As each year passes, the demand for IT technology and services grows bigger. According to Gartner in an article with Computerworld, 39 million terabytes of storage is currently being used across the globe. The number is predicted to more than double by 2019.

In the same article published by Computerworld, it was noted that workloads are growing an average of 10 percent each year and bandwidth at 35 percent a year – but it doesn’t stop there. Power costs are projected to grow 20 percent annually.

Over the last two years, the IT outsourcing industry has seen increases in in-house service integrations, smaller deals, bigger governance requirements and hybrid off-shoring. IT sourcing is starting to become more focused on the business and its customers.

Market facing process solutions are only part of the game. Things such as inside sales and campaign management will allow providers to line up their compensation and incentives with intended business outcomes. Solutions could include the use of more cloud-based technologies, which will give companies what they need to face competition and create unique offerings. Buyers will be able to work with outsourced providers to engage customers.

The talk of using robots and drones to a do a human’s job is becoming more and more frequent. According to Jeff Augustin, managing director of Alsbridge, in an article published by CIO.com, autonomics and cloud technology are bound to meet. “Smart robots” will operate in the cloud and will starting offering “labor-as-a-service” to emerging clients and providers.

The Cloud, utility computing and virtualization will come together to create an operating model that will be a driving force for IT outsourcing.

Renegotiations may happen for outsourcing contracts. Tower-based outsourcing will be forewent by customers and multi sourcing cloud-based models will take over. Awareness will be raised as buyers look into analytics and automation to help provide visibility.

Supplier risks are starting to be integrated into companies’ daily operations, moving from quarterly meeting risks discussions to using real-time basis for making key decisions during different risk events.

The number of out sources per customer will multiply each year. Allowing for growth and eliminating unused or duplicate services will be the key differentiator between one company’s IT effectiveness and another company’s.

Business leaders will purchase more technology services over the coming years ‑ the more retail products embed technology, the more engineering IT products and IT services as core purchases. Power will be shifted to the suppliers targeting new buyers.

The RFP process is starting to lose its appeal. In today’s growing technological world, RFP takes too long and costs too much. New purchasing processes ‑ think enterprise marketplaces ‑ are starting to replace RFPs.

Cloud-based infrastructures and solutions have started gaining ground in 2015. Cloud-based solutions will serve as a point solution with given functions and general cloud computing and storage solutions will progress in two different directions: the first path will progress faster for new applications and the second path will address the movement of existing apps to a cloud infrastructure.

Data will start to drive the main role of sourcing advisory. As clients become more sophisticated and complicated, the need for optimization will benefit from analytics and data mining.

As we move into 2017, the need for IT outsourcing will continue to grow. Companies will need to continue integrating new services and policies to remain relevant in today’s industry.