Category: Internet of Things

NCS Has Moved Out of Singtel Group Enterprise and Doubled Down on Digital Services

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

Summary Bullets:

  • NCS is investing in digital services, expanding its operations in China and Australia, and targeting key industry verticals.
  • NCS has gained greater autonomy moving out of Singtel Group Enterprise, to strengthen its regional capabilities in delivering digital solutions.

NCS, formerly National Computer Systems, was founded in 1981 to support the Singapore government’s initiatives related to IT implementation. It was acquired by Singtel in 1997, and it remains a key business within Singtel, delivering ICT solutions for enterprise customers both in Singapore and across Asia. According to Singtel, NCS has delivered revenue growth for seven years running. However, most of the business is generated in Singapore and especially within the public sector. NCS operated as a business unit within Singtel Group Enterprise for several years, but it has never been fully integrated with Singtel. The company has retained its brand name, and it has different capabilities than Singtel (e.g., consulting, business application services, AI, and automation) as well as a different business model (e.g., project-based, industry-focused, and bespoke solutions). Continue reading “NCS Has Moved Out of Singtel Group Enterprise and Doubled Down on Digital Services” →

Outlook for 5G-Enabled Enterprise Solutions in 2021: The Potential Telco Game Plans

by siowmeng, posted in Communicate, Internet of Things, Mobilize, Network, Secure
S. Soh

Summary Bullets:

  • While 5G-enabled enterprise solutions offer new revenue streams for telecom operators, they need new capabilities to develop and sell the full solutions, not just the carriage component.
  • Telecom operators will look to partnerships and/or acquisitions to gain the necessary competence to help customers in key industry verticals to transform their business operations.

Telecommunications companies (telcos) are at a crossroads as they rollout 5G and looking at how to monetize this investment. While they can continue to focus on selling carriage services, with the saturation of mobile subscription and competitive pressure, the hope of increasing ARPU from 5G connectivity remains elusive. Instead, many telcos are looking to enterprise solutions as a way to open up new revenue streams, leveraging 5G’s unique capabilities around ultra-low latency, reliability, and significantly higher throughput. Some will go even further and set new performance parameters with 5G. This shift inevitably involves moving into new territories for the telcos, including IoT, data analytics, cloud services, cybersecurity, etc., and bringing these capabilities together to solve business problems and prove outcomes. Emerging 5G enterprise solutions also tend to target specific use cases across various industries (e.g., smart factory, port automation, and connected utilities). Most enterprises do not know how 5G can help to transform their business and they rely on their technology partners to advise and show them the possibilities. Continue reading “Outlook for 5G-Enabled Enterprise Solutions in 2021: The Potential Telco Game Plans” →

GlobalData’s Enterprise IoT Connection Forecasts Show Moderate Growth, But Connections are Only Part of the Story

by Kitty Weldon, posted in Internet of Things
K. Weldon
K. Weldon

Summary Bullets:

• GlobalData’s new IoT forecast for the number of connections associated with Enterprise IoT deployments predicts that by the end of 2020 we will see 5.5 billion connections, which will rise to 11.3 billion by 2024, for a CAGR of 15%.

• These numbers are only moderately good news for mobile operators which will see their cellular connections grow by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of only 12% over five years, while their licensed spectrum low power wide area networks (LPWANs; including NB-IoT and LTE-M) will grow more significantly by 19% and 51% respectively.

According to new forecasts from GlobalData, the global number of Enterprise-related Internet of Things connections will reach 11.2 billion by 2024, dominated by short-range and cellular connections, but with strong growth (starting from a much smaller base) for LPWANs. The CAGR for the six-year period for all IoT connectivity types is moderate, at 15%. The 2020 forecast was tamped down slightly to account for the effect of COVID-19 on technology spending; however, from 2021 onwards, growth is expected to continue at a higher rate. In addition, many operators note that new offerings that help with COVID-19 detection and mitigation, such as room/building occupancy monitoring and management, and remote thermal temperature scanning, have actually had a positive effect on new deployments. Continue reading “GlobalData’s Enterprise IoT Connection Forecasts Show Moderate Growth, But Connections are Only Part of the Story” →

Private 5G Spectrum Applications in Germany Offer Clues on Enterprise Demand – or Do They?

by John Marcus, posted in Internet of Things, Mobilize
J. Marcus

Summary Bullets:

  • Private 5G networks using unlicensed spectrum could play a major role in the digital transformation of business operations, especially within industrial sectors. Having opened up the market, German regulator Bundesnetzagentur (BNetzA) has already received 78 applications, all but four of which have been assigned.
  • A published list of private spectrum buyers is intended to let enterprises know who else has been approved, in order to avoid interference from overlapping use of radio frequencies in local deployments. So far, it is mostly network consulting and engineering specialists along with research and educational institutions that have gone public with their private spectrum applications.

