Cloud Rising: Hyperscale Providers Play a Crucial Role in the Race to Connect During the COVID-19 Outbreak

A. DeCarlo

Summary Bullets:

• COVID-19 has driven organizations to shift to more virtual and remote operations, highlighting flaws in our connectivity, as well as challenges with our current collaboration and other business applications.
• While still at a relatively nascent stage, edge computing is beginning to play a role in enabling latency-sensitive use cases such as telemedicine applications for remote diagnostics that could potentially help address future global issues like the coronavirus outbreak.

The COVID-19 outbreak is driving an overwhelming shift to virtual operations for many traditional enterprises and educational institutions. The mass migration to a remote workforce and distance learning exposes technology gaps and inspires some deeper thinking on ways in which organizations can apply innovation to their models. Can more work be done remotely on a longer-term basis? How can students with limited Internet access be connected in a cost-effective and efficient way? What transformational use cases can emerging technologies drive forward that could help resolve the pandemic and address other complex problems around the world?

COVID-19: Netherlands Innovator Taps Blockchain and AI in the War Against COVID-19

Summary Bullets:

• VirusBlockchain deployed this week to identify and monitor COVID-19 free zones

• The blockchain monitoring system is backed by technology provider Qlikchain

This week the tech industry partnered with a public health consortium to launch a blockchain-enabled monitoring system aimed at keeping communities at bay from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Public Health Blockchain Consortium (PHBC) announced the new system which monitors healthy, uninfected individuals as they move between locations in order to automatically identify zones that are safe or unsafe. The system is built on a blockchain solution which combines AI, geographical information systems (GIS), and real-time information systems provided by virus surveillance providers.

Called VirusBlockchain, the system serves as a systematic, continuous, and anonymous verification of citizens and all workplaces in an effort to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 infection. The project is unlike other approaches that would typically track infected persons.