The Rise of Social Media and the SMAC Stack

Several factors came together at the start of the 2000s to eventually result in the kind of boom we saw closer to 2010. Key among these were the emergence of social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, the launch of 3G networks, improvements in mobile phones and phone technology and the emergence of cloud computing through platforms like Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services, coupled with analytics tools. If there was one key theme defining the tech progress that was made in the early 2000s, it would be the focus on making tools and technology more user-friendly and accessible to a wider audience. This was also a time characterised by technological breakthroughs and massive slumps, like the dot-com crash and the subsequent correction in the market that followed. The key themes that started to emerge were the coming of age and eventual coming together of technologies like social, mobile, analytics and cloud (SMAC) computing, which resulted in the establishment of the SMAC stack in the next decade.9 Several factors laid the groundwork for this to happen across varied areas of the technology spectrum.

On the networking front, 3G was launched in 2001, which made it possible to offer mobile internet on phones. Smartphones became a reality with people addicted to their Blackberry or PDA (personal digital assistant). This was the first stage of smartphones and mobile computing, which underwent a second coming with the launch of the Apple iPhone in 2007. Websites transitioned from basic static sites (Web 1.0) to more interactive and dynamic ones (Web 2.0), shaping how companies and people interacted with them and used them. The early 2000s were also characterised by individual users finding their voice on the internet, whether through the rise of blogging platforms or early social networking sites. LinkedIn, Myspace, Facebook, Reddit, YouTube and Twitter were all launched between 2003 and 2006, followed by Instagram and Pinterest in 2010. These two factors demonstrated how powerful individual users could be if provided a voice and a platform. The growth of mobile internet also demonstrated what a powerful tool the handheld device could be, setting the stage for the eventual emergence of the mobile phone at the centre of all corporate tools and communication strategies. Simultaneously, companies like Microsoft and Amazon launched their cloud computing offerings. Amazon Web Services was among the pioneers in this space, offering a pay-as-you-go cloud storage service in 2006, followed by the launch of Microsoft Azure in 2010.10 These innovations provided scalable, flexible and cost-effective computing infrastructure, making the Cloud accessible to businesses of all sizes. This also brought about an explosion of digital data that was now available to enterprises. Companies started offering specialised tools to slice and dice and make sense of this data to use it effectively. Early analytics solutions allowed organisations to derive actionable insights from data, laying the groundwork for the analytics piece in SMAC. Another development, while not directly associated with the SMAC stack, had a major impact on it—the growing dominance of Google and online search and advertising. As search engine optimisation started to gain traction, companies started relying on data to target their advertising and communication to cater to user queries. The emergence of this kind of data-driven and targeted advertising was the early stage of the use of analytics within social media to target messaging to specific users.11 Businesses turned to scalable, efficient technologies like SaaS (Software as a Service), cloud computing and data analytics to reduce costs and improve return on investments (ROI).12 While the widespread adoption of cloud computing resulted in an abundance of data availability, it also brought with it early concerns about data privacy, which led to the introduction of regulations that emphasised transparency and accountability in digital systems.13 These measures helped build trust in digital technologies, encouraging businesses to adopt cloud computing and analytics solutions, and were the foundation for several of the newer data privacy measures that followed in subsequent decades. The emergence of SMAC resulted in what came to be known as the consumerisation of IT and set the framework for the massive digital adoption that was to follow. It built upon a keenly held belief that technology innovation normally happens on the back of already existing infrastructure and architecture, building upon what were seen as innovations a few years ago rather than entirely dismantling an existing system. The biggest change, perhaps, was the ability of employees to use their own devices for office work. Bring your own device (BYOD) quickly became a selling point for companies trying to attract a younger workforce. These employees were digital natives and had grown up using technology in its myriad forms in their day-to-day lives. When these people entered the workforce, they were stunned by the obsolete tech that was in use in some pockets and industries. Companies that were smart enough to realise that allowing these employees to use their personal devices under certain conditions would help hold on to them were among the first to launch BYOD programmes. Employees accustomed to seamless, mobile-first experiences in their personal lives began demanding similar flexibility at work.

