Digital-Transformation on Vin Patel

Questions and answers

How Facial Recognition Works With Examples? #

What the Future Holds? #

According to Juniper Research, demand for facial recognition hardware increases by 50% each year. By 2024, facial recognition solutions may be present in 1.3 billion devices or so.

Ways To Overcome DevOps Automation Challenges

Vin Patel — Fri, 09 Dec 2022 06:49:07 +0000

Key takeaways

You’ve implemented new processes, adopted new tools, and shaped a culture that emphasizes cross-functional collaboration.
An on-call policy tailored to a team at New Relic may not apply to your business.
New Relic gives you the necessary visibility to monitor your DevOps efforts and continuously improve your results at every step.

Your team has embraced DevOps. You’ve implemented new processes, adopted new tools, and shaped a culture that emphasizes cross-functional collaboration. But you haven’t reached your maximum speed yet. As a result, you’re missing something that prevents your organization from becoming an actual, high-performing DevOps machine.

That missing piece is often data measurement. Although measurement is the most prominent pillar of the CALMS concept (culture, automation, lean, measure, share) created by DevOps expert Jez Humble, it is often overlooked by DevOps teams in their quest for incredible great speed and more autonomy. However, this can create significant issues, as data accuracy is critical to a well-functioning DevOps team, whether it’s an incident response or understanding the complexity of microservices.

However, it is also designed for those standing still without taking advantage of DevOps to fully succeed in their digital transformation.

By sharing real experiences, especially lessons learned from New Relic, we want to help you overcome the final hurdles to your DevOps success. To better understand how to set reliability goals and unravel your microservices approach’s unique threads of communication and development requirements, we’ve assembled proven best practices that show you how to get things done faster and more efficiently.

Chapter 1: Balancing SLOs with Rapid Application Delivery #

Your development cycles are faster, and you deploy code more often, but how reliably? Quality and reliability are two equally essential outcomes of a successful DevOps approach.

This is where the ERS in Site reliability engineering (SRE) is a cross-functional role, taking on traditionally specialized responsibilities independent of development, operations, and other IT groups. As the SRE relies on collaboration between development and operations, it goes hand in hand with the DevOps culture. DevOps and SRE have many standard features, but SRE is mainly dedicated to continuous improvement and managing measurable results, particularly using SLOs (Service Level Objectives).

Let’s start with some important definitions:

“Basically, [SRE] is what happens when you ask a software engineer to design a business function.”

—Ben Treynor Loss, VP Engineering, Google #

Define appropriate SLIs and SLOs #

Although SRE industry best practices dictate SLIs and SLOs for every service you provide, it can be complicated to define and deploy them if you have never done so. Here are seven steps we use at New Relic to determine SLOs and SLIs:

1. Identify system boundaries: The boundary of a system is defined by one or more components presenting one or more features to external customers. Internally, your platform may have multiple moving elements (service nodes, database, load balancer, etc.). Still, these individual elements are not considered system boundaries because they do not directly present functionality to clients. Instead, think of multiple features working together to demonstrate functionality. For example, a login service that offers an API capable of authenticating user login credentials is a logical group of components that work collectively as a system. Therefore, before defining your SLIs, start by grouping the elements of your platform into systems and characterizing their boundaries. Focus on this aspect in the following steps because SLIs and boundary SLOs are very useful.

2. Define the functionality presented by each system: Now, group the platform components into logical units (UI/API tier, connection service, data storage/query tier, legacy data tier, data ingestion, and routing). At New Relic, the limits of our system are aligned with the limits of our engineering team. Using these groupings, articulate the set of features exposed by each boundary in the system.

3. Create a clear definition of what is “available” for each feature: For example, “send messages to the right destination” is one way to describe the availability expectations of a data routing feature. Use precise language to explain availability rather than technical terms that not everyone knows.

4. Define the corresponding technical SLIs: It is now time to define one or more SLIs per feature using your definition of the availability of each segment. From our example above, a data routing feature SLI could be “time taken to deliver a message to the correct destination.”

5. Measure for a benchmark: Monitoring will let you know whether or not you are meeting your availability goals. Using your monitoring tool, collect baseline data for each SLI before setting your SLOs.

6. Apply SLO targets (by SLI/functionality): Once you have collected the data, before defining your SLOs, ask your customers questions that will help you identify their expectations and adapt your SLOs to meet them. Then choose SLO targets based on your credentials, customer opinion, what your team can commit to supporting, and what is achievable given your current technical means. Following our example of SLI for data routing, the SLO could be “99.5% of messages transmitted in less than 5 seconds”.

7. Iterate and adjust: Don’t use a set-your-own approach to your SLOs and SLIs. Instead, it would help if you considered that they will (and should) evolve as your services and customer needs evolve.

Additional Guidance for SLOs and SLIs #

Ensure that each logical instance of a system has its SLO: for example, for shared systems (as opposed to horizontal systems), measure SLIs and SLOs separately for each shard.

Distinguish between SLIs and alerts: the SRE process does not replace a natural alert system.

Use compound SLOs where appropriate: You can create a compound SLI to capture multiple SLI conditions and make it easier for customers.

Create customer-specific SLOs where appropriate: It is not uncommon for large customers to receive SLAs that provide them with better service availability than those offered to other customers.

Chapter 2: Creating a fair and effective policy #

The following measure to improving reliability while accelerating deployments is ensuring that your organization can quickly and efficiently deal with any software issues (day or night) promptly and efficiently. To do this, you need an on-call policy.

But that’s because most organizations don’t fully understand the concept of rotation. So this error not only causes stress and regret due to your failed SLAs with customers and sets up an unproductive and unpleasant mood for the exhausted and frustrated engineering team.

Start with the basics. A practical and fair on-call policy requires two crucial prerequisites:

Structured organization and system: Solving problems effectively is much easier when your systems (services or applications) and product teams are all well organized and structured into logical units. For example, our 57 engineering teams at New Relic support 200 individual services. Each team acts autonomously to manage at least three services during the lifecycle, from design to deployment to maintenance.

A culture of responsibility: With DevOps, each team is responsible for the code it deploys in production. Teams naturally make decisions about changes and deployments when they’re in charge and on duty, compared to traditional environments where someone else is in order of the code once it’s in production.

1. Structure your team and your organization fairly #

Each engineer and team leader in the product organization takes responsibility for the team’s services on a rotational basis. Consider the size of your organization’s entire engineering entity and individual teams before choosing an on-call rotation approach. For example, if the team includes six engineers, each engineer could be the primary on-call contact every six weeks.

2. Be flexible and creative when implementing rotations #

You could let each team design and implement its on-call rotation policy. For example, a team uses a script that randomly rotates the secondary person’s on-call order.

3. Track Metrics and Monitor Incidents #

To ensure that the on-call rotation is fair and effective, monitoring it and tracking incident metrics is imperative. At New Relic, we follow the number of calls, the number of call hours, and the number of out-of-hours calls.

Tracking metrics helps us draw attention to teams facing unmanageable call loads (if a team averages more than one out-of-hours call per week, that team is considered to have a cumbersome load with high strain). By mastering these metrics, we can shift priorities by reducing the technical burden on a team or providing more support to improve services.

4. Adapt the policy to align with your business situation #

An on-call policy tailored to a team at New Relic may not apply to your business. To create a fair and effective on-call rotation, consider the following:

Growth: How fast is your business and engineering group growing? Do you have a high staff turnover?

Location: Is your engineering organization centralized or spread across multiple sites? Do you have adequate resources to ensure continuous rotations?

How involved are the dependencies between the services? #

Tools: Do you have issue resolution tools that send automated, actionable issue notifications to engineers?

Culture: Is on-call part of your engineering culture? Do you have a non-blaming culture focused on finding causes and fixing them rather than finding the culprits?

Chapter 3: Responding Effectively to Incidents #

On-call rotations go hand in hand with incident management. What is an Incident? An incident occurs when a system behaves unexpectedly, potentially impacting customers (or partners and employees).

Skill at the heart of the “you develop it, and you own it” DevOps approach, incident management is often devalued, with teams turning away from it once the problem is solved. Organizations lacking effective incident management frequently improvise on the fly, using whatever organization, methods, and communications are available. When there’s a big problem, everyone scrambles to devise a plan to solve it.

There is a much better approach, reducing the duration and frequency of failures and giving responsible engineers the support they need to respond effectively.

Creating an effective incident management process

Define severity levels: Severity levels determine the level of support needed and the potential impact on customers. For example, New Relic uses a severity scale of 1-5.

Level 5: no impact on customers, can be used to raise awareness of a problem.

Level 4: Minor bugs or low data latency impact but do not inconvenience customers.

Level 3: High data latency or unavailable features.

Levels 2 and 1: serious incidents result in breakdowns.

Strengthen your departments: Every department should have a monitoring and alerting system for proactive incident reporting so you can respond to and resolve them as quickly as possible.
Define Response Roles: At New Relic, engineering and support team members play the following roles during an incident: Incident Manager (leads resolutions), Technical Lead (diagnoses and fixes), communications (notifies everyone), communications manager (coordinates emergency communications strategy), incident interface (collaborates with technical support and management for severity level 1), emergency manager (optional for level 1) and engineering manager (manages the post-incident process).
Create an action plan: This is the series of tasks per role, which covers everything that happens in the lifecycle of an incident, including reporting it, defining its severity, choosing appropriate technical leads to contact, debugging and resolving the issue, managing the flow of communications, handing over responsibilities, closing the incident, and conducting post-mortem analysis.
Implement tools and automation to support the lifecycle: from monitoring to alerts, dashboards, and incident tracking; automating the process is essential to keep employees involved and ensure the plan’s effective execution.
Conduct post-incident analysis: After the incident, ask your teams to conduct post-incident research within two days. Emphasize that the purpose of the study is not to find culprits but to understand the natural causes of the problem.
Implement a no-repeat incident policy: If a service issue impacts your customers, it’s time to identify and pay the debt. A no repeat incident policy means that your team will cease all activity on this service until the primary source of the problem has been corrected or contained.

Chapter 4: Overcoming the Complexity of Microservices #

Microservices and DevOps work better together. Companies have realized that breaking monolithic applications into separate services can bring dramatic gains in productivity, speed, agility, scalability, and reliability.

But while teams recognize the changes needed to develop, test, and deploy microservices, they often overestimate the substantial changes required in the areas of collaboration and communications.

Communication best practices for a microservices environment:

Make upstream and downstream dependencies aware of major changes: Before deploying significant changes to your microservices, notify the teams that depend on it upstream and downstream so that, if something goes wrong, they Don’t waste time looking for the root cause.

Communicate quickly and often: This is especially important for version management, deprecations, and temporarily providing backward compatibility.

Treat internal APIs like external APIs: Make your API easier for developers to understand with documentation, detailed error messages, and a process for submitting test data.

Treat downstream teams, i.e., customers: Create a README file with an infrastructure diagram, description and instructions for local execution, and information on how to participate.

Create an announcements-only channel: It’s essential to have a single credible source for important announcements rather than relying on teams to glean important information from multiple boards, chats, and emails.

Using data to understand better how microservices work #

Breaking down your monolithic applications into microservices is very difficult. You must first understand the whole of a system before partitioning it into service boundaries. Then, it can be complicated to partition it precisely to create real microservices (each with a single function, detailed and loosely associated with applications and other services).

Here are some measurement and monitoring tips you can apply to spot microservices in your environment that may have too many interdependencies with other services and applications:

Deployments: Does your team synchronize deployments with upstream and downstream units? You haven’t decoupled your services if you see deployment markers in your monitoring solution synced across multiple services.
Communications: A microservices should require little communication with other services to perform its function. If you see assistance with many round-trip requests to the same downstream services, that’s a clear sign that it’s not decoupled. Throughput is another marker to watch. If the calls per minute for a specific microservices are much higher than the application’s, the service is not decoupled.
Datastores: Each microservices should have its datastore to avoid deployment, database downtime, and schema changes. Good monitoring can show you if each microservices uses its data store.
Scalability: In a proper microservices environment, the peaks of services placed on hosts should match the throughput peaks of individual services. This indicates dynamic extension, one of the essential benefits of microservices. On the other hand, if you see matching spikes across all services and hosts, there’s good reason to believe your services aren’t decoupled.
Developers per application: If you effectively communicate with your microservices teams, you won’t need “architectural gurus” who care for all the microservices to keep them running smoothly. Suppose you have 100 engineers for ten services, and two of your engineers are developing on all ten services. In that case, this is probably a sign that they are not decoupled and that the development of all your services relies on too much knowledge—exclusive and communication skills of these two developers.

Chapter 5: Using Data to Achieve Digital Velocity #

The fundamental element of DevOps is speed: faster software delivery, more immediate problem solving, and more rapid innovation. You’ve achieved digital velocity when you’ve achieved the rate your business needs to seize new market opportunities, beat the competition in innovation, and delight your customers.

Measure and track DevOps performance #

Provide instant feedback that allows everyone to focus on their tasks.
Optimize software delivery, performance, and business results

Here are some fundamentals that should guide your overall DevOps experience:

1. Eliminate data silos #

Even though metrics are at the heart of DevOps doctrine, many teams don’t understand that data silos mean that everyone sees noon on the performance front. With performance data silos, there is no standard, consistent language between applications, infrastructure, and what users experience. Deploying instruments across all your systems to present everything on a single platform puts everyone on the same page, with shared data and metrics to bring different functions together as one team.

At New Relic, our engineering teams struggled with a proliferation of tools and conflicting priorities. Teams started pulling in the same direction by getting all stakeholders to agree on the most crucial SLOs and then putting those SLOs into shared dashboards.

2. Eliminate complexity #

While modern application architectures can simplify and accelerate development in a variety of ways, the dynamic quality of today’s modular architecture creates a new kind of complexity, with many individual components forming a cohesive whole.. Benefiting from a complete vision of your architecture, even if it is ephemeral, allows you to deal with this complexity. In addition, having the correct data helps you understand what’s working and point your team in the right direction.

3. Understand the impact of changes #

With DevOps, deployments and code changes are more frequent; your team needs to master them to avoid potential problems. Ensure you have a reporting feature showing your recent implementations and their before/after impact on application performance and customer experience, including any errors. So you can quickly correlate changes and their potential consequences and enable your team to respond soon, recall a release, or provide a quick resolution to any issues that may arise.

Conclusion #

The popularity of DevOps has spread widely, benefiting companies from many different industries engaged in their pursuit of speed, productivity, quality, and innovation through the adoption of DevOps principles. By achieving maximum digital velocity, high-performing DevOps organizations successfully deploy more, with much faster failure recovery time than their lower-performing competitors.

Data is the fuel of a successful DevOps engine. Best practices, like the ones described in this article, are all about using data well to fuel success. New Relic gives you the necessary visibility to monitor your DevOps efforts and continuously improve your results at every step.

Related reading

The Future of Wealth Management? Teach or Hybrid?

Vin Patel — Tue, 22 Nov 2022 18:54:34 +0000

Key takeaways

But such seemingly simple goals can face some tirelessly complex hurdles.
With urbanized goals like sustaining a lifestyle, education planning for kids, healthcare costs of ageing parents, or even buying a new home, today’s consumer needs more appropriate real-time advice than ever before.
The paradigm shift in the wealth management landscape is occurring rapidly, and these digitalization trends bear testament to the massive change that the wealth management space is facing.

With futurists looking to re-invent the asset management value chain and consumers demanding more client-centricity, can tomorrow’s wealth management solution be led solely by teach? Digitalization is promising a massive upgrade to long-term financial planning. What can this mean for you as an investor?

An investor usually has two broad objectives: to grow their capital and, second, to protect what they already have. But such seemingly simple goals can face some tirelessly complex hurdles. From trying to understand asset classes and keeping track of portfolio performance to changing investment buckets based on market trends, an average investor often has a lot to contend with. Combine this with increased uncertainty and the rising cost of risk, and you have a consumer who is frayed at the edges and is demanding a lot more in the way of client-centricity.

As per a report published by Deloitte in 2017, we are about to witness the largest wealth transfer in history over the next 40 years, with almost USD 50 trillion changing hands from one generation to another. This makes it even more essential for institutions to gear up to address re-wired Millenials’ demands. With increased globalization, it’s vital to recognize that digital transformation is no longer a choice but an imperative for sustainability. This is something wealth managers have now realized.

Risking disruption to re-invent their value-chain, wealth management is now following in the footsteps of consumer-centric organizations like Amazon, Apple and Netflix, to name a few; to empower a digitally-savvy investor with tools and methodologies that up until now were the purview of a select few.

The Emergence of Wealth Teach #

Just as fintech transformed financial services, Healthtech promises a revolution in the investment management industry. It encompasses a range of different channels - from B2C rob-advisors to micro-investing platforms that allow users to regularly save small sums of money to even B2B providers that offer digital brokerages and wealth advisory. Healthtech is attempting to create a fullyoperational wealth management bank ‘in your pocket’.

With cutting-edge technology, firms like Wealthfront, Addepar and InvestCloud are helping investors benefit from Artificial Intelligence (AI) and deep-data-driven analytic to receive real-time personal financial management at a fraction of the cost.

No Longer A One-Size-Fits-All #

Thanks to Machine Learning, advisory firms are infusing data and analytic to serve clients holistically by generating relevant, timely, and actionable insights for clients and advisors alike.

Embedded at the heart of Healthtech is a behavior-based segmentation based on risk appetite, interests, and financial goals. This brings a more intuitive experience to the investor, going beyond just recommending portfolio allocation based on risk profile or asset under management (AUM). Instead, more customized offerings are made available based on client personas and interests. With this outside-in approach, technology is bridging the chasm between business objectives and customer expectations.

Taking Rob-Advisory To The Next Level #

But as consumer sentiment evolves, the new generation of wealth customer is looking beyond just growing their capital. With urbanized goals like sustaining a lifestyle, education planning for kids, healthcare costs of ageing parents, or even buying a new home, today’s consumer needs more appropriate real-time advice than ever before. This is perhaps where traditional wealth management has sometimes fallen short of its objectives. With analyst, stock picks undermining market indexes more often than not, and underdog plays making headline-worthy moves, advisors often find themselves dragging their feet when it comes to generating timely advice and meeting client goals.

For Healthtech innovators, this is a core focus area - bringing granular level needs-based advisory, real-time, to the mass market. By integrating economic trends and even social media analytic, whose singular stand in recent times has moved markets beyond measure, this type of advice becomes more relevant than ever.

Combining this with click-of-the-button UI, Healthtech brings in user-friendly omnichannel support to simplify investing and at the same time, give control back to the investor. For instance, an investor can individualize their financial planning through goal-based bucket creation to set aside a long-term retirement corpus while having an aggressive short-term bucket for saving up for a down payment on a house. If there are changes in market sentiments in the short term, the investor can shift money from one bucket to another. This is perhaps the most significant takeback from this value chain: more control, better individualization and better expectation management.

Taking it a step further, a personalized dashboard gives you 24/7 access to your portfolio with the ability to compare performances across different asset classes ranging from commodities, mutual funds, energy, real estate, and even art. But where does this leave the traditional human element of financial planning advisory?

The Convergence of Teach And The Human Element #

Wealth management has been a long-standing stalwart of a personal advisory model. But algorithms are slowly taking some of the more fundamental functions of human advisors. However, that doesn’t entirely render the human element obsolete. On the other hand, it augments the offerings while still retaining the traditional model’s personal and emotional component through a more hybrid approach.

Human advisory’s significance is invaluable for clients with material assets to invest in, or even when it comes to tax planning and estate management. This is why the digitalization of the Wealth Management space is so unique. The pairing of the human relationship with automation to create an omnichannel service makes financial planning a lot more approachable for the masses.

Wealth Management 2.0 #

The paradigm shift in the wealth management landscape is occurring rapidly, and these digitalization trends bear testament to the massive change that the wealth management space is facing. With the ramification of UI, the enormous shift in demographics now controlling wealth and the new and digitally re-wired customer at the helm, Healthtech seeks to bring far-reaching changes to a system that up until was the purview of a select few. We, for one, are excited at the potential of this change.

Welcome to Wealth Management 2.0.

Related reading

Cloud Computing in Healthcare Industry

Vin Patel — Tue, 22 Nov 2022 18:39:18 +0000

Key takeaways

The vast impact of digital transformation in the healthcare industry makes it’s future firm.
The cloud’s stored data delivers remote accessibility, which is considered one of the most important benefits.
It also enables stakeholders over the entire health IT space, vendors, providers, insurers, and patients to embrace the cloud’s advantages securely, flexibly, and cost-effectively.

The vast impact of digital transformation in the healthcare industry makes it’s future firm. What’s interesting in cloud computing with healthcare? Cloud computing has changed the traditional way of dealing with data. Big data analytic with cloud computing help enterprises manage patient data, make the best healthcare decisions, lessen operational costs, better collaboration, and so on.

Healthcare providers worldwide have understood the real power of cloud-based healthcare solutions. The necessary applications run in the cloud to make the hospital operations run seamlessly. It retrieves frameworks from unstructured data to help doctors diagnose without a glitch and allow patients to view their reports & prescriptions remotely. The data is stored and secured in the cloud. Cloud delivers hassle-free functional, operational, and economic advantages for everyone, including patients, staff, healthcare professionals, and healthcare companies.

Let’s analyze the healthcare industry’s transformation in the areas such as patient care, data security, diagnosis, and more with cloud computing solutions.

Follow Healthcare Policies in Security #

Cloud-based healthcare solutions are more efficient and secure when compared with physical records. The authoritative healthcare providers can only access the cloud’s stored data whenever needed to avoid data leakage and unnecessary situations.

Famous cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, and GCP follow healthcare standards and their business partners contingent on the U. S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). They use the protected cloud provider environment to access, process, maintain and store health reports. The process ensures that the patient data is protected and not used without necessity.

The Revolution of the Healthcare Industry with Cloud Computing #

A healthcare firm acquires two simultaneous benefits when shifting to the cloud. Both the patients and the healthcare workers get the benefits. It is proven that the cloud computing process has reduced operational costs and made healthcare professionals deliver top-notch personalized care. At the same time, the cloud elevates patient engagement with their health strategies. It allows patients to access their information and ensures enhanced patient results. Healthcare information and its remote accessibility liberate providers and patients in many ways and eliminate location barriers limiting access to healthcare.

A few of the benefits of cloud computing in the healthcare industry are as follows:

Enhanced Scalability #

Apart from being compelling and authentic, cloud-based healthcare solutions are also robust and scalable. As per the needs, cloud solutions give the flexibility to scale up/down infrastructure to fit in new data.

Moving to the cloud might be the right solution for unexpected situations; the best example is the current pandemic/COVID-19. A large number of hospitals use AWS load balancing and auto-scaling services for their trusted security and efficiency.

Build Collaboration #

Regardless of the source or storage, the collaboration aims at setting up data integrations all over the healthcare system. Subsequently, patient data is available anytime for sharing and getting knowledge to prepare the healthcare planning and delivery through interoperability elevated by cloud adoption.

Cloud computing enables healthcare providers to access patient data merged from multiple resources, distribute it to the primary stakeholders, and provide prescriptions on time and treatment guidelines. It also reduces the distance between the professionals, enabling them to review cases and provide their suggestions irrespective of the topological restrictions.

Various segments, such as the healthcare industry- pharmaceuticals, insurance, and payments, get together with the cloud’s collaboration mechanism, which allows patient data to be accessible from anywhere, anytime.

Improved Accessibility #

The cloud’s stored data delivers remote accessibility, which is considered one of the most important benefits. Cloud computing and healthcare is a good pair that has the power to increase and enhance many healthcare-related operations such as post-hospitalization care plans, telemedicine, and virtual medication attachment. It also improves access to healthcare services.

Telemedicine apes add the attributes of convenience to healthcare delivery and upgrade the patients with a seamless experience. Cloud-based telehealth applications and processes enable the easy sharing of healthcare information, enhance accessibility, and offer healthcare coverage to patients during the recovery phase.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning #

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning influence the healthcare industry to a greater extent. With healthcare professionals’ busy schedules, now due to the global pandemic, complexities, and increased information, the healthcare industry adheres to AI and ML techniques. AI ML capabilities could be an essential solution to support clinical decisions and, ultimately, a quicker time-to-treatment.

As cloud platforms use AI and ML in their services, cloud computing can support the transformation of artificial intelligence into general healthcare functions and help professionals manage vast amounts of data.

Better Decision Making #

Healthcare enterprises offer machine learning approaches based on cloud solutions for accurate and knowledgeable diagnoses for clinical and medical data analytic. Cloud-based solutions deal with large volumes of structured and unstructured data in healthcare repositories. The predictive models of the cloud solutions make way for better decision-making.

Security is a Significant Concern #

One of the most critical challenges the healthcare industry faces is security. How secure is it to have all the applications and patient information in a third-party environment? Healthcare information requires confidentiality. The massive data in the hospital domain may be attacked by hackers or malicious actors, resulting in security and data breaches. The cloud network guarantees security as it has particular security tools that can inform you about malicious inputs.

Cloud servers help protect healthcare reports. If any machine fails, medical institutions may lose all their information and applications in terms of on-premises solutions. Cloud-based security solutions save users from these types of potential risks.

Scalability and Flexibility #

Healthcare organizations function in a high-powered environment. Cloud-based technologies used in healthcare areas, such as electronic medical records, mobile applications, patient portals, IoT devices, big data analytic yields better scalability and flexibility. It delivers problem-free applications, which enhances the decision-making process.

Healthcare providers must measure the data storage capacity and network requirements based on the service necessities or demands.

Cloud technology can scale up/down these storage requirements as per the needs of healthcare professionals.

As cloud migration can completely eradicate your conventional approaches to data handling, a well-organized strategy for the migration process is required. Cloud migration strategy not only removes risks but also reduces the chances of downtime, prevents data leaks, enhances data handling, and strengthens security standards.

Summary #

Cloud computing has occupied a significant portion of the healthcare sector. The blend of cloud computing with Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Big Data Analytic, IoT in healthcare makes seamless business outcomes. It improves resource availability, and enhances interoperability while reducing costs. With multiple inherited benefits to overcome healthcare challenges, cloud computing is the best option to opt for. It also enables stakeholders over the entire health IT space, vendors, providers, insurers, and patients to embrace the cloud’s advantages securely, flexibly, and cost-effectively.

Related reading

What’s interesting in cloud computing with healthcare? #

Cloud computing has changed the traditional way of dealing with data. Big data analytic with cloud computing help enterprises manage patient data, make the best healthcare decisions, lessen operational costs, better collaboration, and so on.

How secure is it to have all the applications and patient information in a third-party environment? #

Healthcare information requires confidentiality. The massive data in the hospital domain may be attacked by hackers or malicious actors, resulting in security and data breaches.

How Would A Western Cloud Shutdown Affect Russia?

Vin Patel — Tue, 22 Nov 2022 12:21:56 +0000

Key takeaways

Russian businesses and government agencies have traditionally depended on technological development to ensure efficiency in all sectors across the globe.
However, according to IDC, Russia and Ukraine together account for just 5.5 percent of total information and communication technology investment in Europe and 1% globally.
However, Ives estimated that it would have a “1% to 2% revenue effect in the worst-case scenario,” considering that Russia-based consumption represents for a minor portion of their entire company.

Russian businesses and government agencies have traditionally depended on technological development to ensure efficiency in all sectors across the globe. Ukraine has encouraged cloud computing and software behemoths such as Microsoft Corp (MSFT. O) and SAP SE (SAPG. DE) to isolate Russia to avert a Russian invasion. What is at risk is as follows.

A slew of technology giants, including Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, have suspended sales of services and goods in Russia in reaction to the country’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent government sanctions. Now, analysts warn, US technology firms might go a step further and deny access to Russian businesses that rely on their cloud computing services.

What Does Ukraine Require? #

The Ukrainian digital transformation ministry requests that North American and European technology businesses suspend all business with Russian customers, possibly damaging Russia’s economy and compelling the Kremlin to reassess what it has dubbed a “special military operation” in Ukraine. Since the invasion started last month, several corporations, like Microsoft, have stopped taking new clients in Russia. However, many have not terminated contracts with current clients, except those subject to new sanctions and export restrictions.

What Role Do Western Businesses Play in Russia’s Information Technology Systems? #

Russian businesses and government organizations have long depended on Western-developed technology as the foundation for their own and managed information technology systems. In Russia, the market is dominated by servers from International Business Machines Corp (IBM. N), Dell Technologies Inc (DELL. N), Hewlett Packard Enterprise and many more.

Additionally, SAP, Microsoft, IBM, Oracle Corp (ORCL. N), and Salesforce.com Inc. applications are famous (CRM. N). The tools assist firms in sending emails, analyzing data, storing records, and managing their operations in general. Vendors are unable to switch off certain technologies remotely. However, there are ways to suffocate customers’ systems. According to two former IBM Eastern Europe senior salespeople, banking, telecommunications, transportation, and other industries in Russia may suffer if suppliers discontinue delivering replacement parts, security patches, software updates, and technical support. If services become unavailable or deteriorate owing to a lack of upgrades, clients may be compelled to pursue alternatives, like pen-and-paper accounting.

How Would a Closure of The Western Cloud Affect Russia? #

According to IDC analyst Philip Carter, Russian businesses have been most hesitant to entirely depend on cloud services, particularly those offered by US-based providers such as

Microsoft Azure and Alphabet In’s Google Cloud (GOOGL. O). Carter added that cloud computing represents 5% of total domestic IT expenditure in Russia compared to 19% in the United States. Consequently, he claimed that Russian businesses that are dropped from the cloud would not be severely harmed. Nonetheless, the Russian cloud business has risen rapidly over the previous two years, according to experts, with the epidemic pushing trade online. According to IDC’s 2020 market share predictions, Microsoft has the most significant market share in Russia at 17%, followed by Amazon.com In’s cloud unit at 14% and IBM at 10%. Yandex NV (YNDX. O), a Russian corporation, is fourth with a 3% portion of the market. However, according to IDC, Russia and Ukraine together account for just 5.5 percent of total information and communication technology investment in Europe and 1% globally.

