In the past, many enterprises were very loyal to their technology vendors, but analysts say that’s changing. A new Gartner report found that 70 percent of CIOs expect to switch to new technology and services vendors within two to three years. Cowen & Co. analyst Peter Goldmacher explains, “Enterprise Software is witnessing a structural and deflationary trend as challengers are disrupting legacy vendors such as Oracle by offering more contemporary products at much lower prices.”
Much of the transition to new vendors is being driven by trends like cloud computing and big data. Gartner writes, “Cloud-based infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and business process as a service (BPaaS) are the two fastest-growing segments [of enterprise technology spend], expanding 44.9 and 12.4 percent, respectively, in 2014. Agility, not cost, will be the primary reason that many organizations adopt cloud computing.”