Up until the start of the decade, enterprise computing was synonymous with software and hardware that lived on the premises or within the physical boundaries of the workplace. The launch of services like Amazon Web Services and Azure changed that. Coupled with the improvements made in mobile devices, the traditional computing model changed significantly over the course of the decade. According to Gartner, it was a ‘nexus of forces’ (social media, mobile technology, cloud computing and information), which laid the groundwork for digital businesses, defining new business models that blur the physical and digital worlds.14 The research firm IDC termed SMAC the third platform—mainframes and the client-server networking model being the first two. This was as big a paradigm shift as the first two developments.15 The evolution of the SMAC stack led to the transformation of several aspects of how an enterprise functions, from daily operations, employee engagement, management of its data and security and several others. This decade was also when younger millennials started entering the workforce. Collaboration, social connectivity and mobile accessibility were essential to them to be able to work in a manner that made sense to them, leaving companies with no choice but to adapt. Tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams exemplify this shift, bringing social-style collaboration into enterprise settings. They brought in commonly used elements like instant messaging, social feeds and a cleaner interface to employee communication tools, which was more in line with what people were used to in their personal lives. In addition to using social media to facilitate smoother employee interactions, companies also started experimenting with the use of platforms like Facebook and Instagram to communicate with their customers. These platforms transitioned from being personal networking sites to business and marketing tools in the 2010s.16 LinkedIn especially emerged as the centre point for a company’s recruitment and brand-building activities.

This is one of the ways in which the emergence of the SMAC stack has had a far-reaching impact on how businesses operate. Consumers, too, started taking to social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter (now X) to voice any grievances they had with companies or brands. This direct line of communication with companies suddenly gave consumers a strong voice and made companies realise that they needed to keep a close watch on social platforms. Companies started investing in teams to monitor social media, cognizant of the brand impact of any negative chatter online. Over the next decade, this emerged as a separate marketing and communications channel. Enterprises now spend a sizeable part of their budget on maintaining their presence and collecting consumer data from these online channels, gaining better insights into the consumer’s mind.

For consumer-focused companies like Amazon and Netflix, this boom in data availability had a direct impact on their business models and plans.17 These companies could now analyse and use this data to provide personalised recommendations to consumers on what they should buy next or watch, leading to increased engagement and revenues. The same customer who was being served personalised insights at home realised the power these insights could have at work. Analytics platforms started getting integrated into existing data systems and providing actionable insights to employees. There was democratisation of data within the organisation, leading to faster and more efficient decision-making processes. Over the course of the next decade, this would become a critical part of how companies planned their overall strategy. It was still early enough for the average consumer to not be too paranoid about how their data was being used and willingly share personal information because they loved the experience of having recommendations and suggestions personalised just for them. We were still a few years away from concerns around data privacy and sovereignty.

The growth and evolution of these four factors—social, mobile, analytics and cloud computing or SMAC—has been interconnected, with the growth of one spurring the growth of the others. Over time, there was an emergence of partnerships across providers and the emergence of a larger ecosystem beyond just the individual companies. Application programming interface (API) and platform-driven models started to emerge and became a defining feature of the new business models.

The financial crisis of 2008 further sped up the adoption of technologies like cloud computing as economic and financial pressures necessitated the adoption of cost-saving measures while maintaining the rate of growth.18 Cloud computing promised lower upfront investments in traditional IT infrastructure and servers and allowed companies to pay for storage as per their requirements. This marked a significant shift in how they had been operating up until then. It also democratised access to cloud storage for several mid- and small-size companies for whom the cost of IT infrastructure had been a barrier until then. What this also resulted in was a convergence between consumer and enterprise offerings. Tools like WhatsApp and Zoom, originally consumer-oriented, found widespread use in businesses, while enterprise technologies adopted consumer-like functionality. This integration further entrenched consumerisation in workplace IT. The single biggest defining characteristic of this era was how end-user needs and requirements finally became a linchpin of enterprise technology. It fundamentally altered the relationships between consumers and service providers/ enterprises and between employees and their bosses, and reshaped how people communicate and collaborate at work. The other long-term impact, further heightened by the Covid-19 pandemic, was the reshaping of power dynamics at work and the emergence of remote work. Adopting a cloud-based system for data management and allowing employees to use their own devices meant that they did not necessarily need to be in their office to work. While these cases were few and far between till 2020, there were instances where employees, especially sales and service personnel, no longer needed to clock in every day. This was the first phase of decentralised communication with employees and partners, which was further enhanced with the introduction of AI-based chatbots in recent years.