What Have Western Businesses Said? #

Salesforce said on Monday that it had begun terminating client connections in Russia, citing a tiny, non-material number. Other businesses refused to comment on whether they contemplated terminating relationships with current customers. Amazon Web Services has said that most of its clients in Russia are multinational corporations and that the company has a long-standing policy of not conducting business with the Russian government. IBM and Oracle both said that they had ceased all operations in Russia, and IBM emphasized that they do not conduct business with Russian military entities. HPE, Dell, SAP, and Microsoft have all said to halt sales. A request for comment from Google Cloud was not responded to.

It is one thing to put an end to sales inside a nation. Another is to cut off access to critical internet services.

“Isolating Russia from Western internet capabilities, whether Office 365 or Amazon Web Services, would almost certainly have a debilitating impact, at least in the near term,” said Alexander Gounares, CEO of Bellevue, Washington-based security technology business Polyverse.

This is what Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s minister of digital transformation and deputy prime minister, has urged.

“Suspending AWS services in the Russian Federation would support a worldwide unified motion of several countries and enterprises that have prioritized long-term stability and development above possible short-term economic losses,” Fedorov said in a letter to Amazon founder Jeff Bozos.

Who Might Benefit From The Exit Of Western Companies? #

Indigenous office software such as MyOffice or local clouds services such as Yandex and ActiveCloud. However, IDC’s Carter noted that prices and quality might be less advantageous. According to Canals’ Blake Murray, Chinese technology businesses might fill the void. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (9988. HK) and Tencent Holdings Ltd are two cloud service providers (0700. HK). Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, located in China, established a data center in Moscow last year for Russia’s scientific and academic communities. Nonetheless, any usage of Western components in their operations might hinder Russian sales in light of recent US trade restrictions.

Conclusion #

Gounares said that the Russian people must get the truth? and that turning down internet access may obstruct that process. Quinn noted that technology businesses are operating in an unknown area. “During prior wars, the globe was not as interconnected and reliant on a limited number of firms.”

This week, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google all published blog articles outlining how their cloud and security technologies assist Ukrainian organizations in combating cyberattacks. Amazon included information about its AWS terms of service in its article? even though Amazon does not run an e-commerce operation in Russia.

“AWS has explicit terms of service that prohibit customers from using their services to threaten, provoke, advocate, or actively support violence, terrorism, or other significant damage to others,” the blog post added. “Any client we are aware of who engages in this sort of activity will have their AWS account suspended.” Stopping cloud services for any client harms cloud providers’ financial lines. However, Ives estimated that it would have a “1% to 2% revenue effect in the worst-case scenario,” considering that Russia-based consumption represents for a minor portion of their entire company.

Related reading

Questions and answers

What Does Ukraine Require? #

What Role Do Western Businesses Play in Russia’s Information Technology Systems? #

Russian businesses and government organizations have long depended on Western-developed technology as the foundation for their own and managed information technology systems.

How Would a Closure of The Western Cloud Affect Russia? #

According to IDC analyst Philip Carter, Russian businesses have been most hesitant to entirely depend on cloud services, particularly those offered by US-based providers such as Microsoft Azure and Alphabet In’s Google Cloud (GOOGL. O).

What Have Western Businesses Said? #

Using Hyperautomation To Boost Customer Satisfaction

Vin Patel — Wed, 16 Nov 2022 12:37:26 +0000

Key takeaways

Hyper-automation can be seen as a potential threat to employees, as it drastically reduces redundant manual work.
Hyperautomation gives employees more time to focus on what adds value to their business.
Taking these key points into account will allow companies to embark on their hyper-automation process while maintaining the involvement of management and employees and remaining focused on their objectives.

Hyper-automation can be seen as a potential threat to employees, as it drastically reduces redundant manual work. Nevertheless, companies must consider the plethora of possibilities it opens that could raise employees’ working levels. In addition, organizations need to understand that hyper-automation merges technologically advanced tools to create an environment that empowers employees to use the best approach to problem-solving.

Organizations have slowly realized that hyper-automation can be used for more than operational efficiency. Instead, it promotes digital transformation by using intelligent process automation (IPA), a set of advanced technologies that automate, optimize and integrate digital processes to make systems more efficient. IPA solutions open a world of automation possibilities for even the most complex businesses.

The first observation is that deploying these solutions cannot be envisaged without careful consideration of the company’s information system and business applications; as a result, integration, connectors, and APIs have become essential.

The second is that the processing of interactions can no longer rely exclusively on agents and remote advisers, who indeed form a precious resource but which are not economically scalable to infinity. Instead, companies have understood that they need to find additional tools to optimize the routing of incoming flows, reserve the added value of human agents for the most complex tasks, and automate the most superficial and recurring exchanges.

Hyperautomation in the Technology Roadmap of Organizations #

Strategy: A global survey of 600 CIOs and IT decision-makers shows that demand for automation has surged in nearly every business. According to a recent Salesforce and Manson Bourne study, demand for automation has exploded across industries. Still, legacy architectures are slowing progress, and 80% of businesses are concerned about supporting automation programs.

Real technological revolutions are easy to spot because they are also economic revolutions. Hyper-automation, which combines humans with AI and RPA robots to increase the speed and precision of work, is one such revolution.

It unlocks entirely new business models and generates economic and social changes that will go beyond what we can currently imagine.

A Hyper-craze #

From the steam engine to the silicon microchip, new business models arise whenever incremental changes are made to reduce the cost of production by ten or more. The lighting of homes with oil, to whales killed on the other side of the planet only stopped when the trains were able to deliver cheap oil from Pennsylvania. And as energy prices fell, entirely new cities and industries sprang up across the country, driving profound economic changes that contributed to social progress.

COVID-19 has tested the idea of hyper-automation, that is, full automation at high speed. As a result, we have already seen considerable changes in the models, methods, and tools we work with. Moreover, this change is here to stay: by 2030, we should expect the manual, paper-based business processes left behind to be as anachronistic as fax machines and Rolodexes.

The Cost of Paper #

To improve the customer experience radically, you must find your own automation goals to multiply your results by ten or a hundred.

The “paperless office” is a decades-old promise that left most businesses with an unfortunate legacy of millions of error-prone PDFs, spreadsheets, Word documents, and OCR workflows. The result is that most companies are still drowning in paper. Even though it is “digital” paper, it is still a mass of unstructured data that is difficult to work with.

Scanning documents using OCR tools can be expensive (forecasts say this industry will be worth $12.6 billion by 2025) and involves a significant human intervention to set up and correct errors every time a form changes.

In this case, you need to consider the price per page, factoring in software costs, human costs, and time spent fixing errors in terms of lost productivity. For example, if you need to update 200,000 old contracts with the new LIBOR [London Interbank Offer Rate] rates and each contract is over 80 pages, your price per page is the time it takes for attorneys and clerks to process clear approximately 26,000,000 contracts per page. You are using OCR tools and any workflow technology at your disposal if a human needs 10 minutes to find and correct an error where every percentage of error you can reduce represents millions of dollars in savings.

To solve the same problem, hyper-automation uses low-code integration and robotic process automation (RPA) to integrate documents from varied sources into the same workflow.

The Platform Advantage #

Hyper-automation can be achieved in different ways, but using a low-code automation platform has three significant advantages:

Overcoming the shortage of skilled IT professionals.
Ensuring the sustainability of your investments in hyper-automation.
Building resilience in your systems and processes to deal with future crises.

Using a low-code automation platform to build mission-critical applications and automation allows you to increase the productivity of your qualified developers. Technologies related to hyper-automation allow companies to automate specific routine, repetitive and complex tasks usually performed by humans.

Hyperautomation gives employees more time to focus on what adds value to their business. By combining hyper-automation with a human touch, it is possible to improve the customer experience while reducing operational costs.

Hyperautomation can be used in many industries, such as finance, manufacturing, telecommunications, or running a professional services firm.

Hyper-automation is an emerging trend that combines artificial intelligence, robotic process automation, and data science to optimize business processes and allow employees to focus on high-value tasks.

For several years, hyper-automation has been one of the leading technological trends. according to Gartner, “by 2025, the market for software that supports hyper-automation will reach nearly $860 billion.” However, faced with the challenge of implementing a hyper-automation strategy, many companies are reluctant to take the plunge.

The Prerequisites of Hyper-automation #

The implementation of a hyper-automation strategy has a substantial impact on the entire company. To go beyond local automation initiatives, the design must be thought out in a cross-functional and global way.

To do this, the hyper-automation approach must be based on solid sponsorship within the company. In addition, all stakeholders must know the opportunities and challenges accompanying such an approach.

The objectives may relate to reducing costs, for example, by automating supervision tasks and managing the IS infrastructure, or improving the customer experience, by setting up an automatic management system. Common and repetitive customer requests.

The definition of concrete objectives, which are then explicitly broken down for each automation project, makes it easier to measure the ROI of the projects and to maintain the commitment of the stakeholders.

Once the objectives have been defined, choosing the first use case is a significant decision. A use case with high added value, which can be carried out quickly, will prove the interest of the approach.

A final aspect that is also important before embarking on its adventure in hyper-automation: is the technological aspect. It matches the chosen hyper-automation solution with the company’s current technology environment.

It is vital to assess the compatibility of the technologies already present in the company with the chosen hyper-automation solution. Hyper-automation projects requiring redesigning several applications or using experts on technologies unknown to the company can jeopardize the entire process.

To limit the risks, the projects must be carried out with a view to compliance and safety “by design.” The redefinition of a process at the end of the project to meet regulatory constraints or the redesign of an architecture necessary to overcome security flaws would have a significant impact on the ROI of the project and the success of the approach.

In this context, continuous integration processes and rigorous tests guarantee the achievement’s quality. Furthermore, as the automation process progresses, automated processes can quickly become complex, and it is essential to ensure the quality and swift operation of the techniques on an ongoing basis.

In addition, change management will also be a vital element of the process. The automation of business processes arouses the mistrust of some employees, fearing to be replaced. Therefore, support, through communication on objectives and opportunities, as well as an appropriate training plan, is essential.

Hyper-automation is considered one of the biggest priorities for any CFO, as it reduces operational costs and increases efficiency. according to Gartner, operating costs will decrease by 30% in the future thanks to hyper-automation.

Hyper-automation combines advanced technologies to add more value to organizations that aim for business process innovation and more opportunity. It is rapidly changing from an option to a condition of survival, forcing organizations to adapt to the changing landscape. Furthermore, given the pandemic, hyper-automation could be crucial in reducing business risk. With these significant benefits, hyper-automation is seen as the next breakthrough to provide organizations with increased efficiency, functionality, and growth.

Finally, as reliable as hyper-automation technologies are, no solution is infallible. Critical processes must have a backup plan allowing them to be carried out in the event of system failure. Therefore, it is necessary to plan a crisis and process a recovery plan.

It is also essential to regularly monitor the supervision processes’ functioning and update previously automated processes. Taking these key points into account will allow companies to embark on their hyper-automation process while maintaining the involvement of management and employees and remaining focused on their objectives.

Related reading

What is Hyper-automation & How is it Used in Businesses?

Vin Patel — Wed, 16 Nov 2022 10:52:51 +0000

Key takeaways

Although it may sound like science fiction, hyper-automation can rapidly discover, validate, and automate a wide range of business and IT operations.
It reduces human error and fatigue while enabling robots to mimic human intellect.
Your employees will be more engaged in their job as they seek to solve challenges and develop creative solutions instead of being bogged down by low-level, repetitive tasks.

Although it may sound like science fiction, hyper-automation can rapidly discover, validate, and automate a wide range of business and IT operations. The result of machine learning, packaged software, and a range of tools used to execute a task is referred to as hyper-automation. It may employ cutting-edge technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to assist workers and streamline work processes.

The sophistication of the automation (i.e., find, analyze, build, automate, measure, monitor, and reassess) and the instruments that may be automated are referred to as hyper-automation.

What Role Does Hyper-automation Play? #

Most firms have a range of IT and business automation solutions. Many of these tools are script- or rule-based in nature or are designed for specialized uses (i.e., onboarding automation). These tools allow ad hoc automation for simple actions. A new solution is deployed whenever the HR or marketing departments need to automate a set of responsibilities.

The problem with this strategy is that it leads to the organization becoming a patchwork of separated automation that is riddled with gaps. This makes establishing automated, end-to-end operations to meet business goals difficult and costly for IT.

Automation refers to simple task automation, whereas hyper-automation is a comprehensive strategy that seeks to automate and coordinate as much as possible to transform processes (digital transformation) and build new ones that would have been impractical to accomplish using conventional methods.

With the aid of AI and ML tools, businesses are increasingly pursuing unified, enterprise-wide automation programs to cut costs and increase productivity.

Benefits of Hyper-automation #

Hyper automation can free up internal resources, improve security, and help firms save money. Benefits like these can be leveraged to boost sales, marketing, and customer service.

When using hyper-automation, your business can:

1. Compile and examine a variety of data: #

Your business may benefit from the new insights by improving its decision-making procedures and customer service.

2. Increase employee engagement: #

Make sure that repetitious tasks are carried out skillfully and consistently to increase employee engagement.

3. Utilize low-code and no-code digital technologies: #

You can save money and time by automating tasks that would normally require manual intervention.

4. Boost agility: #

Increase agility by providing more timely, precise information for better decision-making.

Integrating Hyper-automation in Your Company #

As was already mentioned, hyper-automation enables the integration of advanced technologies like AI and machine learning with core automation and RPA. When you employ hyper-automation, your business might gain from it in a variety of ways.

1. Enhanced effectiveness and flexibility: #

It is best to use hyper-automation to boost output. This is made feasible by assigning low-value tasks to automation systems, which frees up people’s time for higher-value tasks. It helps you to grow your company while having quick and effective decision-making skills.

2. Increasing ROI and cost-cutting: #

You may increase earnings while cutting expenses through hyper-automation. In addition to happier consumers, greater staff morale, productivity, and income are also financial advantages of hyper-automation. By 2024, organizations should be able to cut operating expenses by 30%, according to Gartner.

3. Precision and quickness: #

Hyper automation speeds up and increases the accuracy of work processes while also enabling the automation of intricate business procedures. Artificial intelligence, natural language processing, deep learning, and predictive analytic make end-to-end automation conceivable.

It reduces human error and fatigue while enabling robots to mimic human intellect. Speed and effectiveness are significantly increased as a consequence.

4. Enhanced client support: #

Hyper automation assigned difficult, time-consuming jobs to bots. This enables staff to concentrate on bettering the client experience by understanding their preferences. They may also provide each consumer with a solution that is specifically personalized, thanks to it.

5. Processes, robots, and the digital workforce: #

Hyper automation produced by intelligent process automation within an organization enables it to function without human input. A trait that all instances of automation capabilities have is artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), natural language processing (NLP), intelligent optical character recognition (OCR), and AI visual recognition.

The technologies let robots observe, analyze, and assess jobs, improving their Hyper automation capabilities. Hyper automation may be utilized for process mining and job delegation thanks to its capacity to map out business processes.

How Does Hyper-automation Work? #

Like every company’s endeavor, the degree of success is based on the planning process. Creating a hyper-automation strategy could help you streamline your objectives and actions. Your plan for hyper-automation may be divided into four steps:

1. Choose your objectives: #

You must first identify the precise goals you hope to accomplish with Hyper automation integration in order to create a sound plan. Adopting a thorough strategy to a holistic vision is necessary for the implementation of a successful business process automation. A detailed strategy must include every employee, department, and process inside your company.

2. Improve your system’s scalability: #

A sophisticated technological architecture called hyper-automation enables a business to increase its automation capabilities. It calls for a significant level of automation.

Or, to put it another way, every opportunity needs to take scalability into account. Which domains will benefit most from the introduction of robotic process automation (RPA) is decided at this stage.

3. Carry out research: #

Research is done internally or with the aid of outside specialists. Finding processes that are prepared for automation is required. It typically ends up in bureaucracy-heavy areas like finance, accounting, and human resources.

A technical evaluation of a few chosen RPA providers, as well as proof-of-concept and knowledge-gathering platforms, are also part of this process.

4. The method, the test, and the application: #

Businesses make sure the necessary personnel are prepared and trained for the RPA deployment. Additionally, it outlines the steps that must be taken to test and manage the IT infrastructure. Every step of the implementation process is recorded, documented, and completed under specified rules.

Conclusion #

The benefits of hyper-automation will enable your employees to receive the most recent business and market information, enabling them to do their duties to the best of their abilities.

Your employees will be more engaged in their job as they seek to solve challenges and develop creative solutions instead of being bogged down by low-level, repetitive tasks.

#

Related reading

What Role Does Hyper-automation Play? #

Most firms have a range of IT and business automation solutions. Many of these tools are script- or rule-based in nature or are designed for specialized uses (i.e., onboarding automation).

How Does Hyper-automation Work? #

Like every company’s endeavor, the degree of success is based on the planning process. Creating a hyper-automation strategy could help you streamline your objectives and actions.

Top 3 Industries Harnessing the Potential of IoT for Digital

Vin Patel — Tue, 15 Nov 2022 12:38:53 +0000

Key takeaways

In an era where people are shifting to digital mindsets, companies are left with no choice but to keep pace with this change to thrive in the global market.
At the same time, smart manufacturing is largely fuelled by machinery having internet capability to monitor production processes constantly.
The ideal combination of IoT and digital transformation makes for a better business model, systems, data analysis, and ultimately better customer experience.

In an era where people are shifting to digital mindsets, companies are left with no choice but to keep pace with this change to thrive in the global market. Leveraging cutting-edge technologies can be a practical option for companies ready to plunge into the wave of digitalization. Digital transformation has become a buzzword among companies. But do we really know what it means? Digital transformation entails using advanced technologies across business processes to challenge the status quo and achieve profitability by converting every resource and asset into a digital format.

The World Economic Forum predicts the value of digital transformation is expected to be more than $100 trillion by 2025 for industry and society. But why are companies so eager to achieve digital transformation, and how can IoT be instrumental in realizing this? Read on to learn the answers.

Digital transformation can revive companies that are losing steam in the competitive market, giving them the resources and assets required to improve the experience of employees, customers, and shareholders. IoT can be a major catalyst for digital transformation, enabling companies to make sense of the massive amount of data available in the growing number of connected devices. Today, IoT effectively changes how businesses are carried out across various industries, allowing them to capitalize on emerging and existing market opportunities.

In this blog, we will learn about three major industries that are adopting IoT to unlock the full potential of digital transformation.

Healthcare- Making Strides with IoT #

The need to step up efforts toward digital transformation in the healthcare industry is higher than ever. Challenges like shockingly low doctor-patient ratios, obsolete systems, and a growing number of chronic diseases overwhelm every entity in the healthcare system, creating a need for digital transformation backed with IoT, which can be a workable solution to navigate these challenges.

IoT takes the name of the Internet-of-Medical-Things (IoMT) in the healthcare industry, a network of medical systems that work together to obtain, share and analyze crucial healthcare data. IoMT has been strengthening healthcare infrastructure by improving telemedicine, remote surgeries, chronic disease management, drug delivery and management, patient-focused approach, and much more. Additionally, IoT helps enable telemedicine, an effective method adopted by doctors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Stringent COVID-19 guidelines further supported the concept of telemedicine, allowing patients and physicians to remain safe during communication and treatment in a virtual world.

IoT empowers physicians by allowing them to check patients’ conditions remotely, using wearable devices and monitoring systems integrated with IoT sensors. With the nature of diseases getting more uncertain, IoT establishes a streamlined connection between patients and physicians in seconds. IoT integration in this industry can improve patient satisfaction, provide better treatment plans, and decrease healthcare costs and the complexity of disease management. Healthcare institutions are expected to increase their budget for IoT systems in the upcoming years.

Manufacturing and IoT - Offering Hope for Accuracy and Speed #

Unlike many sectors, manufacturing has rather been slow to the technological revolution. However, the manufacturing industry is undergoing digital transformation allowing the sector to fully realize the potential of new concepts, technologies, and systems. Smart manufacturing and Industry 4.0 are some of the digital transformation outcomes in this sector.

Industry 4.0, or the fourth industrial revolution, is a concept that revolves around leveraging digital technologies for large-scale automation and data analytic. Industrial IoT (IIoT) is a subset of Industry 4.0, driven by smart machines’ use to analyze and communicate data to make informed decisions. At the same time, smart manufacturing is largely fuelled by machinery having internet capability to monitor production processes constantly. Both Industry 4.0 and smart manufacturing must be paired with IoT to maximize manufacturing performance.

Untimely errors in manufacturing equipment and machinery have compelled manufacturers to harness the power of IIoT for predictive maintenance. IoT-enabled machines can help manufacturers constantly monitor the environment and carry out analytic to get an accurate estimate of machine failures and defects. Faster analysis and repair would mean a more effective maintenance process, which ultimately reduces downtime and enables manufacturers to save costs.

Redesigning the Transportation & Logistics Sector with IoT #

While IoT is making smart cities a reality, it is now making inroads in the transportation & logistics sector to support smart cities, infrastructure, fulfill shifting demands, and prepare them for digital transformation. In this digital age, companies in the transportation & logistics sector pursue on-time delivery, service, warehouse management, and smart fleet management, not to mention improved customer experience, which is key to unlocking more revenue. The rising implementation of IoT-enabled devices is likely to ensure the sector achieves the digital transformation it deserves.

Monitoring and managing vehicle activity, route, driver’s behavior, and fuel consumption could be daunting without advanced technologies like IoT. Integrating IoT in vehicle tracking and management systems can help shareholders expertly manage the abovementioned factors. For manufacturers, warehouse security is the highest priority as it is a storehouse of products (eventually money). Locating missing products and discouraging intruders in a warehouse can be roadblocks for manufacturers’ journey towards frictionless operations. But thankfully, IoT-powered devices can help manufacturers navigate these challenges by offering them real-time insights into any person entering and leaving the entity. Using IoT systems, authorities can lock/unlock warehouse doors from any remote location - making it easier to monitor activities happening on the floor and reducing the chances of theft.

Moreover, automating the toll collection process can help both passengers and authorities, enabling hassle-free journeys for passengers and freeing up human resources for other essential tasks. Automated toll systems are integrated with IoT sensors and RFID tags that will allow quick online payment, helping authorities to manage better traffic flow and garner information like vehicle count, fare collection, and others.

Summing Up #

Digital transformation is crucial because it would be difficult to navigate modern challenges and serve digital-savvy customers if companies continue to operate with traditional models and systems. IoT, an integral component of digital transformation, can completely change how activities are done, creating new values for business owners and customers. Using IoT devices, companies analyze customer, employees, and their systems & process to make sense of the enormous amount of unstructured data related to these entities. Based on this data analysis, they become empowered to anticipate better and proactively deal with emerging problems.

IoT can be easily paired with other emerging technologies to continue to drive digital transformation for companies, helping them to gain early advantages in the competitive market. The ideal combination of IoT and digital transformation makes for a better business model, systems, data analysis, and ultimately better customer experience.

Related reading

Tangible Industry Problems and Its Solutions: Industry 4.0

Vin Patel — Thu, 10 Nov 2022 13:12:03 +0000

Key takeaways

Researchers, entrepreneurs, and representatives of government agencies and public groups address Industry 4.0-related issues consistently.
Skill development, which will result in demographic and social changes, is one of the essential underlying components for the effective adoption and implementation of the Industry 4.0 framework.
Digitization and connectivity of industrial processes (Industry 4.0) have the potential to improve sustainability in all three aspects.

Researchers, entrepreneurs, and representatives of government agencies and public groups address Industry 4.0-related issues consistently. Economists are paying increasing attention to the effects of the Industry 4.0 paradigm on global and national economies and capital markets. As a result of technological advancements and inventions, the global industrial environment has changed drastically in recent years. Industry 4.0 may be likened to three industrial revolutions in earlier centuries and represent technological advances’ most critical disruptive transformations in production.

The steam engine accelerated the First Industrial Revolution in Britain in the mid-18th century. The Second Industrial Revolution occurred in Europe and the US in the late 19th century. Mass manufacturing and electrical energy replaced steam engines in this revolution. Several technologies and mechanization increased output to meet demand. Integrated circuits started the Third Industrial Revolution (microchip). In the late 20th century, several industrialized nations used electronics and computer technology to automate industry.

Productivity has driven every industrial revolution. The first three industrial revolutions used steam engines, electricity, and digital technologies to improve productivity and efficiency. Industry 4.0, the fourth industrial revolution, has been extensively explored and discovered. Since it enhances smart and future factories, it affects the industrial sector. Industry 4.0 encompasses Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), the Internet of Things (IoT), Internet of Services (IoS), Robotics, Big Data, Cloud Manufacturing, and Augmented Reality. Using these technologies, which will unite the digital and physical worlds by embracing a variety of future industrial advancements, is crucial for creating intelligent industrial processes. This adoption encompasses equipment, machines, production modules, and products capable of exchanging data and independently controlling each other, resulting in a smart manufacturing environment. This new paradigm will provide a range of commercial and social prospects for businesses that embrace it.

Beyond The Hype of Industry 4.0: Lean’s Idea #

The industry will be the first sector to see the consequences of Industry 4.0. This new industrial paradigm will create a picture of decentralized and digitalized manufacturing, with production elements that can independently govern themselves, trigger processes, and react to environmental changes. In addition, the emerging paradigm suggests completely integrating goods and techniques, transforming the industrial perspective from mass production to mass customization, resulting in a rise in complexity. Therefore, innovative technologies and the construction of intelligent factories will substantially influence production processes and operations, allowing for more operational flexibility and more efficient resource usage. Industry 4.0 will significantly impact manufacturing systems, supply chains, and industrial operations. This new paradigm is transforming the current industrial environment in three ways:

Production digitalization,
Automation, and
Manufacturing site integration with an extensive supply chain.

Industry 4.0 involves total network integration and real-time data sharing. Increasing productivity is the driving force behind each industrial revolution. In addition to boosting productivity, the fourth industrial revolution will impact the whole supply chain, from product design and production to outbound shipping.

In recent years, business models and marketplaces have changed rapidly; imaginative new business models have emerged. In the context of Industry 4.0, the advent of new disruptive technologies has changed how products and services are marketed and delivered, disrupting traditional businesses and offering new business opportunities and models. The value chains are becoming more responsive as Industry 4.0 promotes integration between producers and customers, enabling deeper customer connections and business model adaptation in response to market needs. The increasing digitization of industrial production, along with system integration and complexity, will result in the construction of increasingly complex and digital market models, enhancing competitiveness by reducing barriers between information and physical structures.

Skill development, which will result in demographic and social changes, is one of the essential underlying components for the effective adoption and implementation of the Industry 4.0 framework. In the future vision of work, new capabilities will be required, and it will be essential to provide chances for developing these skills through high-quality training. This new industrial paradigm will substantially influence the labor market and professional positions, and it will be crucial that more jobs are created than destroyed.

Five Lean Concepts That Are Crucial for Value Creation #

In 1997, the founders of Lean Enterprise Institute first articulated the lean principles, which serve as the foundation for the whole approach. In their book on project management, “The Machine That Changed the World,” Womack and Jones characterized the five principles of lean as the ultimate formula for enhancing workplace productivity.

1. Identify value #

The first lean principle is about recognizing customer wants and expectations. Managers need to assess the actual demands of their consumers through in-depth interviews and analysis. In the case of unique items, determining value is particularly essential.

2. Map the value stream #

Managers are accountable for keeping consumers interested and understanding their expectations, as customers are typically insufficiently articulate to convey their fundamental requirements.

The value stream is the identification of all the actions necessary to finish the project effectively. This is the second phase in lean project management, which refers to the values stated in the previous step.

By accurately mapping the entire value chain, managers may identify inefficient regions and strive toward their elimination. This enables project teams to optimize customer value while conserving business resources and maximizing profitability.

3. Establish a flow #

After the lean wastes have been eliminated, a workflow must be developed to facilitate the implementation of the project. The entirety of the project management process is subdivided into distinct delivery units or milestones that occur consecutively until the process’ conclusion.

To minimize bottlenecks and unanticipated delays in the project, it is essential to guarantee that each value stream event occurs without friction and that all necessary resources are accessible on time.

4. Generate pull #

Maintaining an inventory is crucial to any operation, and you cannot afford to squander time awaiting the arrival of essential resources or materials after each milestone. However, retaining a surplus of inventory increases expenses and waste. The fourth lean principle focuses on the two primary sources of waste and value in the lean list and works in progress.

By instituting a pull system and guaranteeing that nothing is processed or manufactured in advance, the expenses associated with storing inventory may be drastically minimized. This strategy eliminates the old method of depending on projections and authorized timetables, thus the name “just in time.”

5. Continuous improvement #

The last premise of lean project management is pursuing perfection without compromise and end. By improving incrementally and learning from each failure, managers ensure their teams’ future performance will be significantly enhanced.

Conclusion

The defining characteristics of Industry 4.0 are horizontal and vertical scheme integration and cooperation. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is incorporated into multiple organizational hierarchical levels, ranging from floor-level control to production, operations, and management. This vertical integration networking enables the utilization of Industry 4.0 components for manufacturing in response to demand disparities or supply variations. ICT is utilized in horizontal integration to facilitate the sharing of information between several players. Complicated is the scenario of integrating various technologies for seamless cooperation, integration, and data sharing with all stakeholders. Implementing Industry 4.0 applications aids in cost reduction, increase productivity, efficiency, and adaptability, and enhances product customization.

Innovation and technological advances have a crucial role in businesses, industries, and nations. However, digital transformation advancements and increased interconnectivity will provide new difficulties to societies since Industry 4.0 will drastically alter the design, processes, operations, and services of goods and industrial systems. Industry 4.0 employs several cutting-edge tools and technologies, contributing to the redefinition of conventional industrial methods. Industry 4.0 will impact the entire value chain, enhancing production and engineering processes, enhancing product and service quality, optimizing customer-organization relationships, bringing new business opportunities and economic benefits, modifying educational requirements, and transforming the work environment. Digitization and connectivity of industrial processes (Industry 4.0) have the potential to improve sustainability in all three aspects.

Related reading

Why Private 5G Networks Could Be The Next Big Thing

Vin Patel — Thu, 10 Nov 2022 11:44:05 +0000

Key takeaways

Private networks are changing things up because they require technology from both disciplines.
- The remote workforce is kept connected across numerous sites by a variety of software-defined solutions, the Internet of Things, and corporate mobile applications that generate massive amounts of data every day.
However, while recent network generations, like 4G, appeared to be focused on enhanced media experiences that largely benefited consumers, 5G Private Networks have the potential to change the industry.

