2024 State of Disruption Report

500 IT professionals were surveyed about their current and future technology initiatives; UCaaS, CCaaS, CyberSecurity, Telecom Expense Management.

Disruptive Technologies that save IT leaders money

UCaaS, CCaaS, SD-WAN, CyberSecurity, Telecom Expense Management.

TABLE OF CONTENTS Intro to the Disruption Report .................................................... 1 IaaS Growth Trends ................................................................ 19, 22 2024 Technology Growth Trends ................................................ 2 Colocation Growth Trends ..................................................... 23, 25 Survey Details .............................................................................. 3 Cloud-based Application Growth Trends .............................. 26, 27 Key Report Findings .................................................................... 4 Security Growth Trends ......................................................... 28, 32 Digital Transformation ............................................................ 5, 8 Survey Methodology and Demographics ............................. 33, 36 The Role of the Trusted Advisor ............................................ 9, 11 References ................................................................................... 37 UCaaS Growth Trends ......................................................... 12, 15 Acknowledgements .................................................................... 38 CCaaS Growth Trends ......................................................... 16, 18 Podcast Recommendations ....................................................... 39 Copyright © 2024 AVANT Communications, Inc. Version 1.0

AVANT enables Trusted Advisors (agents, managed service providers, consultants, and specialized channel partners) to assist with the Technology Decision-Making AVANT RESEARCH & ANALYTICS: Process through our specialization in disruptive technologies and solutions. THE DISRUPTION REPORT We accomplish this with our: Engineering Team of consummate professionals who study the ins-and- Each “Disruption Report” is developed by AVANT Research & Analytics with outs of the latest IT products from the perspective of what best meets the assistance of technical teams within AVANT. These market research reports the needs of end users. are backed by a wealth of data secured by AVANT in our normal course of AVANT Assessment Data collected during thousands of customer business, our own primary research of end-customers, and other reputable assessments and decisions. industry sources. Our reports focus on today’s most disruptive technologies, those where the pace Primary Research collected by surveying customers and Trusted of change is rapid. Companies or technologies which – only a few years ago – may Advisors to inform our decision-making process. have been unknown, are now highly viable solutions that resolve the business AVANT PATHFINDER: an IT decision making tool and repository of needs that led to their creation. They have disrupted the IT landscape, a market AVANT’s market intelligence, empowering comparative searches already well known for its accelerating pace of change and intelligent queries. and innovation. Every Avant Analytics Report gives enterprise technology leaders a contemporary AVANT analysts who conduct original research and analyze data for and relevant overview of the featured subject. We select each topic based on the in-depth insights focused on, about and for Trusted Advisors, end- potential competitive advantages companies can realize if they adopt a given customers, and the surrounding ecosystem. solution, depending on their particular industry, market space, or company size. We also collect content in conjunction with the Trusted Advisor community, All currency values in this report are expressed in U.S. dollars. through initial assessment data and various market research tools, including surveys, interviews, focus groups, and external reports. Copyright © 2024 AVANT Communications, Inc. 1

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION, DISRUPTION AND GROWTH IN 2024 AVANT has released two previous State of Disruption reports in 2019 and 2021, Just as in our last State of Disruption report, AVANT has set out to provide a tool establishing a baseline for how companies are evolving their businesses with to help make these decisions based on information from technology buyers technology. The State of Disruption Report surveys over 500 Technology CIOs and themselves. decision makers and seeks to understand the current state of disruption, including the shi昀琀 from legacy technologies to the latest in “as-a-service” technologies, such as on-premises Legacy PBXs to UCaaS solutions or on-premises data centers to colocation and cloud services. The pace of change in technology is the only constant, and our research shows it’s accelerating. In 2023, the US economy’s growth rate was 2.5%, well ahead of earlier forecasts, and the run rate for the last quarter of 2023 was 3.3%. While growth has been impacted by inflation and rising interest rates, growth is expected to pick up With our 2024 report, we aim to learn: again in 2024 as consumer and business spending resume. Meanwhile, Gartner’s January 2024 forecast suggests worldwide IT spending is expected to total $5 • How is the landscape for enterprise technology changing? trillion in 2024, an increase of 6.8% from 2023. • Has the rate of digital transformation changed, and what trends Against a backdrop of uncertainty, enterprise investment in IT is likely to shi昀琀 to are occurring across di昀昀erent industries? projects that can help with cost savings or revenue protection, with a backlog • Are there significant di昀昀erences in the rate of change at large of delayed investments accumulating as a result. In the past, AVANT has seen companies compared to small- and medium-sized enterprises? a double bump with continued growth of OPEX adoption during the economic slowdown, followed by an acceleration of technology transformation as the economy improves. The research we conducted with 501 CIO and technology decision makers supports this trend. Copyright © 2024 AVANT Communications, Inc. 2

