Be Smarter When Building Smart Cities

by Gary Barton, posted in Secure
G. Barton
G. Barton

Summary Bullets:

  • Enterprises and communities should have clear aims when considering smart city projects.
  • Smart cities should be built on a per-project basis rather than looking at the city/community as a whole.

There have been successful ‘smart city’ projects.  Orange Business Services (OBS) has enjoyed success working with Saudi Arabia on large-scale projects in the kingdom.  OBS has also helped ski resorts identify where visitors are travelling from and how they can make it easier for them to visit their resort.  This later example is not strictly a smart city program, but both of these projects point to important aspects of why projects seeking to use technology to aid communities can succeed and fail. Continue reading “Be Smarter When Building Smart Cities” →

Amdocs Microservices360 Gives Service Providers the Flexibility to Expand Their Enterprise ICT Portfolios Modularly

by Alfie Amir, posted in Cloud Enable, Internet of Things
A. Amir

Summary Bullets:

  • Amdocs Microservices360 gives carriers the flexibility to expand their enterprise portfolio modularly and offer integration between services.
  • he platform has various microservices and supports the latest technologies, such as open source, DevOps, pipeline automation and cloud deployment.

Amdocs shared Microservices360 and other solutions at its recent Asia-Pacific event (for more about the event, please see: “Amdocs APAC Summit 2018: Enabling Carriers to Drive Enterprise Digital Transformation,” July 23, 2018). Microservices360 supports open source technologies, the DevOps lifecycle and Red Hat OpenShift for CI/CD pipeline automation and flexible deployment (on-premises or cloud). The microservices include catalogue, order, payment and partner management. While the focus has been on carriers’ consumer segments, the platform can also enable carriers to expand and enhance their enterprise portfolios. Continue reading “Amdocs Microservices360 Gives Service Providers the Flexibility to Expand Their Enterprise ICT Portfolios Modularly” →

Will Enterprise 5G Use Cases be Ready for Prime Time?

by Kitty Weldon, posted in Mobilize
Kathryn Weldon – Research Director, Business Network and IT Services – Americas

Summary Bullets:

  • As some 5G networks will be commercially available by the end of this year, operators must now turn to development of compelling and realistic use cases beyond a faster rendition of 4G networking.
  • Operators need to up their game if they are to be recompensed for the substantial investments they are making in 5G. The question is, will autonomous cars, robots, and virtual reality be enough to spark buyer interest?

While 5G services are not yet live, this next generation of wireless technology is already top of mind for service providers, OEMs, and other telecom market ecosystem players. Aside from gearing up to build out the technology, they will be working together to make sure that 5G use cases are compelling – i.e., different enough from 4G to matter to customers. As with any new generation of wireless, the stakes are high, and operators are hoping that they’ll make back their substantial investments in 5G. For most operators, this should come via a “massive” uptake of connectivity, plus revenues from advanced services spanning consumers and business customers. Continue reading “Will Enterprise 5G Use Cases be Ready for Prime Time?” →

Google Cloud Next: Google Finally Joins the Serverless Ranks, but Enterprises Aren’t Interested Yet

by Charlotte Dunlap, posted in Cloud Enable
C. Dunlap

Summary Bullets:

  • Google announced the general availability of Cloud Functions, but are enterprises ready for serverless computing?
  • • The Google Cloud Build app development environment supports the increased demand for CICD among enterprises.

Google announced general availability of its serverless platform, Cloud Functions, during last week’s Google Cloud Next conference in San Francisco. The growing phenomenon of serverless computing pits Google most squarely against cloud rivals AWS Lambda and Microsoft Azure Functions. Google’s serverless solution, founded on App Engine, runs alongside its Cloud Services Platform and offers new runtimes, additional languages, and enhanced performance, networking, and security features. Continue reading “Google Cloud Next: Google Finally Joins the Serverless Ranks, but Enterprises Aren’t Interested Yet” →

Apple, Facebook, and Google Won’t Destroy Denmark’s Environmental Achievements

by Chris Drake, posted in IT Leader
C. Drake

Summary Bullets:

  • New data centers operated by Apple, Facebook, and Google will contribute to rising energy consumption in Denmark over the next decade, coinciding with a growing shortfall of renewable energy.
  • Despite concerns about their environmental impact, hyperscale Internet firms are supporting various energy efficiency initiatives, including energy recycling and new data center design and deployment methods.