“The disagreement is understandable: everyone wants a piece of the 5G enterprise services pie, which will be far larger than 4G.”

Private 5G is swiftly becoming the next big thing, spanning a wide range of industries from farms to hospitals to hotels, despite the fact that enterprises have largely disregarded it. Private networks are changing things up because they require technology from both disciplines. Public carrier networks and IT firms have never merged on a single channel; however, private networks are shaking things up because they require technology from both disciplines. Factors such as the industry’s rapid and ongoing digital transformation, the convergence of telco and IT, the migration of cloud applications to the edge, and the increasing availability of spectrum, on the other hand, are all combining to create an environment in which demand for private 5G will soar.

Advantages of Private 5G Networks Over Other Networks? #

First, consider how a private 5G network varies from a public 5G network. A private 5G network provides enterprises with better personalization and complete control over their connectivity, in addition to the standard 5G features of low latency, longer reach, and more capacity. This allows company leaders to implement a uniform networking strategy across the enterprise.

Private 5G networks, like Wi-Fi, require small, local cellular towers to provide internet access points. This is appropriate for huge manufacturing units, logistics warehouses, and other private organizations such as colleges that operate across multiple campuses. They can set up their own 5G network to provide a local 5G connection.

Private 5G networks are incredibly configurable, and they are created to a company’s particular specifications. When using public 5G, users can only choose from the alternatives provided by the telecoms, after which they must manage and analyze data internally.
Private 5G networks provide tight security because they are not required to be connected to the larger telecoms network. Private 5G is therefore particularly appealing to companies that demand strong security, such as power plants and military manufacturing.
Businesses have always benefited from improved connections, such as the transition from 4G to 5G. However, there are numerous aspects to improved connectivity, such as increased responsiveness and the simplicity of adding more devices and sensors. Reliability, security, end-to-end control, and customization are all enhanced by a private 5G network.
A private 5G network is more cost-effective, faster to deploy, easier to set up, and provides more reliability and security because it does not require costly cabling and people to install.
The remote workforce is kept connected across numerous sites by a variety of software-defined solutions, the Internet of Things, and corporate mobile applications that generate massive amounts of data every day. Businesses can safely acquire, store, analyze, and provide actionable information for future sustainable growth with a private 5G network. It not only improves private 5Goffer device access and security, but it also provides the power and performance required for these resource-intensive IoT and big data projects.

Spectrum Provides New Opportunities For Enterprises #

With the evolution of 5G technology and the availability of spectrum required to leverage 5G private networks, private 5G networks have gained momentum in the United States. Organizations can now use either unlicensed spectrum, such as the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) band’s general authorized access (GAA) tier, the licensed spectrum from one of the organizations that purchased CBRS priority access licenses (PALs) in the 2020 FCC auction, spectrum secured in the recent C-band auction, or spectrum (high or mid-band) from a licensed wireless provider. For example, in Rock Island County, Illinois, John Deere purchased CBRS spectrum PALs for its global headquarters and plants. It also bought PALs for four counties in Iowa where it has other manufacturing sites.

Verizon will offer AWS Outposts, a private mobile edge computing service for enterprises, in October 2021. When paired with Verizon’s private 5G networks, 5G Edge with AWS Outposts, a fully managed solution, may enable a consistent hybrid experience by providing the same AWS infrastructure, services, APIs, and tools to almost any environment, whether a data center, co-location space or on-premises (known as On-Site 5G).

At its factory in Hickory, N. C., one of the world’s largest optical cable manufacturing factories, Corning Incorporated is using Verizon’s On-Site 5G and private mobile edge computing services. The company is experimenting with high-speed, high-volume data collection on the manufacturing floor, quality assurance, and on-premises inference utilizing machine learning using Verizon 5G Edge with AWS Outposts and On-Site 5G.

The Future of Private 5G Networks #

A private 5G network is an enterprise-dedicated network that provides communication links to people or things belonging to a specific firm and provides unique services required for the enterprise’s business. When compared to LTE, Wi-Fi, or Ethernet, private 5G networks have several advantages. Private 5G networks not only meet high security, privacy, and data isolation requirements, but they can also include network slicing, which may be used within a private 5G network to construct SLAs for specific devices and/or applications.

According to an IDC analyst team, the market for private cellular network infrastructure would be worth $ 5.7 billion by 2024. The analysis also suggests that the commercialization of 5G would have a significant impact on the private 5G network. It is predicted that MNOs and organizations would see private 5G become the foundation of their operations.

Private 5G networks are already proving valuable for organizations in terms of decreasing costs, reducing energy use, and analyzing business-critical data in real-time, providing glimpses of the future. Although, with the proliferation of the IoT device ecosystem, it will be some time before we see more enterprise use cases for private 5G. Private 5G networks are poised to create opportunities for public and private companies to unleash efficiency, exploit data in real-time, and earn new revenue in the coming years.

Bottom Line #

Enterprises have always been at the forefront of technology and the first to accept new ideas. 5G is no exception. However, while recent network generations, like 4G, appeared to be focused on enhanced media experiences that largely benefited consumers, 5G Private Networks have the potential to change the industry.

Related reading

Cloud Gaining Traction in the Financial Services Industry

Vin Patel — Thu, 10 Nov 2022 09:41:11 +0000

Key takeaways

Capital One surprised technology and business analysts by shutting down its physical data centers and moving them all to Amazon Web Services.
Additionally, the cloud allows firms to test new apes and online services more cost-effectively, as well as reduce their costs by eliminating the need for on-premises equipment.
If you choose to only play on-prom, you will miss out on the cutting edge.

Capital One surprised technology and business analysts by shutting down its physical data centers and moving them all to Amazon Web Services. Even at that time, it was highly unlikely that Capital One would be the last major bank to make the transition to an all-cloud IT environment.

The cloud offers lower costs and greater scalability, which are attracting more and more financial services firms. A wide range of resources can be spun up elastically and run at scale, allowing financial services firms to develop better digital offerings and customer engagements, as well as keep pace with growing customer bases.

Cloud adoption also enhances productivity, attracts talent, and provides security. While most financial services organizations have remained on the sidelines for many years, they are finally recognizing the cloud’s benefits.

As a result, they accept cloud computing more readily, have seen its successful deployment in the financial services industry, and are becoming more adept at managing risk as well as leveraging it.

Banks have moved ahead with plans for digital transformation to provide a more interactive user experience in response to the pandemic. Banks are migrating applications to the cloud, preferably using cloud-ready apes.

Cloud mainframe emulators exist, but they don’t match up to software developed specifically for the cloud. Banks should view moving to the cloud as an opportunity to upgrade technology.

Customers are finding that analytic on-prom and processing data is becoming increasingly challenging. Some financial firms have created huge data lakes to circumvent product silos. The data can quickly become swamped if there is no common taxonomy. A cloud-based solution can facilitate these processes.

Use Cases #

Several financial services firms are exploring cloud technology to implement innovative new services and practices. Connecting to third-party apes, for instance, is likely to result in new customers and revenue.

The payment process for ridesharing services has historically relied on connecting passengers’ peer-to-peer payment apes or debit cards. This kind of connectivity and then the ability to use fintech apes require the cloud.

The cloud is being used to host complicated technologies such as data marketplace and data warehouses. Organizations can create a consistent data delivery strategy quickly by leveraging this technology.

Additionally, the cloud allows firms to test new apes and online services more cost-effectively, as well as reduce their costs by eliminating the need for on-premises equipment.

On the other hand, you can expect banks to expand into new markets and compete in ways they couldn’t imagine before, boosting their revenue and scaling up at previously unimaginable rates.

Answers to critical business questions are urgently needed by financial services firms. The answers might not be ready for business the next day if a firm even ran a nightly job to answer daily questions before cloud computing. Despite this, this scenario happens more frequently than you might think, and the delay in getting the required information can have serious financial consequences.

AI and Machine Learning #

Also, a large amount of interest is being shown in the use of fast and large-scale databases for machine learning. With the emergence of AI and machine learning, cloud computing has also shown great promise, including automated loan processing and fraud mitigation chatbots for customer service, a field where cloud computing provides great value because it turns unstructured data into structured data.

As the mortgage industry grows, clients are increasingly turning to the cloud for AI solutions and document management for servicing and mortgage origination.

Cloud-based data storage can make it easier for investment professionals and data scientists to work efficiently and get access to fast and scalable data storage.

On the other hand, the cloud gives financial service firms an opportunity to update ageing systems without investing in costly capital projects. Several of the payment systems in use today are quite archaic and are still being modernized rapidly.

With cloud-native applications, adopters have access to the latest technology and talent, which enables them to rebuild transaction processing systems that can handle very high volumes with low latency. By moving their platforms to the cloud, they become leaner and more agile.

Many use cases are no longer off-limits to the cloud as they used to be. #

In the cloud, even core banking has found a home. Yet, controlling and protecting sensitive data is still a major concern that may impede a move to cloud management and control. Fintech firms are embracing both private and public clouds. While cloud service providers developed their security and compliance offerings and increased transparency, the private cloud was the natural progression from traditional server-based infrastructure. Because of the diverse array of cloud-native services now available on the public cloud, plus the associated compliance and resiliency, the public cloud offers a compelling value proposition.

Takeaway #

Some of the world’s most guarded organizations are financial services firms, mostly due to stringent regulations and the security threats they face as global economy players. Despite these challenges, financial services firms have demonstrated that it is possible to benefit from all the benefits of public cloud infrastructure and still remain highly compliant and secure.

Last but not least, a lot of retail banking innovation is now taking place in the cloud. Fintech companies of the new generation are primarily cloud-based. If you choose to only play on-prom, you will miss out on the cutting edge.

Related reading

Serverless Computing Can Propel DevOps To New Heights

Vin Patel — Wed, 09 Nov 2022 10:31:07 +0000

Key takeaways

As enterprises strive to achieve ever-greater agility, efficiency, and scale, many are turning to serverless computing to help them meet these goals.
For businesses who want to employ serverless computing but do not want to be tied to a single platform, Azure Function is a suitable option.
For DevOps teams looking to take their workflows to the next level, serverless computing is worth considering.

As enterprises strive to achieve ever-greater agility, efficiency, and scale, many are turning to serverless computing to help them meet these goals. Serverless architectures can provide several benefits over traditional server-based approaches, including reduced operational costs, improved scalability, and increased flexibility.

The transition to a serverless environment can be straightforward for organizations already using DevOps practices and tools. However, serverless computing can help DevOps teams take their workflows to new levels of efficiency and effectiveness. This blog post will explore how serverless computing can propel DevOps to new heights.

What Is Meant By Serverless Computing? #

“Serverless computing” is an approach to cloud computing where the cloud provider manages the server, and the customer pays for the services they utilize. This is in contrast to traditional server-based approaches, in which the customer is responsible for provisioning, configuring, and managing servers.

Serverless Computing and DevOps #

The transition to a serverless environment can be straightforward for organizations already using DevOps practices and tools. In addition, serverless computing can help DevOps teams take their workflows to new levels of efficiency and effectiveness.

Organizations practicing DevOps can usually move quickly and efficiently, two essential qualities in the age of digital transformation. Serverless computing can help DevOps teams take their workflows to new levels of efficiency and effectiveness.

A serverless system does not need to supply or manage servers. This can save DevOps teams time to focus on developing applications and improving processes. In addition, serverless architectures are often more scalable than traditional server-based approaches. This can be especially beneficial for organizations experiencing rapid growth or sudden spikes in demand.

Finally, serverless computing can help DevOps teams achieve greater levels of flexibility. In a serverless environment, it is easier to change or update code without provisioning new servers or making changes to existing ones. This can help DevOps teams rapidly respond to business requirements or customer needs changes.

Some Popular Serverless Computing Services #

Many popular serverless computing services are available today, including AWS Lambda, Google Cloud Functions, and Azure Functions. Each of these services offers its own set of features and benefits.

AWS Lambda is one of the most popular serverless computing services. It enables programmers to run code without setting up or controlling servers. As a result, AWS Lambda is an excellent choice for organizations already using other AWS services.
Google Cloud Functions is another popular serverless computing service. It allows developers to write code in JavaScript and run it in the cloud. Google Cloud Functions is a suitable option for businesses that want to employ serverless computing but do not want to be tied to a single platform.
Azure Functions is a serverless computing service from Microsoft. It allows developers to write code in various languages, including JavaScript. For businesses who want to employ serverless computing but do not want to be tied to a single platform, Azure Function is a suitable option.

How Serverless Computing Can Propel DevOps To New Heights #

Serverless architectures can provide several advantages that can help DevOps teams take their workflows to new levels of efficiency and effectiveness. These advantages include:

Reduced Infrastructure Costs #

Reducing infrastructure expenses is among serverless computing’s most important advantages. Customers can avoid the costs of maintaining and administering servers because they only pay for the resources they use during particular times.

Improved Scalability #

Serverless architectures are also highly scalable. This means that DevOps teams can easily add or remove resources as needed without having to provision and configure new servers. Teams can respond to changes in demand more quickly as a result of the time and effort savings.

Increased Flexibility #

Serverless computing also offers increased flexibility when compared to traditional server-based approaches. For example, because serverless architectures abstract away the underlying infrastructure, they make it easier to deploy applications across different cloud providers. Businesses seeking to avoid vendor lock-in can significantly benefit from this.

Distributed DevOps #

In addition to the advantages discussed above, serverless computing can help enable distributed DevOps workflows. Because serverless architectures are designed to run in a mufti-cloud environment, they make it easy for teams to deploy applications across different cloud providers. This can be a significant advantage for organizations that want to avoid vendor lock-in.

Flexible Deployments #

Serverless computing also has the benefit of making installations more adaptable. For instance, serverless architectures make it simpler to deploy apes across many cloud providers since they abstract away the underlying infrastructure. This can be a huge advantage for companies trying to avoid vendor lock-in.

Less Operational Complexity #

Operationally, serverless architectures can be simpler to manage. Customers don’t need to worry about provisioning, configuring, and managing servers. Instead, they can focus on building and deploying applications.

Dynamic Resource Allocation #

Serverless architectures also offer the ability to allocate resources dynamically. This means teams can easily add or remove resources as needed without having to provision and configure new servers. This can help teams respond more rapidly to changes in demand and save time and effort.

Improved Developer Productivity #

In addition to the operational benefits discussed above, serverless computing can also help improve developer productivity. For example, because serverless architectures abstract away the underlying infrastructure, they make it easier for developers to focus on building and deploying applications. This may result in faster development times and greater effectiveness.

Conclusion #

Serverless computing can help DevOps teams take their workflows to new levels of efficiency and effectiveness. By reducing infrastructure costs, improving scalability, and increasing flexibility, serverless architectures can help organizations achieve greater agility, scale, and efficiency. For DevOps teams looking to take their workflows to the next level, serverless computing is worth considering.

Related reading

Questions and answers

What Is Meant By Serverless Computing? #

How Serverless Computing Can Propel DevOps To New Heights? #

Serverless architectures can provide several advantages that can help DevOps teams take their workflows to new levels of efficiency and effectiveness. Reduced Infrastructure Costs Reducing infrastructure expenses is among serverless computing’s most important advantages.

Why Moving to Cloud is the Best Option to Thrive During

Vin Patel — Wed, 09 Nov 2022 10:17:43 +0000

Key takeaways

Gone are the days when there was a need for a dedicated team of experts to monitor and maintain data centers.
Presently there are limited resources to store data, especially the data generated every day.
Perhaps, organizations not choosing the cloud are likely to get knock out of the competition amongst their peers who are leveraging this technology.

Is IT infrastructure costs becoming a worry for your business? Do most of the spending go on server maintenance? Are you looking to make a switch from on-premise to a more sophisticated and teach-savvy way?

If you said a yes to any of these questions, migrating to the cloud is the answer. Gone are the days when there was a need for a dedicated team of experts to monitor and maintain data centers. With the introduction of Cloud technologies, managing and controlling servers are at one’s fingertips. That means using cloud-based infrastructure orgy can streamline the work process, eliminate complexities, and entice forward even during uncertainties.

Cloud Migration — How It Works? #

Cloud migration refers to the transfer of data and servers from on-premise to the cloud i.e., servers accessed over the internet. Data stored in the cloud is safe from natural disasters because there are many backup options available. Moving to the cloud is the most lucrative investment as it provides the most effective customization options and excellent ROI. Besides, cloud-based infrastructure companies cut off high maintenance costs, enhanced security and better-quality reliability.

Cloud computing works remotely. It allows the storage of data in a secured and organized way. The cloud system contains the hardware and operating system, the main component of any device in the cloud system. It has a hypervisor that offers the framework for virtual machine monitoring. The network handles the physical node and the cloud framework, where the Eucalyptus and open nebula are kept. Verses traditional methods, all operations are done remotely via the internet.

How Cloud Teach Helped Businesses Survive the Pandemic #

The uptake of cloud technology is one of the most disruptive forces in the market. The significant move from traditional data centers to the cloud justifies the demand for cloud computing. Current events have emphasized the necessity of the cloud and speeded up digital transformation. Cloud helps businesses to flourish. Organizations familiarize themselves and pivot to content any demand in the market.

The cloud is the perfect partner to provide the right tools necessary for work and a new way that is hard to visualize. Cloud is secure, responsive, and flexible adequate to help the company develop and endure the crisis.

Benefits of the On-cloud Premise #

The need for cloud computing is growing at an impressive height. There are no surprise organizations are upgrading from on-premise to the cloud. Check out the perks of on-cloud premise and why this is the right time for your business to make a move.

Save Time and Money

Traditional ways of maintaining servers and data houses come with huge expenses and expertise. Cloud computing offers the perfect opportunity to make incredible profits and increase the outputs. It permits the hostage of applications and databases on organizations at an affordable fee. Above all, the option to scale up and down saves buying the database and applications. Apart from that, it reduces the IT experts to man servers altogether with the enormous electricity bills that come with it.

Pay-as-You-Use

Orgy need huge investments and storage capacity to store their active applications and software packages. Presently there are limited resources to store data, especially the data generated every day. Therefore, it makes no sense to spend a biggie on infrastructure that will be of no use in future. Thanks to the cloud for offering flexible options and choosing the services] you need at the moment. That means buyers can go up and down as per their needs and pay for the services they use. It also offers solutions that are cost-optimized and something that can grow in line with the progress of the business.

Pro-tip: Orgy can leverage cloud models to deal with spikes in requests without the need for mounting or handling infrastructure. For instance, you can choose a list of services on special occasions when the market is up and uncheck when the traffic is low.

Robust Security

The security and safety of information and other applications from other intruding cybercrime is an essential alarm. Data breaches can not only embarrass faux pas but can also tarnish reputation. Cybercrime is sensitive while prioritizing the benefits of cloud computing. Cloud technology has better-quality technology to offer secure and safe data hosting. With the cloud, the servers get safety and security, regardless of whether traditional or physical. Storing data and its encryption is fully automated, with no human involvement. The cloud is, therefore, more protective, reliable and secured.

Minimized Data Loss

Cloud computing minimizes the chances of misplacing data on the attack of a virus. In addition to the advanced security cloud solution services, safely data storage is another perk. Cloud computing provides improved encryption of data and ensures backup of the data. Instant recovery and server backup options are available with cloud computing. Additionally, the cloud helps to monitor and continually optimizes server performance and provide extra peace of mind for data security.

Access Data — Anytime, Anywhere

Cloud allows storing data remotely, giving accessibility to partners wherever they are. Access to data, its source and destination in a few clicks. Furthermore, in cloud computing, there exists an incredible option to store, process, and access data. Access to information is fast, without depending on emails or other sources from the world to get office updates. One can maneuver every detail with precise and updated data. Getting instant visibility of the firm is a win-win considering the world is moving swiftly and time is crucial.

Wrapping Up #

Today, collaborative means of working have been incorporated by the organizations in the cloud, especially at the time of uncertainty when remote work is the new norm. Cloud Computing is becoming the modern way of storing and managing data, replacing the traditional on-premise methods. Businesses adopting cloud computing auto-scalability, flexibility and cost-effectiveness to meet their infrastructure needs. Perhaps, organizations not choosing the cloud are likely to get knock out of the competition amongst their peers who are leveraging this technology.

Related reading

Questions and answers

Cloud Migration — How It Works? #

How Cloud Teach Helped Businesses Survive the Pandemic? #

The uptake of cloud technology is one of the most disruptive forces in the market. The significant move from traditional data centers to the cloud justifies the demand for cloud computing.

Are You Using the Correct Data to Power Your Digital

Vin Patel — Tue, 08 Nov 2022 08:43:20 +0000

Key takeaways

Data isn’t a new term to us, but its ability to produce commercial value in today’s world is unprecedented.
Consumers are becoming increasingly aware of how their data is collected and utilized and are concerned about it.
So it’s critical to optimize and safeguard data everywhere it travels and provides teams with simple tools to get the job done.

Data isn’t a new term to us, but its ability to produce commercial value in today’s world is unprecedented. The commercial models of digital platforms like Facebook, Amazon, and Google demonstrate this strength. However, this unprecedented potential of data remains untapped for the great majority of legacy enterprises operating with value-chain-driven business models. Their traditional method of collecting and utilizing data is one of the significant factors holding them back.

Digital transformation is integrating digital technology into all elements of a company. This is because it has a significant impact on how a company runs. The advantages of digital transformation can be found in various industries: It enables firms to upgrade legacy processes, streamline operations, improve security, and boost profitability.

90% of businesses operate in the cloud. Many firms are replicating old services in a digital version as they shift data to the cloud. Regarding actual digital transformation, there is far more to it. With the right technology in place, these services and data can be funneled into actionable insights, enhancing nearly every part of a company’s operations.

Let us understand the benefits of Digital transformation:

1. Accurate Customer Insights #

Customer insights can be unlocked with data. First, you may develop a customer-centric business strategy by knowing your consumers and their demands. Then, by integrating structured data (personal customer information) with unstructured data, these insights can help businesses flourish (social media analytic).

Data enables strategies to deliver more relevant, tailored, and adaptable information.

2. A Better User Experience #

Consider how your digital transformation can assist your employees in becoming more effective while also providing smoother, more intuitive experiences for your customers. Email communications to user portals, digital products, and how frequently you contact new leads fall under this category.

Customers have high expectations regarding digital interactions. Consumers are accustomed to a plethora of options, reasonable costs, and quick delivery. So the next battleground for brands is customer experience (CX).

Demonstrating that you cherish your consumers’ privacy is one approach to set your brand apart. Customers should be given control over how their data is collected and utilized and the freedom to make data-related decisions to gain their trust.

3. Improved Data Collection #

The ultimate value of customer data reports is interpreting the data to drive the firm forward. In the digital age, data may be gathered and integrated in a way that provides a better level of business insight.

Various organizational and functional units are established to transform raw data into helpful information across various touchpoints. Thus, it provides a single view of the customer journey; operations; production; finance; and business prospects.

As an element of your digital transformation, think about how you can give your consumers more control over their data and how you can utilize data privacy as a commercial differentiator. Consumers are becoming increasingly aware of how their data is collected and utilized and are concerned about it. By enforcing rigorous privacy regulations and giving customers the option to opt-out or change their views at any moment, you can earn the trust of your customers.

Using The Correct Data For Digital Transformation #

Most organizations use serialized data generated by different events and draw reports basis on the stats. On the other hand, few organizations use interactive data like Facebook, Google, etc. Now let us see which data is suitable for digital transformation.

1. Business Insights #

Episodic data stats are minimal and restricted. They only provide what brands are doing for brand presence in different geographical areas and segments. This is not the case with interactive data. Interactive provides us insights into how well the user enjoys the product the brand is endorsing. So, for example, if we have to get insights into the new launch of Cadbury chocolate, with serialized data, you will only know how many sales have happened across the globe, but with interactive data, you will also know-how is the user experience on a real-time basis which is very important for your business to grow and have a way forward.

Individual user profiles can be fine-tuned with ongoing streams of interactive data. Cloud technology enables businesses to manage massive profiles archives and continuous real-time data sourcing from each sensing equipment. In addition, AI, machine learning, and data analytic help each profile’s insight-building process even further.

As a result, businesses can use new insights from interactive data to provide more customized product features and new experiences for customers and develop new value-generating opportunities.

Organizations face issues sharing it with the public with serialized data as it is used only for competitive purposes.

On the other hand, real-time interactive data can be disseminated extensively, including third-party entities. Therefore, sharing it increases its worth. Furthermore, real-time interactive data sharing is also conceivable because of the current boom of connected IoT devices. There are estimated to be around 30 billion linked objects in the future, opening up significant opportunities to harness interactive data for enhanced consumer experiences and corporate scope development.

For example, home insurance firms might expand their business beyond covering losses and preventing them. Risk estimate capabilities or lucrative policies don’t bind future revenues. Instead, they develop new data-driven services that help reduce losses and provide prompt repairs.

Conclusion #

Digitalization is the weapon in 2022. Your productivity and workflow can be improved by using the right IT technologies that work together. As a result, it improves productivity by automating and integrating data from across the organization.

These tools make it easier to collaborate, but they also assist the entire organization in the future digitally. Companies are having a hard time adjusting to the new digital culture. You can realize the benefits of a digital transformation only if your employees have the proper training and education.

There is nothing like a digital transformation department or functional unit. It affects every aspect of a company and results in process innovation and efficiency across departments. Every department uses sensitive data, from sales and marketing to finance. So it’s critical to optimize and safeguard data everywhere it travels and provides teams with simple tools to get the job done.

Related reading

What is Cloud Migration-Strategies, Benefits, and Challenges

Vin Patel — Thu, 03 Nov 2022 07:24:21 +0000

Key takeaways

The worldwide pandemic accelerated the effective integration of organizations into the cloud and enabled innovation in their businesses by reopening and outwitting uncertainty.
By migrating to the cloud, scaling businesses becomes more manageable and quicker than on-premise as cloud computing supports larger users and workloads.
If you wish you continue learning more about the cloud, here’s a blog to cloud computing.

The worldwide pandemic accelerated the effective integration of organizations into the cloud and enabled innovation in their businesses by reopening and outwitting uncertainty.

A survey showed that 87% of respondents stated that COVID-19 hastened their cloud migration strategy. It helped them become agile, cost-efficient, scalable, and more productive.

The same survey also showed that almost 80% of the respondents stated that they would complete their cloud migration by 2025. The main drivers for adopting cloud migration are business influence and overall digital transformation.

What is Cloud Migration? #

Cloud migration moves some or all online business processes like digital databases, services, applications, resources, and assets from on-premises or legacy infrastructure to a cloud-based one.

Cloud migration also implies shifting from one cloud to another. Some prominent public cloud service providers are Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.

You can understand cloud migration as a physical move in the digital world, where you move data, assets, and applications from data centers instead of carrying physical goods when you move to a new house.

Most businesses adopt a hybrid cloud environment, a mix of public and private clouds with solid communication between diverse teams, or a mufti-cloud setup where they opt for two or more public cloud services to gain more benefits and features from different cloud service providers.

What Are The Types of Cloud Migration Strategies? #

Amazon has redefined Gartner’s cloud migration approaches, the ‘5 Rs’ to the ‘6 Rs. Here are the six main cloud migration strategies that businesses can implement for cloud migration.

Rehost (Lift and Shift) #

Rehosting, also understood as lifting and shifting, involves redeploying your existing application, assets, and data from the current hosting environment to the cloud server.

Enterprises achieve rehosting by automating with tools or manually. Rehosting is the simplest and quickest method to perform cloud migration and can save up to 30% of your costs.

However, with this quick win, you might not leverage full cloud efficiency like automated recovery and self-healing, efficient CI/CD automatization, containerized environments, etc. But since the hard part of migrating is done, it becomes relatively easier to remodel or optimize applications since they are already running on the cloud.

Re-platform (lift-and-optimize) #

Re-platforming, meaning lifting, tinkering, and then shifting, is implementing changes and product advancements in applications to make them cloud-compatible before migrating to the cloud environment and avoiding extra work after cloud migration.

Repurchase(Drop-and-Shop) #

Like moving an existing CMS to Drupal, repurchasing implies changing the current application for a new cloud platform or service. Repurchase also means dropping the existing license and opting for a new license agreement, platform, or service.

Retire (Turning off) #

When enterprises get a handle on the cloud environment, they eliminate a few portfolios that aren’t useful without losing productivity or value. This helps them save resources, boost business, and reduce the complexity of cloud architecture, storage, computing, backup, and licensing.

Retain (Revisiting/ Going Hybrid) #

To maintain the legacy infrastructure of a business, some organizations opt to retain specific IT infrastructure. This model allows companies to migrate what is needed and keep some databases and workloads for security and other reasons.

Reactor (Re-architect) #

Refactoring comes from the powerful drive to augment performance and add new components primarily through cloud-native features. This desire makes organizations re-imagine and re-architect existing environments.

This migration approach may prove quite expensive, but it can prove most fruitful if it is a suitable product-market fit.

Why Do Organizations Migrate To The Cloud? #

Being the prime facilitator of digital business, the cloud has evolved as the prior site for corporations to store data, and most companies have moved their applications to cloud platforms.

Cloud enables limitless access to computer resources for organizations and reduces infrastructure costs of maintaining and running software and hardware. It also frees employees to focus on growth and innovation, augmenting the ROI, competitive edge, and profits from their endeavors.

Benefits of Cloud Migration #

Migrating to the cloud proves bountiful for several reasons.

Enhances Scalability #

To advance businesses in previous environments, organizations had to spare resources for setting up hardware for physical servers and network equipment besides purchasing licensing agreements and storage.

By migrating to the cloud, scaling businesses becomes more manageable and quicker than on-premise as cloud computing supports larger users and workloads.

Reduced Costs #

When you migrate to a public cloud, the cloud provider services lower your operational costs and simplify cloud maintenance, lowering the expenses on IT processes. You can direct these resources to improve applications, innovate, and invent new products.

Improved Productivity #

Cloud migration augments the business performance and user experience. Since the cloud liberates staff, it enhances the organization’s overall productivity.

You can boost productivity by opting for cloud migration models with automation, artificial intelligence, and analytic, saving around 30-50% in continuous functions.