501 CXOs AND TECHNOLOGY DECISION MAKERS SURVEYED The desire to adapt is one thing — bringing people, processes, and technology together to elicit the desired outcome is another. Are investments paying dividends? To understand how technologies are being purchased and used, AVANT commissioned a poll of 501 U.S.-based enterprise decision makers at either the C-suite or Management/VP-level in IT, security, or finance. Questions are centered around digital transformation e昀昀orts and plans To qualify for the survey, respondents had to be involved in choosing or for the use of various technologies. Where questions relate growth, or helping their organization to implement new data network, voice, or computer growing consumption of technology, the term conveys usage reported infrastructure technology, including buying/ selecting new tools and services. by respondents as compared to their anticipated level of usage in the Respondents include statistically significant subsets from the following industries: in the next 12 months. Growth isn’t measured specifically in a dollar amount, but does indicate shi昀琀s in investment, interest, and attention Manufacturing High Tech which ultimately translates into technology uptake measured in seats, bandwidth, and the like. Financial Services Construction Healthcare/Medical/Insurance Consulting/Business Services Retail/E-commerce Copyright © 2024 AVANT Communications, Inc. 3

KEY FINDINGS This study revealed the following key findings: CCaaS • Growth in seats migrating to CCaaS in the next 12 months is expected to be strongest in financial services and retail/e- Digital Transformation commerce, followed closely by high tech and manufacturing. • Most companies (even government agencies) have already • Companies in the $50M to $100M revenue range are expected to embarked on digital transformation journeys. The likelihood of grow CCaaS seats by 11% in the next 12 months. having a defined digital transformation plan in place moves into the mid- to high 90% range for companies larger than $100 million. However only 28% say they have completely concluded their Trusted Advisors digital transformation journey. • In our 2024 survey, 34% of respondents felt that their internal teams are somewhat qualified to unqualified to plan, manage, • Industry segments that showed increased momentum for digital optimize, and troubleshoot the full range of their IT infrastructure. transformation initiatives and aspire to be at the forefront of IT Customers continue to rely on Trusted Advisors most frequently include financial services (including insurance), legal, and high- for assistance with cloud services. With multi-cloud a reality for tech businesses. most enterprises, Trusted Advisors are a key resource, with 78% of respondents using them for the procurement of cloud services. UCaaS • Adoption of UCaaS, as measured by company revenue, has Security occurred nearly as rapidly at small companies as large enterprises, • Security solutions, including selection of managed security with over 80% of companies expected to have evaluated UCaaS providers, are another area where Trusted Advisors are frequently solutions by the end of 2024. Adoption and full migration of legacy called upon for strategic guidance. PBXs, however, will still take some considerable time, with the current transformation to the UCaaS around 60% completed. • Only 39% of respondents felt they are well prepared for a cyber- attack; 32% of respondents already report the use of third parties • User experience needs to be a top priority when selecting a UCaaS in security management. platform. When companies choose to defer moving to UCaaS, the decision is o昀琀en based on the learning curve associated with using • 69% of respondents said they feared or somewhat feared that a a new system. security breach could cost them their job. Copyright © 2024 AVANT Communications, Inc. 4