A recent Danish government memorandum raised new concerns about the long-term environmental impact of data centers operated by large Internet companies such as Apple, Facebook, and Google. However, while such concerns should be taken seriously, they need to be understood within the context of wider initiatives by hyperscale Internet firms to improve data center energy efficiency. Continue reading “Apple, Facebook, and Google Won’t Destroy Denmark’s Environmental Achievements” →

Inmarsat: Filling IoT Coverage Gaps for ‘Always On’ Applications

by Alfie Amir, posted in Internet of Things
A. Amir

Summary Bullets:

  • Satellite providers have key roles to drive IoT market especially in filling the coverage gaps in remote areas
  • Satellites are mainly used for backhaul network, not so practical as the last mile access due to its technical limitations such as latency and physical dimensions

While some satellite providers are entering the IoT space and compete against the mobile operators (for more, please see Cable and Satellite Companies Pushing into IoT: Can They Win Against Mobile Operators?, July 6, 2018) other satellite providers such as Inmarsat are partnering with carriers to fill the IoT coverage gaps in areas beyond cellular network can reach offshore oilrigs, airplanes in transit, remote environmental monitoring, and vehicle and people tracking. Based on GlobalData’s IoT Deployment Database, there are more than 100 satellite-based IoT deployments tracked, with an installed base that almost doubled in the last two years. This also reflects the IoT market trend shown by GlobalData IoT Project Insight 2017 (n=924) where 17% of IoT deployments today are on fleet management (the third highest after equipment management and building management). In some cases, the satellite network is also used in cellular areas, but offered as network diversity to offer higher availability for mission critical applications such as payment terminals in petrol stations. Continue reading “Inmarsat: Filling IoT Coverage Gaps for ‘Always On’ Applications” →

SD-WAN and Hybrid VPN in the Art of Digital Network Transformation

by Joel Stradling, posted in Network
Joel Stradling – Research Director, Business Network and IT Services

Summary Bullets:

  • GlobalData research reveals that an overwhelming majority – 85% of participants in a live web poll (see chart below) – view the evolution of their WAN as critical or very important to the overall digital transformation program.
  • Business outcome is the new discussion focus around WAN evolution between enterprises and their managed service provider suppliers.
  • Industry vertical segments have unique needs, and any network transformation can be built with those demands. This blog explores three verticals in greater depth: manufacturing, logistics, and services.

Current WAN implementations are falling short of business requirements. During a recent survey (Reference: GlobalData enterprise survey November 2017), research indicated that most businesses have a strong desire, indeed a near obsession, to move applications and workloads to the cloud. The virtualization of servers and other IT infrastructure are viewed with positive attitudes for achieving cost savings and agility. However the emergence of novel technologies, such as AI, IoT, 5G, and big data analytics, is placing more and more pressure on legacy WAN technologies. Thus various industry verticals highlighted the shortcoming of current WANs, and the steps being taken to evolve corporate IT and networking to the next level of agile infrastructure.

Continue reading “SD-WAN and Hybrid VPN in the Art of Digital Network Transformation” →

Apple v. Pepper Elevated to U.S. Supreme Court, Where Developers Seek Acknowledgment

by Charlotte Dunlap, posted in Cloud Enable, IT Leader, Mobilize
C. Dunlap

Summary Bullets:

  • The U.S. Supreme Court is taking on the Apple v. Pepper antitrust case to determine whether the Apple iOS App Store represents an anti-competitive monopoly and, as such, whether users can sue Apple.
  • A ruling for Apple by the court will impact software developers’ ongoing role in providing the innovation behind mobile apps.

The newly pending U.S. Supreme Court case which will determine whether Apple’s App Store distribution model represents an anti-competitive monopoly could have far-reaching ramifications among software developers, whose collective brain trust is already at a premium and in great shortage. Continue reading “Apple v. Pepper Elevated to U.S. Supreme Court, Where Developers Seek Acknowledgment” →

Multi-Cloud Services: Fujitsu’s Take

by John Marcus, posted in Cloud Enable
J. Marcus

Summary Bullets:

  • Just as multi-cloud usage is recognized as a necessity, IT suppliers are keen to help enterprises reduce its inherent complexity.
  • Fujitsu is strengthening its multi-cloud integration and operations services by partnering with key platform vendors and training thousands of service professionals to achieve relevant certifications.

Starting in the second half of last year, the focus on hybrid cloud implementations shifted towards the need to accommodate concurrent management of workloads running on multiple cloud platforms, and this has emerged as one of the biggest themes in cloud computing. Whether it is the case of central IT looking for some level of control over enterprise-wide consumption or the equally common justification for the same organization using, say, Amazon EC2 for one set of workloads while using Azure and/or VMware for others, ‘hybrid’ management solutions now need to support this multi-cloud usage. Continue reading “Multi-Cloud Services: Fujitsu’s Take” →

Megadeal Between Microsoft and Walmart Speaks More About Fast AI Than Global Scale

by Brad Shimmin, posted in Big Data
B. Shimmin

Summary Bullets:

  • Walmart’s announcement that it would use Microsoft’s cloud platform and desktop apps across its entire business looks to be a direct shot across the bow of Amazon, a direct counterpoint to Amazon’s own ‘All In’ marketing mantra.
  • Instead, this partnership speaks more to the operationalization and unification of synergistic technologies – AI, IoT, big data – as a means of speeding time to market for Walmart’s numerous customer engagement projects.

At first blush, Walmart’s announcement that it would use Microsoft’s cloud platform and desktop apps across its entire business looks to be a direct shot across the bow of Amazon the retailer and Amazon the provider of public cloud services with Amazon Web Services (AWS). Continue reading “Megadeal Between Microsoft and Walmart Speaks More About Fast AI Than Global Scale” →