In “Who’s Winning the Wireless Private Network Race?,” Kathryn Weldon took a look at the various ecosystem stakeholders in private 4G and 5G networks and their various strengths, incentives, and abilities to capitalize on the market opportunity (particularly in the U.S., where private CBRS spectrum was recently auctioned). In this blog, we take a look at Germany, a regional market where global network infrastructure vendors expect early demand and where a list of entities assigned unlicensed 5G spectrum in the 3.7-to-3.8 GHz frequency band has just been published. Continue reading “Private 5G Spectrum Applications in Germany Offer Clues on Enterprise Demand – or Do They?” →

Industry 4.0 and the Promise of Smarter Operations Using IoT

by John Marcus, posted in Internet of Things
J. Marcus

This piece first appeared first on the official blog of RAD.

Summary Bullets:

  • IoT’s role in Industry 4.0 isn’t about making connectivity or sensors smarter. It’s about making an enterprise’s operations smarter, integrating advanced control and automation capabilities by connecting industrial assets.
  • Increasingly, that means updating and connecting existing industrial control systems, with the promise of further automating thousands of operational endpoints.
  • Top Industry 4.0 applications include basic on/off commands and security functions.
  • Optimization of processes and of productivity is the main benefit that manufacturers see.

Is the Internet of Things (IoT) getting smarter? That is often how ‘Industry 4.0’ is described as digital technology is deployed in production or other industrial processes to take advantage of advanced platforms and devices (including analytics, automation, and artificial intelligence). Differing from machine-to-machine (M2M) solutions that use network connectivity simply to monitor the condition or location of an object, Industry 4.0 goes further to describe applications which actually control or operate connected things via networked connectivity. While sometimes the connected ‘thing’ refers to newer machines and devices such as robots, autonomous guided vehicles (AGV), or augmented and mixed reality (AR/MR) headsets worn by industrial workers, the ‘thing’ might also refer to core production equipment that has been installed for decades. Either way, the aims of Industry 4.0 remain the same: connecting machines to provide essential information and insights to allow companies to make smarter decisions, automate processes, and reach specific ROI goals related to efficiency and cost control. Continue reading “Industry 4.0 and the Promise of Smarter Operations Using IoT” →

IoT in New Zealand: About Outcomes, Not Networks

by Malcolm Rogers, posted in Internet of Things
M. Rogers

Summary Bullets:

  • Vodafone NZ localizing its global IoT platform for New Zealand will help win domestic customers.
  • Overall, carriers need to move the IoT conversation away from connectivity to applications and outcomes to move up the value chain.

Earlier this week, Vodafone New Zealand announced it would be bringing new IoT capabilities to businesses in New Zealand. Specifically, the company has launched a local version of its IoT Global Data Service Platform (GDSP) called ‘Connect’ that will be delivered via Vodafone NZ’s XONE innovation labs. Vodafone NZ had previously offered only the global version of the IoT management platform, but updates to policy, software, and other support features could be hampered by latency issues. The move is important for Vodafone NZ’s ambition in the Kiwi IoT market. Rival carrier Spark has made recent investments into developing IoT solutions for New Zealand businesses that go beyond SIM management platforms. Spark now has productized solutions for asset tracking and management as well as a parking solution for both SME and enterprises. In a sign that it is gaining lost ground, Spark saw IoT connections grow 60% year over year to end June 2020. Vodafone NZ, however, is still the market leader in terms of connections and has the international advantage through its affiliate companies’ global networks. Localizing this solution will now help grow domestic-only customers with broader offers. Continue reading “IoT in New Zealand: About Outcomes, Not Networks” →

Cloud-Network Convergence: Double-Edged Sword for Carriers, but an Opportunity Emerges in the Edge

by Malcolm Rogers, posted in Big Data, Cloud Enable, Communicate, Internet of Things, IT Leader, Mobilize, Network, Secure
M. Rogers

Summary Bullets:

  • Hyperscale cloud providers continue to invest in expansion of networking solutions and network adjacent partnerships with SD-WAN vendors and data center providers.
  • As hyperscale networking solutions become more advanced and the cloud edge moves closer to end users, some carriers may be crowded out of the cloud-network convergence market.