Agile #

Cloud enables organizations to adopt agile methodology by offering flexibility to allow swift changes and decrease the time for obtaining new inventory and repositories.

Enhanced Digital Experience #

Cloud users can access data from the cloud and cloud services from anywhere, providing a better user experience and employees with flexible digital tools.

Secure #

Safety and compliance form the core of the cloud. This feature makes your migration secure and protects classified data and crucial workloads.

How Does The Process of Cloud Migration Work? #

To devise a successful cloud initiative for your organization, you must revisit and revise your existing processes. Cloud brings a significant shift in your business, so getting a comprehensive look at your cloud migration journey and understanding all the variables involved is vital.

Plan the Migration #

Adopting cloud migration is to devise a modern operational model that enables organizations to innovate most effectively.

Your cloud migration journey becomes a success only when the cloud initiative outcomes align with business objectives. You can ask questions to establish business goals and a strong cloud journey management plan for a successful migration, like achieving business value or tracking the effort.

Assess #

With risk assessment, dependency mapping, application discovery, and predictive analysis, you can undertake informed decisions and minimize the risks. Risk management is a crucial element in businesses.

Migration can bring noteworthy infrastructural changes, and its essential to foresee application performance while expecting reduced costs and increased flexibility.

Execute the Move #

After you’ve planned and performed assessments, the next thing is executing the move to the cloud. You’ll need to transform the existing infrastructure, applications, and architecture and create new cloud-native applications for a successful migration.

For seamless migration, you can adopt migration and automation tools to speed up the move with consistency, quality, and reiteration.

What Are The Major Challenges Faced by Organizations in Cloud Migration? #

Cloud migration and adoption isn’t a one-size-fits-all undertaking. It depends on several factors like cost savings, the nature of business, and the benefits of operations and strategy.

Migrating Large Databases #

Data migration usually requires significant time, especially when large databases need to move entirely to function. Cloud providers offer two ways of data transfer: the internet and physical data transfer methods.

Physical transfer methods prove helpful when large databases take longer to transfer via the internet. You can load the data into the hardware and ship it to the provider.

Lack of Strategy #

Most enterprises begin their migration journey without giving much time to planning or strategy.

For a successful migration, organizations need to form end-to-end migration plans and clear business cases since every application and workload has different needs and approaches for shifting.

Cost Management #

Most businesses don’t define clear KPIs to better understand saving and expenditures after migrating to the cloud. For an economically successful move, it’s essential to set KPIs.

Conclusion #

With its core nature of offering scalability, security, and more room for innovation, the cloud has become the prime choice of most businesses.

If you wish you continue learning more about the cloud, here’s a blog to cloud computing.

Related reading

Questions and answers

What is Cloud Migration? #

Cloud migration moves some or all online business processes like digital databases, services, applications, resources, and assets from on-premises or legacy infrastructure to a cloud-based one.

What Are The Types of Cloud Migration Strategies? #

Amazon has redefined Gartner’s cloud migration approaches, the ‘5 Rs’ to the ‘6 Rs. Here are the six main cloud migration strategies that businesses can implement for cloud migration.

Why Do Organizations Migrate To The Cloud? #

Being the prime facilitator of digital business, the cloud has evolved as the prior site for corporations to store data, and most companies have moved their applications to cloud platforms.

How Does The Process of Cloud Migration Work? #

Why 5G is The Cornerstone of Industry 4.0

Vin Patel — Mon, 31 Oct 2022 05:53:05 +0000

Key takeaways

The fourth industrial revolution is currently underway as we speak.
By using the data gathered by 5G networks, wind farms will be able to have digital twins created, which will improve their production and efficiency.
These characteristics will revolutionize several industries, including manufacturing, transportation, healthcare, and public services.

The fourth industrial revolution is currently underway as we speak. Latin America is experiencing a digital transformation due to establishing of the region’s first Private 5G Standalone network, which runs independently of the public mobile network and has a 100% on-premises network architecture. This cutting-edge solution is a first for Nestlé and collaboration between Nestlé, Ericsson, Claro, and Embratel in the communications field. It denotes the transition from an automated to an autonomous production, which aligns with the company’s Industry 4.0 goals.

The union of physical and digital technology is the core idea behind Industry 4.0. Numerous corporate leaders are concerned about energy use and automation. With Industry 4.0, producers can employ networked systems to learn vital information about their processes. The operational effectiveness can be increased by using these insights. The market for Industry 4.0 is expected to reach $337.1 billion by 2028, indicating the enormous business potential that still exists in this area.

The Slow Scaling of 5G #

Industry 4.0 depends on the 5G connection. The fast speeds and reduced latency of 5G are necessary for the efficient use of autonomous robots, wearable, and VR headsets in a market reliant on data-intensive machine applications, such as manufacturing. They will help shape the future of smart factories. Additionally, while some linked devices used 4G networks using unregulated spectrum, 5G enables this on a never-before-seen scale. 5G’s high data output and low latency will significantly transform Nestlé’s industrial environment, redefining how they work, furthering the company’s focus on intelligent factories, and boosting productivity, efficiency, and workplace safety. The project takes advantage of Claro-licensed experimental usage frequencies.

Modern sensor-equipped gadgets open the door for 5G and Industry 4.0, enabling more intelligent and real-time operations. Network vendors, cloud providers, machine builders, industrial automation OEMs (original equipment manufacturers), and AI technology providers work together to create new solutions. These solutions, such as preventive maintenance, assist sectors like manufacturing in realizing their vision of a 5G future-smart factory.

Industry 4.0 and 5G - A Necessary Combination #

The projected speed of a fully operating 5G network compared to an LTE network is at least ten times quicker. This connectivity level is required for collaborative robotics and self-driving cars to coexist in manufacturing facilities.

A McKinsey & Company report claims that 5G will improve industrial operations by enhancing the efficiency of managing people and assets daily. Manufacturing operations-management applications might make up between 32 and 39 percent of the overall potential economic value of the IoT. By 2030, that translates numerically to between US$0.5 trillion and US$1.3 trillion.

Some real-life examples highlight the apparent fact that Industry 4.0 will benefit highly from 5G. Transfer robots are used in manufacturing to transport heavy goods along predetermined pathways. Even though they reduce the need for human labor, they might still be further automated because it is difficult to change their paths, and they can be dangerous for human workers. This is due to the factory’s limited ability to adapt quickly to changes due to the inflexible and expensive nature of the programmed routes. In addition, a lot of industrial space is lost because transfer robots must operate independently from human workers to reduce the possibility of collisions and accidents.

Wake steering will be beneficial and essential for offshore wind farms, where wind turbines must be placed closer together. By using the data gathered by 5G networks, wind farms will be able to have digital twins created, which will improve their production and efficiency. In the end, wake steering might be able to double the amount of electricity generated by wind farms. That would make it possible to construct wind farms in many more places with less chance of opposition.

How Ericsson Helped Nestle on the 5G Front? #

Nestlé has benefited from cutting-edge technology in recent years, including robots, automation, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), virtual reality, and the use of self-driving cars (AGV). Establishing the private 5G standalone network would make the entire digital ecosystem more dependable and complete and enable new creative use cases. Other manufacturers seeking to embrace the digital transformation of the intelligent factory can use this innovative solution as an example.

Sensitive data will only be transmitted over the factory’s local network, increasing network security thanks to the private, closed cellular network.

Industry 4.0 technologies are all expected to be supported with the launching of the Ericsson Private 5G solution, all of which require swift reaction times to function. Furthermore, connected devices will produce and consume more data due to reports indicating a significant development in Latin America’s edge and cloud computing. As a result, network capacity must be increased for industry 4.0 to operate at maximum capacity.

The first private 5G network in Latin America was launched by Nestlé, a multinational food and beverage processing company with headquarters in Switzerland, using Ericsson’s Private 5G (EP5G) equipment. This description refers to the first private 5G standalone network in the region with a 100% on-premises network architecture that operates independently from the public mobile network.

This project, which marks the shift from an automated to an autonomous factory, is a collaboration between Nestlé, Ericsson, Claro, and Embratel. However, the specific site or sites of the installation do not yet seem to have been made public. EP5G, which offers network data transfer speeds up to 25 times quicker than 4G, enables fast data processing. It is particularly well suited to supporting mission-critical applications with millisecond-level reaction times.

Things To Keep In Mind About 5G #

As 5G matures, it will undoubtedly bring additional benefits and capabilities, including the potential to roll out automated and personalized services and applications. These talents will significantly impact business and industry if history is any guide. More companies, factories, warehouses, office buildings, entertainment venues, and many more will roll out services that enable more precise manufacturing methods, better and more synchronized supply chains, and greater efficiency thanks to the enhanced communication technology that 5G brings.

The high data throughput and low latency of 5G will hugely impact Nestlé’s enterprise environment; it will change how it operates, increase the company’s focus on intelligent factories, and boost efficiency, productivity, and workplace safety.

However, for businesses to fully take advantage of 5G’s speed, accuracy, and flexibility, the sector needs tools to manage the software to make this possible. Network slicing, which enables the on-the-fly redeployment of network resources in response to the changing needs of particular users, is one of 5G’s intrinsic characteristics. Although the 5G software base enables the deployment of such features, it is the responsibility of the telecoms industry to develop those capabilities further and make them available to customers. These customers can then implement them at their facilities, building private on-site networks tailored to their particular needs, including running robots and other automated systems, ultimately leading to greater efficiency and profitability.

Future of 5G in Industry 4.0 #

As its role expands, the industrial sector will keep benefiting from the 5G revolution. With its higher capacity, quicker speeds, and lower latency, 5G is the driver of innovation in the future industrial landscape. It can provide new value for numerous sectors and social groups.

Due to its ability to provide previously unheard-of levels of connectivity, 5G will significantly contribute. With ultra-reliable low latency communication, high-speed broadband, enormous machine-type communications, and efficient energy use, it can enhance 4G networks. These characteristics will revolutionize several industries, including manufacturing, transportation, healthcare, and public services.

Related reading

Can Industry 4.0 Save The Semiconductor Industry?

Vin Patel — Mon, 31 Oct 2022 05:50:35 +0000

Key takeaways

Industry 4.0 transforms manufacturing from a linear process to a more collaborative and networked approach.
In the past year, Samsung has released several new semiconductor chips offering significantly improved performance.
As we enter this new era of industrialization, it is clear that the semiconductor market has a bright future ahead.

Industry 4.0, or the Fourth Industrial Revolution, is a term used to describe the trillions of dollars worth of investments made by manufacturers worldwide in digital technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), 3D printing, Virtual Reality (VR), and robotics. Industry 4.0 transforms manufacturing from a linear process to a more collaborative and networked approach. With the help of data analytic and sensors, manufacturers can collect real-time data on the production processes and make adjustments on the fly. This allows for greater flexibility and responsiveness to customer demands. As a result, Industry 4.0 is helping manufacturers become more agile, efficient, and profitable.

According to the SIA, Semiconductor Industry Association, the global semiconductor market is expected to reach $451 billion by 2025. This growth is driven by the continued demand for electronic devices and the need for more sophisticated and powerful chips to power these devices. In addition, the semiconductor market is also being propelled by the rise of new applications for semiconductor technology, such as autonomous vehicles and AI.

According to Design News, the following forces exist:

More than 75 billion IoT devices are expected to be installed globally by 2025.
A “smart car” will produce more than 4,000 GB of data in a single day.
The data produced will multiply by ten between 2016 and 2025, reaching 163 zettabytes daily.
By 2023, 1.3 billion people will have 5G subscriptions.
By 2030, the market for new “smart” technology (such as tablets, drones, and smartphones) will be $6.9 trillion.

The new digital era provides opportunities for companies to increase productivity and efficiency and also offers a unique platform for semiconductor companies to reach new customers. In the past, the customer base was limited to the electronics industry. However, with the rise of Industry 4.0 applications, such as autonomous vehicles and AI, the potential customer base for semiconductor companies is now comprehensive.

A Little About Smart Factories #

Factories have long been an essential part of the world economy, and their role increased as global trade became complex. As a result, factories increasingly need to adapt to shifting circumstances. Smart factories are equipped with advanced technologies that allow them to operate more efficiently and flexibly than traditional factories.

Delivery systems play a crucial role in smart factories because they allow materials to be moved swiftly and effectively between stations. In addition, they can be used to create highly customized production lines tailored to each factory’s needs. As a result, smart factories can operate at peak efficiency with the correct delivery system and produce the highest quality products possible. The most common type of delivery system is a conveyor belt, but many other types include robotics, pneumatics, and hydraulics.

Companies Working In The Semiconductor Sector #

The semiconductor sector is a rapidly growing industry with immense potential. Companies in this sector constantly innovate and develop new technologies that can revolutionize our lives and work. Some of the most cutting-edge companies working in the semiconductor sector include:

Intel:

Intel is currently working on a new project in the semiconductor sector. This project aims to create a new type of computer chip that is more energy efficient and faster than current chips. This would represent a tremendous advancement for the industry, and Intel is confident it can make it happen.

In addition to this project, Intel is also working on other initiatives to improve its products and services. For example, they are working on a new type of flash memory that is faster and more reliable than current models. Additionally, they are exploring innovative approaches to chip production that will lower costs and boost quality. As a result, Intel is making significant progress in the semiconductor sector, and its work will significantly impact the industry in the coming years.

TSMC:

TSMC is the world’s largest contract semiconductor manufacturer. The firm has been operating for over 35 years and is responsible for manufacturing some of the world’s most popular chips, including those used in Apple’s iPhone and iPad. In recent years, TSMC has been working closely with the semiconductor sector to help meet the ever-growing demand for chips. TSMC has invested heavily in new facilities and equipment and has also been working to improve its manufacturing process. In addition, the company is also working on developing new types of chips that can be used in various applications, helping to drive innovation and bring new products to market.

Samsung:

Recently, Samsung has been working closely with the semiconductor sector to produce chips that are faster and more efficient than ever before. To stay ahead of the curve, the corporation has made significant investments in R&D, and those investments are beginning to pay off. In the past year, Samsung has released several new semiconductor chips offering significantly improved performance.

For example, the company’s newest DRAM chips can speed up to 3.2 gigahertz, making them one of the fastest on the market. In addition, Samsung’s NAND flash memory chips are now up to twice as fast as previous generations. Thanks to these advances, Samsung is well-positioned to continue leading the way in the semiconductor industry.

Qualcomm:

Qualcomm is a leading semiconductor company that designs and markets wireless telecommunications products and services. Founded in 1985, Qualcomm has become one of the largest smartphone chipmakers in the world. Qualcomm has recently worked closely with the semiconductor sector to develop new technologies and products. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon line of chipsets is used in a wide range of smartphones and tablets, and the company is continually innovating to stay ahead of the competition. In addition to its work with the semiconductor sector, Qualcomm is also active in developing 5G technology. It has been working with mobile operators worldwide to roll out 5G networks. With its vast experience and expertise, Qualcomm is well-positioned to continue playing a significant role in shaping the future of wireless communications.

These are just a few of the major companies in the semiconductor industry. Together, they are helping to drive innovation and bring new products to market. As the demand for semiconductor chips continues to grow, these companies will work hard to meet the market’s needs.

Recent Semiconductor Financing Activity #

Over the past year, fundraising activity in the semiconductor business has increased significantly due to several factors, including the growing demand for semiconductors, the increasing complexity of semiconductor manufacturing, and the need for more specialized equipment.

In addition, the ongoing trade dispute between the United States and China has increased demand for semiconductors from countries outside China. As a result, investment in semiconductors has increased dramatically.

In the past few months, there has been a lot of semiconductor financing activity. Companies such as Maidu, Alibaba, and Tencent have all received funding for their projects. Let’s take a look at some of these companies and their projects.

Maidu:

Maidu is a Chinese internet company that provides various services, including search engines, maps, and cloud storage. The company has received $600 million in funding for its semiconductor business. The funds will be used to develop chips for artificial intelligence (AI) applications.

Alibaba:

Alibaba is a Chinese e-commerce company that offers online shopping, banking, and other services. The company has received $450 million in funding for its semiconductor business and to develop chips for AI applications.

Tencent:

Tencent is a Chinese internet company that offers various services, including social networking, gaming, and payments. The company has received $700 million in funding for its semiconductor business. According to resources, most funds will be used to develop chips for AI applications.

The Future of Semiconductor Manufacturing #

The semiconductor industry is in a state of flux. More’s Law, which predicted that the number of transistors on a chip would double every two years, has held for several decades. However, chipmakers are now running into the process of making tiny things by using modern technology. As chips continue to get smaller and smaller, producing them is becoming increasingly complex and expensive. In addition, demand for personal computers and other devices has stagnated in recent years, raising doubts about the future viability of the semiconductor industry.

Nevertheless, there are reasons to be optimistic about the future of semiconductor manufacturing. New technologies such as 3D printing and nanotechnology are beginning to be used in semiconductor production, and there is still strong demand for chips from the automotive and industrial sectors. As the semiconductor industry adapts to these changes, it will likely remain a vital part of the global economy for years.

Conclusion #

In the quest for data, speed, and storage, the semiconductor industry is booming as new firms emerge to stake their claim in the digital age. The future of this market looks bright as the world moves towards Industry 4.0, the next phase of industrialization that will see greater integration of physical and digital technologies. This shift will present new opportunities for semiconductor firms to provide the components that power Industry 4.0 applications such as Big Data, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things. As we enter this new era of industrialization, it is clear that the semiconductor market has a bright future ahead.

Related reading

Demographic Dividends and The Industry 4.0 Impact in Asia

Vin Patel — Mon, 31 Oct 2022 05:32:21 +0000

Key takeaways

When we talk about the rise and fall of a specific technology, we look for reasons to support it.
are skilled workers who support the nation’s economy, and the companies that have generated thousands of employment, including Google, Intel, PayPal, eBay, and Yahoo, were started by immigrants.
Corporate leaders must, however, grasp not only the ideas that are guiding the operational transformation but also how those ideas appear and operate on the manufacturing floor.

When we talk about the rise and fall of a specific technology, we look for reasons to support it. The reasons usually vary from the feasibility to the user segment. But one point that generally goes unnoticed is the changing demographic dividends of a place. What is it? Let us have a brief idea of what the ‘demographic dividends of a place’ imply.

The term “demographic dividend” describes economic expansion brought on by a population’s age distribution shift. A fall in fertility and mortality rates often causes a change in age structure. So, now with a clear idea of what demographic dividends are, let us move forward to a quite important case study of a continent that covers one of the largest consumers of the technology industry.

In this article, we will talk about Asia’s demographic dividends in the context of the ready-to-thrive Industry 4.0. Starting with the prospect of industry 4.0 in Asia, it is one of the few perfect ideas to work on. The reason is closely associated with the changing demographic dividends of the continent.

Demographic Dividends of Asia and What it Means #

With the clock ticking, we see a lot of changes in the largest continent out there. While talking with a perspective of the fourth industrial revolution and the developments around it, the prime focus will remain on India, some parts of east Asia, and China. Asia, as a continent, relies primarily on youths for its workforce and economic development. Taking the example of India, the average age of the population has declined, which proves to be a booster for the Indian economy. In China, the workforce is getting bigger, resulting in a rise in manufactured goods at a faster pace.

Two demographic changes that are extremely significant to national economies are being witnessed in Asia currently. The population of the elderly is growing more quickly while the working-age population is growing slowly. The findings in this article discuss how these changes will impact the economy and offer solutions.

Starting with the fact that institutions and policies must be changed for the elderly, enabling them to contribute more to society than previous generations. Smaller cohorts of working-age individuals can create the workforce as much as or even more than bigger numbers of working-age adults did in the past with effective human capital investments. Seniors and others close to retirement might mobilize their financial resources to ensure financial stability and promote faster economic growth.

Expanding regulated immigration can be profitable for nations with declining workforces, like Japan and Singapore, notwithstanding the variations in their immigration laws. Younger workers can relieve the strain on pension systems and the cost of caring for the elderly, thus resulting in a strain-free development. Over a third of immigrants in the U. S. are skilled workers who support the nation’s economy, and the companies that have generated thousands of employment, including Google, Intel, PayPal, eBay, and Yahoo, were started by immigrants.

But, all said and done, some things still fail to grab the notions of this demographic dividend of Asia nurturing Industry 4.0. But let’s understand the catch here, the workforce is increasing, and with an increasing workforce, one knows that an industrial revolution is underway.

The Entry of Industry 4.0 #

In the third industrial revolution, the world went through a phase of constant upgradation and experiments. In closed rooms, strategic measures were taken, and terms like product design and engineering of datasets peaked. But when the ground reality was looked at, it was found that there was a huge gap between the strategies and the final product. This gap resulted from huge investments in technology, engineering, and product, the reason being that the human capital wasn’t utilized according to the capabilities, and even if it was, it wasn’t looked after for efficient functioning of the manufacturing unit.

Here just at the time of the introduction of Industry 4.0, we, in this article, decided to point out exactly where 3.0 fell short for the industry to help the fourth industrial revolution to achieve what it intends to do. We discussed Asia’s demographic advantages while enumerating its constituent nations, from India to Singapore, China and Japan. We learned that two of the greatest economies in the world and a large number of potentially booming economies are located in Asia.

Talking about economies, we reach the 2nd most crucial factor. After the economy, what differs here from various countries is the affluent demographics of the continent. The working population is ready to storm into the workforce and make industry 4.0 a success. This doesn’t require a working population but upskilling this workforce to run the industry efficiently.

Asia’s Prospect of Industry 4.0 #

As 300 million more individuals enter the labor over the next 20 years, Asia will benefit from a demographic dividend. These digital natives, who are more educated and aspiring, anticipate fulfilling careers in cutting-edge fields, the kind that Industry 4.0 can offer. But the number and quality are not always the same. Companies must understand that the greatest talent will always be in short supply. Adopting initiatives that draw in skilled workers is therefore essential before rivals snatch them up.

This leads to the fact that the retainment of these workers is equally important as, in any phase of the industrial revolution, an unskilled workforce is seen to be like that last slice of pizza that everyone wants to eat, but for that, the person owning it needs to abandon it.

Conclusion #

Industry 4.0 is ready to climb up the ladders much quicker than industry 3.0. One of the reasons behind it is the workforce targeting and then the introduction of faster internet connectivity. All these feels like a combined push for it and is giving hope of some really amazing result.

One thing that needs to be looked at more precisely is that talent in Industry 4.0 won’t be reporting to managers in Industry 3.0 for very long. Leadership for this organizational change must come from the top. Corporate leaders must, however, grasp not only the ideas that are guiding the operational transformation but also how those ideas appear and operate on the manufacturing floor.

Related reading

Industry 4.0 Changing Lives: The Training Workers' Case

Vin Patel — Mon, 31 Oct 2022 05:28:57 +0000

Key takeaways

The expansion of digitization is making the global transition to Industry 4.0.
It makes them better communicators, improves the influx of innovative ideas, and increases their adaptability and ability to embrace new career challenges.
It is a revolution organizations need to prepare for so that their competition in the cut-throat marketplace doesn’t outrun them.

The expansion of digitization is making the global transition to Industry 4.0. Termed as the future factory, it is changing how organizations manufacture, enhance, and deliver their products by integrating smart technologies like cloud, artificial intelligence, IoT, and analytic.

Let’s dive in and understand how the new industrial revolution will affect us or if it is just another marketing buzzword.

Introduction to Industry 4.0 #

Industrial revolution 4.0, or the fourth industrial revolution, is the advancement of the industrial 3.0 revolution with the addition of smart devices and systems, virtual reality, and wireless connection.

It vividly describes digital transformation with technological developments and advancements, including machine learning, artificial intelligence, smart cCities, IoT, edge computing, cloud computing, and smart automation.

The four foundational technologies that constitute the building blocks of Industry 4.0, according to McKinsey are:

Data, connectivity, and computation power (includes cloud, blockchain, sensors, and Internet of Things)
Intelligence and analytic (includes machine learning, artificial intelligence, and advanced analytic)
Interaction of humans and machines (includes automation, robotics, augmented reality, virtual reality, and chatbots)
Advanced Engineering (includes renewable energy, nanoparticles, and additive manufacturing processes like 3D printing)

The first three industrial revolutions focused on inventing and innovating novel machines and advancing electronics and production. The advancements in automation and wireless connectivity will revolutionize the workflow, enable better connections with smart devices, and level up production and living standards.

Impact on Workforce #

Since the first robot Animate was created, employees have expressed concerns about losing their jobs to robots. Several sci-fi movies helped visualize robots running factories and businesses, but the reality is far different and is not the reflection of reality.

The Hays Global Skills Index shows how middle-skilled jobs would disappear. Still, it also describes the creation of jobs in higher and lower-skilled occupations, proving that automation would create more jobs instead of deleting them.

Research by the World Economic Forum supports these findings, which showed that automation creates around 133 million jobs and only cuts 75 million jobs. The employees in the phased-out jobs could be unskilled and assigned new roles in alignment with the new industrial revolution.

Global Trends Associated with Industry 4.0 #

Industry 4.0 promotes several projects, but the most vital trend is increased localization. This means that the production houses, manufacturing, and factories are getting closer to their customer base. Other global trends to look out for include:

Enhanced Cybersecurity and privacy
Industrial robots
3D printing
AR
Increased transparency
Cloud computation

Training Employees for Industry 4.0 #

Some methods for training your employees to adopt Industry 4.0 are:

Upskilling and Deskilling Employees #

The idea of deskilling employees might seem intimidating, but it offers more benefits than hiring a new workforce. Besides increasing employee satisfaction, it is a more cost-effective and faster process.

Searching for new employees, onboarding, and making them familiar with the workspace is time-consuming. In contrast, with a few inputs, it is easier to train existing employees within the organization.

Re-training for Soft Skills #

Soft skills prove as crucial as other skills in defining the competitiveness of the employees in their job. It makes them better communicators, improves the influx of innovative ideas, and increases their adaptability and ability to embrace new career challenges.

Some soft skill domains for training can include:

Emotional Intelligence
Collaboration
Creativity
Persuasiveness

Enhance Training Techniques #

To prepare to adapt to the digital revolution, your organization needs to improve its training methods. Two examples of achieving this goal are using AR and online performance support.

Implementing novel training techniques can give employees a better idea of what they would work with, improve the appeal of their prospective careers, and increase employee satisfaction.

How to Meet the Employees? #

Industry 4.0 training involves addressing individuals where they are, irrespective of their countries or cities.

Some of the training patterns we see in version 4.0 are just upgraded versions of training we’ve already seen. The following are some of them.

AR Training

In 2017, a study published in the Harvard Business Review discovered that augmented reality was already enhancing factory workers’ productivity.

Microlearning

Mobile devices are used to give quick information and instruction that is intended to help workers acquire new skills as they are required. These technologies provide information precisely when and where employees need it since they are made to be delivered in the manner in which the brain learns best.

On-the-job Training #

Employees learn while working by undergoing on-the-job training. Employ a strategy that is cumulative so that workers can gradually acquire the various skills they need.

As workers adapt to the requirements of industry 4.0 technology, this kind of training might also lead to decreased downtime.

Online Checklist #

Using digital checklists, employees can learn the procedures and systems required for a specific job or location.

Digital Support #

Mobile-first digital performance support gives employees immediate access to industry 4.0 technologies.

VR Training

While upholding quality standards and increasing output, virtual reality training can assist in lowering manufacturing costs. This training is urgent, given the global shortages and rising demand.

Companies that Implemented Training Modules for Workers for Smart Manufacturing #

Several organizations deny the impact of the fourth industrial revolution on how they conduct business. Even if companies understand the importance of Industry 4.0, they are either unprepared or struggling to identify talent, knowledge, and opportunities that come with the new industrial evolution.

Only some firms understand the essence of embracing industry 4.0 and have implemented training modules for workers for smart manufacturing. There are two ways of deskilling the existing workforce in manufacturing: By doing it within the organization or by outsourcing the training process.

Some organizations that have embraced Industry 4.0 and training methods for their employees are Schneider Electric, Bosch, SAP SE, ABB, and Hitachi.

What’s Next? #

According to Custom Market Insights (CMI), the market cap of Industry 4.0 was 118.11 billion US dollars in 2021 which is projected to reach approximately 155.76 billion US dollars by 2030, showing a CAGR growth rate of 14.3 percent.

These statistics are proof that Industry 4.0 isn’t just a buzzword. It is a revolution organizations need to prepare for so that their competition in the cut-throat marketplace doesn’t outrun them.

Related reading

The Truth about Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Adoption

Vin Patel — Wed, 03 Aug 2022 17:54:56 +0000

Key takeaways

There are a lot of structures in our economic, legal, and political systems that are defined by contracts, transactions, and records of those transactions.
Consider how Napster revolutionized the music business, Skype altered telecoms, and Google changed web search by utilizing user-generated connections to deliver more relevant results.
Companies in the financial services sector are well on their way to adopting blockchain technology.

Introduction #

There are a lot of structures in our economic, legal, and political systems that are defined by contracts, transactions, and records of those transactions. They safeguard company assets and impose restrictions on the organization’s activities. Their job is to check people’s identification and keep a journal of what’s happened. They set the rules for how countries, organizations, communities, and individuals interact with one another. These principles guide management and social action. Despite this, the digital transformation of the economy has lagged behind the development of the necessary technologies and the bureaucracies to manage them. A Formula 1 race vehicle is being held hostage by them, much like how rush-hour congestion can be. Our regulatory and administrative control methods must adapt to the digital age.

This is a problem that blockchain claims to be able to address. It’s an open, distributed ledger that records transactions between two parties effectively, verifiably, and permanently. Blockchain is at the heart of bitcoin (and other virtual currencies). Transactions can be automatically triggered by programming the ledger.

As a result of blockchain, we may see a world where contracts are digitally encoded and kept in shared databases that can’t be altered or tampered. A digital record and signature would be attached to each transaction and agreement in this future world so they could be recognized, authenticated, and shared. Lawyers, brokers, and bankers may no longer be required as intermediaries. An open and frictionless marketplace would be created where people of all kinds may do business without restriction. As you can see, blockchain holds a lot of promise.

