A Tidal Wave of Dynamic Web Content Is Coming How Will You Respond?

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1 A Custom Technology Adoption Profile Commissioned by Riverbed A Tidal Wave of Dynamic Web Content Is Coming How Will You Respond? March 2012 Introduction As enterprises shift from desktop apps to web and mobile apps, they have started a tidal wave of dynamic content that will overwhelm traditional web architectures. The move toward richer, more dynamic content applies to both external for partners and customers and internal for employees. For this study, we define dynamic content as: Dynamically constructed web pages. Real-time information piped into browsers and/or mobile apps. Social networking. Apps, applets, and similar content that executes inside a browser and/or mobile app architecture. This technology adoption profile examines trends driving the new wave of dynamic web content in enterprises to understand its sources, its shape, and its impact on current web architectures, including networks. 1 New Devices And Approaches Are Driving Demand For Dynamic Content The first trend driving the increase in dynamic web content is smartphone usage. Nearly all (9) of respondents to the Forrsights Hardware Survey, Q deploy smartphones making them just as widely deployed in the enterprise as desktop and laptop PCs (see Figure 1). The smartphone s larger cousin, the tablet, is a newer development and thus has lower adoption rates. However, tablets are a bigger factor than these results indicate, as: Tablet adoption is growing at a fast rate, albeit from a low base. Tablet users tend to be enterprise leaders. Forrester has found that the majority of tablet users in enterprises are in leadership positions. As a result, access to corporate data and from tablets gets very high priority, setting the stage for still broader usage within enterprises. 2 Smartphones and tablets inherently demand dynamic content; people tend to use them to consume status updates on stocks, sales, news, and so on. Smartphones and tablets also use apps, often in profusion, which may pipe in content from the Web but execute locally on the device. Moreover, smartphone and tablet users expect frequent updates and fixes to the apps and they use. As a result, the industry is creating more dynamic content to cater to these devices, and more frequently updating that content, than was typical of the first generation of web.

2 Figure 1 Dynamic Content-consuming Mobile Devices Are As Common As Laptops In Enterprises How many of the total number of devices in use by your firm s employees are of the following types? More than 10,000 devices 1,001 to 10,000 devices 501 to 1,000 devices 1 to 500 devices Total usage Laptop PCs 19% 39% 13% 29% 100% Desktop PCs 23% 50% 14% 99% Smartphones 13% 37% 15% 33% 9 Tablet touchscreens 1% 7% 60% 76% Ultraportable laptops 2% 9% 4% 49% 66% Thin clients/dumb terminals 6% 35% 57% Touchscreen-convertible laptops 4% 5% 42% 51% Source: Forrsights Hardware Survey, Q Base: 380 North American enterprises with 1,000 or more employees New demand from mobile device owners for dynamic content is adding to the rising swell of demand from web in the past several years. Measured by the growth in rich Internet (RIAs), the average web application has become more and more dynamic and this trend will continue. RIAs reproduce a rich interactive PC user experience within a browser. Moving forward, developers increasingly favor HTML5, CSS, XML, XSL, and AJAX, and script toolkits, among others, for RIAs. Among platforms for custom-developed, products supporting a rich interface in a browser (RIAs) are growing fastest. Indeed, Forrester has documented this trend during the past four years (see Figure 2). Forrester finds that developers are always the leading indicators of trends, and this rapid growth in RIAs by extension indicates there will be increased demand for dynamic content for all web. In the end, the data gives strong evidence that dynamic user experiences and dynamic content are growing. This growth will crush existing infrastructures as it picks up speed. Garden-variety web architectures were built for static web pages with modest amounts of dynamic content, not today s rich and interactive user experiences. Most companies aren t ready for the demand that s coming. Page 2

3 Figure 2 Enterprises Are Shifting To RIA Platforms Which development platforms does your company use for custom-developed? 2011 (N = 782) 2010 (N = 933) (N = 940) 2008 (N = 977) Leading web platforms (average adoption) Rich interface in a browser Mainframe or midrange platforms Open source frameworks like Spring or Hibernate Lightweight web frameworks Proprietary 4GLs 5% 25% 24% 24% 2 22% 17% 15% 19% 10% 15% 14% 17% 37% 34% 43% 52% 5 57% 55% Other 5% 6% Base: North American and European software decision-makers that have currently implemented or are expanding their implementation of custom-developed (multiple responses accepted) Source: Enterprise And SMB Software Survey, North America And Europe, Q4 2008; Enterprise And SMB Software Survey, North America And Europe, Q4 ; Forrsights Software Survey, Q4 2010; and Forrsights Software Survey, Q Developers creating RIAs and mobile drive higher demand for dynamic content, but enterprises are unprepared to manage that demand. Among content management technologies, Forrester finds that enterprises have adopted web content management fairly widely. The problem is that web content management and the other most widely used content management software categories among enterprises manage largely static content. These products primarily manage content storage and retrieval (see Figure 3). In the same survey, one content management category, digital asset management (DAM), is directly aimed at managing dynamic content. DAM enables the production, management, distribution, and retention of images, graphics, audio, video, and other rich media. And DAM has only light adoption, at 34% of respondents. Bottom line: Forrester believes that most organizations are underinvested in the software required to deal with a dramatic expansion of content in general and dynamic content in particular. Page 3