Fig 1.1 Company plans for digital transformation, by industry Digital Transformation Digital transformation is the integration of technology into a business, resulting in fundamental changes in its operations and value creation for customers. This is a practice already taking place in most companies and government agencies. Few companies want to be le昀琀 behind — 92% of respondents across all industries have a plan in place and have started their transformation journey. Source: AVANT Analytics State of Disruption 2024 Copyright © 2024 AVANT Communications, Inc. 5

Fig 1.2 Digital transformation goals, % of plan realized By the same token, far fewer respondents say their companies have fully realized digital transformation plans. Retail/e-commerce and consulting/business services are furthest along, with 28% saying their companies’ goals have been fully realized. Many consultants and industry experts will say that digital transformation is a journey that is never fully completed; nonetheless, completing a plan is a significant milestone. Of the industries that are coming close to completing digital transformation plans, 46% of respondents in manufacturing say their companies have realized at least 75% of their digital transformation goals, followed by 44% in construction and engineering. Source: AVANT Analytics State of Disruption 2024 Copyright © 2024 AVANT Communications, Inc. 6

Fig. 1.3 Digital transformation plans by revenue The following figure shows the same comparison by 6% revenue band, as opposed to vertical market. Note that the correlation between company size and the likelihood 2% of having a defined digital transformation plan in place moves into the mid- to high- 90% range for companies 4% larger than $100 million, while companies under the $100 million mark are in the 80% range. 12% 11% 16% Source: AVANT Analytics State of Disruption 2024 Copyright © 2024 AVANT Communications, Inc. 7

Fig 1.4 Companies that have completed 50% or more of digital transformation program Breaking down figures for digital transformation plans to a more granular level, we see that smaller companies (between $1 million and $50 million) are most likely to have set digital transformation goals and fully realized their plans. Larger companies with bigger budgets might be expected to be further along than mid-market companies, but 41% of companies in the $100 to $500 million annual revenue range are at least 75% along with digital transformation plans, while 36% of those in the $50 million to $100 million range are at the same point. Source: AVANT Analytics State of Disruption 2024 Copyright © 2024 AVANT Communications, Inc. 8

Role of the Trusted Advisor Uncertain economic conditions. Changing workforce attitudes about work from The knock-on e昀昀ect is a reported shi昀琀 in the involvement of Trusted Advisors with home versus the o昀昀ice. Add to that the challenge of staying on top of change in IT decision makers (Fig. 2.2). Forty-four percent of survey respondents said they the tech industry. Keeping up with digital transformation has always been hard rely on Trusted Advisors to help recommend and operationalize technologies to manage — that has become even more evident in 2024 with the explosion while strategic decisions are made internally. Interestingly, 19% of respondents of interest in generative AI. Vendors are adding in ChatGPT-like functionality in said Trusted Advisors control all technology decisions and functions, up from 16% an increasing number of products. It isn’t easy to tell if these new features are in our previous survey. actually useful or not. Enterprises need to ask “Do these new capabilities make sense for our business? What impact and ROI can they have? How would you Figure 2.2 Usage: Services of Trusted Advisors handle a platform migration?” Trusted Advisors have long played a role in mapping out strategies for using and implementing IT. In our latest survey, 66% of respondents believe that their internal teams are highly qualified to plan, manage, optimize, and troubleshoot the full range of their IT infrastructure (Fig. 2.1). Conversely, 34% think their teams are less than highly qualified, compared to 40% in our previous survey. Trusted Advisors play a role of recommending technology solutions 84% of the time (Fig. 2.2). Source: AVANT Analytics State of Disruption 2024 Fig 2.1 To what extent is your internal team qualified to plan, manage, optimize, and troubleshoot your entire IT infrastructure? Source: AVANT Analytics State of Disruption 2024 Copyright © 2024 AVANT Communications, Inc. 9

