Month: March 2020

COVID-19: In Uncertain Times, IT Can Help Foster a Collaborative Response

by Chris Drake, posted in IT Leader
C. Drake

Summary Bullets:

  • As China’s IT industry returns to work, new geopolitical tensions compound economic uncertainties which, if not addressed, could threaten public health and economic recovery.
  • Global IT companies can help to find collaborative solutions that encourage a change of attitude and which emphasize international cooperation and resource sharing.

In recent days, the world has watched optimistically as travel and other restrictions in China’s Hubei province, where the global COVID-19 pandemic started, have been slowly relaxed and as manufacturing in China progressively returns to normal. This optimism also extends to China’s IT manufacturing sector, with Inspur, Lenovo, Huawei, and other IT vendors all reporting a return to normal production. Continue reading “COVID-19: In Uncertain Times, IT Can Help Foster a Collaborative Response” →

COVID-19: Hyperscalers Ramp Up, Clamp Down to Meet Soaring Demand

by Amy Larsen DeCarlo, posted in Cloud Enable

 

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

Summary Bullets:

• Hyperscale cloud providers report a surge in demand for both their on-demand infrastructure services and productivity and collaboration services

• Past experience is so far helping guide capacity planning but there are still some limitations that are impacting performance as some users and applications involved in critical healthcare and emergency services get priority

The COVID-19 pandemic is driving businesses in virtually every field to deploy a remote workforce model overnight. This shift comes with immediate need for cloud-based productivity and collaboration applications. Organizations are also looking to virtualize other elements of their infrastructures, and thus requiring more cloud capacity to support these changes. Continue reading “COVID-19: Hyperscalers Ramp Up, Clamp Down to Meet Soaring Demand” →

COVID-19: Impact on Cybersecurity

by Rajesh Muru, posted in Secure

Summary Bullets:

R. Muru

• Vendors are prioritizing portfolio and marketing effort on the most common types of COVID-19 related cyber events, covering phishing and identity attacks.

• Cybersecurity vendors are reconfiguring their service and support functions encompassing remote working. Vendors face internal operational challenges in scaling up quickly with the right level of security posture.

The COVID-19 pandemic is having a huge impact globally across families and communities. In turn, this is having a massive impact on businesses of all sizes, including global multinationals. Almost all Fortune 100 and 500 companies have experienced major disruptions to their operations and markets, resulting in some economists predicting losses of more than $1.1 trillion worldwide. COVID-19 has created shutdowns and major disruptions in employee working styles and supply chains in all sectors, and in particular across government, finance, manufacturing, IT, and media. As these sectors reconfigure their operations, one of the most critical issues arising are increased cyber-attack threats as organizations become more dependent on technology. Continue reading “COVID-19: Impact on Cybersecurity” →

COVID-19: Don’t Miss This Moment – Invest Now in Data Literacy

by tcuzzillo, posted in Big Data, IT Leader
Ted Cuzzillo,
Principal Analyst – Data Analytics

Summary Bullets:

  • The world will find its way through the COVID-19 pandemic with data.
  • Data analysts will be among the ordeal’s heroes, and organizations with strong data literacy throughout will recover the fastest. Invest now in data literacy.

Doctors, nurses, and hospitals are the frontline heroes for the acute victims of the COVID-19 virus. But data is everyone’s compass — today as ‘the curve’ signals danger and eventually as the curve signals hope.

It’s a good time to understand data. Many organizations in the western hemisphere now face their greatest peril of our lifetimes. Those that survive will eventually face another daunting task: rebuilding in a new, different economy. Understanding data – knowing how to read it, organize it, prepare it, analyze it, and explain it – will be crucial. Continue reading “COVID-19: Don’t Miss This Moment – Invest Now in Data Literacy” →

Domo Partners with AI Leader to Help Customers Gain Greater Insights from Their Data

by Rena Bhattacharyya, posted in IT Leader
R. Bhattacharyya

Summary Bullets:

  • Many data analytics companies are beginning to embed artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities directly into their software, allowing users to reap the benefits of AI-driven insights without developing the machine learning algorithms themselves.
  • Domo is taking a different approach from some of its peers by working closely with AWS to add automatic machine learning, recommended actions, and drag-and-drop predictive model deployment in the Domo Business Cloud.

Many businesses are eager to reap the productivity and efficiency-enhancing benefits of AI. They have collected and stored vast amounts of data but face challenges when it comes to uncovering the nuggets of insight that can improve operations, enhance customer service, and speed faster and more informed decision-making. One of the biggest hurdles to AI adoption is a lack of resources. Building, training, tuning, and deploying machine learning models is a lengthy process that requires the expertise of expensive data scientists and AI experts. Many businesses don’t have these resources readily available; nor do they have the time or money to invest in acquiring them. Continue reading “Domo Partners with AI Leader to Help Customers Gain Greater Insights from Their Data” →

COVID-19: What Does the Crisis Mean for IT Infrastructure?

by Chris Drake, posted in IT Leader
C. Drake

Summary Bullets:

  • The COVID-19 crisis poses several challenges for IT infrastructure vendors and customers, including the initial disruptions created by the crisis and those related to longer-term economic slowdown.
  • But it is not all bad news, and in various ways, the IT infrastructure sector is showing resilience, increased demand, and the potential to push through this crisis.

