Mega Trends Thematic Research and Analysis

As digital transformation grows, underlying technology platforms become a core differentiator for key players. Our research reveals that current market leaders need to identify and embrace important new technologies now and adapt to the continuous emergence of new innovative platforms — often through M&A activities. In our full report, we take a look at significant technology disrupters and identify key players to watch.

Two overarching themes, data and energy, inform our approach; and our core premise that drives our innovative technology analysis is that as more commerce commences over digital platforms, more energy is consumed and more data is generated. This lens enables us to identify important emerging trends as well as obstacles to progress; while sorting out the technologies and firms most likely to emerge as winners going forward.

Importantly, our ongoing research reveals that there is also a confluence of interactivity between classes of technology that results in cross dependencies, correlation, cross pollination and scale that creates nuances within each segment. It is our implementation of data collection and analysis between segments, comprehensively addressed in our full report, which adds the insight required for confident decision making. Order your copy now.

In our full report, we identify some of the sectoral trends fueling the new digital economy and the innovative technology companies creating value in our research. Let’s break it down by sector:

 Energy Storage – is the key differentiator for electric vehicles (EVs) and the end-to-end mobility solutions of the future. It also plays a vital role in energy efficiency and resiliency. Energy storage is a core technology to address energy efficiency; critical to controlling carbon emissions, grid resiliency, and providing EV charging solutions. Energy storage systems have substantial benefits for energy consumers, including: industrial, commercial, public, and households. From cost reduction to business continuity and equipment protection, proper energy management delivers significant business efficiencies. There are, however, associated high switching costs for energy storage to be considered. Our focus in our full, in-depth report includes thorough analyses of Plug Power (PLUG), Ballard (BLDP), FuelCell (FCEL), Bloom Energy (BE) and QuantumScape (QS)

Cloud Architecture – another key sector we examine, provides a very cost-effective means of providing separate layers of data storage, computing and transactional services to enterprises and agencies where reliability, scalability and availability are critical to performance and the maintenance of a competitive edge. Virtualization services enable separation of hardware and software as well as method for separating data from control planes. Innovative tools including Databricks and recent IPO Snowflake provide scale and data integration to manage cloud services and data analytics. Our focus in this niche includes Alteryx (AYX), Datadog (DDOG) Palantir (PLTR) Splunk (SPLK) C3.ai (AI) and Snowflake (SNOW).

Autonomous Driving (AD) and LIDAR – are also key differentiators for EVs and play vital roles in extending the definition of personal mobility and enhancing the acceptance and comfort of employing autonomous driving and remote unmanned vehicles. Our focus in this sector includes Luminar (LAZR) and Velodyne (VLDR).

Big Data – growth in digital and data captured from mobile devices is accelerating the volume, velocity and variety of available data. From server log files to sensor devices, growth will continue at pace as more commerce moves online. Snowflake (SNOW) democratizes data access, and provides scale and cloud management that enable broader access and lower costs. Datadog (DDOG) and Splunk (SPLK) provide applications for cloud service performance monitoring. 

Analytics and Machine Learning – with varied and robust approaches to statistical analysis and machine learning algorithms proliferating, coupled with advances in graphical processing units (GPUs) from Nvidia (NVDA) and AMD (AMD), the added computational power necessary to generate faster time-to-insight and navigate uncertainty is now available to most enterprises. Alteryx provides data integration tools to extract and transform data for machine learning. DataRobot and RapidMiner provide visual and machine learning algorithms to gain data insight. What will be interesting is how Palantir (PLTR) and C3.ai (AI) play as Snowflake (SNOW) democratizes further big data access, scale and cloud management. Order our full report to read our take this trend.

 Digital Transformation– tools and technologies that provide a scalable platform to coordinate onboarding and service delivery are key to the success of the next generation of financial services, shopping, engagement, learning, and social and work processes for digital transformation. Our focus in this sector includes Zoom (ZM), Twilio (TWLO) Shopify (SHOP) Okta (OKTA) Square (SQ) and Slack (WORK) pending acquisition by Salesforce (CRM).

5G Cellular Networks – As 5G network infrastructure is deployed, bandwidth capacity will improve by 20-fold. Some discussion indicates as much as an 80-fold increase in bandwidth to carry various data sources. Software Defined Network (SDN) and Cloud Radio Access Networks (C-RAN) offer the promise of virtualized end-to-end services to address multiple vertical market applications. Because of signal attenuation of ultra-high 5G bandwidth capacity, the network infrastructure requires greater density of urban base stations along with backhaul. Qualcomm (QCOM) and Skyworks (SWKS) provide 5G chips for mobile and baseband while Qorvo (QRVO) provides RF and base station equipment. Ciena (CIEN) provides bandwidth scale with fiber optics for data backhaul and has developed innovative voice and data network infrastructure approaches. Our full report provides the details.

 IoT (Internet of Things) The rapidly expanding IoT deploys sensors to provide granular visibility into performance and conditions of assets, equipment and processes. This new, almost real-time capability provides a platform for explosive growth in the data collection and analysis space. IoT devices provide near real time details on energy, environmental and workflow processes. Venture-funded Senseware offers an array of energy and environmental monitoring sensors and a network communications system for IoT sensors while Monnit (private) has developed a broad line of analog sensors. These are two players that could prove to be interesting candidates for acquisition going forward. 

Cybersecurity – as commerce moves toward digital transactions, vulnerabilities must be managed. The proliferation of connected devices driven by cloud computing and workforce mobility is growing rapidly with projections by Cisco Systems (CSCO) predicting the number of connected Internet devices will grow from 18 billion in 2017 to 28 billion by 2022, suggesting more focus on endpoints and edge computing. Leading cybersecurity players such as FireEye (FEYE) are involved in the detection and prevention of major cyberattack and CrowdStrike (CRWD) in leveraging high fidelity endpoint device data to the cloud to scale analytics. Find out more in our full report.

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