Hyperscale cloud providers and global network carriers have been building stronger relationships and deeper integrations around WAN and networking solutions. The partnerships are a natural fit as more enterprises move business-critical workloads to cloud platforms. These workloads require high-bandwidth, high-throughput, low-latency, secure, and reliable connections from virtually any location these days to connect to the major cloud platforms. Continue reading “Cloud-Network Convergence: Double-Edged Sword for Carriers, but an Opportunity Emerges in the Edge” →

COVID-19: Some Countries Come Under Fire for the Potential Misuse of Contact Tracing Apps

by Amy Larsen DeCarlo, posted in Cloud Enable, Internet of Things, IT Leader, Mobilize, Network, Secure
A. DeCarlo
A. DeCarlo

Summary Bullets:

  • As more countries roll out contact tracing apps to notify citizens when they have come into contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19, concerns are emerging about how this data could be used.
  • Human rights organization Amnesty International called out the apps from Bahrain, Norway, and Kuwait for not anonymizing end-user data.

Amnesty International is issuing a warning that some of the new COVID-19 contact tracing apps may not just be an invasion of privacy but potentially put lives at risk. Contact tracing – the process of finding and notifying people who have interacted with an infected person so they can be tested and quarantine – is vital to allowing businesses, educational institutions, and governments to resume operations that are closer to normal even as the virus continues to spread. Continue reading “COVID-19: Some Countries Come Under Fire for the Potential Misuse of Contact Tracing Apps” →

COVID-19: Mitigation Comes Ashore – Video Monitoring for Social Distance Management on European Beaches

by John Marcus, posted in Internet of Things, Mobilize
J. Marcus

Summary Bullets:

  • Surveillance tools are being used for maintaining health and safety as public beaches reopen in Europe this summer, but connected video cameras are only counting people and their locations, not scrutinizing their actions or identities.
  • Telefonica in Spain and Citymesh in Belgium have both announced new solutions this week.

Just as retailers and restaurants are limiting the number of customers entering their locations at any one time, local authorities are also seeking a way to safely re-open public spaces such as playgrounds and beaches as stay-at-home restrictions are gradually lifted. Limiting numbers of people in a given space is seen as essential to maintaining social distancing in the wake of the first wave of the coronavirus, in order to prevent it from spreading and causing new cases of COVID-19. While people-counting sensors at doorways and gates are useful in spaces with controlled or dedicated entry points, open spaces are more difficult to monitor – especially in beach environments where visitors arrive from multiple directions and where access is not tightly controlled. Continue reading “COVID-19: Mitigation Comes Ashore – Video Monitoring for Social Distance Management on European Beaches” →

COVID-19: Netherlands Innovator Taps Blockchain and AI in the War Against COVID-19

by Charlotte Dunlap, posted in Big Data, Cloud Enable, Communicate, Internet of Things, IT Leader, Mobilize, Network, Secure

Summary Bullets:

• VirusBlockchain deployed this week to identify and monitor COVID-19 free zones

• The blockchain monitoring system is backed by technology provider Qlikchain

This week the tech industry partnered with a public health consortium to launch a blockchain-enabled monitoring system aimed at keeping communities at bay from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Public Health Blockchain Consortium (PHBC) announced the new system which monitors healthy, uninfected individuals as they move between locations in order to automatically identify zones that are safe or unsafe. The system is built on a blockchain solution which combines AI, geographical information systems (GIS), and real-time information systems provided by virus surveillance providers.

Called VirusBlockchain, the system serves as a systematic, continuous, and anonymous verification of citizens and all workplaces in an effort to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 infection. The project is unlike other approaches that would typically track infected persons. Continue reading “COVID-19: Netherlands Innovator Taps Blockchain and AI in the War Against COVID-19” →