Supporting an IT Strategy with Deep Market Insights

According to 451 Research, part of S&P Global Market Intelligence, global revenues from cloud, hosting, and managed services are projected to increase by over 40% between 2020 and 2023. This has created a race among IT providers to capture a share of this fast-growing market.

The strategy team for the cloud and datacenter division of this large IT firm was crafting its longer-term growth plan and needed additional information on the current and evolving technology landscape. In particular, the team wanted to better understand the product bundling and pricing strategies of its key competitors to make sure its offerings were properly aligned with market norms. It also wanted to assess demand for datacenter services to support planned investments on that front, plus be alerted to any emerging technologies that could potentially be disruptors to the business plan.

Pain Points

The strategy team needed to do a deep dive on the dynamics of the IT marketplace and how its competitors were positioning and pricing their services to support its go-to-market expansion plan. The team wanted to identify a provider that offered comprehensive and granular information that would enable it to:

• Reliably benchmark pricing of its cloud services relative to other providers.
• Size demand for datacenter services.
• Monitor innovations across key technology sectors, including cloud and managed services, datacenters, applied infrastructure, and DevOps (that combines software development and IT operations).
• Speak to the needs of its target markets by understanding their business challenges, technology choices, adoption trends, and spending priorities.

The team contacted 451 Research to discuss how the firm could help.

The Solution

Specialists from 451 Research discussed a solution set that could help the strategy team make important decisions regarding the division’s product lineup and pricing options. The information could also help the team appropriately frame messaging to its different target audiences based on end-user needs and technology choices to date. With this information in hand, it would be possible to:

Benchmark pricing strategies

The 451 Research Cloud Price Index provides data on cloud service components and costs globally, enabling sellers to make fact-based decisions as they build a competitive pricing and positioning strategy.

Assess the supply and capabilities of datacenter facilities

The Datacenter KnowledgeBase is a global database of 7,100+^[1] colocation and wholesale datacenter facilities across North America, EMEA, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America. It covers more than 100 data points per facility, including location, facility type, services provided, capacity, and current utilization. 451 analysts gather data from primary sources‚ on-sight facility tours, assessments, and direct outreach to datacenter operators.

Understand customer dynamics

Voice of the Enterprise presents findings from a quarterly survey of technology specialists to provide rapid, relevant, and predictive insight on customer sentiment, technology choices, and spending plans.

Identify disruptive technologies

The Market Monitor & Forecast service provides market size, share, and forecast data for emerging technologies for both established vendors and startups.

Monitor the pulse of the industry

Market Insight is a daily report on the key developments impacting the players, trends, and technologies across the entire IT enterprise landscape.

Technology & Business Insight reports are designed to complement Market Insights with market data, analysis of customer adoption rates, and perspectives on market dynamics.

Key Benefits

Members of the strategy team felt that 451 Research could help them more easily navigate the rapidly evolving technology market and gain the perspectives needed to support the firm’s expansion plan. They saw value in having:

• Granular data at a country level that includes small private firms in addition to the larger players.
• Deep competitive details to help appropriately position their product bundles and pricing options.
• A comprehensive picture of datacenter facilities and locations to support investment plans.
• More clarity about addressable demand by location to fine-tune sales targets and determine how best to deploy resources.
• Ongoing market monitoring to gain deep insights into the risks and opportunities presented by disruptive technologies and new market participants.
• An understanding of the needs of different target audiences to craft sales messages that were relevant and meaningful.
• The ability to point to typical market prices and discuss market dynamics during sales calls to underscore the firm’s value proposition. 

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