Almost everyone has heard the assertion that blockchain would transform business and reshape economies and organizations. We’re excited by its possibilities, but we’re wary of the marketing hype. But we’re worried about more than simply hacks and exchange failures (such as the 2014 collapse of one bitcoin exchange and more recent ones) these days. Our research into technology innovation tells us that numerous technological, governance, organizational, and even societal barriers must be removed if there is a blockchain revolution. Making hasty decisions on blockchain innovation without considering the long-term implications would be foolish.

There are still several years until actual blockchain-led corporate and government change occurs. This is since blockchain is not a “disruptive” technology that can swiftly overrun existing businesses and attack a traditional business model with a lower-cost alternative. With its potential to establish new economic and social underpinnings, blockchain is a fundamental technology. It’ll take decades for blockchain to permeate our economic and social infrastructure, whatever huge the effect. As waves of technical and institutional change acquire speed, adoption will be gradual and steady rather than abrupt.

Adoption Patterns of New Technologies #

First, let’s consider what we know about technology adoption and, in particular, the transformation process characteristic of other fundamental technologies before going into blockchain strategy and investment. The adoption of TCP/IP (transmission control protocol/internet protocol) paved the way for creating the internet and is a prime example of distributed computer networking technology.

First used for e-mail on ARPAnet (the U. S. Department of Defense’s internet predecessor), TCP/IP gained traction in a single application in 1972. Because of “circuit switching,” connections between two persons or machines had to be re-established and maintained during an exchange before TCP/IP was used as the underlying architecture. Telecoms service providers and equipment manufacturers have spent billions on establishing dedicated lines to ensure that any two nodes may interact with each other.

TCP/IP flipped the script on that model. Information was transferred via the new protocol in tiny packets, including address information that was digitized and broken apart. Packets launched into the network might take any path to their intended destination once they’re out in the wild. The network’s edges may have intelligent transmitting and receiving nodes that could decode and decode the data in the packets. Dedicated private lines and an extensive infrastructure were not required. TCP/IP developed an open, shared public network with no centralized authority or entity in charge of its upkeep and enhancement.

One generation of firms used the low-cost connection to create internet services that were appealing replacements for established enterprises once the fundamental infrastructure had reached critical mass. CNET facilitated the dissemination of information over the internet. Compared to other bookshops, Amazon has a more fabulous selection of books for sale. Online travel agencies like Priceline and Expedia have made it simpler than ever to book airline tickets. By offering low-cost ways for newcomers to achieve broad reach, conventional firms like newspapers and brick-and-mortar stores have been put under tremendous strain.

The following generation of firms built innovative, game-changing applications that reshaped how organizations create and capture value by relying on widespread internet access. Their peer-to-peer design allowed them to coordinate scattered networks of users and create value. Consider how Napster revolutionized the music business, Skype altered telecoms, and Google changed web search by utilizing user-generated connections to deliver more relevant results. Think about how eBay changed online shopping through auctions.

Blockchain is already being used by businesses to track products as they move through various supply networks.

With today’s internet-driven, platform-based business models, more than half of the world’s most valuable public businesses, our economy’s fundamental underpinnings have shifted. Economic leaders increasingly operate as “keystones,” proactively organizing, influencing, and coordinating vast networks of communities, users, and organizations.

Bitcoin- A new framework for adoption #

Bitcoin, a virtual currency without a central authority for producing cash, transferring ownership, or verifying transactions, was proposed in October 2008 with the New Architecture Blockchain as part of a peer-to-peer network on top of the internet. The first use of blockchain technology was in Bitcoin.

TCP/IP and blockchain have a lot in common. In the same way that e-mail allowed for two-way communication, bitcoin allows for two-way financial transactions. Like TCP/IP, blockchain development and maintenance are open, distributed, and shared. A global community of volunteers maintains the core software. Like e-mail, bitcoin was initially adopted by a small but vibrant group of users.

A typical stock transaction, for example, can be completed in microseconds or less, frequently without the involvement of a human. The settlement, on the other hand—the transfer of stock ownership—can take up to a week. There is no way for the parties to automatically check whether or not the assets belong to one of them and maybe transferred. So instead, a chain of intermediaries acts as surety for support while the transaction’s records move through different organizations and ledgers.

Several similar databases make up a blockchain system, and each one is managed and hosted by a different entity. When a modification is made to one copy, it affects all of the other copies simultaneously. As a result, all ledgers have permanent records of the value and assets traded during transactions. Verification and ownership transfer do not necessitate the involvement of third parties. A blockchain-based system would settle a stock transaction quickly, safely, and verifiably.

The Truth About Cryptocurrencies #

Bitcoin evolved in complexity, speed, and cost as its user base expanded. Most bitcoin transactions take around 10 minutes to validate, and the cost has been around $20 on average this year. Because of its erratic value, Bitcoin is now an unusable medium of trade for most people. If you have $10, you may purchase a beer one day and a nice wine the next with it.

It’s also been established that Bitcoin doesn’t provide complete anonymity. There have been increased concerns regarding the security of Bitcoin transactions following the government’s success in identifying and recovering some of the Bitcoin ransom paid to the hacking collective DarkSide during the Colonial Pipeline ransomware assault.

Despite the fact that Bitcoin’s declared goals were not met, it has still turned into a speculative investment. This baffles me. In other words, it’s worthless on its own. The value of Bitcoin is derived from the fact that there are only a finite number of digital currencies in circulation (nearly 19 million have been created so far). However, scarcity cannot be a source of value on its own. To make money from a Bitcoin investment, all you need to do is locate someone who will buy the item at even a higher price.

Orienting Your Blockchain Investment Strategy #

What role should leaders play in their firms when it comes to blockchain? Lets discuss about this.

Single-use applications are an excellent place to start for most people because they aren’t brand new and need little cooperation with other parties. Adding bitcoin as a payment method is one option. Adopting bitcoin would need blockchain capabilities in a wide range of areas, including IT, finance, accounting, and sales and marketing. Using blockchain internally as a database for asset management, documenting internal transactions, and authenticating identities is another low-risk method to using the ledger. This may be an excellent option for firms with trouble bringing their many internal databases into harmony. Companies may learn the skills they need for sophisticated apes by using single-use applications first. Experimentation has never been more straightforward due to the advent of blockchain-based cloud services from start-ups and major platforms like Amazon and Microsoft.

Transformational situations are the last to take off, but they are the most valuable. Large-scale public identification systems, such as passport control, algorithmic decision-making to prevent money laundering, and complicated financial transactions involving numerous parties are two areas where they might have a significant influence. We believe it will be at least a decade, if not more before these applications gain widespread use and critical mass.

New platform-level actors will emerge from transformative apes, and these players will coordinate and manage the unique ecosystems they create. These are the future generation’s Google and Facebook. To take advantage of such possibilities, you’ll have to be patient. There is still value in creating the necessary foundations for them—tools and standards—even if investing heavily in them now would be premature.

Conclusion #

TCP/IP has undoubtedly paved the path for blockchain acceptance by serving as a blueprint. Taking advantage of the lower costs associated with experimenting, blockchain applications are being developed on top of TCP/IP, the ubiquitous digital data, communication, and computation infrastructure.

We’ve created a methodology to help business leaders find out where to begin using blockchain capabilities in their organizations right away. Ensure that your employees learn about blockchain, build company-specific applications across the four quadrants we’ve defined, and invest in blockchain infrastructure. Given the time horizons, adoption obstacles, and sheer complexity of getting to TCP/IP levels of acceptability, CEOs should consider carefully the risks associated with blockchain experimentation. Naturally, starting small is an excellent approach to get the knowledge and experience needed to dream large. However, the investment amount should be determined by the company’s and industry’s specific circumstances. Companies in the financial services sector are well on their way to adopting blockchain technology. It’s not in the manufacturing industry.

Related reading

How Green Teach Will Affect the Upcoming Industrial

Vin Patel — Wed, 03 Aug 2022 17:25:31 +0000

Key takeaways

Mechanisms monitored and controlled by ‘computer-based algorithms’ are known as intelligent systems or Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS).
There are several ways how technology can join hands with environmentalism.
Another reason corporations are focused on green technology is because a clean and safe future must support environmental goals and sustainable practices using the newest technical breakthroughs.

The German government coined the term Industry 4.0 (Industries 4.0 originally) while working on a project to digitize the manufacturing industry. In 2011, this term was made public, describing the potential paradigm shift in the industrial automation sector caused by the caber-physical systems responsible for the evolution of new business models. #

Mechanisms monitored and controlled by ‘computer-based algorithms’ are known as intelligent systems or Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS).

Industry 4.0 is often used interchangeably with ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution. Although one might think that they are two names with the same meaning, their origins are different.

The term ‘The Fourth Industrial Revolution’ was coined by the founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum (WEF), Klaus Schwa, in 2016. In Klaus Schwa’s words, the Fourth Industrial Revolution is “characterized by a fusion of technologies blurring the lines between the digital, physical, and biological spheres.

A Brief History About The Industrial Revolution #

Back in the 1700s, the invention of the steam engine in Europe brought major changes in the manufacturing sector. Machines powered by the steam engine replaced several sorts of work done by factory workers. This replacement was done for better efficiency, increased production and reduced production time, i.e., faster manufacturing. This resulted in new manufacturing processes, the boom in the textile industry and the formation of more and more factories—this new revolution in the manufacturing processes spread across North America during the early 1800s. By the late 1800s, manufacturing sectors saw another industrial revolution, the second one. The major inventions that caused this revolution were the internal combustion engine, the lightbulb, the telephone to name a few. The main features of this second industrial revolution were mass production and the rise of steel, electricity and oil industries. The Digital Revolution during the late 1900s is said to be the third industrial revolution. We are best informed about this revolution as most of the changes occurred only a few decades ago. This revolution is also the most prompt one so far. The world witnessed the invention of the internet and personal computers. We are living in the third industrial revolution era, but the fourth industrial revolution is closer than we can think.

Original diagram for Techfastly by Vin Patel.

What would be the major changes that the fourth industrial revolution will bring? What will be the next unimaginable invention? Understanding the fourth industrial revolution might take time as we are only making calculated predictions based on the technology already in use. However, the main idea that separates the third industrial revolution from the fourth industrial revolution is that technology is merging more and more with human lives. Synthetic biology, genome, bioprinting etc., are a few subjects with great potential to bring major changes in the biological domain.

Industry 4.0 comes from the German Government-led project to expand Germany’s leading position in the manufacturing industry around the globe. The information and communication technology that causes the intelligent networking of machines was the most important initiative of this project. This project formed partnerships with both national and international alliances. Similar initiatives taken up by other countries include Japan’s ‘Robot Revolution and Industrial IoT Initiative, France’s (AIF) Alliance Industry of the future (Industries-dufutur), Italy’s Piano Industrial 4.0 China’s Made in China 2025 and Australia’s industry 4.0.

Even with separate origins, both the Fourth Industrial Revolution and Industry 4.0 have the same motive. They are about smart manufacturing, automation and increased productivity.

Green Technology and Industry 4.0 #

The term Green Technology, being very self-explanatory itself, refers to the use of technology in environmentalism. Global warming is becoming a deadly issue; people are inclined towards the sustainability of the environment. From manufacturing reusable straws and banning plastic straws at restaurants to wastewater treatment plants, technology is also playing a major role in saving our world. Products that reduce energy consumption, wastage and any other adverse effect on the environment are undeniably a part of the Green Teach umbrella. The conservation of the earth’s natural resources is the motive of this green technology. During the early 19th century, scientists started discovering the impact of industries like coal-burning plants and manufacturing factories on nature. Soon it was understood that the manufacturing processes must be altered if or else this modernization will eventually end the world. The government slowly acknowledged the protection and preservation of natural resources worldwide.

There are several ways how technology can join hands with environmentalism. A few of them are:

Alternative energy, such as solar and wind power.
Electric vehicles to decrease the usage of fossil fuels like coal, oil, natural gases, etc.
Sustainable agriculture, for example, organic farming techniques.
Recycling.
Carbon capture and many more.

Solar Power is the cheapest form of alternative energy that can be used instead of burning all the fossil fuels. Photovoltaic solar energy is consistently cheaper than new coal- or gas-fired power plants in most countries.

The Impact of Green Technologies on Industry 4.0 #

Industry 4.0 provides complete usage of green technological processes to gain sustainability. Green technological processes use technologies that are already in use to create innovations and social and technical conditions for people working in factories. This can also include maintenance and eco-design. Eco-design of the products makes in recyclable and reusable. This reduces the chemicals and energy used in the manufacturing process. Green manufacturing, the process of manufacturing products using decreased energy-intensive pieces of equipment to minimize the negative impact on the environment.

Original diagram for Techfastly by Vin Patel.

Organizational and technical sustainability is a sort of internal sustainability that focuses on a company’s internal operations. It is concerned with the most efficient utilization of resources. It entails the employment of human labor, the upkeep of technical equipment and machinery, and IT infrastructure implementation.

Sustainable manufacturing refers to the long-term viability of manufacturing processes in the manufacture of environmentally friendly products in compliance with the conditions imposed by environmental protection and cost-cutting demands.

Sustainable supply chain and logistics refer to the long-term viability of supply chains and logistics networks based on the need for continuous supply security and waste management. The key to managing and optimizing supplier networks is a collaboration between businesses involved in distribution, warehousing, transportation, and other logistics services. In the field of logistics, it’s all about long-term sustainability as a result of transportation’s negative environmental impact.

The Triple Bottom Line is a fundamental notion of sustainability based on the 3P model (People, Planet and Profit). Meeting human needs and achieving a satisfactory quality of life while efficiently allocating resources (economically), conserving natural resources, including ecosystems and biodiversity (ecologically), and making social resources accessible to all while preserving cultural diversity (socially) are all part of the triple bottom line (socially).

Circular Economy (circularity) is an economic strategy that aims to reduce waste by allowing unrestricted resource utilization. The SGI 4.0 framework unifies the utilization of technology and resources through environmentally friendly processes, ensuring long-term viability.

Sustainability outcomes are characterized by the most commonly found advantages for each category and are separated into three groups (economic, environmental, and social).

End Note #

New research based on our SGI 4.0 paradigm should attempt to demonstrate empirical results of green process sustainability outcomes in relation to Industry 4.0. In the context of Industry 4.0, the SGI 4.0 framework enables the development of assessment tools for evaluating the sustainability of green processes. The framework identifies which sustainability outcomes should be considered when developing these techniques. This research creates a framework for companies using Industry 4.0 technology to adopt and facilitate sustainability through green operations. It provides a conceptual and theoretical framework for empirically testing the link between these variables.

According to reports, our world will change dramatically in 2024, with solar becoming 35% cheaper, wind energy capacity increasing by 57%, hydroelectric capacity increasing by 9%, and geothermal capacity increasing by 28%. This is demonstrated by the fact that India is the world’s second-largest renewable energy generator, trailing only China and the United States.

Green technology is unavoidably the way of the future. Many investors have been focusing on start-ups that create a sense of security in reaction to the anticipation and worry surrounding climate change and a growing scarcity of natural resources. As a result, a significant number of firms have begun to revolve around the new trend of embracing green technology. Another reason corporations are focused on green technology is because a clean and safe future must support environmental goals and sustainable practices using the newest technical breakthroughs.

Related reading

Digitalization to Decarbonization

Vin Patel — Tue, 02 Aug 2022 12:18:05 +0000

Key takeaways

The daunting issue of global warming has plagued major industrial sectors all over the globe.
Recently in October, as a part of its decarbonization goal of 2030, Apple declared that the number of its suppliers committed to deploying 100 percent clean energy has more than doubled since 2020.
As private and public entities collaborate and work on technological developments that can be harnessed to achieve zero carbon emissions, we can perhaps, have hopes to expect a carbon-free future sooner than envisioned.

The daunting issue of global warming has plagued major industrial sectors all over the globe. In a world characterized by increasing industrialization, urbanization, and a host of other issues including financial crises and food security, increasing carbon emissions stand out as a pressing problem that requires immediate action.

According to the World Meteorological Organization, there has been a considerable increase in temperature even in 2021 – the global mean temperature for this year was approximately 1.09°C more than the 1850-1900 average, indicating urgency for a solution.

Climate Change and Importance of Decarbonization #

Climate change has been a persistent problem since several years now. Excessive deforestation, improper waste management, and oceanic neglect are among the many reasons that have led to fluctuating climatic cycles, bringing about shrinking glaciers, heavy precipitation, rising maximum and minimum temperatures, and higher ocean temperatures. Carbon emissions are at an all-time high, brought about majorly by built environment.

According to the Urban Land Institute, built environment, i.e., man-made infrastructure is responsible for almost 40% carbon emissions worldwide. Think tank Chatham House propagates a similar line of thought, claiming that cement is responsible of around 8% of global carbon emissions.

In a scenario as grave as this, decarbonization has become more significant than ever before. Decarbonizing man-made structures with carbon-negative construction technologies is just one of the many ways to lower emissions and create a healthier environment. Energy-efficient buildings characteristic of enhanced HVAC systems, smart energy management systems, light upgrades, and better insulation are more than likely to have reduced carbon footprints, increasing energy efficiency by 20%, to say the least. As per energy.gov, U. S. consumers are said to have saved around USD 14.7 billion in energy costs merely by making the switch to LED lighting.

Decarbonization goes well beyond constructing carbon-negative buildings though. Creating a decarbonized economy involves a host of strategies such as energy management with analytic solutions, alternative fuel usage in vehicles (or better still, to go full steam with electric vehicles), using renewable more often than not, and adopting sustainable procurement practices. Going carbon-free has a slew of advantages, significant among these including longer life expectancy and better economic output as a whole.

How to Become Carbon-neutral with the Help of Technology #

In a bid to mitigate global warming and achieve considerable reduction of greenhouse gases, authorized bodies the world over have been collaborating to bring about vital initiatives. One such major initiative is the Paris Agreement. It is a legally binding international treaty pertaining to climate change, signed by 196 Parties on 12 December 2015 in Paris. It came into force on 4 November 2016. Its implementation involves considerable social and economic transformation, aided by technological developments to achieve climate change and reduce GHG emissions.

In a manner of speaking, massive advancements in technology may be one of the ways why our planet is currently in so much turmoil. The same technologies and the ingenuity however, can be easily deployed to ensure that we become carbon-neutral soon enough. The Internet of things, digitization, and artificial intelligence, in addition to numerous other technologies, will help lead the way to a decarbonized economy.

The Internet of Things (IoT) for example, can be effectively utilized to collect, store, and analyze data and information pertaining to buildings, plants, energy systems, and the like. In essence, this will enable businesses to adopt solutions that can measure actual device usage, control over/underused, match consumption to targets, etc. Adopting AI on a large scale will help measure and control a company’s carbon usage and help set sustainable targets for the future.

Speaking of AI, adopting Artificial Internet of Things (AIoT) will help in realizing a carbon-free economy, as it helps source real-time data from numerous systems, helping companies organize, collect, and collate data into detailed reports. Eventually, these reports help in monitoring and measuring emissions and enhancing data quality.

In an era where globalization and industrialization are rapidly shaping developments worldwide, digitalization may emerge as a double-edged sword, depending on where man chooses to put it to use. That is to say, some estimates claim that global data traffic is expected to triple to approximately 400 billion gigabytes monthly through 2022 – which is equal to the storage space of 100 billion DVDs. In essence, digitalization may be causing more carbon emissions than ever.

Having said that, digitalization can be conveniently deployed to better monitor and understand the ecological footprints of various products, although, this would require modern technologies to be completely integrated into the society. Digital solutions can be used to ensure clean air, lesser pollution, preservation of biodiversity, climate protection, and more. In the form of smart textiles for instance, digital solutions can be used to convert disposable items into products that are durable and recyclable. In the wake of COVID-19, with the work-from-home culture at the forefront, home office solutions such as video conferencing tools and the like gained precedence, greatly reducing unnecessary travel.

In a nutshell, technological solutions can be actively pursued to reduce carbon emissions and accomplish the net-zero emission targets promised by private and public entities. To ensure that carbon management solutions remain a major part of emission reduction agendas, technologies supporting offset integration and real-time measurement must be adopted on a large scale.

The Trend of Corporate Decarbonization – What Does the Scenario Look Like? #

Climate protection is no longer an option or a fad; it is real and imperative and requires immediate attention. Corporate firms, to that end, have been doing everything in their capacity to bring about fundamental changes in the energy ecosystem.

According to the World Energy Outlook 2020, emission reductions of around 2 billion tons can be achieved in 2030 by employing minor changes such as walking shorter distances, flying less, or resetting air conditioners. To that end, presently, big teach companies have been working toward carbon offsetting, direct air capture technology, other carbon capture, and utilization and storage (CCUS) technologies. In addition, many corporate entities have been working to scale up vital clean energy technologies such as wind and solar energy, geothermal, advanced nuclear energy, and green hydrogen.

A noteworthy example of corporate decarbonization is that of Kalmia Cement. The leading Indian cement maker apparently manufactures the lowest carbon intensity cement in the world – around 20 percent lesser than the cement average the world over, and is further planning to scale up its targets. The company has committed to become carbon negative by 2040.

Speaking of yet another instance defining the current scenario, Levi Strauss & Company has identified the significance of furthering its climate protection target, not only to adhere to the aims of the Paris Agreement, but also to ensure that its supply chain remains protected from the impact of climate change. In 2018, Levi Strauss & Co. committed to a target of 90 percent emission reductions in all its owned and operated facilities the world over and a 40 percent emission reduction in its supply chain, by 2025.

Sustainability Efforts by Companies #

Decarbonization efforts at the corporate level have not been limited to Kalmia Cement and Levi Strauss & Company; in recent times, a score of companies have been working to achieve the zero emissions target. A gist of the same is provided below:

McDonald’s Corporation #

Globally renowned food chain, McDonald’s Corporation announced its decarbonization commitment long back, having pledged to achieve net zero emissions spanning its operations worldwide, by 2050. As part of this commitment, the company has joined the SBTi’s (Science Based Targets initiative) Business Ambition for 1.5°C campaign. To that end, the firm plans to increase the levels of emission reduction in its current 2030 science-based target. Since 2018, McDonald’s has already achieved 8.5% reduction in restaurant and office emissions and 5.9% decrease in supply chain emissions.

Google #

Teach giant Google, since long, has been committed to reduce its carbon footprint. In 2007, the company became carbon-neutral and has recently claimed that with extensive investments in high-quality carbon offsets, it has erased its entire carbon footprint. Last year in September, it announced that it is going a step ahead with an approach called 24/7 Carbon Free Energy.

In effect, Google will now match electricity usage by the hour with locally sourced zero-carbon energy, thereby operating on carbon-free electricity 24/7, by 2030. Recently in May 2021, Google partnered with The AES Corp. for the supply of 24/7 carbon-free energy to its data centers in Virginia.

Microsoft #

Teach Corporation Microsoft recently declared that it will leverage the best of modern technologies to be completely carbon negative by 2030. By the year 2050, Microsoft aims to mitigate all the carbon it has generated since its inception in 1975. In addition, the firm will also launch an initiative to use Microsoft technology to help its clients and suppliers lower their own carbon footprints.

Microsoft has also come up with a new climate innovation fund worth USD 1 billion, to speed up the global development of carbon capture, reduction, and removal technologies. It plans to make carbon reduction a major part of its procurement processes as well.

Apple #

Last year in July, iPhone giant Apple announced that it plans to make its entire manufacturing supply chain and product life cycle, carbon neutral by 2030. As a matter of fact, Apple is already carbon neutral across its operations worldwide, but with this mission, the firm will ensure that every one of its products sold will have net zero climate impact by 2030. The company has been taking every possible initiative in this regard.

Recently in October, as a part of its decarbonization goal of 2030, Apple declared that the number of its suppliers committed to deploying 100 percent clean energy has more than doubled since 2020. Close to 175 Apple suppliers will transition to using clean energy, as Apple plans to bring over 9 gigawatts of renewable power online, globally. Over time, this action will help mitigate over 18 million metric tons of CO2 emissions annually.

Amazon #

In 2019, Amazon was the co-founder of The Climate Pledge, i.e., a commitment targeted toward net-zero carbon across all its operations by 2040. The retail giant encouraged many other companies to join its pledge, claiming that cooperation is the only way toward global decarbonization. To that end, the company has generated an innovative carbon system of record that measures the sources of carbon across all Amazon operations, thereby enabling the firm to concoct ways to decrease emissions.

Amazon also has plans to deploy 100,000 electric delivery vehicles and is further looking out for methods to enable sustainability in freight operations. In addition, it has invested in sustainable building technologies, such as carbon-sequestering cement, and is using the same in its construction projects.

American Airlines #

American Airlines has recently joined the bandwagon of companies aiming to lower carbon emissions through their operations. Early this year, the firm collaborated with Deloitte to increase the use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) for lowering aviation emissions. The agreement demands that both companies reduce CO2 life cycle emissions from aviation by around 3,050 metric tons of carbon dioxide – which apparently amounts to around 10,000 passengers flying from New York City to Los Angels (one-way).

Further, the company has pledged to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions by 2035, thereby supporting its current commitment to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. To that end, it has joined the Race to Zero and the Business Ambition for 1.5°C campaign. In September this year, American Airlines has also invested close to USD 100 million in a collaborative effort to increase the development of clean energy technologies for achieving a net zero economy by 2050.

BT Group #

UK-based telecoms company BT Group has pledged to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2045. In the year 2016, the company achieved a target it had set earlier, four years ahead of schedule. The target was to lower carbon emissions intensity by 80% on 1996-97 levels. Since 2009-10, BT has managed to save USD 328 million, and during 2017-18, the company cut its energy bill by USD 37 million.

It has accomplished this by bringing about efficient setups in its data centers, networks, and buildings. Further, BT also claimed that it aims to decarbonize by 87 percent, against the 2016-17 levels.

The IKEA Group #

The IKEA Group – one of the best furnishings giant worldwide, was indeed among the first ones to be a part of The Climate Groups EV100 initiative to fast-track the roll-out of electric transport last year. IKEA now uses electric vehicles (EVs) to further its goal of tackling emissions.

The company had pledged to transition its “last mile” home deliveries spanning key cities such as Los Angels, Paris, Amsterdam, Shanghai, and New York, to zero-emission transport by 2020. By 2025, the company aims to have all its “last mile” home deliveries to be in the zero emissions bandwagon.

NRG #

U. S.-based energy company NRG is also a part of the global decarbonization move, and has raised the bar by announcing to help its customers decarbonize their power needs through reduced emissions and delivery of renewable energy. The utility aims to reduce 50% absolute emissions by 2030 as opposed to the 2014 baseline – so far, it has already achieved 70% of this goal. NRG has also managed to reduce absolute emissions by almost 20 million tons.

Signify #

Philips Lighting – now Signify, has also joined the carbon neutral bandwagon. The firm has pledged to transition to 100% renewable energy with RE100. In addition, it will accelerate the transition to charging infrastructure and electric vehicles. Both these goals will be led by The Climate Group. Signify has also committed to using net-zero carbon buildings for its owned and operated sites – around 300 of them, to say the least.

Efforts Undertaken by Government Bodies #

As the issue of climate change becomes more and more pressing by the day, governments the world over have been charting out effective plans and policies to ensure carbon neutrality at the earliest. While some have already commenced decarbonization strategies, many others have joined carbon neutrality programs and have been collectively working toward a carbon free future. The paragraphs below enumerate the steps some governments have been taking in this regard.

The UK Government #

The UK government has been very proactive in this regard; indeed, emission reduction has been a major target for the nation since two decades. During 2000 and 2014, energy-related CO2 emissions in the UK reduced from 591 to 470 million metric tons, while GDP grew from USD 2.1 to USD 2.7 trillion. Recently in 2021, the UK government unveiled a Net Zero Strategy that laid down a plan on how the country will create 440,000 well-paid jobs in addition to unlocking GBP £90 billion in investment in 2030.

The City of Miami #

The Miami City Commission recently approved the City’s new comprehensive GHG reduction plan called Miami Forever Carbon Neutral, in a bid to achieve decarbonization in the state by 2050. Its main aim is to mitigate citywide GHG emissions from 2018 levels by 60% by 2035. In order to accomplish the same, the City plans to implement policies that address renewable energy usage, EV adoption, energy efficiency, and promoting a new green economy.

The Indian Government #

India aims to achieve Net Zero emissions by 2070. To that end, the Indian Prime Minister recently declared a five-fold strategy at the 26th Conference of Parties (CoP26). As a part of the same, the Indian government aims to obtain its non-fossil energy capacity to 500 gigawatts (GW) by 2030. The country has goals to meet 50 per cent of its energy requirements from clean energy by 2030 and it will reduce the total projected carbon emissions by 1 billion tons till the same year. In addition, India aims to mitigate the carbon intensity of its economy be lesser than 45 percent.

The U. S. Government #

The U. S. has been involved in decarbonization strategies since a very long time. Recently in April 2021, President Biden announced a new target for the U. S. for achieving a 50% to 52% reduction in economy-wide net greenhouse gas pollution by 2030, as opposed to the 2005 levels. In order to accomplish the same, the U. S. will focus on deploying clean and green technologies. In addition, it will invest in new technologies to mitigate emissions associated with the construction sector, say like, high-performance electrified buildings.

The U. S. will also help in reducing carbon pollution from the transportation sector by enhancing the efficiency of vehicles, providing funds for charging infrastructure, boosting R&D efforts, spending on low carbon new-generation renewable fuels, and bringing about cutting-edge transportation technologies.

Examples of a few other nations camping up their efforts with regards to decarbonization: #

In October 2020, the government of Japan declared its plans to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Further in April 2021, the nation raised its earlier goal of emission reduction by 2030, to a massive 46% from its 2013 levels.
In June 2021, Germany passed a new Climate Action Law that pushed ahead the deadline for achieving climate neutrality, to 2045. The Law also states that the target for greenhouse gas emission reduction will be 65% by 2030 as compared to 1990, while a new interim target of 88% reduction applies until 2040.
Switzerland already has an ambitious zero emissions started, and recently, it has declared that it will need to spend USD 14 billion annually (around 2% of gross domestic product), over the next thirty years, to achieve its 2050 carbon-zero goal.
In 2009, Singapore committed to reducing emissions by 16% from business-as-usual (BAU) levels, by 2020. In 2015, it pledged to reduce GHG emissions by 36% from 2005 levels, by 2030. On 31 March 2020, Singapore claimed that it plans to halve its emissions by 2050, from its peak to 33MtCO2e to accomplish carbon neutrality by 2050.

