Month: July 2023

Generative AI Watch: Meta Challenges OpenAI’s Market Dominance with the Release of Llama 2

by Beatriz Valle, posted in Big Data
B. Valle

Summary Bullets:

• Meta announced general availability of Llama 2, the next generation of its open source LLM, which is free for research and commercial use.

• Meta is challenging the market dominance of OpenAI, with a radically different business model based on the open-source availability of its technology.

Meta recently released Llama 2, the latest version of its open-source large language model (LLM), which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to generate text, images, and code. Llama was first released in February 2023 as a collection of foundation models, and it was made available exclusively to researchers. Now, Meta has just released the commercial version of the LLM, which will enable developers and businesses of all sizes to build applications. Because the technology is open source, access to Llama gives anyone the opportunity to improve the AI, accelerating technological innovation. By contrast, OpenAI’s GPT-4 is a so-called ‘black box’ in which the data and code used to build the model are not available to third parties.

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UK Telco Jobs Vanish as the Market Evolves

by Rob Pritchard, posted in Cloud Enable, Communicate, Network
R. Pritchard

Summary Bullets:

• Leading UK infrastructure-based telco service providers have announced up to 70,000 job cuts in the coming years, driven by efficiency initiatives and technology.

• Job losses are always regrettable, but improvements in service levels and the enablement of consumer and business innovations have been remarkable since BT’s privatization.

Virgin Media O2 has released its latest financial results, which include the elimination of 2,000 jobs (nearly 10% of its workforce of 18,700). This comes as the company has recently shed fixed and broadband lines due to the challenging UK economic situation.

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Telcos Will Face Market Uncertainty as They Progress Toward 2030

by Rajesh Muru, posted in Cloud Enable, Communicate, Internet of Things, Network, Secure
R. Muru

Summary Bullets:

• Advancements in technology place telcos in good footing to innovate, as majority of telcos re-engineer operationally, capitalize on their core network strengths, and rationalize portfolio.

• Future telco success will be hampered by the global economic climate (particularly inflation), rising energy costs, increased regulatory pressures, and increased direct and indirect (cloud providers) competition.

Telcos growth ambitions (through a transitioned operationally agile innovative business) will experience several external threats
As 2030 approaches, there is much discussion within the telecommunications industry surrounding how telcos will evolve. Several influencing factors include the maturity of digitalization in consumer and enterprise settings, which potentially could be further accelerated by artificial intelligence (AI), including generative AI. In addition, maturity of cloud and edge computing will continue to spur innovation as telcos further identify industry use cases. However, it will not be clear sailing for telcos.

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Generative AI Watch: Intelligent Automation Platforms Seek Competitive Advantage via GenAI

by Charlotte Dunlap, posted in Big Data, Cloud Enable
C. Dunlap Research Director

Summary Bullets:

• Automation Anywhere extends its Google partnership to inject GenAI features within Automation Success Platform, powered by Google’s LLM via Vertex AI.

• The new GlobalData GenAI Watch Newsletter recaps similar announcements by Oracle and Salesforce.

Application platform providers continue to compete via generative AI (GenAI) advantages, granting greater access to advanced innovations typically reserved for the most elite data experts. This week, intelligent automation leader Automation Anywhere reiterated its GenAI strategy, following similar news of GenAI-injected developer platforms by Oracle, Salesforce, and Google.

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VirtualPlatform Joins the MSP Wholesaler Ranks with API-Driven Automation

by Malcolm Rogers, posted in Network
M. Rogers

Summary Bullets:

• Wholesale MSP: VirtualPlatform will join a growing trend of Aussie companies white labeling ICT services to MSPs, leveraging APIs for automation of some services.

• Mid-Market Play: This approach, while not new, benefits from improved automation and has seen success in the mid-market – something larger telcos may want to replicate.

This week, a new competitor in the Australian MSP space, VirtualPlatform, announced its official launch. However, rather than compete directly with other MSPs, the company plans to function like a wholesale platform for other MSPs, opting for a 100% channel play. The company plans to offer voice (SIP/CTS), connectivity (services form nbn, Telstra, and AAPT), Microsoft365 licensing, cloud and data center infrastructure-as-a-service, backup-as-a-service, DNS and SSL for webhosting, SMS services, and a fax-to-email service.

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Malaysia Enterprise Telecom Update Q2 2023 – More Focus on Industry Collaborations, Commercialization, and Talent

by Alfie Amir, posted in IT Leader
A. Amir

Summary Bullets:

• Malaysian telcos are advancing their telco-techco transformation journeys and starting to see results.

