As true digital transformation takes hold, IT and business leaders are assessing what's working and looking out to the challenges and opportunities ahead. Credit: Thinkstock After the ball drops in Times Square and the New Year has been rung in, many turn to reflection – on the year past of course, but also on how to make the next one even better than the last. This is especially true for business leaders who often use the time for reflection on the things they did right, what could have been better and the competitive opportunities for the coming year. 2016 saw more cloud adoption than ever before – it’s no secret that the way we do business is changing, and that’s exactly why in 2017 businesses need to be even more digitally savvy. With data being created at a breakneck pace – from connected ‘things’, to mobile payments and more – businesses are uniquely positioned to be more informed than ever before and make better, data-driven, decisions. As more and more businesses step confidently into with the digital era, true digital transformation will only become more imperative. To help you better prepare for the shift in 2017, we’ve put together some of the top enterprise predictions from executives at SAP. Please join us this year as we continue to discuss what it takes to “build a digital enterprise.” SAP Greg McStravick is the President of Database and Data Management at SAP, leading development and go-to-market teams for SAP’s core digital innovation platform—SAP HANA—as well as Sybase databases (including ASE and IQ), EIM, Middleware, and HANA Vora. Big data gets even bigger “Big data is not a new trend, but the rate at which it’s being harnessed – and where it’s being warehoused – is going to have a ripple effect in the market. Organizations will work to accommodate big-scale engineering projects, earmarking investment dollars into areas like the Internet of Things, which is driving scores of machine-to-machine data. Because of this, the era of the grand infrastructure solution may very well be behind us, and the focus on unique solutions tailored by the enterprise will come sharply into focus.” SAP Mala Anand is the President and global leader for SAP Analytics, leading innovation and technology development, go-to-market and sales for SAP BusinessObjects business intelligence, analytics, and enterprise performance management solution. Analytics cut through the clutter “There is a massive paradigm shift with the emergence of the connected enterprise. The hyper-connection of people, processes, data and things is disrupting the implementation and consumption of traditional data management and analytics. The need to drive insights that translate to outcomes is becoming exceedingly important. A new, adaptive enterprise will emerge as technology shifts from structured, unstructured and real-time streaming data to quantum, resulting in a more preemptive and predictive analytics approach. Data will become a strategic asset to the adaptive enterprise and analytics will enable the organization to distinguish the signals from the noise and focus on outcomes, resulting in business ROI.” SAP Björn Goerke is the President of the SAP HANA Cloud Platform at SAP, leading the end-to-end business unit for SAP HANA Cloud Platform with integrated Go-To-Market and Development teams. PaaS and SaaS get smarter “IaaS and PaaS are getting closer and multi-cloud deployment is slowly but surely becoming a reality due to standards like Cloud Foundry and Open Stack. SaaS and PaaS also are getting closer as digital transformation enters all lines of business looking to innovate on top of standardized SaaS solutions. Finally, customers will be operating in a hybrid on-premises and cloud world for a number of years, so integration is table stakes for enterprises. As this technology progresses, IoT and artificial intelligence/machine learning services in PaaS will provide democratized access for partners and customers to more easily build connected and intelligent solutions that will literally change the workplace and the world. Overall, the global PaaS market is currently a $9 billion industry. We predict that the industry will grow to $30 billion by 2020 but the market will inevitably consolidate, leaving only a handful of PaaS mega-vendors to dominate.” Related content opinion State of the corner office: the evolution of the Chief Operating Officer As corporate culture shifts, the need for agile COOs is at all-time high as more companies embrace a technology-driven future. By Dave Spencer May 08, 2018 4 mins IT Leadership opinion Using data to cross the finish line How enterprises can gain data management inspiration from the sports industry. By Greg McStravick Apr 10, 2018 5 mins Analytics Data Management opinion The workforce of the future is already here: are you ready? While there is no crystal ball, staying intellectually curious, confident in your skill set and willing to stay informed on new emerging trends will help ensure that your future stays bright. By Rachel Barger Mar 09, 2018 5 mins Technology Industry Robotics IT Jobs opinion Why (and how) utilities see a future in the cloud Faced with challenges old and new u2013 the regulatory landscape and new players challenging their monopoly status u2013 utilities see a cloud-driven future. Hereu2019s why. By Michael O'Donnell Jan 22, 2018 4 mins Energy Industry Technology Industry Cloud Computing Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe