Vendors Find Pace of Tech Change Causing Tension Within UK Public and Businesses

J. Marcus

Summary Bullets:

• According to a new survey, citizens feel overwhelmed by rapid changes in technology, making for cautious purchasing and declining trust in business.
• Business leaders are more positive, but they are keenly aware of public confusion around new technologies; as a result, they are moderating their adoption planning.

The well-established promise of a digital future for society is welcomed by most people and businesses, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t accompanied by a certain level of confusion and concern. While the disruption caused by technological change has revealed new opportunities for UK citizens and companies, it has also exposed the limits of tech knowledge among both individuals and organizations, often necessitating what feels like ill-prepared decision making. A recent survey by Fujitsu captured public opinion on the importance of digital transformation to the success of future generations. It also tapped business leaders across the UK’s major industries to gain insights on how they view the advantages and challenges of increased digital adoption.

Narrow It Down!

S. Schuchart

Summary Bullets:

• Enterprises and vendors need to resist the urge to spend too much time defining broad marketing terms when it doesn’t really matter.

• Get your vendors to narrow their pitch to your industry/use cases.

IT in its early days was driven by technical terms. Magazines and advertisements were overflowing with megabytes per second and POSIX compliance and IEEE specifications. But things changed and it soon became clear that IT was a driver of business and that non-IT managers would need to become an integral part of the decision-making process. The marketing changed to something less technical and more approachable. But sometimes the pendulum swings too far, with must-have marketing terms that get spread out so far that they become meaningless. Common terms become umbrellas for what need to be more focused discussions, whether it is from a technical or non-technical standpoint.

Google Solidifies Position as a Trailblazer in High-Performance Computing with Purported Achievement of Quantum Supremacy

R. Bhattacharyya

Summary Bullets:

• A draft research paper leaked the news that Google had achieved quantum supremacy.
• The accomplishment reinforces Google’s position as a thought leader in the realm of high-performance computing.

Last week, a draft research paper appeared and then was immediately removed, apparently leaking the news that Google had achieved quantum supremacy, meaning it had performed calculations that today’s high-speed computers could not accomplish in a reasonable amount of time. Purportedly, Google’s Sycamore quantum processor, utilizing 53-qubits, performed calculations in 200 seconds that would have taken traditional supercomputers over 10,000 years to complete. The power and future potential of such an achievement are awe-inspiring, even if there are no practical applications today.

Alibaba Cloud Aims for Platform Integration with Digital Industries; New Retail Deployment with El Corte Inglés Highlights Success Beyond China

J. Marcus

Summary Bullets:

• Deployment with leading Spanish retailer El Corte Inglés represents the potential of Alibaba Cloud’s ‘New Retail’ solutions beyond China (and beyond Alibaba’s own e-commerce business).
• Retail is just one of many industries where the company is positioning to deliver integrated AI-driven digital solutions.

Ahead of its annual Apsara Conference in Hangzhou, China, Alibaba Cloud announced a key enterprise customer engagement in Europe. While the deployment of its AI-driven retail solution with leading Spanish retailer El Corte Inglés is described as a pilot, the two companies were already working together, having signed an agreement last year that covers commerce, smart payments, cloud computing, and retail-specific digital solutions.

Apsara Conference 2019: Alibaba Cloud Deepens Engagement with Big Data and AI and Extends International Footprint

C. Drake

Summary Bullets:

• In addition to consolidating domestic market primacy, Alibaba Cloud is intent on establishing leadership in other Asia-Pacific cloud and IT markets, including Indonesia.
• Accompanying Alibaba Cloud’s geographical expansion is a commitment to delivering higher-value solutions that leverage AI and big data, to help customers with their digital transformation objectives.

Alibaba’s cloud and IT business, Alibaba Cloud, kicked off its annual conference in Hangzhou, China with a commitment to working with customers to drive innovation, while also extending the success of its China strategy to other geographical markets. This year’s Apsara Conference, which brought together around 6,000 clients, partners, and developers, was a milestone event for Alibaba Cloud, which celebrates its tenth anniversary this month and whose rapid expansion has propelled it into the ranks of the world’s top five cloud service providers.

More Collaboration is Required to Move 5G IoT from Hype to Reality

M. Rogers

Summary Bullets:

• 5G will not be about consumers, devices, and video but rather about enterprises, connected things, and platforms; however the industry is still in a hype phase.