The adoption of advanced technologies such as machine vision and artificial intelligence to mitigate emissions will soon become mainstream considering the pace at which governments and corporate entities are working toward decarbonization. As private and public entities collaborate and work on technological developments that can be harnessed to achieve zero carbon emissions, we can perhaps, have hopes to expect a carbon-free future sooner than envisioned.

Related reading

How Technology can be used to Empower Leadership- 21st

Vin Patel — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 19:50:01 +0000

Key takeaways

***“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” – Peter F.
Effective cooperation is critical to long-term success, as wise leaders have long recognized.
It should result in enhanced decision-making and people management results.

“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” – Peter F. Trucker

Introduction

The COVID-19 epidemic has wreaked havoc on both the public and private sectors worldwide. It has compelled businesses to embark on digital transformations that the majority of them would have ignored for several years had it not been for the epidemic.

It is all about doing the right things at the appropriate moment that defines leadership. It’s about encouraging people to perform at their best and work toward a shared goal despite obstacles. It entails fostering a climate in which people feel empowered to produce solutions in the most effective manner possible. Over the last decade, a variety of leadership styles and methods have developed. Delegating, recognizing, and encouraging others has become the new credo for all leaders and managers.

Technology leadership will continue to be critical as this crisis evolves, particularly as organizations and associations grapple with the significant income loss associated with in-person conventions and other events. While virtual event technology has been around for some time, just a few businesses have adopted it.

At the executive level, technology may be one of the most beneficial tools for developing into a stronger leader. Without a doubt, technology is the driving factor behind the new leadership style, particularly in these strange times. This leadership style embraces change and places a premium on increased productivity, communication, and cooperation in order to build effective teams, all while developing a robust learning process for continual skill development in response to changing market demands.

Leadership and Technology #

No sector of business has been left unscathed by ever-evolving technology. Technology has now permeated all spheres of existence, transcending all boundaries. Regardless of the organization’s size, technology may be seen cheerfully waving at us from all directions. Technology has also enabled bosses to govern from a distance. Leaders can monitor the number of tasks completed by team members in real-time with the use of technology. Additionally, it enables them to express any changes in the duties they are performing regardless of their location. It has altered the way leaders communicate with and interact with their workforce significantly. Leaders’ social media presence also elevates their appeal to unprecedented heights.

In sum, technology has spawned a new leadership style, one that enables and motivates individuals to seize the most compelling business prospects through the use of the most advanced technology.

Empowering the Workforce with the help of technology #

With remote employment, there has been a sea change in how we work, and employees are more linked to their bosses digitally than they have ever been. Expectations of individuals have never been greater, as they must balance a plethora of factors, including health problems, caring for children and the elderly at home, and domestic duties, in addition to professional deliverable at work. Leaders bear a greater obligation to comprehend these issues and navigate this scenario more prudently and carefully through the use of intelligent technologies. The capacity to use technology is contingent upon people’s willingness to accept it and their understanding of how it might improve their lives.

This is where leaders can shine by proving that technology is a critical resource, not just a tactical solution to a problem. This perspective creates an infinite number of options for how technology may be a strong enabler of transformation for every single employee across the firm. When multiple companies offer similar benefits packages to their employees, what truly differentiates them is the work/life balance they can expect. The commercial environment of the present day is decentralized. Teams no longer need to be confined to the same office building or meeting place. Whatever innovative technology you use, at the end of the day, people are the most valuable asset your business can have.

Optimizing the Productivity with changing nature of Technology #

A practical asset in technology is assisting businesses in maximizing their advantages since this strategy enables leaders to train their employees to accept and feel comfortable with technology, resulting in technology becoming organically integrated at a basic level in an organization. We have successfully adapted to working with minimal interruption thanks to the proactive investments we made many years ago, whether in secure virtual platforms or AI-driven due diligence procedures that assist in automating how we finish our contracts.

The most significant asset has been our people’s spontaneity in adapting to this transformed scenario of working from home, as a result of their prior high level of familiarity with using technology platforms and processes at work over the last several years, ensuring our ability to optimize productivity. Connected gadgets, artificial intelligence, and secure cloud business solutions comprise the new corporate environment. This enables teams to collaborate more effectively than ever before and businesses to expand their reach into new areas throughout the world.

Enhanced Teamwork Through Collaborative Platforms #

Effective cooperation is critical to long-term success, as wise leaders have long recognized. The difficulty caused by the COVID-19 epidemic was the fast and widespread move to work from home. This is likely to have taken many individuals by surprise, as they are not accustomed to working from home. Apart from any physical pain that people may have working from home as a result of their dependency on the office environment and its conveniences, such a change can also result in mental confusion as a result of being unable to engage physically with coworkers. This has made a significant difference in terms of facilitating the formation of successful teams.

With technology making virtual engagement simpler than ever, it enables continuous communication between team members and lets them stay on the same page, preventing them from becoming disengaged and less accountable. Not only can online chat tools and virtual meeting platforms facilitate the transmission of critical information, but they can also foster camaraderie, which remote-based teams sometimes struggle to establish and maintain. We’ve seen a high level of participation among our employees in using virtual collaboration platforms such as Microsoft Teams, which has not only helped foster strong collaboration among colleagues and has also enabled seamless work with clients and other external stakeholders. Technology is not limited to modern computing and information technology solutions.

Additionally, it refers to social media and the emerging notion of social leadership. A leader today has the most extensive communication channels possible. They may use social media to influence their workers, encourage their sales teams, establish consumer loyalty, and connect with peers. Only in retrospect can a dramatic movement toward a new way of doing things be rightly described as a revolution. Technology’s penetration of our environment is a matter of progression.

21 st Century Perspective #

Technology advancements are enabling us to communicate more rapidly, cooperate more effectively, and be more productive in our daily lives. Individuals and corporations, meanwhile, continue to struggle to keep up with the rapid rate of change—and at times, actively fight it. Consider the case of artificial intelligence (AI). Employees may use machine learning to automate routine processes and swiftly mine and evaluate data in order to make better-educated decisions. However, many individuals continue to struggle to comprehend how AI will assist them and their teams. Human resources have a chance to advance the discourse and emphasize the potential advantages of AI and other disruptive technologies. CHROs and other human resource professionals may alleviate tensions by demonstrating how technology can benefit—not hurt—employees.

Cloud computing offers the potential to automate and standardize company operations, resulting in increased worker productivity. However, even the greatest instruments are incapable of repairing faulty processes. To enable individuals to accomplish their best work with technology, the processes that support work habits must serve employees without impeding them.

While CEOs may have the last say on whether tools are appropriate for certain teams and people, human resources play a critical role in these decisions. By analyzing and exploiting data, human resource directors may connect more capable workers with cutting-edge technologies and empower these individuals to establish standards and best practices for the use of technology in specific jobs and processes. Thus, users gain not just essential technological tools but also the skills necessary to use these technologies to enhance their daily job.

Today’s organizations face a number of challenges. Employees are expected to work more efficiently while still contributing to the business’s differentiation and growth. Disparate teams and systems, on the other hand, impede employees from gaining access to the tools, knowledge, and people needed to perform at their best and find these new prospects.

By moving HR and other critical activities to the cloud, firms can break down these walls and rethink and reinvent how they work and interact. This is where cloud-based reasoning comes into play. For instance, integrating human resources and finance enables team members in both domains to have a more thorough understanding of the organization. This single view of data enables teams to better plan for and prepare for new business trends and disruptions, as well as facilitates cross-departmental communication and cooperation. Organizations may begin to reap the growth and other benefits of the cloud with more agility and insight.

Conclusion

Technology has a big influence on leadership, and the positives are numerous. However, one thing that continues to be a difficulty for leaders worldwide is utilizing the appropriate technology at the appropriate time and in the appropriate manner. The goal should be to deploy technology for the appropriate activities and to minimize human effort. The deployment of technology should enhance rather than completely replace human interaction. It should result in enhanced decision-making and people management results.

Related reading

Customer service in the digital age. Do we still need human

Vin Patel — Mon, 04 Jul 2022 12:18:01 +0000

Key takeaways

Customer service has been of utmost importance for businesses for a long time, given how critical customers are to help a company reap successful long-term results and distinguish its brand from the competition.
Building customer relationships ensures increased employee morale, reduced customer attrition, excellent sales, and high turnover.
It is more than likely that customer service in the digital age may be characterized by a mixture of efficient bots and human staff, harnessing the best of both and helping businesses retain as many consumers as possible.

Customer service has been of utmost importance for businesses for a long time, given how critical customers are to help a company reap successful long-term results and distinguish its brand from the competition. What commenced in the form of written communication and telephone conversations to face-to-face interaction has today transformed into a full-fledged, value-driven service portfolio for customers.

Conventional strategies are no longer sufficient to address the changing needs of today’s market. With changing customer behavior, the stakes are significantly higher, and businesses need to work harder to provide increasingly beneficial yet cost-effective and, to a considerable extent, personalized services to customers.

In today’s world, driven by consistent digitalization, ensuring that customers are happy is more of a challenge than ever. With happier customers comes better trust in the brand and, consequently, more loyalty and advocacy. As per reliable reports, people may be four times more likely to buy a product referred by a known person. There’s an 18% increase in loyalty from a referred customer instead of the one obtained from a different method.

As of today, there are almost 4.4 billion active internet users worldwide, a number that will only serve to increase in the coming years. With a considerable percentage of the global population going online, businesses have access to a wide number of digital customers, paving the way for successful strategies to be coined – such as interacting with customers via live chat, virtually enhancing purchase experiences, and so on. Digitalization has revolutionized customer experience and can have a profound impact on customer behavior, in turn, impacting the brand value of a business.

Statistics About Companies Adopting Digitization #

Businesses had been adopting digitization way before the pandemic; however, it cannot be denied that the onset of COVID-19 acted as a tremendous trigger, pushing companies to rapidly scale up the deployment of digital strategies to accelerate their business. At present, digital transformation is at its peak and has led to the deployment of new business models implementing modern technologies such as machine learning, chatbots, data analytic, and blockchain. Companies across major end-use sectors have been rapidly integrating IT solutions in their ecosystem, generating new challenges and opening up numerous growth opportunities.

Back in 2021, IDC predicted that 30% of organizations would increase innovation and generate new models to digitize their companies. According to IDC, 60% of enterprise executives are of the opinion that IoT will have a major role to play in their companies’ digitalization.

Gartner had predicted that by 2023, close to 70% of organizations will use value stream management to enhance development and operations pipeline flow, leading to better, faster customer service. In addition, the highest growth of digital transformation was expected to be from devices (close to 14%) and enterprise software (approximately 10.8%), owing to companies providing innovative workplace solutions.

InformaTech predicts that AI software revenues may cross USD 100 billion globally by 2025. Close to 60% of companies may deploy artificial intelligence solutions to help employees in the near term, states Deloitte, while Forester says that digital transformation investments rose at over 3X the rate of overall IT expenditure.

With speedy internet becoming rather commonplace, more and more companies have been adopting digitization, investing heavily in business intelligence platforms to enhance customer experience. In 2021, Flexera claimed that around 37% of IT initiatives undertaken by companies globally focus on improving customer experience. The software company had also stated that 49% of companies across the globe prioritize cybersecurity when it comes to technology initiatives, while around 54% prioritize digital transformation.

According to a survey of 1,200 mid to large-scale US companies, the average digital transformation budget was pegged at USD 14 million in 2018, while digital transformation expenditure worldwide may cross USD 1.78 trillion in 2022. In addition, IDC claims that around 65% of global GDP may be digitalized by 2022.

With most industrial enterprises and startups having already adopted strong digital transformation strategies and a substantial percentage planning to adopt one soon enough, the digital ecosystem worldwide is set to proliferate at an appreciable rate. As customers form the nucleus of digitalization, businesses are expected to continue the adoption of digital solutions to enhance the customer experience in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

How Has Pandemic Affected Digitization and Its Adoption? #

The impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the adoption of digitization has been overwhelming. Many companies had strong security and IT mechanisms in place and had already been working to transition to a digital ecosystem. For these establishments, the onset of the pandemic made it easier to transition to a virtual working environment quickly. For many others, especially the ones with rigid legacy systems in place, an aging infrastructure, and bandwidth constraints, the pandemic was a brutal wake-up call to quickly digitalize their business models and create a new ecosystem in place for the future. This rang true in the case of government firms with severe capacity issues and the lack of a mobile-friendly presence. In effect, the pandemic forced several companies to accelerate the adoption of digital solutions, which included the deployment of virtualization and the cloud.

According to a report by Celerity, around 63% of industry leaders claimed that the pandemic prompted them to adopt digital transformation strategies sooner than they had planned. A similar report by IBM states that a mammoth 96% of leaders reported COVID-19 to fast-track their digital transformation plans by around 5.3 years.

One of the biggest changes sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic was observed in the payments industry. With social distancing becoming the norm due to nationwide lockdowns, the online payments sector depicted a meteoric rise, paving its way to becoming one of the fastest-growing markets worldwide. Having observed consumer interest in virtual payment models, several companies, even the ones with an originally conventional model, transformed their payment systems into consumer-friendly, digitalized versions.

In essence, the pandemic played a crucial role in speeding up the adoption of digital solutions, as contactless payment volumes witnessed an exceptional rise in demand across retail outlets, pharmacies, grocery stores, departmental stores, vegetable and fruit sellers, recharge vendors, and many others including prominent players across the and EdTech sector.

Given the dire situation of the healthcare ecosystem post the onset of the pandemic, the demand for telehealth and online consultations depicted an upsurge as well. Hospitals and medical establishments raced ahead to embrace digital transformation to monitor the increasing influx of patients. As per McKinsey, during 2020, the use of digital tools for health support by customers saw a rise of 15%, while it was predicted that around 37%of consumers might very well use telehealth in the future.

In addition, the research firm asserted that around post the pandemic, the use of telehealth increased from 11% to 76%. While it has had devastating effects overall, the pandemic has certainly helped push the implementation of digital tools across several industrial sectors.

Importance of Relationships with Consumers #

As the popular old adage goes, ‘The customer is always right’. Well, technically, this need not be true; however, it brings home an important point – customer satisfaction is highly critical for a business to be successful. At the end of the day, retaining consumers for your product/service is essential if you want the business to make money at all. Establishing strong, loyal relationships with customers, to that end, is one of the most vital strategies companies must adopt.

Building customer relationships ensures increased employee morale, reduced customer attrition, excellent sales, and high turnover. However, just establishing a liaison with the customer does not produce successful results – maintaining customer relationships is important. To that end, it is critical that companies increase focus on customer relationship management (CRM) as a vital tool. Customer acquisition is important, yes, but customer retention is more critical today.

Having good relationships with customers mandates consistent improvisation in company services. Customer behavior and expectations change periodically with changing trends and a transforming marketplace. Alongside, continual improvisation is vital so as understand changing consumer needs and fulfill them accordingly. A single negative experience or a seeming lack of concern can completely phase the customer out of the transaction ecosystem and negatively impact the company as well.

According to a survey conducted by PwC a year ago, 1 in 3 customers out of the 15,000 that were surveyed, chose to abandon a good brand after just one bad experience, while close to 92% may completely abandon the business after two negative experiences. In consequence, sour customer relationships can very well kill the brand sooner than one may realize.

A vital point that forms a part of good customer relationship management is paying attention to customer support. Customer feedback about a product/service, no matter how trivial, must be placed on a high pedestal. At the end of the day, customers want to feel heard, want to feel that they matter. A company that ensures appropriate customer satisfaction has more of a chance of retaining customers than a company that ignores customer feedback.

In today’s bustling work culture, paying attention to changing customer needs and behavior is more important than ever before. Businesses need to adopt suitable CRM software to understand customer requirements and how to fulfill the same effectively while maintaining brand awareness. As per estimates, using effective customer relationship management tools can help increase sales conversion rates by an astonishing 300%.

How Have Chatbots and Other Services Taken Over Customer Services? #

With an increasing number of brands trying to make their presence felt amid a cutthroat marketplace, the landscape of customer service has entirely changed in the last half a decade. Companies across myriad industry verticals are leveraging AI to ensure effective customer support. To that end, chatbots – virtual assistants, have made quite a reputation for themselves by handling multiple customer service pain points at the same time. For instance, chatbots are used today to resolve customer queries without human intervention, help customers 24/7, and handle multiple customers at once.

These AI-powered bots are suitably developed to use existing information and resources to help resolve customer questions. They are designed to recognize and answer query variations and can also be trained to provide instant responses in various voices and tones.

Because of their 24X7 availability, chatbots have quickly become a popular channel for customer inquiries. Users can promptly engage with chatbots in a live session and get all their questions resolved without having to meet an actual customer service executive face to face. This also enables customers to get their queries quickly resolved on demand, reducing the load on companies’ service teams. In effect, chatbots can take over simple question responses that usually take up 70%-80% of customer service representatives’ day. This time can be efficiently spent on resolving a more detailed customer query, leading to proactive customer support.

A vital reason why chatbots are taking over customer support is the financial strain. By installing a chatbot just once, businesses are able to save tons of money by not having to hire numerous customer service personnel. This comes as a cost-effective solution for understaffed teams in companies.

The increasing proliferation of digitization indicates that the humanizing technology trend is well on its way to becoming mainstream. Take Alex, for example, the virtual assistant that has probably had more conversations with customers than they may have had with actual people. To that end, companies are finding a way to revolutionize customer service by adopting digital solutions and making them as personable and empathetic as possible.

Chatbots are thus being carefully programmed to understand the customer’s pain points and voice changes and then resolve queries accordingly, in a deeply sympathetic voice that resonates with the brand in question. Chatbots are reshaping the entire dynamics of customer services by discarding redundant traditional messaging platforms and being available round the clock to transform even first-time visitors into permanent customers.

Are Human Interactions Still Needed? #

Contrary to popular consensus, digitized tools and virtual assistants may not exactly phase-out actual customer service entirely; human interactions may still be the need of the hour. In the aftermath of the pandemic, numerous companies turned to computerized customer service platforms and chatbots; however, it has been observed that many users are getting increasingly annoyed at having to communicate with a mechanized voice.

As per a survey comprising 2,000 consumers by outsourcing company CGS, almost 40% of British survey respondents claimed that speaking with a human customer service representative was preferable to having to converse with a virtual assistant. The same viewpoint was shared by United States survey respondents, 38% of which wanted companies to bring back human customer service.

Despite convenient online access and reliability, close to 83% of consumers claim that they prefer human interaction as opposed to digital assistants, according to the Global Consumer Pulse Research study from Accenture Strategy. This is because no matter how efficient and knowledgeable a virtual assistant is, it cannot match the convenience and understanding provided by a human customer service representative. Many are of the opinion that bots may have ready-made answers for standardized questions, but they will never be able to fully understand what the customer wants or solve the query the way the customer asks.

The biggest reason, however, for the retention of human customer service is the fact that users still want to feel needed, understood, and valued. Personalization is important, and so is active listening and empathetic communication that will help a company understand their customers well. Human interactions not only resolve the query in hand, but also help establish a long-term, personal relationship with users, thereby helping to increase customer satisfaction by up to 20% or more. It is more than likely that customer service in the digital age may be characterized by a mixture of efficient bots and human staff, harnessing the best of both and helping businesses retain as many consumers as possible.

Related reading

Questions and answers

How Has Pandemic Affected Digitization and Its Adoption? #

How Have Chatbots and Other Services Taken Over Customer Services? #

With an increasing number of brands trying to make their presence felt amid a cutthroat marketplace, the landscape of customer service has entirely changed in the last half a decade.

Are Human Interactions Still Needed? #

Contrary to popular consensus, digitized tools and virtual assistants may not exactly phase-out actual customer service entirely; human interactions may still be the need of the hour.

Edge Computing - The Key To IoT Success

Vin Patel — Mon, 04 Jul 2022 11:06:50 +0000

Key takeaways

Edge computing systems are accelerating the invention or assistance of real-time applications.
Further sensor data, image technologies, and the need to correlate all of this results in terabytes and megabytes of data being generated each second.
As these technologies are embraced by many sectors in the IoT ecosystem, there is still a lot to discover about them.

#

The manner in which organizations manage data, interpret it, and distribute it via millions of devices across the world is changing, owing to edge computing. The primary reason behind this widespread advancement in the field of edge computing is IoT or the Internet of Things. Edge-computing systems are being driven by the increasing proliferation of internet-connected gadgets (the IoT), as well as new software that demands real-time computing services.

Edge computing systems are accelerating the invention or assistance of real-time applications. These are video and graphics processing, analytic, self-driving cars, cognitive computing, artificial intelligence, and robotics, to name a few.

IoT - The First Wave of Edge Computing #

Edge computing has recently gained a lot of attention as a source of potential. Bold concepts like “the edge will devour the cloud” and “real-time automation will extend throughout healthcare, commerce, and manufacturing” are circulating in the business.

Experts agree that edge computing will serve a critical role in just about every company’s digital transformation. However, development has been sluggish. Organizations have been hesitant to fully utilize the edge for real-time decision-making and resource utilization due to outdated perceptions.

The concept of the edge has been closely identified with the initial wave of the Internet of Things in various sectors. Much of the focus at the time was on gathering data from little sensors mounted to everything and then transmitting that data to a central point, such as the cloud or major data center.

After then, the data flow had to be linked into what is known as sensor-fusion. Sensor economies, battery life, and pervasiveness at the time frequently resulted in data streams that were too narrow and had inadequate quality. Furthermore, upgrading old equipment with sensors was sometimes prohibitively expensive. While the sensors themselves were affordable, the installation took time and needed the use of qualified individuals.

Finally, the knowledge base of the workforce across enterprises was integrated with the skills required to interpret data utilizing sensor fusion. As a result, IoT adoption has slowed.

How Can Edge Computing Benefit Internet of Things? #

Processing power closer to the physical device or data source helps to improve the Internet of Things. The data which the IoT devices create must be examined at the edge, rather than travelling back to a central site, in order for it to respond faster or reduce issues.

For the data and computational demands of IoT devices, edge computing provides a local source of processing and storage. Here are some of the advantages that we derive from combining IoT with an edge:

Reduced Latency #

In cases where latency is an issue, edge computing can help. Since it does not travel over a network to the cloud or data center for processing, it minimizes latency. The time it takes to process and analyze data is referred to as latency. A connected device’s reaction time to the internet is less than a second. The answer may be delayed or halted in numerous scenarios.

It occurs when there is a problem with the internet connection or when the data center is located far away from the device. In such instances, the data processing speed is slowed. In order to compensate for the delay of data transmission across long distances, computational resources should be local.

Bandwidth

Cloud computing is used by businesses to handle and analyze large volumes of data. For the purpose of transferring data to the cloud, large quantities of electricity and bandwidth are required in the case of IoT. To gather and analyze data, IoT devices that create data and run software need to be linked to the cloud. Businesses may use edge computing to reduce their internet bandwidth use. Large volumes of data may be managed in close proximity to the source.

Another issue that companies had to deal with was the cost of operation. IoT devices create massive amounts of data and deliver minor updates to the cloud that aren’t essential. Because this procedure needs more bandwidth, the cost of bandwidth rises. The cost of the gadget to get to that bandwidth and the price of storage and analysis rises. This data may be collected and analyzed locally before being sent to the cloud via edge computing. It will be far less expensive than transmitting unfiltered data across expensive WAN networks.

Underlying Security Issues in IoT #

Organizations are committed to protecting the privacy of their essential data, regardless of the fact that the cloud provides great protection for their IoT applications. They fear that the data will be insecure once it reaches the cloud and departs their company’s premises. Edge computing can overcome this very obstacle by introducing additional security at the edge. This will increase the security of data storage and operations against hackers and assaults. Security can be adjusted on edge devices, for example, any outage will be limited to that particular device and its applications.

Taking IoT 1.0 to the Next Level #

The edge is present in every aspect of our lives: where we reside, operate, and where human activities take place. Improved and far more flexible sensors have overcome the problem of sparse sensor coverage. New assets and technologies come with a variety of built-in sensors. Sensors are now frequently supplemented with high-resolution/high-fidelity images (x-ray equipment, liar).

Further sensor data, image technologies, and the need to correlate all of this results in terabytes and megabytes of data being generated each second. Compute firepower is increasingly being installed near where the data is created to drive outcomes from these massive data flows.

The explanation is quite simple: between the edge site and the cloud, there is just insufficient bandwidth and time. In the short term, the data at the edge is most important. Data may now be evaluated and used in real-time at the edge rather than being processed and analyzed later in the cloud. Computing at the edge is required to achieve the next level of efficiency and operational excellence.

Proper understanding of massive data streams across a large number of geographically scattered sites is what the edge is all about. To properly comprehend what is now possible with edge computing, one must embrace this new perspective of the edge.

The Present Scenario of Edge Computing #

Instead of a few sensors at the edge, data may now be generated from a large number of sensors and cameras. Following this, the data is then evaluated at the edge using computers that are thousands of times more powerful than those used only two decades ago — all at affordable prices.

Real-time edge analytic is now a reality because of the availability of high-core-count CPUs and GPUs, as well as high-throughput networking and high-resolution cameras. Companies may better understand their processes and respond faster by deploying real-time analytic at the edge (where business action occurs). Some basic benefits of edge computing for IoT are:

Increased operational efficiency and faster reaction times.
Network bandwidth has been increased.
When a network connection is lost, the system continues to operate offline.
Analytic algorithms and machine learning provide local data processing, aggregation, and quick decision-making.
An IoT gateway can send data back to the cloud or a centralized data center from the edge, or it can deliver data to edge equipment to be processed locally.

By 2023, more than half of the new company IT infrastructure deployed will be at the edge rather than business data centers, rising from less than 10% now. By 2024, the number of applications installed at the edge will have increased 800%.

Anti-fraud Measures in Supermarkets #

Self-checkout is now widely used in supermarkets, and sadly, it has resulted in an upsurge in fraud. A shady shopper might exchange a lower-priced bar code for higher-priced goods, resulting in a lesser charge. Stores are increasingly deploying high-powered cameras to identify this form of fraud by comparing scanned products and weights to what they should be. Despite the fact that these cameras are very affordable, they create a large amount of data. Data may be evaluated in real-time by bringing computers to the edge. This implies that instead of waiting until the “buyer” has exited the parking lot, shops may identify fraud in real-time.

Food Production Monitoring System Using IoT #

At each stage of the manufacturing process, a manufacturing plant may now be outfitted with a slew of cameras and sensors. Real-time analysis and AI-driven inference can indicate if something is incorrect or if the process is straying in milliseconds, if not microseconds. Perhaps a camera indicates that too much sugar is being added or that an item is being covered with too many garnishes. Production lines may be modified to halt the drift or even stopped if repairs are needed, utilizing cameras and real-time analysis — all without generating disastrous wastage.

Edge AI in the Healthcare Industry #

The current healthcare business is being shaped by edge computing. As previously stated, there are several advantages to using Edge AI. It may be extremely important for both patients and healthcare practitioners in the healthcare business. It provides autonomous monitoring of hospital rooms and patients using computer vision and data from other sensors.

Consider the case of an accident due to fall detection. Several wearable now have the capacity to detect whether a person falls unexpectedly by utilizing particular technology. These gadgets’ edge AI can be trained to detect falls in real-time and even notify caretakers. In most circumstances, this can save a person’s life.

Role of Edge Computing in Autonomous Vehicles #

Autonomous cars are now conceivable because of affordable and widely accessible cameras that provide 360-degree stereoscopic vision. Analytic also enables accurate picture identification, allowing the computer to distinguish between a tumbleweed and the neighbor’s cat – and determine whether it’s safe to stop or steer past the obstruction. The real-time pattern recognition and vector planning that is the driving intellect of autonomous cars is enabled by the cost, availability, and compactness of the high-powered GPUs and CPUs.

The Future of Edge Computing in IoT #

IoT, or the Internet of Things, is driving the demand for Edge Computing due to very useful applications. Edge computing helps to bring the cloud closer to the edge of the network. Edge Computing is not a replacement for the cloud; rather, the two work together in a symbiotic way. Despite the fact that several companies are creating tools to manage this new infrastructure, there is still no standardization. Edge Computing will undoubtedly continue to expand and become increasingly common. As these technologies are embraced by many sectors in the IoT ecosystem, there is still a lot to discover about them.

Related reading

Best Practices for Securing Data and Infrastructure

Vin Patel — Mon, 10 Jan 2022 19:41:03 +0000

Key takeaways

What is now commonly called APIs or Application Programming Interfacesbrings together a set of inter-application communication methods ranging from web services (REST or SOAP) to local or remote inter-process (RPC) calls.
Use strong authentication and authorization: The authentication process of APIs does not enforce authentication (as is often the case with private APIs, exclusively for internal use).
Regardless of how many APIs have been shared publicly, an organization should never lose sight of putting strong security policies upfront and managing them proactively over time.

What is now commonly called APIs or Application Programming Interfacesbrings together a set of inter-application communication methods ranging from web services (REST or SOAP) to local or remote inter-process (RPC) calls. Although APIs have spread like wildfire in recent years and represent a predominant and essential communication mechanism for all companies launched in their digital transformation.

They are now met in an ever-increasing number of important use cases: public, personal or sensitive data, applications, mobiles, exchanges between partners, IoT, so-called “client-side” applications, etc.

The concept is not new. From the introduction and definition of the idea of architecture REST, in 2000, the first APIs were born. First, the pioneers were eBay in particular or Flick, then Facebook and Twitter have made it the heart of their product on which third-party developers could come and build their services. And from the birth of this concept raised the question of securing access to this new type of web service.

Experience shows that securing APIs is a recipe based on four ingredients that must be carefully dosed. Several security measures and good development practices are available to developers and operations teams to cover the traditionally targeted risk areas by an attacker:

The attack surface expands with APIs becoming a fundamental part of modern application development. Gartner estimates that by 2022, fraudulent use of APIs will be “the most common attack vector and lead to data breaches in corporate web applications.”

The downside of public web APIs is that they come with risks. By design, they allow outsiders to access data. Behind each API hides an endpoint, namely the server (and its databases), which response to requests.