4 Figure 3 Enterprises Use Web Content Management Software Widely, But Digital Asset Management Lags Which of the following types of content management software does your firm currently use? Web content management Document management 74% 73% Content and archiving Document imaging 63% 67% Records management 49% Enterprise content management platform 40% Digital asset management 34% Don't know 1% Source: Forrsights Software Survey, Q Base: 214 IT decision-makers at North American enterprises with 1,000 or more employees Start Preparing By Understanding The Shape Of The Dynamic Content Wave A tidal wave is swelling, but what will it look like inside your organization? In a survey commissioned by Riverbed, Forrester Consulting asked IT decision-makers at US enterprises about the growth of dynamic content in their organizations and challenges associated with it. The responses indicate a steady shift from desktop to web of all kinds of mobile echoing smartphone and tablet adoption within enterprises. Desktop aren t going away, but their overall numbers are falling and are likely to continue to decline in the near future as enterprises shift to web and mobile. To understand the trend, we asked respondents to report their percentages of desktop, web, and mobile in (three years ago), now, and in (effectively three years hence). Our respondents reported that an average of 62% of their client-side in were traditional desktop clients. By, that average will drop to 42% a substantial reduction and less than half of the total portfolio (see Figure 4). Getting more specific about their application portfolios, 40% of respondents said that desktop clients took up 75% or more of their application portfolio in. By, only of respondents expect desktop clients to make up 75% or more of their portfolios. 3 Web and mobile will fill the gap left by shrinking desktop application portfolios: Native mobile are growing, but at an average of only 6% over the five-year time span thus they seem destined to be a niche in enterprises in the near future. By, enterprise mobile will account for just 9% of the average application portfolio. However, adoption growth is steady: In, 3 of our respondents had any native mobile apps within their organization, but that number will double by. Web apps with only internal content and are expected to grow an average of 5% by and account for 21% of the average desktop client application portfolio. Internal web apps remain prevalent in enterprises; all of our respondents currently offer them within their organizations. Page 4

5 Web apps with both internal and external content will grow by an average of 5% from to and account for of the average portfolio. In, 56% of organizations had at least one web app with both internal and external content; by, the number will increase to 7. Externally hosted web apps will also see growth, but at more modest rates. By, externally hosted web apps will account for, on average, 15% of enterprises desktop client application portfolio. By, 4 of will be web-based. This growth means that most dynamic content is going to come from web apps, including those running on mobile devices. To best prepare for the tidal wave of dynamic content, prudent enterprises should focus on strategies and architectures to support the demands of web. Figure 4 Web and Mobile Apps Are Growing As Desktop Clients Become Less Prevalent In Enterprises Please give your best estimate of the percentages of your desktop, Web, and mobile enterprise in and today, as well as your plans for. Native mobile Native mobile 5% 3% 9% Average % in portfolio Web apps with both internal and external content and Web apps with both internal and external content and 10% 7% Web hosted externally Web apps hosted externally 15% 11% Web apps will take up 4 of the portfolio by. Web apps with only internal content and Web with only internal content and 1 21% Desktop Client Desktop client 42% 54% 62% Base: 50 IT decision-makers at North American enterprises with 1,000 or more employees Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Riverbed, February 2012 s workhorse of web delivery, the dynamically constructed web page, is entering a long, slow decline, as even more dynamic web content delivery rises in importance. In our survey, 24% of respondents said that at least 75% of the content their enterprise created or consumed in was dynamically constructed web pages. By, only 10% expect to generate or consume the same amount from dynamically constructed pages. 4 Meanwhile, respondents say that mobile apps, social networking, and real-time information the newer forms of dynamic content will grow in their portfolios. To determine the likely growth in dynamically constructed web pages, we asked respondents to indicate the amount of dynamic content served or consumed by their various web properties on an average day in, today, and in (see Figure 5). This growth breaks down as follows: Pages that offer real-time information have been adopted by 80% of respondents today, a growth of eight percentage points from. Page 5

