Gartner Trends: The Industry Cloud for Real Estate
Gartner’s Top Strategic Technology Trends 2023 includes industry cloud platforms, a next level of cloud computing that can be tailored specifically to a business’s needs. It’s a trend that Travtus CEO, Andrew Day has picked to become especially relevant to the real estate industry this year.
“The industry cloud is the next evolution of cloud computing. Flexible and faster industry cloud solutions like Travtus’ AI teammate, Adam, are emerging to meet the real estate industry’s ever-changing needs, faster and more efficiently than ever before.” Andrew Day, Travtus.
The History of Cloud Computing
The concept of cloud computing has existed for years, becoming a widespread reality towards the end of the aughts, notably with the release and widespread adoption of cloud storage, file hosting and synchronization services like Dropbox and OneDrive. Rather than using data storage on the user’s computer or the company’s servers, cloud computing migrated vast quantities to server centers. The ease of data storage and file sharing transformed business practices.
Real estate, like many businesses, benefitted from the changes. Now, a decade and a half after these services emerged, a new form of cloud computing is occurring in the form of industry cloud. According to Gartner, in 2021, “enterprises were using industry cloud platforms to accelerate less than 10 percent of their critical business initiatives.” Gartner “predicts that by 2027 it will be more than 50 percent.”
What is the Industry Cloud?
The industry cloud is the transformation of generic cloud computing to business-specific cloud platforms hosting an integrated ecosystem of software, apps, systems and data gathering, management and analysis. In the words of the Gartner report, “Industry cloud platforms combine software, platform and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) with tailored, industry-specific functionality that can more easily adapt to the relentless stream of disruptions in their industry.”
A key term there is “tailored.” Industries like real estate have particular needs: managing properties, communities, leases and costs in an ever-changing market. With the industry cloud, your IT can be specifically tailored for property management needs. It is more adaptable and versatile, holistic but modular. The word used is “composable” in that you can compose or customize a refined, efficient system from diverse elements.
Case Study: Hangzhou City Brain
The Gartner report gives one fascinating case study of an industry cloud: the Hangzhou Smart City Brain. Hangzhou is a significant Chinese population center (of around 10 million people), long plagued by traffic congestion and inefficient urban systems. The city authorities partnered with Hangzhou-based tech company Alibaba to design the City Brain cloud system, which had its city-wide roll-out in 2017.
Utilizing data from traffic signals, GPS, the transportation bureau, the public transportation system and more, it was able to reduce journey times, diminish traffic jams, increase response times to accidents, decrease illegal parking and more. Essentially, it gathered data, processed it algorithmically, then fed it back into management systems (such as traffic signals) around the city, resulting in increased urban efficiency.
The Industry Cloud for Real Estate
The industry cloud is a clear evolution of cloud computing, providing tailored, industry-specific solutions, speeding up processes, increasing agility, improving performance and bolstering resilience to change and uncertainty. In the case of real estate, specialized systems and tools are emerging to meet the specific needs of owners and operators, allowing them to move away from more generic products - traditionally slower to adapt to the changing demands of the real estate industry.