Figure 2.3 Areas of Trusted Advisor participation Customers continue to rely on Trusted Advisors for assistance with cloud services. No wonder — AWS is known for its computer cloud and S3 storage services, but there are over 200 other services on o昀昀er as well. With multi-cloud and hybrid-cloud a reality for most enterprises, Trusted Advisors are a key resource with 78% of respondents using them for the procurement of cloud services. Security solutions, including selection of managed security providers, are another area where Trusted Advisors are frequently called upon for strategic guidance. Source: AVANT Analytics State of Disruption 2024 To benchmark innovation in di昀昀erent market verticals, AVANT asked respondents to measure their company’s appetite for technology innovation. From wanting to be at the forefront of innovation to only seeking new technology when a process is broken or too ine昀昀icient, understanding how you compare to others in your market is key to any transformation process. Copyright © 2024 AVANT Communications, Inc. 10

In many cases, industry segments in the survey showed increased momentum for digital transformation initiatives. Financial services (including insurance) swung from 45% of respondents reporting that they “Always Figure 3.1 Distribution of leaders & laggards within each industry want to be at the forefront of IT” in our 2021 study, to 75% in this year’s survey, while 64% of legal and high- tech businesses reported the same. Amid the pandemic, retail was near the top of the 2021 survey with 56% of 25% respondents classifying themselves as leaders. This increased to 58% in 2024, as many companies continued 36% e昀昀orts around customer support and online or hybrid shopping experiences. 42% At the other end of the scale, a slowing real estate 45% market, rising interest rates, and layo昀昀s at tech-oriented 47% real estate platforms like Zillow and Redfin revealed an industry less invested in transformation, with 80% falling 49% under the “laggards” category. Of that majority, 67% are taking a more cautious approach of monitoring new 52% tech and making decisions a昀琀er seeing the experiences of other competitors; another 7% only engage new tech 58% when the status quo has proven ine昀昀ective. Education, Source: AVANT Analytics State of Disruption 2024 hospitality, food/beverage, and government (reported in the ‘other’ category) joined the energy industry at the “laggards” end of the transformation pool. Copyright © 2024 AVANT Communications, Inc. 11

Companies in the financial services and insurance industry — not always the fastest adopter of new technologies because of regulatory constraints — have the largest gap between pre-pandemic adoption (46%) and expected adoption in the 12 months a昀琀er the survey was taken (82.4%). UCaaS Figure 4.1 UCaaS growth (number of seats, by vertical) AVANT asked survey respondents to characterize the use of cloud-based Unified Communications as a service (UCaaS), as opposed to premises-based systems during the specified time frames: pre-pandemic, time survey was taken, and in 12 months. The data shows that the migration from premises-based systems to UCaaS systems continues, with an average of 58% of phones across all industries surveyed being cloud-based now compared to 47% before the pandemic. That number is expected to rise to an average of 77% by Q2 2024, based on survey results. Is that expectation realistic? Reality could certainly diverge from respondents’ predictions, especially if IT budgets suddenly shrink as companies evaluate plans at the end of 2023. Still, IDC’s forecast for the unified communications and collaboration market is 8.2% revenue growth Year over Year to $64.2 billion. In terms of seat and license volume, the latest figures show that the worldwide UC&C market grew 7.7% Year over Year in Q1 2023 to $587.6 Source: AVANT Analytics State of Disruption 2024 million, according to IDC. Copyright © 2024 AVANT Communications, Inc. 12

Figure 4.2 UCaaS growth by company revenue Retail, high tech, and construction are also set to see adoption increase another 9% to 11% in the next 12 months. Adoption of UCaaS, as measured by company revenue, has occurred nearly as rapidly at small companies ($1 million to $10 million) as large enterprises (over $1 billion), with over 80% of phones expected to migrate to UCaaS by 2024 in both segments. Source: AVANT Analytics State of Disruption 2024 Copyright © 2024 AVANT Communications, Inc. 13

