AI-Video Can Boost Telcos’ Industrial Solutions, but Requires Careful Partnering

M. Rogers

Summary Bullets:

• Telcos have a good opportunity to leverage AI-video systems in their wider industrial solutions portfolio as the market has rapidly matured.

• Rather than develop solutions in house, telcos should look to partner with existing vendors due to the complexity of developing AI video algorithms and integrating with industrial systems.

The use of AI-enabled video surveillance systems continues to rise across Australia as well as globally with a myriad of use cases like public safety, facilities management, crowd management, asset management, and more. However, these systems also generate a large amount of video data, which requires significant bandwidth and storage capacity to process and store. This makes the video or video surveillance as a service an attractive market for telcos and managed service providers as they seek to expand their revenue base as traditional service margins decline. However, the market for AI-video solutions is rapidly maturing and diversifying, with a growing field of specialists developing specific vertically aligned use cases for AI-video from retail, to government, to mining, education, and more. Further, video systems are increasingly integrated with other IT and operational systems such as physical security, communications networks and IoT platforms creating a complex ecosystem of solutions, vendors, use cases, and monetization models to navigate.

The Enterprise Customer Segmentation Matrix

R. Pritchard

Summary Bullets:

• Since customer databases are available for mass business markets alongside providers’ existing major enterprise knowledge, service providers have traditionally segmented target markets by number of employees.

• Service providers are realizing they need to be more sophisticated and are trying to identify factors like digital maturity and proportion of knowledge workers.

More often than not, enterprise telecoms service providers segment the market in terms of employee numbers. Typically, they divide the market into SOHO/micro (0-5 employees: owner-managers don’t count as employees), SME/SMB (from 6-250 employees), and corporate/enterprise (250+ employees). Of course, these definitions vary from one service provider to the next, and often, specialist markets such as the MNC segment and public sector are addressed outside of the employee count model. The main drivers behind this are: (1) ‘this is how we’ve always done it,’ (2) ‘we can get databases of the target market by employee numbers,’ (3) and ‘any other approach is too difficult.’

Malaysia Enterprise Telecom Update Q1 2023 – Strong Momentum After Solid Performance in 2022

A. Amir

Summary Bullets:

• Malaysian telcos recorded steady performance in the enterprise segment in 2022.

• They started the year strong with several industrial collaborations, but there are still huge market opportunities for them to capture.

Malaysian telcos had strong momentum last year in building their vertical capabilities and enterprise 5G solutions. This includes TM ONE in smart cities and manufacturing sectors, CelcomDigi in healthcare and logistics, and Maxis’ 5G Alliance. For more, please see the 2022 quarterly updates at: Malaysia Enterprise Telecom Update Q1 2022: Wider Industry Collaborations Despite Stagnant Growth in 2021 April 13, 2022; Malaysia Enterprise Telecom Update Q2 2022 – Mixed Developments but Positive Overall Progress August 11, 2022; Malaysia Enterprise Telecom Update Q3 2022 – Slower Development but Steady Performance October 31, 2022; and Malaysia Enterprise Telecom Update Q4 2022 – Stronger Vertical Play, Wider Enterprise 5G Development January 5, 2023. This report analyzes Malaysian telcos initaitives in the enterprise segment in Q1 2023 as well as their 2022 financial year business performance in the segment.

ASEAN Enterprise 5G Q1 2023 Round-Up: Slow Start to the Year for Most ASEAN Telcos While AIS and Singtel Extended Their Leads

A. Amir

Summary Bullets:

• AIS and Singtel continued their momentum with various initiatives to extend their enterprise 5G leaderships in their respective markets.

• Other telcos in the region had a slower start to the year with only several initiatives and collaborations.

In 2022, telcos aggressively expanded their 5G networks and built enterprise 5G capabilities through various partnerships with technology vendors and collaborations with industry players. While many initiatives were still in the proof-of-concept and trial stages, leading telcos such as Singtel and AIS have launched their respective solutions commercially in the market. For more, please see GlobalData quarterly ASEAN 5G 2022 reports here:

• ASEAN 5G Q1 2022 Roundup: Beginning of 5G Network Slicing and the Platform Play, April 8, 2022.

• ASEAN 5G Q2 2022 Roundup: Wider Partnerships Between Carriers and IT Providers, August 3, 2022.

• ASEAN 5G Q3 2022 Round-Up, October 17, 2022.

• ASEAN 5G Q4 2022 Round-Up: Wider Industry Collaborations, Private Network, and Sustainability, January 3, 2023.

‘AIoT’ Mashup Works Better as a Concept Than a Buzzword

J. Marcus

Summary Bullets:

• Tech buzzwords work when they successfully communicate innovation in a catchy phrase.

