IT market should grow 11% and Telecom, 2%
Year will be marked by the massification of 5G, the advancement of connectivity and the cloud for security, the rise of products for smart homes and the return of computers and tablets
The ICT market in Brazil is expected to grow 7% in 2021, even under the impact of the pandemic. The estimate is from IDC Brazil and is part of the IDC Predictions study that anticipates market trends and movements for the 110 countries in which the leader in market intelligence, consultancy services and conferences with the Information Technology and Telecommunications industries operates. When considering only the IT market, the forecast is an increase of 11% and, for Telecom, a modest growth of 2%. In the corporate market, which includes software, services and hardware, the forecast is for an increase of 10%.
“In the beginning of 2020, our researches registered the interest of 60% of the companies in expanding the investments in IT, what was considered the peak of the last decade in the country. However, the pandemic arrived and changed all plans, leading the market to register, in May and June, the lowest index of interest in investments.“, Explains Denis Arcieri, country manager at IDC Brasil. In 2021, already more optimistic, 50% of companies return to increase their investments in the sector.
According to IDC, investments will be based on security, artificial intelligence, public cloud, modernization of software management systems (ERPs) and customer experience, and the priorities will be to increase productivity, reduce costs, balance digital and physical, introduce new and / or improved products and services, and improve customer acquisition and retention.
Check out the 10 trends of the Brazilian IT and Telecom market for 2021 according to IDC Brasil:
- 5G on the massification route
IDC estimates that in the years 2021-2022, 5G will generate US $ 2.7 billion in new business involving technologies such as artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality, internet of things, cloud, security and robotics. According to Luciano Saboia, manager of consultancy and research in Telecom at IDC Brasil, the 5G will become more common in the B2B segment, delivering low latency and high connection density and breaking connectivity barriers that restricted the adoption of other services.
- Connectivity having greater strategic relevance
According to IDC Brasil, the covid-19 pandemic accelerated the importance of connectivity as a facilitator of Developer Experience (DX) initiatives. “With greater consumption, more users, devices and applications being distributed, connectivity becomes more relevant strategically“, Explains Saboia.
For more than 70% of companies, operational models will be digitally activated in 2021, with more automation, collaboration and content sharing.
- Edge: from the edge to the center of decisions
“Edge is proving itself to be the preferred technology to drive process automation in various sectors and bring new efficiency opportunities to reduce costs“, Says Saboia. Therefore, it will be common for companies to develop tools for the migration, integration and automated management of applications and data in cloud deployments, both on-premises and off-premises. For Brazil, an annual growth rate (2019-2023) of 16% is estimated for this segment.
- Advancing the cloud as a key element in the IT infrastructure
The needs imposed by the pandemic have shown that the cloud is a quick way to increase IT operational resilience, according to IDC. “More than half of the companies that use the cloud claim that they are running on critical workloads, that is, with the existing IT infrastructure, showing the evolution of hybrid environments“, Says Luciano Ramos, manager of research and consultancy in Enterprise at IDC Brasil.
Spending on public cloud infrastructure (IaaS) and platform (PaaS) in Brazil is expected to reach US$ 3 billion, up 46.5% compared to 2020. The private cloud model also grows at a good pace, totaling US$ 614 million in 2021, and the biggest growth will be of private clouds as a service (DCaaS), which will advance 15.5%, compared to last year.
- Advance of artificial intelligence embedded in other technologies
According to IDC, artificial intelligence projects have been increasing in companies but still slowly. “Among large organizations in Brazil, about 1/4 are using AI and Machine Learning (ML) in their own projects“, Says Ramos. From business applications to security solutions, AI becomes an essential element in dealing with ever-increasing volumes of events and information. However, companies are still adapting to this reality: more than 75% of them have some kind of human supervision - as part of what IDC calls the ML Life Cycle - to ensure / validate the results.
With the expansion of use cases and applications, spending on AI in Brazil will reach US$ 464 million in 2021, driven mainly by IT and business consulting services. Automated agents and digital assistants in corporate applications will continue to drive growth, which will be almost 30%.
- New Cloud and Collaboration Context Will Boost Security Solutions
In 2021, spending on security solutions (whether hardware or software) will exceed US$ 900 million in Brazil, up 12.5% from the previous year. Managed security services (MSS) will total US$ 615 million in the same period. “Given the current scenario, most organizations understood that their environment was not prepared to deal with cloud security and the diversity and dispersion of endpoints“, Explains Ramos.
LGPD
According to IDC, the visibility and protection of data will gain attention with the increase in the number of attacks and needs brought by the LGPD. But only 50% of companies say they are in advanced stages of compliance with the law and 2/3 indicate that their biggest challenge is mapping and controlling information.
- Increased migration from management platforms to the cloud
Currently, according to IDC, almost 43% of companies intend to bring some of their management systems to the cloud in the next two years. For 31%, replacing a current application with one in SaaS is the preferred approach for modernizing workloads. Therefore, IDC forecasts an increase of 12.6% in spending on ERP solutions (finance, accounting, people and asset management, production control, logistics, supply chain, etc.) reaching US$ 3.4 billion. Of that amount, SaaS will represent 14%.
In the Customer Experience (CX) segment, 65% of the companies that participated in the IDC Brasil study say they have plans to invest in solutions that enable Digital First, greater automation and contactless experiences. CRM and customer service solutions, marketing management, sales force, digital commerce, among others, will be the target of spending in 2021, which should reach US$ 1.4 billion, up 21.3% compared to 2020.
- Reinventing the print market supported by hardware, software and services
In Brazil, the corporate printing market will grow in 2021, but not enough to recover last year's losses. IDC believes that aggregated outsourcing service providers must undergo a strong adaptation, which will be crucial to increase the chances of recovery in the coming years. The equipment market will generate US$ 637 million in 2021 (+ 11% over 2020), while printing outsourcing services are expected to generate US$ 580 million.
The total ink printer market, both corporate and retail, will increase by 12%, with the cartridge, tank and laser models growing by 15%, 10% and 4%, respectively. The SMB market, which suffered a lot in 2020, will recover and grow to 35% in 2021.
- The rise of Smart Home Devices
“The market for equipment for home automation should exceed US$ 291 million in 2021 (+ 21% compared to the previous year), confirming that, with more time at home, there is a need for a more functional and intelligent home”, says Reinaldo Sakis, manager of research and consultancy in Consumer Devices at IDC Brasil.
IDC estimates that the global sales volume of these products will grow by an average of 11.9% in the coming years. The Brazilian market will grow by around 30% (with the exception of Smart TVs). Security and electronic products (such as plugs, lamps and smart switches), will grow 32% each, the speakers will increase 25% and the thermostats, 28%.
- Strong resumption of notebooks and tablets
The endpoint market (tablets and notebooks) will generate US$ 4.7 billion in 2021 (+ 21% over the previous year), which represents 7.3% of all IT investment in the country. “Retail and demand for home office will remain strong“, Says Sakis. In units and compared to 2020, the forecast is for an increase of 20% in the sale of home tablets and 71% in sales to the corporate market, which includes education. Retail notebook sales are expected to grow 5% and the corporate market, also including education, is expected to grow 25%. “The public and private education market has been surprisingly positive and will demand a large number of products in order to help teachers and students to maximize the distance education process“, Explains Sakis.
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