Fig. 4.3 Reason some companies still use legacy telephone systems Companies in the $50 million to $100 million range will be another strong segment, growing adoption of UCaaS in the next 12 months, moving from 68.8% to 78.4% of seats. Figure 4.3 shows that when companies choose to defer moving to UCaaS, that decision is most o昀琀en based on the learning curve associated with using a new system as opposed to a rejection of UCaaS. Source: AVANT Analytics State of Disruption 2024 Copyright © 2024 AVANT Communications, Inc. 14

Fig. 4.4 Time frame for UCaaS adoption In fact, on average, 41% of companies plan to move to UCaaS within the next 6 months, and another 40% will do so within one year. Fi昀琀y-four percent of respondents in manufacturing expect to adopt UCaaS in the next six months. In the next seven to 12 months, expect high tech companies (55%), financial services/insurance (50%), and legal firms (50%) to get the ball rolling on UCaaS adoption. Source: AVANT Analytics State of Disruption 2024 Copyright © 2024 AVANT Communications, Inc. 15

Fig. 5.1 CCaaS seat growth, by vertical CCaaS CCaaS (Contact Center as a Service) solutions are cloud- based platforms that enable businesses to deliver customer service and support through a range of channels, including phone, email, chat, social media, and now, video. The rapid development of conversational and generative AI technologies such as ChatGPT has impacted the development of customer service chatbots. Growth in seats migrating to CCaaS in the next 12 months is expected to be strongest in financial services and retail/e-commerce, followed closely by high tech and manufacturing. Source: AVANT Analytics State of Disruption 2024 Copyright © 2024 AVANT Communications, Inc. 16

Fig 5.2 CCaaS seat growth, by company revenue Based on survey responses, AVANT expects strong growth in seats across all sizes of businesses, with companies in the $50M to $100M revenue range growing CCaaS seats from 67% to 78% of total seats, while large companies (over $1B) will grow from 72% to 84%. Source: AVANT Analytics State of Disruption 2024 Copyright © 2024 AVANT Communications, Inc. 17

Fig. 5.3 Time frame for CCaaS adoption Time frame for CCaaS Adoption Industries most focused on transitioning remaining legacy contact center systems to CCaaS in the next six months are manufacturing at 53%, followed by high tech at 48%. While retail/e-commerce is the industry that perhaps uses CCaaS most for customer service and support, the industry went through a major upgrade cycle in 2021; this was reflected in data from AVANT’s 2021 State of Disruption report showing that 74% of companies were planning their CCaaS upgrade by 2022. Source: AVANT Analytics State of Disruption 2024 Copyright © 2024 AVANT Communications, Inc. 18

Fig 6.1 IaaS growth (measured in seats/employees served), by vertical IaaS Enterprise IT buyers looking at Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) o昀昀erings are familiar with the benefits of using virtualized servers in cloud provider data centers: the ability to scale up or scale down based on the current business requirements, with billing on a pay-as-you-go basis; having a cloud service provider manage assets; and the potential to reduce costs and complexity associated with managing a legacy data center. Today’s buyers might be dealing with questions about strategies for hybrid cloud and multi-cloud. Hybrid cloud refers to the use of a combination of public and private clouds, while multi-cloud typically refers to the use of multiple public cloud providers. In a hybrid cloud Source: AVANT Analytics State of Disruption 2024 environment, companies can leverage the benefits of both private and public clouds, such as increased security and Whatever flavor of cloud architecture is being deployed, adoption has increased significantly scalability. In contrast, multi-cloud environments allow compared to pre-pandemic levels according to survey respondents. Note that respondents companies to avoid vendor lock-in and achieve greater were asked to estimate the growth in terms of seats, or the number of employees served by flexibility by using multiple cloud providers. IaaS, not by revenue or number of applications. Copyright © 2024 AVANT Communications, Inc. 19

Fig. 6.2 IaaS growth by company revenue As seen in Figure 6.1, the top sectors for adoption in the next 12 months are financial services (an increase of 14%) and high tech (an increase of 13%). Looking at IaaS adoption in the next 12 months by company size (Fig. 6.2), growth is fairly even across di昀昀erent companies, with those in the $100 million to $500 million and the $1 billion plus club expecting to increase adoption the most over current levels. Source: AVANT Analytics State of Disruption 2024 Copyright © 2024 AVANT Communications, Inc. 20