The COVID-19 crisis poses several challenges for IT infrastructure vendors and their customers. Some of these relate to the disruptions created by the onset of the crisis; others will stem from the slowdown in economic activity that is expected to accompany it. Economic slowdown will halt or delay IT purchasing and projects and make enterprise customers less likely to take chances with new technology investments. Project delays – whether due to supply chain issues, customer slowdowns, or illness among key personnel – will damage vendor bottom lines, while small vendors with low cash reserves may be severely impacted. The stresses being endured by people across the IT industry are very real and will also cause a loss of productivity and project delays. Continue reading “COVID-19: What Does the Crisis Mean for IT Infrastructure?” →

COVID-19: UK’s National Health Service Enlists Big Data, AI, and Cloud to Fight the Virus

by Chris Drake, posted in IT Leader

Summary Bullets:

• The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) plans to harness the power of big data, AI, and cloud computing to manage and help contain the health crisis created by COVID-19 (coronavirus).

• Technology partners supporting this big data-based initiative include Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and Amazon Web Services.

The UK’s NHS has unveiled a government-initiated plan to harness the power of big data, AI, and cloud computing to manage and help contain the health crisis created by COVID-19. Specifically, the UK government has commissioned NHS England, NHS Improvement, which oversees the local NHS trusts, and NHSX, which is responsible for NHS digital innovation, to construct a big data platform to help those responsible for coordinating the response to the crisis – including government and health service officials. Continue reading “COVID-19: UK’s National Health Service Enlists Big Data, AI, and Cloud to Fight the Virus” →

5G: Ensuring Business Continuity in a Future COVID (Pandemic) Situation

by Malcolm Rogers, posted in Network
M. Rogers

Summary Bullets:

  • 5G network slicing can be used to readily deliver an enterprise-grade broadband experience directly to employees working from home.
  • By moving enterprise data and applications to the 5G edge, enterprises can ensure performance and security for employees accessing remotely.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, millions of workers globally have been driven from their offices and into their homes as we all collectively make an effort to stop the spread of the virus. While these efforts are noble and necessary, they have had a profound impact on the ability of enterprises to continue operations as normal. Companies around the world were by and large unprepared for this scenario. Going forward, enterprise will look to build in resiliency to these types of crises, with some experts warning COVID-19 will not be the last pandemic we experience. In the near future, 5G can be an important technology to help build in resiliency and ensure acceptable levels of business continuity during future societal disruptions. Continue reading “5G: Ensuring Business Continuity in a Future COVID (Pandemic) Situation” →

COVID-19: As IoT Ramps Up, Will COVID-19 Tamp It Down or Will the Ecosystem Find Ways to Help Detect and Combat the Pandemic?

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

Summary Bullets

• As many sectors of the economy are already negatively affected by COVID-19, the big ramp up of IoT that we have been anticipating, alongside the growth of 5G and edge computing, may also be in jeopardy.

• However, IoT may also be used to facilitate capabilities such as remote learning, remote health monitoring, working at home, enhanced public safety, and people tracking, much-needed technology for detecting and even helping to fight the disease.

With the global economy in a tailspin, technology providers within the IoT ecosystem are looking for ways to use their skills, software platforms, infrastructure, and connectivity platforms to help fight both the economic and health problems associated with COVID-19. Some of the areas where IoT is likely to be put to good use include:

• Smart Detection: People Tracking/video surveillance and facial recognition with location permissions tracked via phone apps (used in China and Israel). HD cameras for body temperature monitoring.

• Smart Healthcare: Remote patient monitoring and telehealth (thermal imaging for contagion monitoring, remote monitoring and diagnosis at home and during patient transfer, smart medical robots to care for quarantined patients)

• Smart Home: Sinks to control soap and water flow for proper handwashing

• Smart City/Public Safety: Patrol drones to enforce Shelter-in-Place laws, control centers for food and resource supply management

• Smart Manufacturing: Remote equipment monitoring/repair, along with machine vision to detect anomalies. Remote command centers/IT and security management. Remote/OTA security and patches for connected equipment in manufacturing, utilities and oil and gas locations.

• Wearables: Smart watches and fitness trackers for early detection. Smart rings for healthcare workers to track their own temperature and other parameters. Remote/OTA security and patches for wearable devices.

Some of these initiatives are causing legitimate concerns over privacy, as governments (in China and Israel for example) may use technology to control crowds, identify people who have been exposed to the virus through surveillance, AI, facial recognition, and video analytics, and even block their access to specific locations. Telecom operators are also involved because these controls are often dependent on exposing location and other personal data on users’ phones.

Continue reading “COVID-19: As IoT Ramps Up, Will COVID-19 Tamp It Down or Will the Ecosystem Find Ways to Help Detect and Combat the Pandemic?” →

COVID-19: South Korea Shows How IT can be Effective When Combined with Rigorous Testing

by Chris Drake, posted in IT Leader

Summary Bullets:

• South Korea’s strategy to combat COVID-19 has relied on a combination of extensive testing and the use of IT to enforce widespread tracing, monitoring, and quarantine.

• Government-initiated mobile phone applications have helped local authorities with limited personnel to manage large numbers of quarantined people.

Although South Korea was one of the earliest countries to experience a major outbreak of COVID-19, the country has recently seen a significant daily decline in the number of new cases. Meanwhile, although the number of deaths attributed to the virus recently saw a slight rise, this followed a long period during which there had been no increase. Other countries are now looking at South Korea to understand what they can learn from its COVID-19 experience. Continue reading “COVID-19: South Korea Shows How IT can be Effective When Combined with Rigorous Testing” →