Juniper Networks Global Survey: Consumers and Enterprises Are Recognizing the Advantages of Digital Convergence

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Juniper Networks, a leader in automated, scalable and secure networking products and solutions, today announced the results of a comprehensive global market study that examines the attitudes of businesses and consumers towards readiness for the era of “digital convergence” where network-based, predictive and automated “super services” will improve user behavior and enable better decisions, enriching the lives of individuals and businesses. The results of the study will be announced at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona from February 27 to March 2, 2017, where visitors can visit the Juniper Networks booth in Hall 2, Stand 2J60.

According to the survey*, which covers 16 countries, businesses and consumers see digital convergence as an inevitable and positive social development. Consumers see benefits such as improved community infrastructure with more responsive and effective emergency services, more efficient use of personal time, better education and learning, lower cost of living through measures such as energy efficiency at home, and smarter decision making, while business respondents also see benefits such as increased productivity, improved budget utilization, new models for human resource management, and business service innovation. As mobile devices become data collection points and continue to drive the development of "super services", Juniper Networks believes that telecom service providers need to rethink the way their networks are architected to support this era.

Research highlights:

Consumer survey data:

Smarter and greener life

• 60% of consumers believe that in the next five years, their living environment will become "smarter" as services and applications become more integrated and automated.
• 58% of consumers believe that smarter services in their daily lives can bring the benefit of "saving time"; 43% of consumers believe that smart services can provide more useful information and make more informed decisions; 27% of consumers believe that this can reduce the cost of living.
• As “digital convergence” gives rise to “super services”, 61% of consumers believe that these services can improve energy consumption, and 51% believe that emergency services can provide better support and response.
• 75% of consumers also said that they rely on mobile Internet to live a safer, smarter and more efficient life.

Trust is important

• 53% of consumers say security is one of the most important considerations when choosing a new smart device.
• 77% of consumers said trust is “very important” when it comes to integrating connected services with devices. Additionally, 76% of consumers said brand is an important consideration when choosing a “smart” service provider.
• In contrast, only 20% of consumers consider "design" as a very important consideration when choosing smart services.

Enterprise interview data:

Boosting business advantage

• 90% of corporate respondents believe that "digital aggregation" can help achieve innovation in business services, and 91% of companies also believe that "digital aggregation" can provide flexible human resource management capabilities.
• When asked about the biggest possible business benefits of “digital convergence,” 60% of corporate respondents cited increased automation and control capabilities, and 58% cited increased productivity.
• In addition, 51% of corporate respondents believe that "digital aggregation" helps improve customer experience within their organizations.

Trust is crucial

• 66% of enterprise respondents believe that security and compliance are the biggest risk factors for "digital convergence", and only 25% of enterprise respondents believe they are "fully prepared" to trust the security of underlying networks and devices.
• When asked about how to deal with more smart devices connecting to the organization’s network infrastructure, 85% of corporate respondents said they would manage the influx of smart devices based on pragmatism rather than responding to security concerns by limiting the number of devices.

Senior Quotes:

“Many advances in networking are driving the advent of ‘digital convergence.’ At Juniper Networks, we believe that self-driving networks will facilitate and enable the deployment of ‘super services’ that transform how businesses and consumers experience and connect with people, services and information.”

- Rami Rahim, CEO, Juniper Networks

About the Global Survey

Juniper Networks commissioned Loudhouse Research to survey more than 4,800 consumers and senior IT decision makers in Australia/New Zealand, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, UAE, United States, and United Kingdom. The survey was conducted in January 2017 and included more than 100 IT decision makers and more than 200 consumer respondents in each country. The age range of the survey respondents was 18 to 65 years old. The IT decision makers involved in the survey were from organizations as small as 251 to 1,000 employees (53%) and as large as more than 1,000 employees (47%). The industry sectors covered by the survey included public sector, education, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, and information technology.