Fig. 6.3 Percentage increase of IaaS in 12 months Companies in the $50-$100 million range are expected to grow IaaS use by 12%, as are companies over $1 billion in revenue. Source: AVANT Analytics State of Disruption 2024 Copyright © 2024 AVANT Communications, Inc. 21

Fig. 6.4 Reason some companies still use legacy systems When asked why legacy on-premises solutions would still be in use, respondents unsurprisingly listed security as their top concern. That’s the same position as our previous survey, though fewer cited it (42%) in 2024 compared to 56% in 2020. Bandwidth issues slightly outpaced customization as secondary and tertiary concerns. Few companies have yet to fully migrate to IaaS, with only 8% indicating they have done so, compared to 6% in our previous report. Source: AVANT Analytics State of Disruption 2024 Copyright © 2024 AVANT Communications, Inc. 22

Fig. 7.1 Percentage of legacy equipment in Colocation vs remaining on premises, by vertical Colocation Colocation service providers o昀昀er power, bandwidth, cooling, and physical security in a data center facility, giving businesses the ability to rent space for their servers and other computing hardware. Because of the high cost of building new data center space, enterprises are increasingly turning to colocation providers in a trend that has parallels to the move to IaaS. Respondents were asked about the percentage of equipment that has been/will be migrated to colocation services, as opposed to premises-based systems. The top three industries that are expected to grow their use of colocation services in the next 12 months are energy, healthcare/medical (including biotech), and legal services, according to survey respondents. Data privacy and regulatory concerns are helping to drive growth for Source: AVANT Analytics State of Disruption 2024 colocation services, as companies still own and manage their own equipment. Copyright © 2024 AVANT Communications, Inc. 23

Fig. 7.2 Percentage of equipment in colocation by company revenue Medium and large enterprises have already moved a significant amount of IT infrastructure into colocation facilities, but companies under $100M in size are also close behind in their adoption of colo services; growth in adoption is highest among companies between $1 million and $10 million (13% increase in the next 12 months) and those that are between $50 million to $100 million (10%), according to AVANT’s survey results. Source: AVANT Analytics State of Disruption 2024 Copyright © 2024 AVANT Communications, Inc. 24

Fig. 7.3 Reason some companies have not migrated to colocation services Survey respondents who are less inclined to adopt colocation most frequently cite security concerns as their primary reasons. Security was the top concern in both AVANT State of Disruption surveys but appears to be less of a factor for respondents in 2024 (33%) compared to the previous study (55%). Other issues also factor into the equation, as shown on the following chart. Source: AVANT Analytics State of Disruption 2024 Copyright © 2024 AVANT Communications, Inc. 25

Fig. 8.1 Cloud-based application (SaaS) growth by vertical Cloud-based Applications The cloud so昀琀ware as a service market (SaaS) grew 12% in 2022 and is expected to grow 14% in 2023 to $195 billion, according to Gartner. These figures include everything from basic o昀昀ice-style tools to advanced ERP, CRM, and more. AVANT asked executives what percentage of applications were cloud-based before the pandemic compared to 2023, then what they expect that percentage to be in 2024. Adoption is roughly similar across industries. The average predicted growth of adoption across all categories over the next 12 months is 9%. Source: AVANT Analytics State of Disruption 2024 Copyright © 2024 AVANT Communications, Inc. 26

Fig. 8.2 Cloud-based application (SaaS) growth by company revenue SaaS as a percentage of all enterprise applications is expected to top 70% across all industries in the next 12 months, according to AVANT’s survey data. Companies in the $500 million to $1 billion segment expect to approach the 80% adoption mark during the same period. Source: AVANT Analytics State of Disruption 2024 Copyright © 2024 AVANT Communications, Inc. 27

