Author: siowmeng

Nokia Shows it Wants to Better Engage Developers with the Acquisition of Rapid Technology Assets

by siowmeng, posted in Communicate, IT Leader
S. Soh

Summary Bullets:

• Nokia’s Acquisition of Rapid’s Technology Assets: The move helps to boost Nokia’s Network as Code (NaC) product development and go-to-market efforts.

• Focus on Developers and API Ecosystem: Nokia is making headway in reaching more developers and expanding its API partner ecosystem.

Communications service providers (CSPs) have been looking at ways to monetize their networks, especially with their huge investments in 5G. One way Nokia has been working alongside CSPs is to simplify the way developers can extract the network capabilities exposed through programmable interfaces and embed them into their applications. This led to the launch of Nokia’s NaC platform in 2023, which provides non-telecoms-specialist developers access to industry standard APIs as well as sample code, SDKs, a development sandbox, and analytics. The aim is to help drive innovation leveraging CSP networks to create new consumer, enterprise, and industrial applications.

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Helping Telcos Monetize their Networks through Communications and Network APIs

by siowmeng, posted in Big Data, Cloud Enable, Communicate, Mobilize
S. Soh

Summary Bullets:

• Vendors such as Nokia and Ericsson are helping their telco clients to monetize their network assets through APIs.

• They are combining network APIs and communications APIs as well as tapping the CPaaS developer community to accelerate the adoption.

Application programming interface (API) is an important capability for connecting software applications and systems. The API allows developers to create software that use the functionality and data offered by another application or system. This enables innovation and workflow automation, and it is a critical part of the digitally connected ecosystem. As industries become more digitized, APIs become more important. The telecommunications sector has been developing API capabilities for some years, but they have not been able to commercialize their APIs, until now. There have been major developments in 2024 as the standardization of APIs through the CAMARA project, which is an open-source project within the Linux Foundation to develop and test APIs in collaboration with the GSMA (for more, please see GenAI, Network APIs, and 5G are Coming Together Nicely to Drive App Development and CX, March 7, 2024). There are two key areas of API opportunities for the telcos – network APIs and communications APIs – but they sit in different domains and attract different developer communities. Some telco-focused vendors are now bringing the two domains together.

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Australia is the Perfect Market for AWS GenAI Adoption

by siowmeng, posted in Cloud Enable, Communicate, Secure
S. Soh

Summary Bullets:

• Amazon Web Services (AWS) has launched Amazon Bedrock in Australia, and it is helping customers develop generative AI (GenAI) applications using different foundation models to meet their specific needs.

• Australia is an attractive market for AWS since the company has a significant presence in the country, and it can support GenAI workloads sustainably as the country is seeing investments in clean energy and more efficient data centers.

AWS highlighted, at the recent AWS Summit in Sydney (Australia), that Australia was an important market for the company and that it was optimistic about the potential of GenAI adoption in the country. At the event, AWS also discussed its GenAI strategy. Rivals Microsoft and Google Cloud have been actively promoting their GenAI development through OpenAI and with Google Gemini, respectively, as well as building foundational models to help customers tap GenAI capabilities without building their own. While AWS has its models under the umbrella of Amazon Titan, it emphasizes giving customers their model of choice, including its own and partner models hosted within its cloud environment. This is through Amazon Bedrock, which is a fully managed service. It gives customers the ability to choose from a range of models based on their needs and preferences. They can develop GenAI capabilities and use cases without leaving the AWS environment. So far, AWS has agreements with several AI companies, natural language processing (NLP), and large language model (LLM) specialists, including AI21 Labs, Anthropic, Cohere, Meta, Mistral AI, and Stability AI. The advancement of LLM is happening by leaps and bounds with new startups entering the fray and new versions being announced at an ever-faster pace. The introduction of Anthropic’s Claude 3, Mistral-Large, and Stable Diffusion 3, for example, have drawn global attention, offering even more powerful models and creating new possibilities such as self-awareness and actualization, tier reasoning capabilities, and video generation.

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AI is Hot, but Data Center is Hotter  

by siowmeng, posted in Big Data, Cloud Enable, IT Leader
S. Soh

Summary Bullets:

• While both generative AI (GenAI) is having widespread interests, and more use cases are emerging, companies need to ensure the infrastructure does not become a bottleneck.