6 Adoption of various forms of apps has jumped by 16 percentage points in the past three years. In, 6 of respondents served or consumed dynamic content from various forms of. Presently, that number is 84%. In, 82% of respondents plan on utilizing social networking and their corresponding dynamic content in some way. In comparison, just over half of respondents served or consumed dynamic content from social networking in. Figure 5 Overall Consumption And Creation Of Dynamic Content Is Growing, And Becoming More Widespread How has the amount of dynamic content your web properties either serve or consume on an average day grown? Overall adoption rate Real-time information Real-time information 72% 80% 80% Social networking Social networking 56% 74% 82% Apps, applets, other forms of Apps, applets, and other forms of 6 84% 84% Base: 50 IT decision-makers at North American enterprises with 1,000 or more employees Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Riverbed, February 2012 What are pros running web properties most concerned about for the future? The impact that mobile devices will have on their service-level agreements (SLAs) tops the list. Seventy percent of respondents cited the demands of mobile device support as a challenge, ranking it first, second, or third among their content management issues (see Figure 6). Although the demands to support mobile elicited the highest number of overall responses, the growing use of dynamic content also has an impact, with 2 of respondents ranking it as their top SLA challenge. Web pros are comparatively less concerned about the impact of third-party on the performance of their web (40% overall). Forrester believes this view understates the problem, and that challenges to web application performance will mushroom as more and more shops add more and more third-party content to their apps. Page 6

7 Figure 6 Mobile Support And Growing Dynamic Content Challenge Web Pros What are your biggest challenges to meeting your service-level agreements (or expected service levels) for your web properties? Rank 1 Rank 2 Rank 3 Total Demands to support mobile devices 32% 1 70% Our growing use of dynamic content 2 64% The content management/delivery sector of our web architecture is inadequate 1 54% Third-party add latency and unpredictability to our web performance 40% My SLAs are inadequate to measure my web properties 6% 34% Our entire infrastructure is inadequate and is more than two years old 10% 30% Our entire infrastructure is inadequate and is less than two years old 4% 4% Base: 50 IT decision-makers at North American enterprises with 1,000 or more employees Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Riverbed, February 2012 What It Means A giant wave of dynamic content is clearly headed our way. The new forms of web content real-time feeds, apps, and social networking content are growing fast, and each is much more challenging to manage than Web pages. Each will put big stresses on current web architectures and take longer to construct for delivery to the user, resulting in slower responses to user requests. Web pros need to revisit their web architectures to make sure they can accommodate the new demands. That means much more sophisticated content management architectures and processes and technologies to speed content delivery: bandwidth optimization, WAN acceleration, and payload compression to start with. Page 7

8 Methodology This Technology Adoption Profile was commissioned by Riverbed Technology. To create this profile, Forrester leveraged data from its Forrsights Hardware Survey, Q3 2011, Forrsights Software Survey, Q4 2010, and trending data from the Enterprise And SMB Software Survey, North America And Europe, Q4 2008; the Enterprise And SMB Software Survey, North America And Europe, Q4 ; the Forrsights Software Survey, Q4 2010; and the Forrsights Software Survey, Q Forrester Consulting supplemented this data with custom survey questions asked of 50 North American IT decision-makers at enterprises with 1,000 or more employees. Survey questions were related to current and future use and goals for mobility and cloud approaches. This custom survey was conducted in February For more information on Forrester s data panel and Tech Industry Consulting, visit Endnotes 1 Enterprises are defined as organizations with 1,000 or more employees. 2 See the January 26, 2012, Apple Infiltrates The Enterprise And Reshapes The Markets For Personal Devices At Work Forrester report. 3 For space reasons, the exact breakdown of percentages is not shown. In this question, respondents were asked to supply exact percentages for each option. These percentages were averaged in the figure. 4 For space reasons, the exact breakdown of percentages is not shown. In this question, respondents were asked to supply exact percentages for each option. In the figure, users who supplied a percentage were counted as adopters. About Forrester Consulting Forrester Consulting provides independent and objective research-based consulting to help leaders succeed in their organizations. Ranging in scope from a short strategy session to custom projects, Forrester s Consulting connect you directly with research analysts who apply expert insight to your specific business challenges. For more information, visit , Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited. Information is based on best available resources. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change. Forrester, Technographics, Forrester Wave, RoleView, TechRadar, and Total Economic Impact are trademarks of Forrester Research, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies. For additional information, go to [1-JXBX8J] Page 8