Endpoints are similar to web servers connected to the Internet and carry the same risks. The difference is that many websites generally employ some form of access control, much less so with APIs.

In the worst-case scenario, it’s not just the data that is at risk, but the infrastructure as well. Vulnerable APIs are the ideal starting point for various network hijacking attacks. A practical (most often mufti-level) attack can potentially compromise sensitive data, whether it is personal identifying information or intellectual property.

Best Practices For Ensuring API Security #

In addition to the risk mitigation measures described above, adopting some basic security practices, and enforcing well-established security controls, are critical if organizations plan to share their APIs publicly. The following principles must be emphasized in particular:

Safety: API security is a priority to integrate into APIs during their development.

Maintain API inventory: The company must conduct perimeter analyses to identify and inventory its APIs and then organize them with DevOps teams.

Use strong authentication and authorization: The authentication process of APIs does not enforce authentication (as is often the case with private APIs, exclusively for internal use).

Knowing that APIs provide a point of entry to corporate databases, the enterprise must strictly control its access. Where possible, solutions based on robust and proven authentication and authorization mechanisms such as OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect should be used.

Apply the principle of least privilege: A subject (user, process, program, system, device) should not be granted access rights more significant than those necessary to perform a given function.

Encrypt traffic using TLS: For companies with APIs that regularly exchange sensitive data (login credentials, social security numbers, credit card information, medical or banking information, etc.), TLS encryption is essential.

Delete information that is not intended to be shared: APIs are primarily designed for developers. This is why they often contain keys, passwords, and other information that must be removed before being made available to the public. However, this step is sometimes neglected. Companies should integrate analytical tools into their DevSecOps processes to limit accidental exposure of confidential information.

Do not expose more data than necessary: APIs should not return more information than required to perform their function. It is also essential to apply API-level data access controls, monitor the data, and obfuscate confidential information contained in the response.

Validate the input data: Input data should never be passed from APIs to endpoints without prior validation.

Limit traffic: Setting a threshold beyond which requests will be rejected (for instance, 10K requests per day per account) can prevent denial of service attacks.

APIs were quickly established as the preferred method of building applications, mobile devices, and the Internet of Things (IoT). However, in the face of continuously evolving, changing application development methods and pressures for innovation, some users have not fully utilized the potential risks of making their APIs publicly available.

The best aspect is that most of them have measures to combat caber-attacks; For instance, Cross-Site Scripting, Injection, and Distributed Denial of Service. Start from the top of the list and work your way down in doubt. Regardless of how many APIs have been shared publicly, an organization should never lose sight of putting strong security policies upfront and managing them proactively over time.

Related reading

How Data Integrity and AI Work Together To Empower Trusted

Vin Patel — Mon, 03 Jan 2022 23:30:00 +0000

Key takeaways

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are unquestionably becoming more relevant to businesses looking to gain a competitive advantage via digital transformation.
Data visibility and observability are made possible by this form of automation.
Companies that wish to promote digital transformation and outperform competition must manage data integrity successfully.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are unquestionably becoming more relevant to businesses looking to gain a competitive advantage via digital transformation. More than 75% of enterprises value AI and machine learning over other IT investments, and they’re employing data scientists in large numbers to help them succeed. However, most of these projects are compartmentalized within discrete business functions rather than tackling digital transformation across the company.

Traditional analytic cannot handle the magnitude and complexity of data that enterprises now have access to. We need new methods to analyze this deluge of data, and AI and machine learning can help us do just that. To educate ML models, we also require incredibly rich and complete data sets, which we now have thanks to the exponential rise of data. As of 2020, IDC expects 64.2 zettabytes of data were generated or replicated, with 10.6% of labelled data being relevant for analysis or input into AI/ML.

Nonetheless, before AI/ML can be used to transform an organization, organizations must first resolve the data integrity problems that are used to drive AI/ML results.

Challenges in Data Integration and Quality #

Let’s start with how a company saves its information. Customer and employee data, for example, are typically stored in difficult-to-access data stores. A conventional IT infrastructure for a company includes a range of enterprise applications and databases, several data centers, and fresh data generated in the cloud. These variables contribute to data silos, which are challenges to guaranteeing data consistency and accuracy. Many businesses are hampered by data silos, which restrict them from gaining quick and effective business insights from relevant data.

Even though business leaders use high-quality data to make choices, a survey found that more than 45 percent of freshly created data records contained at least one serious inaccuracy. Data bias and terrible business judgments are caused by incomplete, duplicate, and inaccurate data coming into machine-learning pipelines and analytic. Data can also be prone to inaccuracies, especially when it comes from a variety of sources and providers. Standardizing, verifying, and validating data before AI/ML can use it is typically a time-consuming, human process. Therefore, data scientists still spend most of their time preparing data rather than fine-tuning models or visualizing it.

As we discuss the necessity of data quality for AI, it’s also vital to discuss AI for data quality. The use of automation in data pipelines can improve the date’s correctness and consistency. Using AI/ML to identify data changes, alert data drift, and establish quality criteria, for example, can assist enhance data quality, automating data pipelines, and minimizing manual workload. Data visibility and observability are made possible by this form of automation.

Data governance is also crucial to address in the context of data quality. Trust in data stems from the capacity to demonstrate with absolute certainty how the data was prepared, track the lineage of data back to its raw source, and give rights management and auditing capabilities.

Enriching Data with Context and Meaning #

Data management has always worked on making data precise and consistent, but this isn’t enough to make data relevant. I’ve noticed that firms in various industries fail to take advantage of third-party data to provide essential context to their internal data. Before you can truly trust the market intelligence you gain from that data, you must evaluate it in context? not just who and what, but also where, when, and why.

Location is an essential category of third-party data. Insurance businesses, for example, use geography to underwrite policies, analyze and forecast risk involved with catastrophic events like hurricanes and wildfires, and set pricing strategies. Financial services firms use location data to confirm and accurately attribute transactions to a specific store or merchant and better understand subsidiaries and parent corporations. Telecommunications companies are preparing 5G rollouts based on location data, AI/ML, and analytic to provide a new location and context-aware services to millions of endpoints. Points of interest and mobility data are also included in data enrichment, allowing for the analysis of traffic movements into and around a location.

Demographics is another critical source of third-party data since they aid in client segmentation, tailored outreach, and the development of new services and products. By offering a more comprehensive view of clients, demographic data can also assist firms in reducing data bias. Retailers mix location with demographics and consumer insights to help comprehend their clients, give greater personalized experiences, and determine their purchasing proclivity and generate fresh product recommendations.

While it is true that enriching data using third-party enrichment data set benefits AI/ML models, it is also true that AI and ML are becoming increasingly vital for their development. The use of AI and machine learning speeds up and scales up the process of creating data sets as well as proposing which data sets to utilize for enrichment.

Obtaining Data Integrity To Get Confidence In Business Decisions #

These steps, taken collectively, make up data integrity: data integration, quality of data and governance, data enrichment, and location intelligence. Insufficient data has a massive negative influence on AI and machine learning. For business insights obtained from AI/ML to be trusted, data must be delivered with optimal accuracy, context, and consistency. It is impossible to rely on data and the data-driven business insights based on it without data integrity.

Final Words #

CEOs and business leaders are rightfully concerned about the data integrity to make decisions. Data integrity is essential for trusting the results of sophisticated analytic and the business decisions that follow. Companies that wish to promote digital transformation and outperform competition must manage data integrity successfully.

Related reading

How Will Edge Computing Enhance Digital Transformation

Vin Patel — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 20:30:00 +0000

Key takeaways

The explosive growth of the Internet of Things (IoT), 5G networking, and smart technology has brought about a considerable digital transformation across the globe.
However, this is not the kind of expansion that will pressurize the bandwidth of the central network.
IDC estimates that the edge computing market, by 2023, is likely to be valued at USD 34 billion.

The explosive growth of the Internet of Things (IoT), 5G networking, and smart technology has brought about a considerable digital transformation across the globe. This has in turn, generated an accelerating demand for data storage and distribution, given the unprecedented data volumes. While sophisticated network and infrastructure are being simultaneously developed, the increase in the number of connected devices has led to data complexity.

In consequence, this has resulted in the demand for an innovation that not only helps resolve the data storage issue to some extent but also overcomes the bandwidth and latency issues that crop up while storing data in the cloud or decentralized data centers. Here’s where edge computing enters? it offers a more viable, efficient alternative as compared to the two aforementioned options.

What is Edge Computing? #

A distributed computing framework bringing data proximity at source, edge computing is one of the latest, ingenious innovations of today. In an age where data volumes continue to expand and the requirement of IoT devices continues to increase, edge computing helps to bring computing as close as possible, to the data source. This consequently reduces latency and the usage of bandwidth. Edge computing also helps reduce the number of processes running to in the cloud and shifting them to local servers, thereby decreasing the proportion of long-distance communication between a client and server.

Literally speaking, ’edge? refers to the geographic location on the planet to where services are to be delivered in a distributed manner. So, as opposed to locating the data at a centralized place, edge computing helps to distribute the data computing process. In technicality, cloud computing is a faster process, however, as far as computing methodologies go, edge computing takes the cake. As mentioned earlier, it basically aims to move data computation away from the data centers and closer to the edge of the network, thereby enhancing network technology.

Statistics claim that at least 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are produced every day. With this amount, computation becomes rather difficult even for data centers. There is an increase in response time as well, in addition to diminishing bandwidth limit. With edge computing though, it is possible to have better data storage, efficient delivery of service, and an overall, enhanced digital transformation.

The Involvement of Companies in Edge Computing #

Given its advantages, edge computing is being used by a score of companies in daily operations, spanning industries such as healthcare, BFSI, IT, retail, energy, etc. Enlisted below are a few examples of companies adopting edge computing for faster responses and better service delivery:

? Supply chain service provider Savage recently announced that it has selected AI and edge computing leader Netradyne to use its Driver? devices in over 1000 vehicles. Driver for the record is an advanced fleet safety camera platform that leverages AI and vision-based edge computing to reward positive driving behavior.

? Lenovo ISG (Infrastructure Solutions Group) and VMware recently announced that the former will be the first to sell the latter’s software solution for the edge that runs on the ThinkSystem SE350 Edge Servers. The VMware software solution will be pre-loaded on security-enabled ThinkSystem SE350 along with the new solution that will be directly delivered to the customer edge sites.

? Microsoft and Verizon extended their major edge partnership recently. The extension aims to bring Verizon’s 5G Edge to the Microsoft Azure Stack Edge. The combination will apparently deliver higher security levels, higher bandwidth, and increased efficiency.

? IBM and Colt Technology Services have announced plans to collaborate on edge technology solutions by helping customers adopt edge computing strategies for moving data from private data centers to the hybrid cloud framework.

? Vuzix Corporation declared recently that Verizon’s BlueJeans will be using Verizon’s 5G network and deploying Mobile Edge Computing to come up with an industry-first approach that’ll help enhance service quality, reliability, and delivery and expand the performance of BlueJeans which is running on Vuzix Smart Glasses.

Benefits of Edge Computing #

Speed & Latency #

Quite naturally, speed comes to be one of the most distinguished advantages of edge computing. The technique allows data processing on the network edge or at a local data center, reducing latency. This enables quicker data computing, something that is vital for industries such as healthcare, defense, and BFSI.

Financial institutions, for example, use trading algorithms and the like that require fast computing. Even a fraction of delay here can prove to be disastrous. Or, consider the example of an autonomous vehicle, where data collected every second (or in multiples of seconds, more likely) matters, especially on the roadway. With edge computing, data can remain on the central server instead of traveling back and forth between the cloud.

Cost savings #

Data comes in varied forms and holds different values; on that account, the capital spent on storing, securing, and managing all kinds of data may prove to be exorbitant. This is because, some data may be highly crucial and valued, while some may be dispensable. Edge computing eliminates this issue by enabling users to categorize data from a management perspective. With this technique, one need not spend thousands of dollars on bandwidth to connect all locations; vital data can be retained within edge locations. Edge computing helps reduce data redundancy, thereby enabling cost savings for organizations.

Security

Given that cloud infrastructure is centralized, it proves to be quite vulnerable to caber-attacks and other cloud security threats that can disrupt the entire operations in major organizations. Edge computing on the other hand spreads data storage across many devices and networks, thereby minimizing the impact of any attacks on the whole network.

Mobile computing has made data security even more complicated, as organizations are now more vulnerable to attacks given that enterprise data gets outside the firewall boundary. This increases the significance of edge computing, as it enables local data to remain protected within the on-premise security framework.

Reliability

Edge computing considerably reduces the reliability of an individual system on the central network. Devices on the edge of a network locally store and process data, thereby improving reliability. It also ensures the use of prefabricated micro data centers that help eliminate problems arising due to poor connectivity. In case of a power outage, IoT devices can automatically handle most operations themselves.

Scalability

Edge computing helps enhance scalability, as a combination of devices and local data centers can help facilitate consistent performance. However, this is not the kind of expansion that will pressurize the bandwidth of the central network. This is because you can coloration services for expanding edge networks without investing a lot of capital. One can also buy IoT devices for expanding the edge network.

How It Is Essential for Digital Transformation #

The advent of digital technology has changed the dynamics of most businesses as of today. Digital transformation has come to play a crucial role in modifying business processes and customer experiences. The replacement of conventional business models with digital technologies can be credited to edge computing, to some extent. It perfectly complements important digital transformation strategies as it helps to store and manage important data required in digital use-cases. What’s more, with edge computing, manufacturers can effectively implement new digital technologies to prepare for unplanned downtime, plan maintenance, combat potential outages, and ensure via critical monitoring that machines are operating at optimum efficiency.

Implementing digital transformation involves extensive data analysis so that enterprises are able to deliver quick value to customers. As the amount of data continues to grow and more people need to connect, edge computing becomes more critical. Organizations are also combining machine learning and AI tools with large data sets, which makes it mandatory to use an edge computing approach to enhance business outcomes.

BFSI organizations have been widely adopting edge computing for digital transformation so as to bring about new consumer experiences through bots and voice-enabled assistants. Keeping devices on the network edge helps increase the consistency of services provided to users, as these services will be able to leverage wearable, connected devices, and more.

Digital transformation has found massive adoption in the retail sector. In consequence, retailers have been deploying edge computing systems in warehouses and stores. The need to have devices on the edge becomes a mandate, given the rising usage of IoT-enabled devices in e-commerce, including digital signage, point-of-sale systems, and more.

The FMCG sector also uses edge computing for digital transformation. Having devices on network edges considerably aids the adoption of digital technologies in consumer goods companies, supply chain visibility, and logistics. Using edge computing, FMCG firms can obtain visibility in operations in real-time. Edge networks also help in local data aggregation and data summarization that reduces costs on data storage and transfer.

Digital transformation has profoundly revolutionized the field of healthcare. With edge computing in the mix, it is easier for healthcare organizations to manage data locally as opposed to a centralized storage location. With devices on the edge, physicians will be able to gain instant access to vital medical data thereby enabling quicker diagnosis and spontaneous treatment.

Another profound instance proving the importance of edge computing in digital transformation is Kubernetes. Undeniably, Kubernetes is one of the best tools there is, that brings about digital transformation in enterprises worldwide. It has helped transform the way software is developed at scale. Consequently, it will continue to be deployed by organizations globally and will require edge computing to deliver optimized services to users across the healthcare, transportation, and retail sectors.

A major end-use depicting the significance of edge computing in digital transformation is remote working. It has become even more paramount in the last year since the COVID-19 pandemic took shape. The outbreak has placed a heavy burden on network infrastructure worldwide, however, with the implementation of edge computing, there has been a considerable change in the landscape. Companies have been able to use sensors and other tools to generate monitoring dashboards for real-time visibility. Automation firms have been able to consolidate resources in a centralized location and deploy edge resources to keep machines running smoothly.

Future Trends and Scope #

The edge is already here. The concept is being used in most organizations to simplify data storage and management and provide better customer service. according to Gartner, over 50% of enterprise data is likely to be processed outside the cloud infrastructure by 2022, and possibly around 75% by 2025.

Data volumes are expected to depict an exponential growth in the years ahead. Judging by the amount of video data generated, for example, the number of edge devices is expected to cross billions soon enough. The rising number of IoT devices such as sensors is likely to increase the requirement of edge computing. The implementation of 5G-enabled IoT use cases will also need considerably more network bandwidth and computing power.

In essence, the proliferating trends of IoT, along with the need to combine cloud and edge networks will push the edge computing industry in the years ahead. IDC estimates that the edge computing market, by 2023, is likely to be valued at USD 34 billion.

Related reading

Questions and answers

What is Edge Computing? #

A distributed computing framework bringing data proximity at source, edge computing is one of the latest, ingenious innovations of today.

How It Is Essential for Digital Transformation? #

An Overview of How API Architectures have Evolved

Vin Patel — Fri, 03 Dec 2021 16:00:00 +0000

Key takeaways

The penetration of the Internet in addition to the developments in the field of information technology has brought about a major revolution in the way we interact with web-based applications.
Unfortunately, the increase in the usage of non-standard procedure names in all existing RPC APIs leads to overburdening developers.
This kind of architecture enables better code reuse of the entire API framework.

API (Application Program Interface)? one of the most vital technologies that enable smooth communication between computer applications, has come into its own since the last couple of decades. The penetration of the Internet in addition to the developments in the field of information technology has brought about a major revolution in the way we interact with web-based applications. Over time, as businesses continue to increase their online presence, the necessity for data-driven software becomes even more prominent. Here’s where API plays a significant role.

What is an API? #

An efficient software-to-software interface that helps web applications exchange data among themselves, an API has proved to be one of the best ways to lower operational costs by simplifying software development. They work on the premise of request-response? an API has a defined set of rules explaining the way applications communicate with each other. It is basically an intermediary interface between the web server and an application that helps in processing data transfer between systems.

In layman parlance, here’s how it works:

Original diagram for Techfastly by Vin Patel.

Booking an air ticket through a travel agency is one of the best examples demonstrating the working of an API.

What is API Architecture? #

An API architecture or format is one through which APIs are able to function. It is a set of structures, rules, and restraints governing API operations.

Years earlier, businesses deployed service-oriented architectures (SOA) to connect internal systems; however, SOAs were not the most effective way beyond the enterprise level. To that end, special API-based architectures were designed for quicker development and reduced governance.

Today, with an increasing number of mobile applications and a massive digital transformation, the need for a set of protocols that can be modified as per requirement and deliver instant services to customers has substantially increased.

There are 4 major types of API architectures that are fairly well-known — SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol), REST (Representational State Transfer), RPC (Remote Procedural Call), and GraphQL. A fifth one, gRPC is currently doing the rounds and is touted to be a part of most future API scenarios.

A Look into the History of API Architecture, and its Evolution over the Years #

Before the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) was developed, in the 1970s, software applications were more like a collection of subroutines performing specific tasks. APIs did exist even then, only, in the form of simple protocols supporting distributed computing networks spanning a small area. APIs evolved since the advent of the World Wide Web and continue to dominate the Internet today.

Tracing the history of web-based APIs, the first one in this regard could be Salesforce’s web-based sales automation tool launched in the late 1990s? this application, in fact, is said to have kickstarted the SaaS (Software as a Service) revolution. With the absence of a proper framework in place, businesses adopted service-oriented architectures (SOA), as mentioned before. Conventional SOA however, was restricted to an organizational level. The need for efficient protocols continued to grow and the first major effort in this area manifested in the form of CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture) launched in 1991.

CORBA basically separated codes running on two different machines (client and server) and focused on making remote process calls from the client to the server by means of a code-connecting proxy. The client then waited for a response and ran his code to translate the same. Although this worked for a while, the need for updates quickly became apparent, which further led to the advent of SOAP.

SOAP was invented in 1998, enabling clients to invoke web services and obtain responses on different platforms and languages. REST followed soon after, in 2000, after which businesses welcomed GraphQL in 2015. Presently, organizations use REST and GraphQL as per API requirements, while efforts are being taken simultaneously to come up with even more efficient API architectures.

RPC is more like an age-old client-server model from the 1960s and is still a commonly used architecture, although it’s considerably older and has undergone several changes over the years.

The paragraphs below elaborate on some of these architectures in detail.

Types of API Architectures #

#1 REST (Representational State Transfer) #

One of the most popular API architectures there is, REST relies on an efficient client-server model separating front-end and back-end API. As the name suggests, it means ‘stateless?, i.e., no information is stored between requests. REST APIs, also called RESTful APIs, have the ability to operate via intermediate systems such as load balancers, but they can also directly communicate with a server.

REST API architecture requires that no client context be stored on the server in between requests. Clients can cache responses with REST, however, a REST API response must state if it can be cached or not. Developers use standard HTTP protocols such as PUT, GET, POST, and DELETE, to query resources represented by URIs.

#2 RPC (Remote Procedural Call) #

There are 2 types to be considered here? the XML-RPC and the JSON-RPC. The former uses XML for the call encoding process, while the latter uses JSON. These protocols are designed to call methods and are more about actual actions rather than resources. RPCs demand that developers execute specific blocks of code on another system.

An important pointer to remember about RPC is that it is protocol-agnostic, that is to say, it can be executed in tandem with other protocols as well. Unfortunately, the increase in the usage of non-standard procedure names in all existing RPC APIs leads to overburdening developers.

Although a well-used model, RPC APIs are limited as far as security and capabilities are concerned, which is why their usage is not as much as REST or SOAP. They are mostly used for basic process requests in internal systems.

#3 SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) #

SOAP has been used to build APIs for a very long time, and it usually does so with XML. This architecture lends support to an array of communication protocols such as TCP, HTTP, and SMTP. This protocol is independent and enables developers to write APIs in different ways, with added features and functionality. The SOAP specification includes an extensibility model, message construct, processing model, and protocols binding rules.

The SOAP approach helps define the construction of SOAP messages and layout the way a SOAP message is processed. It is a clearly defined standard, very structured, and tightly controlled. Since it clearly defines what must be included in messages and how they should be sent, SOAP APIs are more secure. That is why they are more often than not, implemented for internal data transfers with high security.

#4 GraphQL API Style #

One of the more recent finds in the API architecture, GraphQL is gaining more and more precedence as opposed to the other protocols. GraphQL helps clients describe their data requirements in a JSON format. Not to mention, it is designed in such a way that it can work with any kind of database.

In essence, the goal of GraphQL is to provide control over data to the API consumer. Not only does this enable them to describe their data requirements perfectly, it also optimizes the overall experience, resolving queries from the customer standpoint. GraphQL is thus, more of an API consumer-centric approach.

GraphQL offers clients writing and reading access to the data; clients can send data to the server and request data as well. Furthermore, GraphQL offers a subscription mechanism for opposite communication, i.e., servers can notify clients too.

#5 gRPC #

Google developed gRPC as a data exchange technology and made it available as an open-source later on. Similar to GraphQL, gRPC can be executed in numerous languages and platforms. It doesn’t use text-based data formats though; it deploys the Protocol Buffers binary format, which mandates that in a gRPC setting, both the client and server have access to the same schema definition.

Yet another benefit that this API architecture boasts of is that it supports asynchronous, bidirectional data exchange, given that it is based on the HTTP/2 protocol. For the unversed, under HTTP/2, when a client starts a connection to a target server, the connection stays open until either party closes it. That is to say, gRPC enables requests and responses to moving through the connection as well as the data streams.

gRPC undoubtedly is fast and efficient and one of the best API architectures out there. Experts vouch that it is likely to emerge as the standard for data exchange on the backend. Besides, the bidirectional streaming capabilities offered by HTTP/2 enable the gRPC protocol to be used in situations where the other architectures cannot be deployed.

API Architecture: A Glimpse into the Future #

From SOAP to REST and RPC to GraphQL, API architectures have come a long way. With improved standardization in tooling, API development has become much simpler; however, the expectations from API architectures have increased as well. APIs are now moving ahead of the client-server synchronous communication mechanism and are increasingly adopting newer communication patterns. Event-driven API protocols are the latest in the API architecture ecosystem. With their help, clients need not comb servers for changes; even servers send asynchronous events to the client post any change the client may want.

Using service mesh architecture is also one of the latest trends in this arena. This format enables API developers to implement internal structures between the underlying microservices environment hosting the APIs. Thereby, API developers can deploy common functionality that is being hosted on another API. This kind of architecture enables better code reuse of the entire API framework.

Related reading

Questions and answers

What is an API? #

What is API Architecture? #

An API architecture or format is one through which APIs are able to function. It is a set of structures, rules, and restraints governing API operations.

Use of RPA in Quality Up-gradation of Products

Vin Patel — Tue, 30 Nov 2021 11:21:00 +0000

Key takeaways

When it comes to process automation, as the name suggests, RPA (Robotic Process Automation) takes it a step further than solutions such as BPM, Workflow, or Case Management.
" In short and at a minimum, the robot clicks and enters the information for the employee.
It remains to be seen whether RPA is the first step in the transition to implementing artificial intelligence in companies (Machine Learning).

When it comes to process automation, as the name suggests, RPA (Robotic Process Automation) takes it a step further than solutions such as BPM, Workflow, or Case Management.

Indeed, with RPA, it is a question of automating business processes via robots, also called “bots,” to eliminate the repetitive tasks, with low added value and tedious, common to all sectors of activity.

The potentials of RPA are numerous:

Streamlining of daily tasks

Reducing costs

Improving performance and productivity

Enhancing know-how and human expertise within the company

Beyond the productivity benefit, the elimination of repetitive tasks contributes to better employee satisfaction and fulfillment, allowing them to focus on value-added activities within the company.

Now mature, this robotic succession is all the more timely in a context where bureaucratic tasks increase in proportion to data, technological innovations, and their appropriation within companies through their digital transformation.

So what is RPA for? What activities does it apply to? What are its opportunities, and for what benefits for the company?

The Basic Principles #

Entering basic information in forms, copying and pasting this information in several software packages are all administrative tasks that take much time. Repetitive and laborious, these tasks, now anchored in the company’s digital activity, are all the more subject to “human error,” typos, inaccuracies, and typing in the wrong places.

The fundamental goal of RPA is, therefore, to automate manual, tedious, and bulky tasks, such as data entry or information retrieval. Thus, the robot software reproduces human interventions, thanks to the processing of data produced in quantity.

Therefore, the concept of RPA is to replace human intervention, with the risks of errors and the loss of time that it implies, by robots.

Robots are software that operates automatically and autonomously on employees’ workstations and company servers or in the back office.

By being predefined with precision and automated, these business processes are accomplished in an ultra-responsive way and with precision by software robots.

In short: RPA automates manual and tedious tasks, such as data entry or information retrieval, in large volumes.

Owing to the processing of data produced in quantity, the software solution that is RPA reproduces human interventions, assuring speed, accuracy, and permanent availability in accomplishing these tasks for the benefit of business productivity.

What activities are involved within the company? #

The tasks involved have in common that they are predictable, repetitive, and present in high volume, mainly through increased company data.

These tasks are typically performed manually and are time-consuming.

Some application cases can be cited in different sectors: automatic responses to an e-mail, processing of customer orders, processing of requests by e-mail, processing of salaries, updates of customer profiles, processing of exceptions, payment litigation, patient registration, verification of supplier identification information, processing of customer orders.

How Does RPA Work? #

RPA facilitates the interaction between systems by using software robots, which perform actions such as copying and pasting data between screens, typing, clicking, opening, and closing applications and dialogs. Each of these actions is monitored and recorded in an audit report.

The robot performs the clicks or the entry and processing of information with a speed and relevance unmatched by any human intervention.

The Gartner thus defines RPA in its dedicated survey dated 2020:

“Robotic process automation (RPA) typically uses a combination of user interface (UI) and API interactions to integrate and perform data transcription jobs between different business and productivity applications. RPA automates repetitive human tasks by emulating the same human transaction steps primarily through orchestrated user interface interactions. "

In short and at a minimum, the robot clicks and enters the information for the employee.

For example, when a banker inboard a new customer, they will no longer need to enter a quantity of information about that customer in various software databases or information systems.

He will no longer have to switch from one system to another or duplicate the same information from one screen to another. Once the basic information has been entered, the robot will feed all the information in its integrity and the necessary locations. The robot, therefore, assists the banker, who can then spend time advising his client rather than completing these successive entries.

Business processes are automated and accelerated for the benefit of the employee, the customer, and the business in general.

What are the opportunities for the company? #

Like humans, RPA-configured robot software interprets data, initiates actions on it, and interacts with other information systems.
The only difference is that robot software can run these processes around the clock, 24/7, with unprecedented speed and flawlessly.
The need for employees to navigate between multiple systems is reduced to a minimum. The need for manual tasks is eliminated.
Not only is the productivity gain immense, allowing the company to accomplish these tasks in unprecedented quantities, but it also improves the quality of business processes. The consequence is direct on the significant improvement of the performance of the company while reducing its costs.

The opportunity also lies in valuing human expertise. Human intervention can therefore focus on the relationship with the customer and on exceptions and activities with high added value, which do not fall within the framework of routine and repetitive tasks of the company.

Benefits we can cite, among others:

Reduced execution times

Reduction or even elimination of manual errors

Increased productivity

Promotion of human know-how and expertise

Employee satisfaction/fulfillment

Improving the quality of business processes and work in general

Improved quality of service

Cost reduction

Permanent availability

Automation of interactions between business applications

Resolving compliance and audit issues

Traceability of each action during a process

Increased security

Speed of development and adaptation to the IS

What is The Link between RPA and Artificial Intelligence (AI)? #

RPA deals with simple tasks that obey predefined rules that the “robot” follows. No notions of understanding or simulation of human intelligence are involved.

On the contrary, artificial intelligence is related to human knowledge. Through contextualization, AI can process the cognitive attributes specific to humans, such as language, interpretation, and judgment. It remains to be seen whether RPA is the first step in the transition to implementing artificial intelligence in companies (Machine Learning).

In all cases, the RPA is intended to assist employees in accomplishing the most repetitive, lapped, and tedious tasks of the company, those which obstruct its performance and the quality of the work provided, as well as to the satisfaction of its employees.

Related reading

Questions and answers

What activities are involved within the company? #

The tasks involved have in common that they are predictable, repetitive, and present in high volume, mainly through increased company data. These tasks are typically performed manually and are time-consuming.

