How IT and networking can capture new business opportunities

MUMBAI, INDIA: Cisco's president for India and SAARC, Jeffrey M. White, set the tone for the INTEROP Conference 2013 here by calling for a consolidated effort by the industry to tap the ever changing business landscape which promises trillions of dollars in business opportunity.

Quoting estimates White said there would be an estimated 77,000,000,000 downloads in year 2014. This means an $14 trillion economic opportunity. "The retail and manufacturing verticals will drive the new business with contributions of $1.5 trillion and $3.9 trillion business respectively. The other verticals that will provide significant business opportunity will be oil and gas sector, finance and healthcare," he said.

Cisco delivered the key note on "The Future of IT and Networking: Capturing the opportunity" the third state of Internet is all about social, collaboration and video. "It's about connecting 99 percent of unconnected things today."

Elaborating on the evolving business landscape, White felt that it was "mind boggling" even for the CEOs. The changing consumer behavior is throwing challenging business models and is bringing radial changes in industry, he observed.

"The market is increasingly volatile. Only 24 percent of fortune 500 companies had existed 25 years earlier. Today, the CEOs are asking if IT is going to be an expenditure or differentiator. We have to adopt and seize the opportunity."

The Cisco president pointed out that the industry has moved from nascent state and now is evolving as a evolving a platform.The traditional network models which was mostly network of boxes needs agility.

An application centric world will be the future. The challenge before industry is to change delivery speeds and to achieve this industry needs a consolidated effort, White added.