Fig. 9.1 Preparedness for cyber attack by vertical Security Cybersecurity concerns are omnipresent; ransomware attacks on almost every industry keep the topic top of mind. On the positive side, only two percent of survey respondents feel their companies are very unprepared to respond to a cyber attack. On the other hand, 39% say they are very prepared. High tech companies are the most confident, with 52% of respondents saying they are very prepared for attacks. Source: AVANT Analytics State of Disruption 2024 Copyright © 2024 AVANT Communications, Inc. 28

Fig. 9.3 Breaches: perceived risk to employment In terms of how a breach would impact their employment, 69% of survey respondents expressed concern that a data breach could bring about termination of their employment compared to 71% in AVANT’s 2021 report. Topping the list of most concerned: high tech workers were highly concerned about a data breach resulting in getting fired, followed by employees in manufacturing and financial services. Source: AVANT Analytics State of Disruption 2024 Copyright © 2024 AVANT Communications, Inc. 30

Fig. 10.1 Security: internal vs. outsourced Forty-one percent of survey respondents reported that their security management is mostly managed by internal sta昀昀, while 32% said there was no third-party participation. The latter was an increase over 2021 results of 19%. Source: AVANT Analytics State of Disruption 2024 Copyright © 2024 AVANT Communications, Inc. 32

Survey Methodology and Demographics AVANT polled 501 U.S.-based enterprise decision makers at either the C-suite or Management/VP-level in IT, security, or finance. To qualify for the survey, respondents had to be involved in choosing or helping their organization to implement new data network, voice or computer infrastructure technology including buying and/or selecting new tools and services. Respondents include statistically significant subsets from the following five industries: Manufacturing, Financial Services, Healthcare/Medical, Ecommerce and Consulting/Business Services. Additionally, in order to ensure that the results of the survey are representative of the distribution of establishments in the U.S., a weighting scheme was applied based on number of employees in the respondent company. Fig. 10.2 Job level Source: AVANT Analytics State of Disruption 2024 Copyright © 2024 AVANT Communications, Inc. 33

Fig. 10.3 Company size, by revenue Of the respondents, 32% were technology leaders in the C-Suite (including CIO, CTO, CSO). Another 39% of respondents were management of VP-level technology or security leaders. In terms of company size by revenue, 21% of respondents reported their company’s revenue was between $1 to $10 million; 20% were at companies with between $100 to $500 million in revenue; and another 19% at companies with revenue between $10 to $50 million. Source: AVANT Analytics State of Disruption 2024 Copyright © 2024 AVANT Communications, Inc. 34

Fig. 10.5 Industries surveyed included the following Source: AVANT Analytics State of Disruption 2024 Where the number of responses was not statistically significant, responses were included in the “Other” category. Industries in this category include government, media, hospitality, food/beverage and education. Copyright © 2024 AVANT Communications, Inc. 36

References 1 https://www.conference-board.org/research/us-forecast 2 https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2023-04-06-gartner-forecasts-worldwide-it-spending-to-grow-5-percent-in-2023 3 https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS50985423 Copyright © 2024 AVANT Communications, Inc. 37

Acknowledgements This report is brought to you by AVANT Analytics, a division of AVANT, where our mission is to provide timely research and insights for today’s new and emerging technology services, including live and on-demand reports, podcasts, briefings, and alerts with the goal of accelerating technology decision making. AVANT enables Trusted Advisors to be leaders in informing technology decision makers with the market research needed to make purchasing decisions about today’s new and emerging technology services. Alex Danyluk Managing Director Niko O’Hara AVANT ANALYTICS Senior Analyst of Security, Enterprise Networking Stephen Semmelroth AVANT ANALYTICS Senior Analyst of Security Brent Wilford AVANT ANALYTICS Senior Analyst of UCaaS & CCaaS John Paullin AVANT ANALYTICS Senior Analyst of UCaaS & CCaaS Emilio Alvarado AVANT Analytics Data Analyst Chip Hoisington AVANT ANALYTICS Senior Analyst of Wide Area Networking & Mobility Juan Ochoa AVANT ANALYTICS Senior Data Analyst and Researcher Brooke Kennedy AVANT ANALYTICS Analyst Jesse Garing AVANT ANALYTICS Producer Elise Zhang AVANT ANALYTICS Digital Producer Amy Ridder AVANT ANALYTICS Editor Jace Inman AVANT ANALYTICS Graphic Designer Copyright © 2024 AVANT Communications, Inc. 38