• The emerging ‘AIoT’ construction is awkward, but it may help IoT providers communicate their value to knowledgeable tech audiences.

The concept of combining AI and IoT has been around for a few years. More recently, some tech market players have begun using the phraseology ‘AIoT’ to capture it. A good technology buzzword helps communicate instantly to tech and non-tech audiences what the innovation is all about, or at least provides a sizable hint. Both ‘artificial intelligence’ and ‘Internet of Things’ have been pretty good at this, but the mashup term AIoT (or ‘artificial intelligence of things’) is awkward, not self-explanatory, and ultimately, unhelpful.

GlobalData’s New Digital Infrastructure Australia Report Highlights the Vendors Best Positioned to Win Deals in the Cloud Network Convergence Era

M. Rogers

Summary Bullets:

• As enterprise embrace hyperscale cloud platforms and networking services are more tightly integrated with cloud offerings, a diverse range of vendors are now competing for digital infrastructure services in Australia.

• Telcos are focused on evolving a network as a service approach, connecting as many clouds as possible, while systems integrators (SIs) and IT managed services providers (MSPs) are looking more at the migration towards an ongoing management of multi-cloud infrastructure.

The market for digital infrastructure services in Australia is served by a broad range of players that include both domestic and international players across telecommunications companies, IT MSPs, SIs, hyperscalers, and data center specialists. Further, many of the leading providers rely on packaging products and services from other vendors alongside their own to provide more complete set of solutions. For example, a telco offering its networking services alongside re-selling IaaS from a hyperscale cloud provider, or an SI offering managed network and managed cloud contracts from multiple vendors. As enterprise databases and applications increasingly move towards hyperscale environments led by a few players, digital infrastructure providers need to differentiate around areas like network visibility and performance, service automation, consulting and advisory, service orchestration, cost management, and managed services. As such, the covered vendors all have different strengths based on their background.

Turning Sysadmins into Python Programmers

C. Dunlap
Research Director

Summary Bullets:

• New vendor training programs make high-value digitization roles more accessible to IT workers.

• Red Hat, Cisco, and Google report progress in training and education.

The tech industry has undergone a sea change in how software and technology resources are created and consumed. Now enterprises are hard-pressed to fulfill new skillsets for implementing business transformations. This dearth in skilled workers poses a grave danger to the global economy by threatening to stall the implementation of important technological innovations which will advance corporate progress.

Italy’s Privacy Watchdog Temporarily Bans ChatGPT: Who Will be Next?

B. Valle

Summary Bullets:

• The Italian National Authority for Data Protection has temporarily banned ChatGPT after a leak exposed the personal data of users of the paid-for version of the service.

• OpenAI, the company behind the popular chatbot, has 20 days to respond to the privacy watchdog or risks a fine equivalent to 4% of its annual turnover.

The Italian National Authority for Data Protection became the first regulator to start an investigation into OpenAI’s ChatGPT last week. Debate turned to the inevitability of increased regulatory oversight to control the effects of the explosion in the use of generative AI, and the possibility that the measure could be followed by other Western democracies, as the conversation around AI and ethics becomes more urgent.

Agribusiness is New Tech Battleground for Australia’s Telcos

M. Rogers

Summary Bullets:

• TPG and Telstra have had multiple trials with various agribusiness in Australia, leveraging 5G, AI, IoT, and data services to develop solutions for livestock.

• Both companies have yet to develop commercialized solutions, and could consider joint ventures with or acquisitions of agritech firms to fully capitalize on the vertical opportunity.

Cows, potatoes, and tomatoes could be the next tech and telco battleground in Australia. Leading telcos Telstra and TPG have both made recent announcements around their efforts to develop converged technology offerings centered on agriculture use cases.

Cybersecurity: Corporate Boards Take a Reactive Approach to Security

Amy Larsen DeCarlo – Principal Analyst, Security and Data Center Services

Summary Bullets:

• Though more than 76% of the surveyed corporate directors say their boards had at least one cybersecurity expert member, only one-third highly regarded their board of directors’ ability to navigate a security disaster.

• Leadership is not as proactive as it should be in getting ahead of incidents. Fewer than half of the board of directors who participated in the study had conducted cybersecurity tabletop exercises in the last 12 months.

The Wall Street Journal and the National Association of Corporate Directors surveyed 472 directors across all industries about their current cyber risk management postures and their respective levels of preparedness. The survey comes in advance of new US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requirements that public companies release uniform reports on cybersecurity risk management, governance, incident reports, and cybersecurity expertise within their board of directors. The survey results paint a mixed picture that reveals a fairly high level of expertise but a largely reactive approach to security.