• GenAI will need new approaches from the processors to data centers and cooling systems to ensure the development can be efficient and sustainable.

AI continues to be a hot topic moving into 2024. The technology has evolved from predictive AI to GenAI and multi-modal GenAI, over a relatively short period of time. This technology is creating endless possibilities, and various use cases have started to emerge. For example, GenAI/AI have been applied for disease diagnosis, application development (assisted code development), marketing content creation, and demand forecasting for retail businesses. Against this backdrop, it is no surprise to see many forecasters expecting a rapid growth of revenue related to GenAI. However, amid the excitement, there have been concerns, particularly the need to address ethical issues and responsible AI. One area that AI technology providers have not been highlighting is the infrastructure, including the physical facility required to host the hardware for AI workloads.

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UX Must be Front and Center in DX Programs

by siowmeng, posted in IT Leader

S. Soh

Summary Bullets:

• Service providers are strengthening their consulting capabilities by adding experience design, to existing business consulting and technology expertise to help enterprises achieve digital transformation goals.

• Competitors leading in this space have added expertise in creative design, developed methodologies, established partnerships, and set up studios or innovation hubs to engage clients.

Consulting services are more important than ever for IT services providers (ITSPs) that are helping enterprise customers transform their business operations, not just migrating workloads to the cloud. Many enterprises are digitizing, and a crucial aspect is in delivering greater customer experience (CX) and employee experience (EX). Digital services provide businesses the ability to remove friction in customer transactions and employee collaboration. The rapid technological development, especially in areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), extended reality (XR), and digital twins, can create new experiences and improve interaction. However, businesses need to focus on CX through a human-centered approach. Successful digital-native businesses, including ride-sharing, ecommerce platforms, and streaming media services, have thrived due to their ability to create simplified and delightful experiences centered around customers.

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Alibaba Cloud Adds CloudBox and Other Options to Deliver Services Closer to Data Sources

by siowmeng, posted in Big Data, Cloud Enable
S. Soh

Summary Bullets:

• Alibaba Cloud has products to extend its services from major cloud data centers to customer premises and edge locations.

• The company needs to make these products more widely available outside of China and work with communications service providers (CSPs) to deliver multi-access edge computing (MEC).

As enterprises look to leverage cloud services to embed digital solutions (e.g., data analytics, AI/ML, IoT, etc.) in their business operations, there are specific requirements for their IT infrastructure. While public cloud infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) offers agility and cost-effectiveness, there are challenges around the availability of a cloud region, network latency issues, and security/compliance requirements. Moreover, applications are moving from centralized locations (i.e., cloud or data centers) to a more distributed architecture, giving rise to the demand for edge computing. Hyperscalers have been developing alternatives to host their cloud services, and Alibaba Cloud – as a key player – has also been helping customers to bring cloud services closer to where the data is generated and processed.

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Airtel and IBM Bring Complementary Assets to Deliver 5G-Capable Edge Computing

by siowmeng, posted in Cloud Enable, Internet of Things, Network, Secure
S. Soh

Summary Bullets:

• IBM and Bharti Airtel announced their intent to deploy Airtel’s edge computing platform in India, which will include 120 network data centers across 20 cities.

• This is a positive development for both firms, but there is still work to be done in educating the market, co-developing solutions with customers, and expanding the partner ecosystem.

Airtel’s edge computing platform delivers a hybrid environment based on IBM Cloud Satellite and Red Hat OpenShift; the business value is significantly enhanced when combined with 5G. Maruti Suzuki India intends to use the edge platform to increase accuracy and efficiency for quality inspections on the factory floor. Through Airtel’s 5G connectivity and IBM’s secured edge computing, enterprises can deploy and manage workloads in near real-time.

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Improving 5G Availability and Speeds through Mid-band Spectrum and Massive MIMO

by siowmeng, posted in Cloud Enable, Communicate, IT Leader, Mobilize, Network

Summary Bullets:

S. Soh

• The time is ripe for mobile operators to ramp up their 5G deployment to enhance their coverage and speeds to support new applications.

