Gartner has outlined the likely impacts of each disruptive factor.

 Throw the First Punch — An Incumbent Disrupts the Margin/Business Model of Its Onetime Partners in Adjacent Markets

An uneasy peace exists among the incumbents (Protectors and Evolutionary Disrupters). While there is some heightened tension as former partners now compete, no one wants an all-out slugfest because everyone is addicted to the high 50 percent or more gross margins in storage and networking hardware and DC infrastructure software. New workloads may be going to external IT providers, and these buyers are not interested in high-price/high-margin commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products as they shift toward open-source software (OSS) and embedded manageability; however, vendors are focused on maintaining the status quo for as long as possible.

Should a powerful Protector aggressively enter an adjacent market with its new offering, it would trigger severe shockwaves throughout the industry. A Protector might decide it has more to gain by forcing a major disruption. It might be one that sees no way to win, and triggers a massive price war in the hope that first-mover advantage will give it the upper hand. Or an Evolutionary Disrupter recognizes an all-out battle is inevitable, and that it is as strong as it ever will be, so it throws the first punch to maximize its advantage and quickly cripples its competition.

 In today's DC infrastructure market, there are numerous potentially disruptive technologies, including software-defined networking (SDN) and software-defined storage, network function virtualization; extreme low-energy processors and webscale-integrated infrastructure. With buyers needing step-function improvements in the efficiencies of their DC infrastructures to cope with ever-increasing demands and the threat of outsourcing, there is potentially enormous latent demand for the improvements these disruptive technologies could bring. A Protector turned Revolutionary Disrupter could leverage these disruptive technologies to upset adjacent markets. If the Throw the First Punch factor occurs, though, the current state of market is instantly changed to outright competitive warfare.
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