Since 2000 when the first camera phone was introduced the number of mobile users has quintupled.
By 2020, there will be 5.5 billion mobile users, representing 70% of the global population, according to the release of the Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast (2015 to 2020).
The adoption of mobile devices, increased mobile coverage, and demand for mobile content are driving user growth two times faster than the global population over the next five years.
This surge of mobile users, smart devices, mobile video, and 4G networks will increase mobile data traffic eight-fold over the next five years.
Smart mobile devices and connections are projected to represent 72% of total mobile devices and connections by 2020 - up from 36% in 2015.
Smart devices are forecast to generate 98% of mobile data traffic by 2020. From an individual device perspective, smartphones are dominating mobile traffic. They will account for 81% of total mobile traffic by 2020 - up from 76% in 2015.
The proliferation of mobile phones, including 'phablets' (a hybrid blend of smartphone and tablet features), is increasing so rapidly that more people will have mobile phones (5.4 billion) than electricity (5.3 billion), running water (3.5 billion) and cars (2.8 billion) by 2020.
Mobile video will have the highest growth rate of any mobile application. Consumer and business users' demand for higher video resolution, more bandwidth, and processing speed will increase the use of 4G connected devices. 4G connectivity share is projected to surpass 2G by 2018 and 3G by 2020.
4G will represent more than 70% of all mobile traffic, and 4G connections will generate nearly six times more traffic per month than non-4G connections by 2020.
"With the ever-increasing billions of people and things that are being connected, mobility is the predominant medium that's enabling today's global digitisation transformation," said Doug Webster, vice president of service provider marketing, Cisco.
"Future mobile innovations in cellular, such as 5G and Wi-Fi solutions, will be needed to further address new scale requirements, security concerns, and user demands.
"IoT advancements will continue to fuel tangible benefits for people, businesses, and societies."
F-SECURE SIGNS SYNAXON UK RESELLERS
February 8, 2016
F-Secure has signed with the Synaxon reseller group in the UK to offer system, endpoint and network protection suites as well as management and control and enterprise cyber security solutions and the Freedome VPN solution, All F-Secure solutions are now available to order via EGIS, either as boxed or for electronic software download.
Mike Barron, UK channel director at Synaxon, says: "This is a really great new signing for Synaxon UK and its members. The agreement with F-Secure will give our members access to a fantastic range of online security and protection solutions and, with the forthcoming SENSE range, F-Secure will be one of the first vendors to offer a complete range of privacy and protection offerings for the entire home."
F-Secure says it is also one of the first vendors to move into the potentially lucrative area of smart home security. Olli Bliss, head of partner sales at F-Secure, stated: "F-Secure is pleased to be working with Synaxon UK. As online protection and privacy becomes even more important in businesses and in the home, we see genuine potential for growth with partners. Synaxon can help us reach further into the channel and we'll be making sure its members have every opportunity to maximise the potential of our full range of protection solutions."
ACRONIS IN CLOUD PARTNER PUSH
February 8, 2016
An extension of the Acronis Global Partner Program, the Acronis Partner Program for Cloud is aimed at building cloud data protection services revenue with a subscription model for service providers, distributors and cloud resellers. The program provides solutions, resources, programs and incentives to help Acronis partners profit from the huge market growth predicted for cloud data protection services, which include backup, disaster recovery and file sync and share. According to IDC, the Data Protection & Disaster Recovery software market will grow to $8.1bn by 2019.
The Acronis Partner Program for Cloud supports any deployment model, it says, including service provider-hosted, Acronis-hosted and hybrid, and any business model with licensing flexibility. This includes turnkey cloud data protection services with minimal integration as well as offerings that are more deeply integrated into partner technology and services portfolios.
Multiple channel tiers aim to distinguish and reward a partner's sales performance, certification commitment and marketing collaboration. Incentives include stackable profit margins, incremental margins for deal registration, rebates and incremental accelerators. The program also features simplified partner on-boarding, free web-based sales tools and enablement programs, technical training, marketing programs and demand generation support, as well as co-op and market development fund programs, it says.
"The end users that we service need an easy and reliable backup and recovery solution combined with the knowledge and support we can deliver as a service provider," Charles Grau, vice president, IT and Operations at United Data Technologies (UDT). "The new Acronis Partner Program for Cloud allows us to build on our growing Acronis Cloud business by rapidly bringing proven data protection services to market in a way they easily plugs into our technology environment and existing business model."
For service providers and cloud resellers, Acronis delivers a multi-tenant, multi-tiered cloud architecture across infrastructure and data centres, operations and storage. Acronis Cloud solutions provide automation of services and complete control of provisioning, billing, monitoring and management, offering partners scalable solutions that can support millions of end users.