• Mobile operators with substantial mid-band spectrum and deployed massive multiple-input and multiple-output (M-MIMO) technology can deliver faster speeds and achieve service differentiation.

The deployment of 5G is well underway and people around the world are having a taste of the next-gen experience. GlobalData forecasts 5G subscriptions will reach 861 million by end of the year, doubling the figure in 2020. The availability of 5G is also rising in major cities, based on a study conducted by Ookla (Global 5G Benchmark Report Q1 – Q2 2021). The study defines availability as the percent of users on 5G-capable devices that spend the majority of their time on 5G, both roaming and on-network. Besides coverage, the availability of 5G-capable phones is a key factor in driving adoption. According to GSA, there were over 600 commercially available 5G devices in August 2021, which included mobile phones from major brands such as Apple, Samsung, Huawei, Google, and Xiaomi. While the initial focus was in launching 5G commercial services, the race now is about increasing availability and speeds.

Continue reading “Improving 5G Availability and Speeds through Mid-band Spectrum and Massive MIMO” →

China Public Cloud Infrastructure Market Still Has Plenty of Room for Growth with Significant Inbound/Outbound Opportunities

by siowmeng, posted in Big Data, Cloud Enable

S. Soh

Summary Bullets:

  • Public cloud services saw strong growth (over 50%) in 2020, as businesses and consumers have come to rely more heavily on digital services during the pandemic.
  • Chinese cloud vendors still dominate the domestic market, but there are significant opportunities for global cloud vendors to compete in China and for Chinese vendors to expand globally.

The Rise of Public Cloud Amid the Pandemic

China’s public cloud infrastructure services market, comprising infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS), and cloud management platforms, grew over 50% year-over-year in 2020 to reach $14.8 billion.  China has managed the pandemic better than many countries, and it has weathered the economic impact relatively well.  Still, with the international travel restrictions and the government’s priority to get economic growth back on track, there has been stronger investment focus on digital technologies.  This includes digital infrastructure (e.g., 5G and data centers) and solutions around AI, big data, IoT, and smart city.  These initiatives have a direct, positive impact on public cloud services.  Domestic cloud vendors including Alibaba, Baidu, Huawei, and Tencent are also investing heavily in developing cloud-based AI technologies to drive different use cases including autonomous vehicles, voice assistants, machine vision, etc.  Moreover, the pandemic has driven greater demand for online activities such as healthcare and education, and the adoption of cloud-based solutions across all industries is expected to continue beyond the pandemic. Continue reading “China Public Cloud Infrastructure Market Still Has Plenty of Room for Growth with Significant Inbound/Outbound Opportunities” →

700MHz Spectrum Plays a Pivotal Role in Delivering 5G Coverage

by siowmeng, posted in Network

SiowMengSoh
S. Soh

Summary Bullets:

  • 700MHz spectrum is a strategic band for operators to achieve better coverage including indoor and rural areas.
  • Mobile operators around the world, particularly in China, are using 700MHz spectrum to accelerate coverage expansion.

The deployment of 5G is gathering momentum around the world.  The number of 5G subscriptions reached 414 million globally in 2020, and GlobalData expects the number to more than double in 2021.  China is leading in 5G adoption, with its number of subscriptions representing 76% of the global figure in 2020.  GlobalData expects this to be the case in 2021 as the world continues to learn about 5G through the lens of China.  Globally, many operators have been awarded mid-band spectrum, typically in the 3.5GHz range, to kick-start 5G deployment.  With additional spectrum including between 80 MHz and 100 MHz of net new spectrum, operators can deliver much faster data speeds with 5G as compared to 4G, to demonstrate the value of 5G to both consumer and business customers.  However, the propagation characteristics of 3.5GHz spectrum mean that the coverage range from the cell site is more limited than the low-band spectrum (i.e., sub-1GHz such as 700MHz).  This means mobile operators need to increase the number of cell sites to achieve the same coverage area that they would using the lower frequency band.  It is also more difficult to penetrate walls and ultimately affect the coverage indoors, which is a problem in urban areas when using the higher band. Continue reading “700MHz Spectrum Plays a Pivotal Role in Delivering 5G Coverage” →