6 | M I C RO S E R V I C E S
48 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

49. Where microservices are
important, so is service
mesh
*Innovation Insight for Service Mesh, Andrew Lerner, Anne Thomas, 03 December 2018
Kubernetes cluster
Sidecar proxy
Service C
Sidecar proxy
Service B
Sidecar proxy
Service A
Control plane
What is a service mesh?
A service mesh is an architectural pattern for microservices deployments. Its primary
goal is to make service-to-service communications secure, fast, and reliable.
According to Gartner*, companies deploying microservices to production will require
some form of service mesh capabilities in order to scale.
T R E N D N O .6 | M I C RO S E R V I C E S
Source: MuleSoft, Gartner
49 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

50. Service mesh is on the
rise among enterprises
invested in microservices
T R E N D N O .6 | M I C RO S E R V I C E S
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%
16%
17%
8%
26%
20%
13%
Service mesh is still a new technology, but 46% of organizations are piloting it or have
plans to evaluate or implement it in the next 12 months.
Use of service meshes to control traffic between
microservices in kubernetes environments
Broadly used in production environments
Limited use in production environments
Use in test but not production environments
Evaluating or piloting
Plan to begin evaluation or implementation
in the next 12 months
No plans in the next 12 months
Source: The New Stack
50 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

51. T R E N D N O . 7
The data divide
51 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

52. Businesses aren’t
living up to customer
expectations of seamless
and personalized
experiences...
78%
of customers expect consistent
interactions across departments.
Expectations
VS.
Reality
59%
of customers say it generally feels like
they’re communicating with separate
departments, not one company.
66%
72%
of customers expect all company
representatives to have the same
information about them.
of customers say they often have to
repeat or re-explain information to
different representatives.
T R E N D N O .7 | T H E DATA D I V I D E
Source: Salesforce
52 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

53. … because organizations
struggle to unlock the
data necessary to power
connected experiences
Of the almost 900 different applications used by the
average enterprise, only 28% of those applications are
integrated — preventing a single view of the customer.
Source: MuleSoft
T R E N D N O .7 | T H E DATA D I V I D E
53 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

54. of organizations agree that an
inability to connect systems,
applications, and data hinders
customer experience.
of global consumers would consider
changing service providers in
response to receiving a disconnected
experience.
of organizations believe their
revenue will be negatively impacted
if they fail to complete digital
transformation initiatives in the next
12 months.
59% 72% 90%
Unlocking and unifying data is critical to
connected experiences and growth
T R E N D N O .7 | T H E DATA D I V I D E
Source: MuleSoft Source: MuleSoft
Source: MuleSoft
54 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

55. 2021 will be the year that data separates organizations
from their competitors... and customers
Lindsey Irvine,
CMO, MuleSoft
“The reality is that the majority of businesses today, across all industries,
aren’t able to deliver truly connected experiences for their customers,
partners, and employees — and that’s because delivering connected
experiences requires a lot of data, which lives in an average of 900
different systems and applications across the enterprise. Integrating and
unifying data across these systems is critical to create a single view of the
customer and achieve true digital transformation.
“It’s also the number one reason digital transformation initiatives fail. As
the amount of systems and applications continue to grow exponentially,
teams realize that key to their success — and their organization’s success —
is unlocking the data, wherever it exists, in a way that helps them deliver
value faster.”
T R E N D N O .7 | T H E DATA D I V I D E
55 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

56. T R E N D N O . 8
Data analytics
56 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

57. of marketing professionals say that
big data/analytics functionality
would be critical to enhancing
customer experience in their
organization.
Source: Vendale
of executives report that having
“a well developed and designed
enterprise data analytics effort
enables us to deliver a superior
customer experience.”
Source: Forbes
of organizations believe their
revenue will be negatively impacted
if they fail to complete digital
transformation initiatives in the next
12 months.
Source: Forbes
63% 52% 48%
The rise of data analytics
T R E N D N O .8 | DATA A N A LY T I C S
57 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

58. of respondents said improving
their data analysis is a very
important factor in delivering a
better customer experience.
Source: eMarketer
of survey respondents say real-time
insights is a top need for customer
experience personalization.
Source: Vendale
of product managers at growth
companies, or companies that have
seen positive revenue growth, are using
analytics to collect and analyze customer
perception and sentiment data.
Source: Gartner*
65% 46% 43%
Data analytics enables personalized
customer experiences
T R E N D N O .8 | DATA A N A LY T I C S
*Growing Companies Are More Actively Collecting CX Data Than Nongrowth Companies, Jessica Ekholm, 17 February 2020
58 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

59. Harnessing value from
analytics will require
accessible, quality data of marketing professionals state that
improvements in personalization come from
access to more real-time data.
Source: Vendale
$15 million
46% 3x
3%
more likely to report significant
improvements in decision-making
compared to those who rely less on data.
Source: PwC
Average annual losses that poor data quality is
believed to be responsible for.
Source: Gartner*
more likely to report significant
improvements in decision-making
compared to those who rely less on data.
Source: Harvard Business Review
Highly data-driven
organizations are
T R E N D N O .8 | DATA A N A LY T I C S
*How to Create a Business Case for Data Quality Improvement, Ted Friedman, Saul Judah, 23 April 2018
59 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

60. How organizations are
leveraging analytics for
connected experiences
31%
Texas Children’s Hospital developed a predictive model that uses
information about factors that affect patients to predict their risk of
developing a dangerous diabetes complication. Caregivers can then
identify high-risk patients to monitor more closely.
Source: Salesforce
reduction in repeat admission rates
2,087
Sutter Health is piloting a discharge program which leverages predictive
analytics to identify high-risk patients and then prescribes alternative
discharge workflows aimed at lowering the risk of readmission.
Source: MuleSoft
projected man hours saved per year
T R E N D N O .8 | DATA A N A LY T I C S
60 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

61. Fuel your digital transformation strategy
→ Discover why in today’s environment, it’s critical to enable innovation throughout the organization to increase business agility
in this eBook.
→ Read our whitepaper to learn why API security is mission-critical to digital businesses as the economy doubles down on
operational continuity, speed, and agility, and how to keep your APIs secure.
→ Read how microservices best practices can help your organization change quickly and innovate easily.
→ Learn how to use service mesh and API management to centrally manage, scale, secure, and discover any service in any
architecture in our whitepaper.
→ Watch this demo webinar to learn how to make data-based insights easy with MuleSoft and Tableau.
61 TOP 8 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS SHAPING 2021

62. MULESOFT, A SALESFORCE COMPANY
MuleSoft, the world’s #1 integration and API platform, makes it easy to connect data from any
system—no matter where it resides—to create connected experiences, faster. Thousands of
organizations across industries rely on MuleSoft to realize speed, agility and innovation at
scale. For more information, visit mulesoft.com
MuleSoft is a registered trademark of MuleSoft, LLC, a Salesforce company. All other marks
are those of respective owners.