Month: March 2021

Digital Acceleration – For When Digital Transformation Is Too Slow

by Gary Barton, posted in Big Data, Cloud Enable, Communicate, Internet of Things, IT Leader, Mobilize, Network, Secure
G. Barton
G. Barton

Summary Bullets:          

  • Digital acceleration implements short-term tactical changes over longer-term strategic projects.
  • Digital acceleration is a response to changing customer demands, not just COVID-19.

Digital transformation has been an industry catchphrase for some time now.  Its definition is both vague and changeable, but it speaks to using technology to improve internal processes within an enterprise to deliver cost savings and/or improved performance.  It encompasses a wide range of technologies including cloud, SD-WAN, collaboration, IoT, 5G, blockchain, AI, and SaaS. 

However, there is a new buzz phrase on the block: digital acceleration.  So, is there a difference between digital transformation and digital acceleration?  The ‘helpful’ answer to that is ‘yes and no.’  The intentions of both digital transformation and digital acceleration are the same, as are the technologies involved.  The big difference is in methodology. Continue reading “Digital Acceleration – For When Digital Transformation Is Too Slow” →

Cloud Wars Under the Microscope: Leaders’ DevOps Strategies and Solutions

by Charlotte Dunlap, posted in Big Data, Cloud Enable

C. Dunlap

Summary Bullets:

  • Businesses are resorting to shifts in investments in emerging high-value innovations to hasten their cloud journey.
  • We delve into how cloud rivals stack up in five key innovations: low-code/intelligent automation, developer tools/app architectures, hybrid/multi-cloud management, holistic cloud security, and edge computing.

This week, GlobalData released Part II on its analysis of the five most important innovations necessary for successful business transformations. This report specifically delves into how Microsoft, AWS, Google, and IBM stack up in key digitization technologies. Considering the pandemic’s unprecedented pressure on the global economy, prompting enterprises to accelerate and nail digitization initiatives, we determined that cloud providers’ strategies and solutions should be put under the microscope. (Please see “A Cloud Wars Comparison on Critical innovations (Part II),” March 9, 2021). Continue reading “Cloud Wars Under the Microscope: Leaders’ DevOps Strategies and Solutions” →

After a Fire Isn’t the Time to Buy Extinguishers

by Steven J. Schuchart Jr., posted in IT Leader

S. Schuchart

Summary Bullets:

• Enterprises and organizations have long ignored business continuity / disaster recovery (BC/DR)

• BC/DR is a fundamental business duty like insurance, not an optional expense

Yesterday, French cloud provider OVH suffered a fire in one of its data center complexes in Strasbourg, France. It entirely destroyed one unit, damaged another and caused the shutdown of the rest of the units on site. Thankfully, no one was hurt and OVH is working on restoring service. But an entire data center is gone, along with parts of another. Not down, burned. Gone. Fried. No realistic chance of recovery, not anytime soon if at all. The fire was so hot the metal walls of the building deformed. Continue reading “After a Fire Isn’t the Time to Buy Extinguishers” →

Microsoft’s Voice Mimicking Achievement Takes Natural Language Generation to New Levels, Albeit Controversial

by Rena Bhattacharyya, posted in IT Leader

R. Bhattacharyya

Summary Bullets:

• Custom Neural Voice can be trained to generate natural language that sounds like a specific person.

• Microsoft has considered the implications of Custom Neural Voice and prioritizes responsible use of the technology but the solution underscores the urgency for discussions related to Responsible AI.

Microsoft recently announced general availability, in limited access (use cases subject to Microsoft approval) of Custom Neural Voice, a service that uses artificial intelligence to generate natural language (enabling computers to ‘speak’). The achievement is quite impressive because of the level of customization it offers. Enabling computers to talk isn’t new, but what does raise eyebrows is that Custom Neural Voice can be trained to generate natural sounding speech that mimics a person. And not just a fictional person – but a specific individual. Continue reading “Microsoft’s Voice Mimicking Achievement Takes Natural Language Generation to New Levels, Albeit Controversial” →

Microsoft Ignite 2021: Microsoft’s Priorities—Low-Code, Multi-Cloud/Edge, Intelligent Data Services

by Charlotte Dunlap, posted in Cloud Enable

Charlotte Dunlap – Principal Analyst, Application Platforms

Summary Bullets:

• Microsoft broadens developer reach via new low-code language, Power FX, an open-source contribution on GitHub

• Arc-enabled ML brings Azure AI capabilities to multiple clouds and closer to the data

During last week’s Ignite mega developer conference, Microsoft’s technology announcements focused on app modernization including IT operations’ ability to access a common control plane among multi-cloud environments and ensure proper workload lifecycle management. DevOps teams are interested in extending multi-cloud management’s ML data services for developing apps and training models locally where the data resides, to reduce sensitive data transport requirements. Continue reading “Microsoft Ignite 2021: Microsoft’s Priorities—Low-Code, Multi-Cloud/Edge, Intelligent Data Services” →

Microsoft Announces Azure Percept to Bring Azure AI Services to the Network Edge

by Chris Drake, posted in Cloud Enable
C. Drake

Summary Bullets:

  • With Azure Percept, Microsoft aims to help enterprises deploy and use Azure AI services on devices located at the network edge to support new use cases.
  • Despite a swath of capabilities to support use-case development, Microsoft still needs to demonstrate demand for the sort of use cases Azure Percept is designed to enable.

One of the new solutions announced by Microsoft at its recent annual developer conference, Ignite, was Azure Percept, a hardware- and software-based platform to help enterprises deploy and use Azure AI services on devices located at the network edge.  Azure Percept includes a development kit, Azure Percept DK, which allows users to develop AI proofs of concept for use cases leveraging vision and/or sound.  These could include applications that detect production anomalies in manufacturing scenarios or those that apply shelf or customer analytics to retail environments.  The kit features hardware-enabled AI modules for running models at the edge.  However, they can also be connected to the Azure cloud, supporting enterprises’ ability to take advantage of hybrid cloud scenarios. Continue reading “Microsoft Announces Azure Percept to Bring Azure AI Services to the Network Edge” →

Can IT Service Providers Add Significant Value to IoT Deployments?

by Kitty Weldon, posted in Internet of Things

K. Weldon
K. Weldon

Summary Bullets:

  • The fragmentation of the IoT supplier ecosystem has long been a barrier to adoption, as enterprises may be worried about having to separately negotiate, pay for, and manage connectivity, devices, security solutions, management platforms, and vertical solutions from multiple suppliers.
  • The role IT services providers play in making IoT easier to adopt and use is by offering a one-stop shop that combines their own and third-party solutions and adds advisory, integration, professional and managed services, and end-to-end vertical solutions.

In COVID-19 times, IoT has evolved to become a key enabler of solutions to ensure safety of workers, facilitate remote operations through monitoring and control, and ensure uninterrupted supply chains. Some operators and IT services providers (ITSPs) have thrived in this environment, while others have found it difficult to convince skeptical businesses to invest in what may still be perceived as an unproven technology (that has actually been around for 20+ years) with uncertain outcomes. In past years, it has also been difficult for some IoT ecosystem vendors to generate substantial revenues, with security breaches, supplier fragmentation, and perceived high solution costs listed by enterprises as barriers to adoption, along with difficult-to-prove ROIs. Continue reading “Can IT Service Providers Add Significant Value to IoT Deployments?” →