Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is growing in prominence within OpenShift and the industry in general
Ansible’s popularity has prompted a new round of key partnerships to expand OpenShift’s ecosystem
Red Hat Ansible has matured into a shining star, not only among OpenShift’s portfolio, but the industry in general for its ability to abstract the complexity of building and operating IT automation at scale as part of enterprises’ business transformations.
The incremental consolidation of the UK enterprise telecoms market continues in light of broader national combinations, with further deals inevitable.
Although driven by financial imperatives in a highly competitive market, these developments reflect a broader re-segmentation in the context of the current economic environment.
Following the creation of the Virgin Media O2 50:50 joint venture between Liberty Global and Telefónica via the merger of their respective Virgin Media and O2 UK businesses, there has been an increasing pressure on Vodafone, BT, and other players to improve investor returns by creating a greater scale through mergers and acquisitions.
Fujitsu is the latest infrastructure vendor to enter the market of high-performance computing as a service (HPCaaS) with the ‘Fujitsu Computing as a Service (CaaS)’ portfolio.
Competitors in this market include Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Lenovo, IBM, Dell Technologies, Atos, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud, and Alibaba.
Fujitsu announced the launch of the Fujitsu CaaS portfolio in Japan last month, a services platform to enable commercial organizations to access high-end HPC capabilities to run complex artificial intelligence (AI) workloads via the public cloud. ‘Fujitsu Cloud Service HPC,’ the first services offering made available as part of the CaaS portfolio, is based on Fujitsu’s Supercomputer PRIMEHPC FX1000 servers running on ARM A64X chips, the same processors behind the world’s fastest supercomputer, Fugaku. Fujitsu has combined these supercomputing capabilities with software to deploy a wide range of AI and machine learning (ML) applications. Continue reading “Fujitsu Takes a Shot at Big Cloud with New HPC On-Demand Offering”→
IIoT MVNOs play an important role in expanding the reach of enterprises looking to connect IoT devices across the world, primarily via the cellular networks of mobile operators.
In order to remain competitive, however, they have developed innovative ways to go ‘up the stack’ through enhanced management platforms, a unique vertical focus, or diverse go-to-market strategies.
GlobalData’s latest report on European and Canadian IIoT MVNOs (published in March 2022) focuses on three leading companies in this market: Sierra Wireless, Cubic Telecom, and Transatel (an NTT company headquartered in France). Each of these service providers not only extends IoT connectivity for enterprises by allying with an assortment of global mobile operators, but has also differentiated itself through enhanced management platforms, a unique vertical focus, or diverse go-to-market strategies. GlobalData also follows the IIoT MVNO market in the US, focusing on services from Kore Wireless, Aeris, and ORBCOMM. Continue reading “IIoT MVNOS Use Innovation to Stay Competitive and Profitable”→
Singtel’s Paragon platform streamlines different 5G capabilities and can minimize the barriers to adoption of enterprise 5G solutions.
Leading providers such as Singtel and PLDT have started their initiatives on network slicing. This will enable wider enterprise 5G applications and private network solutions.
It was a slow start of the year for enterprise 5G in ASEAN, especially after strong momentum in 2021 with various industry collaborations and new feature launches (e.g., SA, MEC, private network). There were only a few key announcements on new launches and partnerships. Nevertheless, there were a couple of key milestones in market development in the region. Singtel, one of the most advanced 5G providers in the region, launched an all-in-one 5G platform in the market. This is crucial for driving enterprise adoption by streamlining diverse initiatives across various 5G capabilities such as private networks, edge computing, network slicing, and IoT. This could also be the beginning of 5G platform plays enabling automated service provisioning and on-demand commercial models. The second highlight is network slicing. While the network slicing feature is still new in the market, several providers such as AIS, Singtel, and PLDT are taking a proactive approach to trials and include this feature in their 5G offerings to gain a competitive edge. Other players are expected to build similar capabilities to close the gap in the near future. Continue reading “ASEAN 5G Q1 2022 Roundup: Beginning of 5G Network Slicing and the Platform Play”→
• Headset hardware, especially size and weight, is the greatest inhibitor of metaverse plans coming to large scale fruition
• The speed and commitment of headset hardware vendors is an indicator of metaverse acceleration
Hype over the metaverse may be subsiding slightly as world events overtake everyone’s available attention, but one of the biggest inhibitors to the fruition of the metaverse is headset hardware. AR or VR glasses are available, but it is reasonable to look at the large, clunky, and tethered-box offerings that dominate the market as the current equivalent of acoustic modem adapters or six-pound “mobile” phones.