• A wide ecosystem is important, but having the right partners are more important to drive successful collaborations and commercialization.

Malaysian telcos continue to enhance their enterprise offerings and modernize their infrastructure as part of their telco-techco transformation, but the focus in Q2 2023 has shifted from expanding partner ecosystems to wider industry collaborations, solution commercialization, and strengthening internal talents. Malaysian telcos are also starting to see the results of their techco transformations through wins with key vertical players.

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EU Approval of VMware Acquisition Leaves Serious Questions

by Steven J. Schuchart Jr., posted in Cloud Enable, IT Leader, Network
S. Schuchart

Summary Bullets:

• Approved in the EU: The European Commission has granted approval for the acquisition of VMware by Broadcom.

• Caution is Warranted: Enterprises should be cautious about commitments to VMware until at least a year after the acquisition completes.

On July 12, 2023 the European Commission (EC) approved Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware for the tune of around $61 billion. The main concern on the part of the EC was that Broadcom’s ownership of VMware and its nearly omnipresent server virtualization software could create interoperability issues in the Fibre Channel host bus adapter (FC HBA) and Ethernet network interface card (NIC) markets. The deal gives assurances to Broadcom’s sole rival in the FC HBA market, Marvell Technology, as well as access to interoperability tools it needs.

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CSPs such as Vodafone Business International Provide Services to MNCs Headquartered Outside Their Footprint

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

Summary Bullets:

• Many regional telcos serve MNCs headquartered outside their network footprint but need to communicate globally.

• Vodafone Business International is a successful example of this, offering SD-WANs, IoT, and device lifecycle management in addition to connectivity services to 400 businesses.

Communications service providers (CSPs) often derive revenues from multi-national companies (MNCs) that are headquartered outside the CSPs’ footprint. They may provide fixed or mobile connections that originate or terminate on their network. Target companies have facilities, customers, or supply chain partners in countries where they do business or need to frequently communicate with but where they do not have their headquarters location. Simple roaming relationships for mobile communications can provide global or near-global access for basic voice, data, and internet access; however, more complex, secure, reliable, ‘always-on’ communications are often required. For example, The FreeMove Alliance, a mobile telecommunications alliance between Deutsche Telekom, Orange, TIM, and Telia, serves as a mobile services hub that helps the top 500 MNCs in Europe optimize their investment in mobile connectivity by offering them global access to reliable networks through a central point of provisioning, management, and support.

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ASEAN Enterprise 5G Q2 2023 Round-Up: Leaders Focus on Key Use Cases While Challengers Start to Make a Move

by Alfie Amir, posted in Internet of Things, IT Leader, Mobilize, Network
A. Amir

Summary Bullets:

• AIS and Singtel continued their momentum with various initiatives to extend their enterprise 5G leadership in their respective markets. They are also starting to focus on high-growth verticals and use cases.

• A few telcos in the region are starting to make their moves to close the gap with the leaders, but most other providers are still taking conservative approaches in their initiatives and investments in enterprise 5G.

The enterprise 5G developments in ASEAN started slow in 2023 with only a number of initiatives in the first quarter, mainly from leading players like Singtel in Singapore and AIS in Thailand (for more, please see: ASEAN Enterprise 5G Q1 2023 Round-Up: Slow Start to the Year for Most ASEAN Telcos While AIS and Singtel Extended Their Leads, April 17, 2023). In the last quarter (Q2 2023), while AIS and Singtel continued their momentum to lead the enterprise 5G markets in respective countries, other telcos such as M1 (Singapore) and Maxis (Malaysia) made their moves through industry collaborations and commercialization of vertical use cases.

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Alibaba Cloud Customer 360 Summit – Enhancing Business Customer Engagements Through Partners

by Alfie Amir, posted in Cloud Enable, IT Leader

A. Amir

Summary Bullets:
• Alibaba Cloud has a wide ecosystem and leverages partner capabilities to offer customer experience solutions.
• It could also highlight its own capabilities (e.g., AI, vertical solutions) to differentiate against competitors.

Alibaba Cloud, in collaboration with Meta, held its Customer 360 Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, showcasing its solutions ranging from CPaaS to IoT. The event also featured several partners including Meta, Hyped Mind, Agmo, Neo4j, and StarSG, that bring various capabilities to complement the provider’s portfolio as well as to help businesses achieve their goals, particularly in enhancing enterprises’ customer experience and engagements.

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