• In order to move hype to reality, operators, vendors, and industry need to collaborate around solutions and virtualize 5G networks, open them up to APIs and co-develop from the ground up.

From people to things

From attending 5G Asia last week, which was held at the Marina Bay Sands Expo Centre in Singapore, it is clear that 5G will mean something very different to the world than 4G LTE. The defining attributes of the LTE era is bringing mobile video to the masses and bringing many online for the first time. While 4G was about mass market consumer access to videos and applications from anywhere, 5G will be more about enterprises and governments transforming how we live and work. This also means 5G will be about connected things, machines, buildings, and cities, rather than connecting people with smartphones. 5G will also be about the power of analytics driven insights and automation.

5G has not quite arrived

Listening to speakers from across the technology industry from telcos to vendors to integrators to government agencies to independent software suppliers, it was clear that 5G will be all those things, but it also became abundantly clear that today 5G is not there yet. The telco and technology industries have a lot of work to do before the potential of 5G can really be unlocked. Outside of a handful of MNOs in US, South Korea, Australia, and EMEA, there are very few networks live today and coverage is very limited. Further, what is being offered so far are simply handset plans, not the society-changer that some have billed 5G as. Much of the buzz around early launches is really just hype, and current 5G services are simply a slightly faster LTE.

Oracle OpenWorld 2019: Oracle’s Evolving Integrated Cloud Paves the Way for Blockchain

C. Dunlap

Summary Bullets:

• Oracle Blockchain Platform Enterprise Edition supports pre-assembled integration with popular business apps.
• The evolving Oracle Cloud provides necessary support for advanced applications, including blockchain.

Oracle has been working to expand its cloud interoperability partnerships, in particular with Microsoft and VMware, building out an ecosystem to further its mission of combining database and PaaS with strengths in management, analytics, and integration. A primary objective of its evolving Oracle Cloud is to help developers build the next-generation of distributed apps, including blockchain apps.

DXC Creates a Data-Driven Contact Center Solution Based on Amazon Connect

S. Soh

Summary Bullets:

• There are opportunities for service providers to partner with hyperscale cloud providers to develop differentiated offerings; DXC’s contact center based on Amazon Connect is an example.
• Cloud providers need to work with IT services providers with strong business and technical capabilities to accelerate the adoption of their services.

Hyperscalers such as Alibaba Cloud, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure have developed a broad set of products and services to help enterprises transform their IT and become more efficient. However, they do not have many engineers and solution architects running around to help every enterprise deploy their technology, particularly if integration work is required. The hyperscalers are not in the business of helping customers integrate their solutions with existing applications. This opens up opportunities for service providers to develop managed cloud services through partnerships with hyperscalers and build expertise in both implementing solutions in different cloud environments and managing them.

Is the Internet of Things Growing as Rapidly as We Hoped?

K. Weldon

Summary Bullets:

• Early forecasts for the IoT suggested that we would have 50 billion global devices connected by 2020, but in reality, we have only reached about 2 billion devices globally.
• What are the reasons to be optimistic about the next five years when it comes to the growth of the IoT? What are the reasons to be pessimistic?

In 2010, we started to see huge excitement about the IoT from a diverse ecosystem of suppliers, ranging from operators and MVNOs to infrastructure vendors, module manufacturers, integrators, and solution providers. Early forecasts from companies such as Cisco and Ericsson suggested that by 2020 we would see from 20-50 billion devices connected.

Huawei Connect 2019: When It Comes to Combating Global Politics, Huawei Is Taking the Long View with Its AI Portfolio

B. Shimmin

Summary Bullets:

• Though unacknowledged, Huawei responded to growing global criticisms at its annual Connect Conference in Shanghai by introducing several new products in support of its full-stack, all-scenario AI portfolio.
• With several new solutions spanning AI training and algorithm execution hardware, cloud services, open source projects, and ecosystem investments, Huawei intends to build a vibrant, sizable, and influential ecosystem of partners.

Huawei may be facing a global and escalating chorus of scrutiny, criticism, and outright censure right now over whether or not enterprise buyers should trust the Chinese technology giant. But, here in Shanghai, China at Huawei’s Connect 2019 conference, the skies are blue, the temperature is temperate, and the trees appear ready to don their glorious autumnal colors at any moment. This was the sentiment – only slightly paraphrased – delivered as a response to these challenges by Huawei’s Deputy Chairman and Rotating CEO, Ken Hu, during the opening keynote on Wednesday.