FSG, a telco focused only on regional and rural Australia, is set to become Australia’s fourth MNO in 2022 as it builds out a 200-plus tower network.
The company has valuable spectrum assets, a unique neutral host approach, and a focus on critical verticals to become a threat in the enterprise 5G market in rural areas.
A little-known, fledgling telecom company called Field Solutions Group (FSG) has quietly become Australia’s fourth mobile network operator. The company, which focuses specifically on providing FWA, NBN, and mobile services to regional and rural Australian businesses and government organizations, has an ambitious plan to build out more than 200 mobile towers in regional and rural Australia by 2023. Currently, the company only offers FWA on its ‘Regional Australia Network,’ but through government grants from the Mobile Blackspot Program, technology partnerships with Optus, and the recent acquisition of Tasmanet, the company hopes to be a disruptive fourth MNO option for regional and rural governments and businesses. While the company is small, earning AUD 18.8 million in FY 2021 (ended June 30, 2021), the company has a few things working in its favor that could enable it to become a real challenger to the largest telcos when competing for business and enterprise 5G revenues in rural and regional Australia over the coming years. Continue reading “Field Solutions Group: The Rural Telco Tier 1s Should Keep an Eye On”→
The domestic competitions across ASEAN are heating up as providers are moving from network deployment to the solution development stage.
Leading providers are starting to commercialize their edge computing services and gain a first-mover advantage.
The enterprise 5G market in ASEAN is moving from network deployment to the solution development stage, led by early adopters such as the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. Most telcos in these countries such as Globe, PLDT, M1, Singtel, Starhub, and AIS have enabled 5G standalone (SA) networks to support a wider range of enterprises applications through edge integration, lower latency, and network slicing. The competition at the country level is also heating up, as providers are beginning to commercialize the solutions they have been developing through industry collaborations. This includes Singtel’s edge computing and AIS’ 5G smart manufacturing solutions. Service providers are also expanding their collaboration initiatives with enterprises from across verticals and are expected to launch more applications in the market in the near term. AIS and Globe are Singtel’s associates; hence, the three providers could also gain an advantage in 5G solution development in their respective markets through knowledge and partner sharing. Continue reading “ASEAN 5G Q3 2021 Roundup: Competition Heats Up”→
Kathryn Weldon – Research Director, Business Network and IT Services – Americas
• Microsoft and AWS were named “Very Strong” in GlobalData’s most recent Enterprise IoT Platform reportpublished in September 2021. In the last six months, both vendors announced several key platform enhancements.
• New tools for access control, edge computing, visualization, and digital twins improved these vendors’ IoT portfolios. Microsoft’s new role as a board member in the LoRa Alliance was also a significant ecosystem addition.
Enterprise IoT platforms transform data collected from devices and machines to help customers build applications that automate processes, improve products, and help business leaders make decisions. Once data is collected, the platform provides data storage, processing, management, and manipulation along with filtering and visualization options. The platform may send data to an edge computing device, public or private cloud, or remote data center for further processing and analytics. An enterprise IoT platform also provides tools for application enablement; elements may include visual application modelling, design tools, processing rules using business logic, security and access management, reporting, and real-time or historical analytics.
Vodafone’s data analytics strategy continues to focus on both internal and external opportunities to harvest data (including aggregated, anonymized customer data) for increased efficiency and monetization.
Its update briefing for analysts was notable more about its progress in the latter.
Vodafone provided an update to analysts on its big data and advanced analytics activities, which are focused both on internal data optimization for Vodafone’s own business outcomes and on external data for use in products and solutions. The briefing also included three demos: an internal solution for intelligent pricing as well as customer solutions for visitor traffic analytics and IoT connectivity analytics. Continue reading “Vodafone’s Data Analytics Update: Clear Traction as Focus Moves to Executing on Strategy”→
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