Episode #112 | Oct 18, 2023 | 23 min. Alex Danyluk is joined by AVANT’s Cybersecurity guru Stephen Semmelroth! Together, they discuss the whiplash that has been occurring in the cybersecurity AVANT Technology Insights space over the past few years, from pre-COVID to present day. Plus, they dive into what’s really going on right now in Security, including what they believe is Podcast Recommendations the new North Star of the cybersecurity space! Host: Alex Danyluk, Chief Strategy O昀昀icer, AVANT AVANT Guest: Stephen Semmelroth, Sr Director of Security Engineering, AVANT Episode #113 | Nov 1, 2023 | 22 min. Episode #88 | Oct 19, 2022 | 15 min. Brent Wilford, Senior Analyst of AVANT Analytics, is joined by his colleague and In this episode, we’re talking about “Everything as a Service” in IT, and it’s a Sales Engineer Sarah Arnstein, to talk about Contact Center Supervisors. How game changer for how you consume and manage anything in this ever-changing valuable are they in the day-to-day operations of your contact center? What fast-paced world. impact can they have for your organization as you evaluate solutions and make the shi昀琀 from on-prem to Contact Center Cloud technology? Listen in to find out! Host: Alex Danyluk, Chief Strategy O昀昀icer, AVANT AVANT Guest: Duane Barnes, Vice President & General Manager, RapidScale Host: Brent Wilford, Senior Analyst, AVANT AVANT Guest: Sarah Arnstein, Sales Engineer, AVANT Episode #93 | Jan 4, 2023 | 28 min. Episode #115 | Dec 6, 2023 | 26 min. In this episode, we talk with Tony Scribner of Ntirety, who challenges the John Paullin, AVANT Analytics Senior Analyst, and Todd Cadieux, RVP of Solution way we think about build-or-buy decisions and how to apply security. Does it Consulting at Five9, are going to talk about everybody’s favorite buzzword – AI. really move the needle? Jump in and get ready for this episode of the AVANT They explore how it fits into today’s modern contact center and what capabilities Technology Insights podcast. are being sought out first. Where does the buying journey for AI start? Finally, they wrap up with bold predictions as to where they believe AI is heading. Host: Stephen Semmelroth, Sr Director of Security Engineering, AVANT Host: John Paullin, Senior Analyst, AVANT AVANT Guest: Tony Scribner, Vice President and Field CTO, Ntirety AVANT Guest: Todd Cadieux, RVP of Solution Consulting, Five9 Episode #111 | Oct 4, 2023 | 36 min. Episode #116 | Jan 3, 2024 | 23 min. Stephen Semmelroth dives deep into the new regulations from the SEC on Dive into this episode as Alex Danyluk, Managing Director of AVANT Analytics, cybersecurity. How do these regulations a昀昀ect you and your business? What are and Sales Engineer Sarah Arnstein discuss what is going on in the SASE the key takeaways you need to know? Stephen is joined by Tia Hopkins, Chief landscape. Listen in and discover how things have evolved even further since Cyber Resilience O昀昀icer and Field CTO from eSentire, and together they are Gartner’s SASE report landed, as well as some surprising takeaways our AVANT answering these questions and more! Analytics experts are sharing from the report! Host: Stephen Semmelroth, Sr Director of Security Engineering, AVANT Host: Alex Danyluk, Chief Strategy O昀昀icer, AVANT AVANT Guest: Tia Hopkins, Chief Cyber Resilience O昀昀icer and Field CTO, eSentire AVANT Guest: Sarah Arnstein, Sales Engineer, AVANT Copyright © 2024 AVANT Communications, Inc. 39

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