Day: March 19, 2021

IBM and eProvenance Deploy Blockchain to Address Wine Industry Supply Chain Challenges

by Chris Drake, posted in IT Leader
C. Drake

Summary Bullets:

  • IBM and eProvenance recently announced the availability of VinAssure, a blockchain-based solution for the wine industry that helps users address traditional supply chain challenges.
  • Although VinAssure is off to a good start with its first member, a growing membership will help to reinforce the new solution’s strength and utility.

IBM and eProvenance, a Franco-American company that specializes in monitoring wine shipment conditions, recently unveiled plans to create a new wine industry ecosystem by harnessing the power of blockchain.  Central to this initiative will be VinAssure, a new, IBM blockchain-powered platform that is designed to provide users with a more insightful and secure way of tracking wines as they move through the distribution and transportation process from vineyard to consumer.  For example, using existing identifiers, such as a QR code on the bottle, consumers will be able to learn about a wine’s provenance and flavor profiles, or whether it meets certification standards for organic, biodynamic, or sustainability practices.  Similarly, retailers will be able access information about a wine’s production environment or the conditions in which the wine was transported. Continue reading “IBM and eProvenance Deploy Blockchain to Address Wine Industry Supply Chain Challenges” →

How Well Did PLDT and Globe Do in Capturing the ICT Opportunity During the Pandemic?

by Alfie Amir, posted in IT Leader, Network

A. Amir

Summary Bullets:

  • The pandemic is accelerating enterprises’ digital transformation in the Philippines, driving the market to grow at a CAGR of 6.1% in the next five years.
  • PLDT and Globe responded to the market shift with various new initiatives to capture the growing opportunity. PLDT reported a YoY increase of 5.6% in its enterprise ICT revenue, while Globe saw a 3.0% decline.

COVID-19 and Enterprise ICT Spending in the Philippines

It is widely known that COVID-19 has pushed enterprises to spend more on ICT and accelerate their digital transformation. The impact is greater in the emerging market, where business continuity planning (BCP) was not a common thing and enterprises largely relied on traditional IT services before the pandemic. In the Philippines, a recent study by GlobalData shows that 50% of 32 local enterprises increased their ICT budget in 2020 (28% by more than 6%; 22% by between 1% and 5%) to adapt to the new norm. The study also reveals that 56% of the Philippine enterprises are significantly expanding their ICT budget in 2021 by more than 6%. GlobalData estimates that the enterprise ICT services market in the country will increase by 2.3% YoY in 2020 and continue to grow at a CAGR of 6.1% in the next five years to USD 12.2 billion in 2024 (source: “GlobalData Market Opportunity Forecasts to 2024: ICT in Philippines,” February 28, 2021). Continue reading “How Well Did PLDT and Globe Do in Capturing the ICT Opportunity During the Pandemic?” →

The Bridge Alliance’s Federated Edge Hub Has the Potential to Drive the Future of Enterprise 5G

by Malcolm Rogers, posted in IT Leader, Network
M. Rogers

Summary Bullets:

• The Bridge Alliance’s Federated Edge Hub has the potential to drive adoption of 5G MEC solutions in the enterprise segment.

• However there are challenges related scale, skills, and solution sets that could be addressed through industry partnerships.

Breakthrough for MEC Interoperability

On March 16, the Bridge Alliance, an industry group of 33 operators, largely based in Asia Pacific, announced that two of its members, South Korea’s SK Telecom (SKT) and Singapore’s Singtel, trialed a proof of concept for multi-access edge compute (MEC) interconnectivity. The trial saw SKT and Singtel simultaneously stream the mobile game “World of Warships” running on a virtual game server deployed by gaming infrastructure company Gamye, into the MEC environments of the telcos and connected to smartphones using a standalone 5G network. The interconnection service, which Bridge Alliance has named the Federated Edge Hub, plans to add two more operators to the platform sometime in th near future, namely Australia’s Optus and Thailand’s AIS. While the proof of concept demonstrates a use case of 5G and MEC for consumer services, the real potential of the Federated Edge Hub lies in developing solutions for the enterprise.

Continue reading “The Bridge Alliance’s Federated Edge Hub Has the Potential to Drive the Future of Enterprise 5G” →