Bob O'Donnell
President at TECHnalysis Research.
Bob O'Donnell is the president, founder, and chief analyst at TECHnalysis Research, a technology market research and consulting firm that counts many of the tech industry’s largest vendors among its clients. The firm's research and O’Donnell’s opinions are also regularly used by major media outlets, including Yahoo Finance, Bloomberg TV, CNBC, and more. O'Donnell writes regular columns for USAToday and Forbes, as well as a blog for LinkedIn that's also published on TechSpot and SeekingAlpha.
Prior to founding TECHnalysis Research, O'Donnell served as Program Vice President, Clients, and Displays for industry research firm IDC. O'Donnell is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame.
How did you get to become an expert in your key topics?
After starting my career in the electronic music industry, I transitioned to computer publications, then tech content sites, and finally transitioned to an industry analyst.
What sub-topics are you most passionate about?
I’m particularly interested in the intersection of 5G, AI, edge computing and hybrid cloud as I believe these various areas are converging to form the next major evolution of computing and will drive major innovations in both the enterprise and consumer markets.
Who influences you within these topics?
I read all the industry news and analysis I can in this area.
What do you think the future holds in this space?
The concept of distributed computing and distributed intelligence will be key for the next decade or so. Just as we moved from mainframes to PCs, we’re evolving from centralized public clouds to distributed computing resources that will allow organizations to leverage data in many different locations. Some of it will be real-time sensor-driven data–such as in autonomous vehicles or smart manufacturing sites–while some of it will simply leverage data available in a given site or location. Either way, the ability to act upon that data using some type of AI, machine learning or other advanced computing model and then share and learn from those results across high-speed networks is going to completely reshape the computing environment. It will also profoundly impact what companies survive and thrive in this new world and which ones fade away.
What brands are leading the way in this space?
The major public cloud providers, including Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and even IBM, have a head start here, but I’m also curious to see how major telcos, network infrastructure vendors, and other traditional computing-focused companies can take their experience and adapt to the new world.
If a brand wanted to work with you, which activities would you be most interested in collaborating on?
What are your passions outside of work?
What would be the best way for a brand to contact you?
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