IBM and Salesforce; Microsoft and Box; AWS and VMWare – all of these are examples of companies which are teaming up together as part of a cloud alliance. In a pre-cloud world, many companies followed a "do it ourselves" policy, and viewed others as competitors. However, as the popularity of cloud rockets, many tech companies are taking a different approach, and are joining up with others and forming cloud alliances.

In this IDC podcast, Hannah Breeze, senior research manager for Channels and Alliances, explores why this is happening and what the industry stands to gain from it, as well highlights some key examples of the trend.

Ten years in, cloud has changed everything. People used to purchase hardware, now they consume it. More than half of the infrastructure capacity in Europe will be going to Service Providers by 2020. All large IT buyers, from Betfair to HSBC, have a #cloudfirst strategy. They don’t want DVDs, they want the content. And this content is scattered in multiple services, on and off premise.

How can providers help buyers in their Multicloud infrastructure journey? Which workloads are moving off premise more quickly? Which software players are rapidly emerging – and in which segments?

Giorgio Nebuloni sits down to share his thoughts on these trends in this IDC podcast.

For more feel free to check out these complimentary webcasts!

Multicloud in Europe – Success Factors for Cloud Software and Service Providers - http://bit.ly/2yAfdBG

Multicloud in Europe – Success Factors for Infrastructure Providers - http://bit.ly/2gIb5b7

Open Source has prevailed in the OS, database and web server domains for some decades; its importance has been growing in the last 3-4 years, especially as digital transformation takes centre stage within organisations. In this episode, Archana Venkatraman sits down with Miles to assess why this is occurring, and what organisations could do to further their own Open Source strategies.

Agility, speed and sustaining enhanced customer experience are the mantras of the world in which we live today; organizations can choose to respond or inevitably find themselves fighting to stay afloat. The bottom line is that digital transformation is board level and IT organizations now need to figure out how best to support the business. As a result more and more organizations are embracing DevOps. In this podcast, IDC's European Research Director for Application Services and DevOps, Jennifer Thomson talks about what DevOps is, why it's important, and how European businesses are using it.

Thanks to upcoming regulations and new technologies, European banks are bracing for a wave of new, digitally enabled players which will compete to deliver customer experience and drive a wedge between the banks and their customers. Drawing on findings from IDC’s recent European consumer preference survey, this podcast looks at what banks can do to protect their customer relationships and ultimately, their business models.

Marketing is a state of flux. Marketing automation enabled Marketing to capture, track and target sales leads. But now the game has changed again. Customer experience (CX) is the new kid in town. And CX requires a softer, more emotionally intelligence approach to marketing, working with Sales and Service Departments to build trust, loyalty, and customer advocacy.

But what does this mean for the CMO, Marketing systems & applications, and recruitment? And where does AI fit in? In this podcast, Gerry Brown, Research Director for Customer Experience, sits down with Miles Dawson to reveals the answers using IDC's latest European research data insights and discusses the key trends and best practices.

Manufacturing, more than any other industry, is facing a talent challenge today, driven by factors such as baby boomers retiring, unemployment, a tarnished reputation, and new digital technologies demanding a whole new set of skills. So what should Manufacturing executives do to help attract, retain and develop the right talent, and how can IT vendors help? In this podcast, Maggie Slowik, Senior Research Analyst at IDC Manufacturing Insights, gives her view and recommendations on this popular topic.

Artificial Intelligence is one of the hottest topics in IT today. It provides an essential underpinning for consumer devices like Amazon Alexa and innovations like driverless cars. In fact, AI will have a profound effect on most forms of enterprise IT in the coming years, and IDC expects its use to grow dramatically. In this podcast, IDC's European Research Director for Enterprise Software, Philip Carnelley talks about AI's potential, why it's suddenly taken off, and how European businesses are benefitting from AI today.

Nordic organizations are no longer just talking about digital transformation but truly embracing it. In the last few years a lot of organizations have started levering new digital technologies – mostly for optimizing internal business processes, but increasingly also for changing the business models. This represents a huge opportunity for IT vendors, but only if they truly understand the customer needs and are innovative in finding partners building ecosystems.

Please join Anders Elbak and Miles Dawson for this podcast explaining digital transformation and how it plays out in the Nordic countries.

Large companies like TUI Group or ING are actively exploring Blockchain as we speak. And yet - as the noise levels skyrocket, IT vendors and buyers in the European space are scratching their head – is this a relevant technology for you? What type of use cases do we see in the region? Are there pitfalls among early adopters?

Please join Miles Dawson and Giorgio Nebuloni for this Podcast presenting an initial, informal discussion on the topic.