Impacting consumers, enterprises and service providers, IDC refers to this as the “Third Platform,” following the first platform of mainframes and the second platform of client/server computing. We call the associated networking transition, The New IP.
This networking transition is centred around the data centre, which is evolving from a facility that hosts back-end apps to one that is the ‘front door’ of every business - where business engages with consumers and other businesses through a myriad of devices and applications.