Guest editorial The subsea market is one of the fastest-growing sectors of the international oil and gas industry, involving the development and deployment of some of the most advanced technology ever created in increasingly inhospitable environments. Where once a water depth of 500 m or 1000 m was considered an industry challenge, many technologies are being designed for or can now operate at 3,000 m. And depths of 4000 m and 5000 m may not be too far away. More shallow regions will continue to be extremely important as subsea installations migrate to deeper depths for economic and environmental reasons. More and more subsea processing benefits all offshore production where the lack or the removal of permanent structures becomes the norm and all production is tied back to floating systems or directly to shore. The drive to place technology and equipment on the seabed as close as possible to the hydrocarbon source will continue. In the next few years, this trend could result in the emergence of production systems similar or more advanced than those coined as “subsea villages” or “subsea factories,” which may incorporate full processing capabilities. As these subsea centers continue to grow, so too does the size and scale of the systems now being considered. Every “village” or “factory” needs chemicals, communications, information, and power. The question of how that will be delivered to these subsea centers of the future is a key factor that needs to be considered in the early stages of development. However, when the industry refers to subsea “systems,” umbilicals and cables appear to be an afterthought. Most subsea equipment suppliers and operators seem to believe these are purchasable, off-the-shelf products. Contrary to this belief, umbilicals and power cables have become increasingly more complex and require a more customized approach to design and connectivity. These products should be at the forefront of an operator’s vision when it comes to powering the future systems. In his June 2014 JPT column, SPE President Jeff Spath wrote: “The power and the value of integration across several product lines, within a single company, could not be more evident than in subsea systems. Over time, contracting methods for subsea systems have changed from a best-in-class approach—with operators buying Christmas trees, manifolds, and controls from different suppliers and providing the integration and interface management internally—to a more likely scenario in which entire systems are being procured from a single supplier.” I could not agree more because providing products for more technically challenging systems cannot be done discretely without unacceptable cost escalation.