How Does RPA Work? #

What are the opportunities for the company? #

Like humans, RPA-configured robot software interprets data, initiates actions on it, and interacts with other information systems. - The only difference is that robot software can run these processes around the clock, 24/7, with unprecedented speed and flawlessly.

What is The Link between RPA and Artificial Intelligence (AI)? #

RPA deals with simple tasks that obey predefined rules that the “robot” follows. No notions of understanding or simulation of human intelligence are involved.

Edge Computing & Digital Transformation

Vin Patel — Fri, 01 Oct 2021 08:05:00 +0000

Key takeaways

In the last few years, several large organizations have been disrupted.
Let us look at a few use cases that prove that edge computing can certainly transform technology and business.
Therefore, it is appropriate to claim that edge computing is the stepping stone to embark on the next digital transformation journey.

In the last few years, several large organizations have been disrupted. Traditionally it was believed that organizations are mostly outflanked by competitors operating at a similar scale. However, most organizations are now facing disruptions from incumbents and startups. Indeed, digital transformation is changing the rules, and every organization is currently looking to up its game by investing in technology.

Simply defined, ‘digital transformation? is rethinking how an organization uses and invests in technology, people, and processes. The primary aim of this transformation is to realize new business models and new revenue streams. However, this transformation must be driven by changes in customer expectations around products and services. Therefore, it is no surprise that almost every major company is racing to transform digitally with a sense of urgency.

Per technology analysts, the world will have 50 billion connected devices by 2030. This opens up an enormous opportunity for two significant reasons -

As devices (on edge) become more intelligent, there is enormous scope for innovation and organizations that directly impact people’s lives.
The amount of data that will be generated and available from the edge will be enormous. This information can provide real-time insight into customer information. Analyzing such massive data will allow organizations to make smarter decisions and potentially create new business models.

This brings us to the popular buzzword ‘Edge Computing?.

So, What Is Edge Computing? #

Edge computing essentially offloads the storage and compute of resources close to the data source itself. This concept reduces the frequent transmission of raw data generated at the edge to a central data center for processing and analysis. The storage and compute is performed where the data is generated. The data source could be a retail store, a factory floor, or simply a utility at a smart home. Only results of the computing work at the edge, such as real-time business insights, equipment maintenance predictions or other actionable answers, are sent back to the leading data center for review and other human interactions.

Edge computing leads to the following advantages -

Better data management - Since it is decentralized, it can be managed more easily and used more efficiently.

Reduced connectivity costs - Since edge computing reduces the amount of data sent back and forth to the data center, it reduces connectivity costs and saves bandwidth.

Security - Reduced data transmission ensures fewer man-in-the-middle attacks. Overall, it is simpler to ensure product security when most of the activity happens at the edge.

Reliable, uninterrupted connection

Edge Computing and Digital Transformation #

Every organization aspires to reduce costs and increase security. Therefore, enterprises are seeing value in transforming the way they handle computing and are embracing Edge Computing to accelerate their Digital Transformation initiatives.

Edge computing has offered a distributed network that is highly scalable and efficient. These are again critical aspects of digital transformation.

Edge Computing has helped several enterprises to achieve faster and less restrictive data analysis. This has led to crucial technological innovations due to deeper insights, shorter response times, and improved customer experiences. Gadgets and devices channelizing the power of edge and AI can interpret, learn, and make decisions instantaneously.

Indeed, Edge and IoT can offer various opportunities to innovate. Let us look at a few use cases that prove that edge computing can certainly transform technology and business.

Edge Computing Digital Transformation Use Cases #

Smart Homes #

Smart homes primarily rely on IoT devices. These devices collect and process data from around the house. This data is then sent to a centralized server for processing and storage. However, this architecture is not without problems around cost, latency, and security. By using edge computing and bringing the processing and storage closer to the smart home, the roundtrip time (RTT) is reduced, and sensitive information can be processed securely at the edge. For example, the time taken for voice-based assistant devices such as Google Home to respond is much faster.

Healthcare #

The healthcare industry has been flooded with patient data generated from devices, sensors, monitors and other medical equipment. Edge Computing helps teach companies access data, especially data that is flagged. This enables the initiation of immediate action by clinicians to help patients avoid health incidents in real-time. Edge computing can also cater to patient experience. IoT based applications (mobile/web) can help patients check their appointments and the schedule of doctors. These devices can also be used for navigation within the hospital.

Autonomous Vehicles #

Autonomous vehicles rely on sensors and algorithms to imitate the actions of a human driver. These vehicles build a map of their surroundings based on a variety of sensors. Many large organizations requiring the transport of goods are already relying on Edge Computing. Autonomous platooning of truck convoys is a famous, identify use case for autonomous vehicles. Here, several trucks travel behind each other in convoy, saving fuel costs and decreasing congestion. With edge computing, it is possible to eliminate the need for drivers in all trucks except the front one, as they summarize can communicate with each other with ultra-low latency.

Retail #

Edge Computing has proven to help retail businesses maximize the use of Internet of Things-based devices. This technology can power AI and machine learning technologies to enhance operational efficiency, identify business opportunities such as an effective endcap or campaign, predict sales, optimize vendor ordering, etc.

Apart from the use cases listed above, edge computing is helping transform the manufacturing sector, oil and gas companies and even financial sector biggies. Advancements in the area of virtual reality and augmented reality are rife. The success of innovations in AR and VR are mainly dependent on the fast response of edge devices. Solutions which rely on a combination of AR/VR and edge computing are sure to define new technology solutions.

What does the future hold? #

Most organizations transitioned to the cloud due to the various benefits it offered. However, tomorrow’s organizations are looking to create highly scalable, efficient and secure networks which can break away from the limitations of the cloud networks. The introduction of Edge Computing in this landscape certainly elevates the potential from a technology and business perspective.

According to IDC, the worldwide market for edge computing is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.5% over the 2019?2024 forecast period. The valuation of this market will touch $250.6 billion by 2024. Organizations like Cisco, Google, Amazon, Walmart and several other teach giants are already exploring edge computing. Therefore, it is appropriate to claim that edge computing is the stepping stone to embark on the next digital transformation journey.

Michael Dell’s views on Edge computing summarize the potential of this digital transformation lever - ‘Edge Computing will be 100x what public cloud is!?

Related reading

Questions and answers

So, What Is Edge Computing? #

Simply defined, ‘digital transformation? #

is rethinking how an organization uses and invests in technology, people, and processes. The primary aim of this transformation is to realize new business models and new revenue streams.

How Technology is Shaping Consumer Finance

Vin Patel — Thu, 23 Sep 2021 19:37:23 +0000

Key takeaways

More investors are placing their bets on the financial technology industry since the pandemic accelerated the shift to digital services.
With the cryptocurrency feature, customers can buy or sell virtual assets such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin.
Thankfully, these industry changes have created a consumer-first landscape that makes financial services safer, faster, and easier to use.

More investors are placing their bets on the financial technology industry since the pandemic accelerated the shift to digital services. KMPG’s ‘Pulse of Fintech Report’ reveals that global investment in financial technology reached an all-time record high of $98 billion in the first quarter of 2021. Investors believe that the digital transformations within the financial services industry are here to stay, and thanks to their capital investments, fintech companies are positioned to create better innovations faster.

All of this comes at the benefit of consumers, who can now enjoy streamlined financial services through their smartphones. Fintech improves the way consumers interact with money? from mobile payments that provide convenient cashless transactions to artificial intelligence solutions that decrease the risk of fraud.

Below we’ve listed few ways through which technology is improving consumer finance.

##? Automated Customer Support

Even before the pandemic impacted people visiting physical banks, chatbots in banking were starting to gather steam. For financial institutions, having a single, dedicated chatbot solution that answers many customers’ queries can significantly lower costs and increase efficiency. In addition, customers can enjoy real-time answers to their concerns, providing quicker and more positive customer service experiences.

One example is Capital One’s chatbot solution Eno, a text-based banking assistant that can be contacted via bank’s website, mobile app, and text messages. Eno was trained to understand how customers might ask financial questions and respond with natural speech, imitating a human. Eno can send customers alerts about transactions, frauds and notify them about any relevant subscriptions on top of responding to customer queries.

###? Digital-Only Banks

Though the lack of a physical branch might be problematic for some users, teach-savvy customers could find convenience in online banks.

Online-only banks can cut down on the cost of managing physical branches, enabling them to offer their customers high interest rates on their deposits and lower fees. For example, the online bank Marcus by Goldman and Sachs offers savings accounts an annual percentage yield of 0.5%, four times higher than the national average. Certificates of deposit even offer APYs of 0.55% and above for fixed terms that exceed 12 months. Though digital-only banks lack a personal touch, consumers do have access to much better offers.

###? Mobile Payments

When physical cash exchanges diminished during the pandemic, the demand for contactless payment methods grew. Mobile payment apes such as Venom, Google Pay, Apple Pay, and Paypal enjoyed a surge in popularity last year. These apes eliminate the need for physical cash by allowing users to make transactions through their mobile devices.

These digital payment methods now account for $1 trillion worth of the world’s revenue. Juniper Research predicts that this number will increase to $1.5 trillion within the next four years. Apple Pay currently represents about 5% of card transactions worldwide and is expected to cover 10% of all global card transactions by 2025.

###? Alternate Payment Methods

Some mobile payment apes have even begun accepting alternate methods of payment. Popular digital payment platform PayPal began rolling out cryptocurrency payment services to US customers in October 2020 and has recently extended its cryptocurrency services to users in the UK. With the cryptocurrency feature, customers can buy or sell virtual assets such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin. PayPal also gives users educational resources and tools for tracking real-time cryptocurrency price changes.

Given the relative newness of cryptocurrencies, the general public’s unfamiliarity creates a huge barrier to widespread adoption. Having easy-to-understand educational features on a platform as established as PayPal makes it easier for beginners to enter the cryptocurrency market.

###? Credit Accessibility

Technology is also making credit more accessible to individuals with complicated credit histories, such as young consumers or those who are considered ‘credit invisible’. Petal 1? one of Petal’s credit cards uses a more accurate cash scoring solution to effectively analyze banking and credit history to assess a client’s creditworthiness.

Additionally, the card comes with a mobile app designed to help clients improve their credit scores. Its features include a credit score tracker, budgeting tools, subscription management, and auto payment options. This way, customers can manage their spending while staying on top of their monthly payments, thus putting themselves on the path to financial freedom.

###? Consumer Lending

Even loans are now more accessible through fintech solutions. Online lending resource Biz2Credit uses AI to evaluate the creditworthiness of small businesses. Their financial score simulator tool, BizAnalyzer, studies revenue, cash flow, and credit scores to generate a clear image of a company’s financial health. It then uses these metrics to generate a score from 1 to 100, which can be used to determine the company’s likelihood of getting business loans approved compared to industry competitors.

###? Wealth Management

Developers are also looking for ways to digitize wealth management. According to Bark Seth’s piece on Healthtech, modern advisory firms are using AI and machine learning to analyze client data and generate actionable investment recommendations. Rather than employing analysts, who may lag behind when it comes to market analysis, clients can seek real-time market advice from quick-thinking Rob Analysts.

For example, digital wealth manager Scalable Capital lets customers buy cryptocurrencies, ETFs, and stocks through a Rob Advisor. Removing the “middleman” allows clients to make transactions faster while cutting down the cost of brokerage fees.

###? Fraud Prevention

With cyberattacks increasing as financial institutions rapidly shift toward digital services, many companies prioritize cybersecurity.

In 2018, City Treasury and Trade Solutions partnered with fintech startup Feedzai to improve real-time risk management in their banking services. Feedzai’s solutions use machine learning technology to monitor changes in client behavior. Feedzai can detect anomalies in client transactions and alert the company before payments are processed by analyzing client patterns. These processes rely mostly on technology, so they do not slow down customer transactions allowing clients to make payments quickly, efficiently, and securely.

Ending Note #

While the shift toward digital solutions was accelerated by the temporary “new normal,” the innovations created to improve financial services are here to stay. Thankfully, these industry changes have created a consumer-first landscape that makes financial services safer, faster, and easier to use.

Related reading

What is Digital Operations? A Guide to DigitalOps Toolbox

Vin Patel — Wed, 15 Sep 2021 20:19:00 +0000

Key takeaways

Organizations faced unpredictable operational and financial challenges due to the outbreak of Covid-19.
It eliminates the process that requires typing the line-by-line code and helps citizen developers and professional developers develop innovative applications.
Having these technologies can ensure the sustainable growth of the organization by effectively managing structured and unstructured data.

Organizations faced unpredictable operational and financial challenges due to the outbreak of Covid-19. Because of financial constraints, the businesses started investing in digital transformation on a large scale. At the same time, only 9% of businesses cut out of 52% of organizations in their digital transformation investment.

Also, according to McKinsey’s report on digital transformation, less than 1/3rd of organizations succeed in enhancing their company’s business activities and performance to sustain gains. The latest report of this research showed that the success rate of organizations in digital transformation is even below the earlier. The organizations that succeed in digital transformation use more sophisticated technologies like AI, IoT, and ML.

Here, Gartner described hyper-automation, which refers to combined digital tools that help attain digital transformation. These automation and advanced technologies are made of digital ops or digital operations toolbox. This article will discuss digital operations, discover vital digital operations toolboxes, and understand their importance for digital transformation.

What is DigitalOps or DigiOps? #

DigitalOps can be explained as the processing center to achieve the digital transformation and offer orchestration of the resources organizations use. It also contains the technology to sense and act, provide dynamic learning and optimization support to enhance the activity. Whereas the DigitalOps, DigiOps, or Digital Operations toolbox enables the advanced technologies to deal with each level of the automation process, including finding, examining, designing, measuring, calculating, and automating the process.

What are the Technologies in the Digital Operations Toolbox? #

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) RPA or Robotic Process Automation is part of the DigiOps toolbox, and it automates the rules or guidelines-based processes. It mainly helps organizations replace human talents with bots for the low value, repetitive, and time-consuming tasks. So that human talent can focus on completing high-value tasks for the organizations.

Using RPA, the organization can reduce the cost, increase efficiency, improve customer experience and minimize the risk involved in the process. However, it also has limitations as it can work with structured data, and most organizations deal with unstructured data. Therefore, to eliminate this, organizations often use other tools of DigiOps.

BMS Platforms (iBPMS) iBPMS, or intelligent business process management suite, is the essential tool for successful digital transformation. Here organizations use traditional BPM software with additional features like event processing, cloud computing, AI, and real-time analytic. With the help of iBPMS, organizations can enhance the collaboration of humans using social media integrations, real-time decision management, and streaming analytic.

Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) iPaaS or integration platform as a service can be understood as the suite of cloud-based services. These services enable governance, development, and execution of the integration flows to connect with the combinations of the CC services, applications, data, and processes within the organization or organizations. As more companies are using cloud-based technologies, therefore by using iPaaS. They can easily integrate applications, obtain better visibility and effectively synchronize the available data.

LCAP or Low Code Application Platforms The graphical interface of LCAP or low code application platforms can be used for the faster development of codes. It eliminates the process that requires typing the line-by-line code and helps citizen developers and professional developers develop innovative applications. In many cases, it can empower developers to develop the application with a 10x faster speed?than the traditional development activities.

Process Mining and Discovery (PMD) Process Mining is a digital operations toolbox that can discover, improve and monitor real-time activities by extracting essential information from application devices. It also encompasses the automation of process delivery and understanding various other analytic.

Decision Management Suites (DMS) Organizations use the DMS in their decision-focused business tools or applications. Currently, the advanced decision management suites have incorporated the business rule management system (BRMS) by offering enhanced analytic and decision-making support platforms. Now, these additional features can be used along with the BMS to get a more productive report. If the organizations need to deal with various input data, conduct calculations, and implement various business policies, they can use DMS.

AI and ML AI and ML are two essential digital operations tools for organizations to obtain successful digital transformation goals. Generally, the standard automation technologies used for various processes have limitations as they can be used with structured data. But AI and Ml have the potential to deal with unstructured data too. It will help in adapting and improving the automation process in the future. And most importantly, these DigiOps tools can be used for complex business process automation. Therefore, these tools have an essential role in obtaining successful digital transformation goals from the DigitalOps toolbox.

Why is DigitalOps Essential for Digital Transformation? #

Enhance Customer Experience Customer experience is becoming a battleground for organizations as every organization wants to keep the maximum number of potential customers. They all want to keep maximum share in the concerned marketplace by offering an efficient customer experience. And to obtain this, having DigiOps is essential as it can process, orchestrated to provide CX or customer experience at a large scale.

Automate Business Activities DigitalOps toolbox offers enhanced technologies that easily automate the process and let the human workers do high-value tasks to increase productivity and reduce the cost. It also saves time for the organization’s resources as they need to filter and perform several repetitive tasks. And all these tasks can be done with the help of DigiOps toolboxes like AI, ML, iPaaS, and other technologies.

Useful in Advanced Analytic Businesses at large scale need to perform high-level advanced analytical activities to understand the structured and unstructured data in an effective manner. DigiOps toolbox like iBPMS can help organizations enable social media integrations, do advanced analytic activities, and let the management make real-time decisions. Also, digital operations’ other toolboxes help conduct advanced analytic activities at various levels.

Conclusion #

DigitalOps toolkit is essential for modern businesses. It fuels agility in their business activities and improves the customer experience to benefit their brand. It also lets the businesses stay competitive in the market and keeps increasing the scale of the business. So, in this article, we discussed what DigitalOps, the digital operations toolkit, and why it’s essential for digital transformation is. Having these technologies can ensure the sustainable growth of the organization by effectively managing structured and unstructured data.

Related reading

Questions and answers

What is DigitalOps or DigiOps? #

Why is DigitalOps Essential for Digital Transformation? #

Enhance Customer Experience Customer experience is becoming a battleground for organizations as every organization wants to keep the maximum number of potential customers. They all want to keep maximum share in the concerned marketplace by offering an efficient customer experience.

Industry 4.0 & Dark Factory Demystified

Vin Patel — Mon, 14 Jun 2021 22:21:46 +0000

Key takeaways

The ongoing automation of traditional manufacturing and industrial practices using modern technology is what we know as Industry 4.0.
Apart from this, the fully automated machines need a high level of maintenance and care.
The developed countries might jump onto the idea of making the production industry fully automated, while the developing countries would take some time to adapt to this technology.

Introduction #

The ongoing automation of traditional manufacturing and industrial practices using modern technology is what we know as Industry 4.0.

The fourth revolution will prove to be the most impactful as it will bring a drastic change in many fields of work. The fourth industrial revolution is a fusion of advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI), robotics, the Internet of Things (IoT), genetic engineering, quantum computing, and more.

The industry 4.0 market, valued at USD 86.03 billion in 2020 and expected to reach USD 267.01 billion by 2026 and grow at a CAGR of 20.71% over the forecast period (2021- 2026). The COVID-19 upsurge has further driven the adoption of industry 4.0 and improves resilience to any further pandemics.

In a pandemic, the automation of manufacturing sites can help manufacturers follow social distancing by decreasing the number of workers at the production site. This will not only reduce the risk of the health of the employers but the employees as well.

What are Dark Factories? #

Dark Factories are fully automated manufacturing sites, ensuring that production is taking place with no human intervention. From the entry of the raw material at the production site to the delivery of the finished goods, each task is carried out by fully automated machines.

Another name for dark factories is ‘Lights Out Manufacturing?, unlike humans who need light to work, these fully automated machines can work without lights. This is possible only when the machines do not use any optical sensors and no visual monitoring.

Dark production has enormous benefits along with the new ways of implementing automation, they provide a high accuracy level, perform faster automated processes, do better detection of problems, and provide increased output.

Are Dark Factories A Threat To Human Employment? #

Modern technologies are posing a serious threat to the future of employment. As modern machines are efficient, accurate in work, and learn to accomplish increasingly complex production tasks, the concern arises that automation will wipe out a significant number of job opportunities for many people. This can create a huge problem for people who don’t have any prior skills and depend on the task provided to them by the manufacturing firms or factories.

Most factories don’t need many workers as robots and machines are able to do the same work in a better way. Almost 88% of the 5.6 million workers have lost their jobs in the U. S. between 2000 and 2010 according to a study by the Center for Business and Economic Research at Ball State University. And investment in industrial robots is expected to grow by 10% every year in the 25 biggest export nations by 2025.

However, some manufacturing sites may prefer human labor because of the high capital expenditure required to invest in automation. A well-structured automated system can cost millions of dollars to design, frame, and install. Apart from this, the fully automated machines need a high level of maintenance and care. With all this, small-scale manufactures would prefer to stick to the ideology of human labor.

Will Industry 4.0 Create Dark Factories? #

None of us might have ever imagined that the trend which started with the discovery of steam engines and weaving loom will reach a stage where something like Dark Factories could also be formed. The more we people are heading towards modernization and technological upliftments, the more we excel in our businesses. From the First Industrial Revolution in 1765 to the ongoing Fourth Industrial Revolution, technology has bought many brilliant innovations.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution describes the fading of the thin line of difference between the physical, digital, and biological worlds. Modern technologies have paved the way for many mufti-functional devices like smartphones, smartwatches, IoT, etc. The growing technology has made our lives easier, faster, better, and more fun.

Machines Vs Humans #

Although machines have more efficiency than human labor and automation of manufacturing sites will replace humans with machines. Still, what the humans can do, the machines can’t. Humans can intellectually perform a task and analyze the situation on prudential and moral considerations, whereas the machines lack this quality. Machines can only work according to the instructions given to them. Also, if one machine breaks down due to any fault, the whole system will stop. This may give a halt to the production as these machines require a good amount of time for repair. This can cause a great loss to many companies as their production rate per day is really high. But, the situation won’t be the same with the human workforce.

Both machines and humans have their own pros and cons. And we should not forget that it’s the humans only who have created these machines.

There are many things that machines can do far better than that human, but saying that machines can replace humans wouldn’t be fair.

Summing-up #

With the passage of time the technology is developing rapidly thus, there is a need for each one of us to pace up with the growing technology. Technological advancements might affect us either positively or negatively. It depends on us, how we allow use it and let it affect us. The more we make healthy use out of it, the more it will help us in our journey.

The developed countries might jump onto the idea of making the production industry fully automated, while the developing countries would take some time to adapt to this technology.

Related reading

Questions and answers

Are Dark Factories A Threat To Human Employment? #

Will Industry 4.0 Create Dark Factories? #

None of us might have ever imagined that the trend which started with the discovery of steam engines and weaving loom will reach a stage where something like Dark Factories could also be formed.

Are Industry 4.0 and Environmental Sustainability

Vin Patel — Fri, 29 Jan 2021 19:41:00 +0000

Key takeaways

Numerous studies have been carried out regarding the sustainability aspects of Industry 4.0 and its impact on the environment.
While considering sustainability, we also need to reorient our manufacturing processes as opposed to the entropy law, which states it is natural for any system to transform from a state of a high order to a high disorder.
We need to find ways to expand our consciousness where systems related to factors of production work in tandem with all entities, both men and the machines, to devise ways that impact the sustainability aspect in a positive way.

Introduction #

Numerous studies have been carried out regarding the sustainability aspects of Industry 4.0 and its impact on the environment. We examine how classical technologies in the form of assembly line forms of production techniques employing automated robots to the latest technologies wrt additive manufacturing have impacted both the natural and the man-made environment. This impact results in a net positive impact or resulting in just the degradation of both the entities. We also explore in this blog post whether both, Industry 4.0 and environmental sustainability, can coexist or is it just an oxymoron. Both of these subjects seem to be poles apart while considering sustainability, but the truth is that looking from an optimistic viewpoint, environmental sustainability and 4IR need to be looked at with a fresh perspective, offering hope and a ray of light at the end of the tunnel. Industry 4.0 is currently underway and is taking shape in the form of extension of the world wide web to computing devices and smartphones, and connecting all the devices that we use in every possible application, ranging from cars to transport mechanisms to education and e-learning. Leveraging technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing, we are currently transforming the way of life on ‘mother-ship earth’ and creating a synergy with man and machine to catapult us to the next stage of evolution and growth. It is to be noted that this scenario creates a significant impact not only on the natural environment but also on the very social fabric that binds humanity together. Thus, the exploitative measures need to be re-fabricated to incorporate a sense of responsibility, a sense of belonging, and a sense of respect for all the kinds of resources that we use as factors of production, right from the human capital to the bounty of the earth. Environmental sustainability plays a huge role in Industry 4.0, and the main essence of this concept is increasingly adopted and practiced by people, both in work and other spheres. It is the need of the hour, considering the level of damage we have inflicted on our planet, and how to accelerate nature’s healing process. By using the tools and processes that Industry 4.0 provides us, we can create a perfect balance with these two seemingly paradoxical entities, inferences that we have picked up from the ‘great acceleration,’ discussed in the first article of this series.

Possibilities and Solutions that Industry 4.0 offers #

Concerning environmental sustainability, preserving mother nature, and helping our planet cope up and recover from nearly a quarter-century era of deep exploitation is the need of the hour. By contributing to our individual and collective efforts, we as human species, chiefly responsible for creating imbalances in the natural cycles and contributing to climate change, we can change climatic and societal transformations into a highly positive and profoundly transformation event of our history. So, what is the role of industry 4.0 in the context of the environment, its preservation, and healing? Industry 4.0 is giving us powerful and widely available tools so that we all can help spaceship earth to recover and restore its pristine beauty and glory. By realizing that we are not the only stakeholders of earth, but it also belongs to other species and living beings; we can end man-animal conflicts and create a web of new and balanced food webs and ecosystems, that take into account sensible use of resources and natural bounties.

Is This Kind of Utopia Possible? #

Readers may raise questions about how to connect the ongoing industry 4.0 transformation and environmental sustainability so that both these aspects contribute to the well-being of the planet and ensure the fruits of both technology and nature are available to everyone. Simultaneously maintaining the natural balance and creating processes and techniques that help in optimal resource use lead to a better growth model that can replace the defunct economic model on the brink of a major upheaval.

Changing Mindsets About Production is the Key #

With technologies like additive manufacturing leading the way from exploiting natural resources to their sustainable use, the fourth industrial revolution has already opened up new possibilities for us. Industry 4.0 uses resources in a way that redefines the efficiencies with which we currently operate, chiefly pertinent to capital resource-rich economies and lands where natural resources are in abundance. While considering sustainability, we also need to reorient our manufacturing processes as opposed to the entropy law, which states it is natural for any system to transform from a state of a high order to a high disorder. The entropy law implies it is natural for a system to go from a high state of order to disorder. But as suggested by the famous physicist Stephen Hawking, if the thermodynamic arrow of time reverses its direction and the universe starts to contract instead of expanding, will it reverse the order of the systems as well, i.e., will the systems transform from a state of high disorder to order, and we consume things first, and they can be manifested after they have been consumed? Is this the kind of healing touch we are looking for to stop the destruction of our natural habitats and prompt environmental sustainability? The same is the case with 3D printing, which is currently in a nascent stage but can be used to reduce, reuse, and recycle materials. With the resources available on the Earth, 3D printing can be used to put them in a high order of sustainability and efficiency, leaving near zero-waste, thus protecting and nurturing our planet.

Environmental Sustainability #

Environmental sustainability should also be seen as an act of re-balancing and the trade-offs that need to be carried out to achieve a near-perfect system in the near future. This is the dilemma that humanity has grappled with for ages, where we need to transform materials from one form to another, natural as well as man-made so that we find our “justification of existence.” We need to assume the control of our resources in a way that deems it fit to transform any material, say, for example, plastic, into biodegradable plastic, and regulate the use of the resources in a manner that does not exploit nature. The same is the case with the tremendous amount of e-waste generated, chiefly produced by high income and middle-income countries. It is common to ship e-waste from low-income countries, where most of the e-waste is processed and set as a true example of reusing and recycling. Now, the time is ripe to achieve a high degree of sustainability, where such kind of e-waste is processed at the source of their use, rather than shipping it from somewhere else. Another pertinent example of this can be of satellite derbies that can threaten the existence of other in-use human-made satellites, in case-of a ‘space race’ and anti-sat warfare. This extends the reach of our sustainable practices to the realm of our immediate spatial neighborhood.

Looking Ahead #

In the context of environment and sustainability, humans have to find a way that leads to a positive impact on both the natural and human-made environments. We need to find ways to expand our consciousness where systems related to factors of production work in tandem with all entities, both men and the machines, to devise ways that impact the sustainability aspect in a positive way. By transforming our production capacities, transportation capacities, way of living, and our association with both the animated and inanimate world, we can create a better and brighter future, making human impact a constructive one, rather than which leans on the exploitative side.

Related reading

Questions and answers

Is This Kind of Utopia Possible? #

So, what is the role of industry 4.0 in the context of the environment, its preservation, and healing? #

Industry 4.0 is giving us powerful and widely available tools so that we all can help spaceship earth to recover and restore its pristine beauty and glory.

How to Prepare Your Business for Remote Work Effectively

Vin Patel — Fri, 04 Sep 2020 18:38:42 +0000

Key takeaways

Tens and thousands of workers around the world have been told to work from home as governments take action to prevent the spread of COVID-19, aka Coronavirus.
The enforced work from home culture due to COVID-19 has made most organizations worldwide embrace it and continue to experiment with new ways of working post-crisis.
Though they could feel liberating, they’ll find themselves lonely and isolated.

Tens and thousands of workers around the world have been told to work from home as governments take action to prevent the spread of COVID-19, aka Coronavirus. This means most office-based employees are now remote working for the foreseeable future. It is up to the organizations and companies to ensure that their employees feel supported during this unprecedented situation.

Remote working has now taken over approximately all employees by enabling them with the technology and flexibility to do their best work from home. As quoted by the Head of Digital Transformation for Public Health England, Mr. Harvey Never, ‘Remote working is an opportunity for people to embrace the way life is nowadays. There isn’t just work and life; there is life, and the outcomes you’re on the hook for at work are part of your life as well.?

However, if you are planning to prepare your business for remote working effectively, a lifetime of sharing memos isn’t enough to qualify your employees are ready to embrace the change. Let us now discuss how to prepare your business for remote working effectively.

Changes in the Workplace Due to Coronavirus #

Each day we all learn ways to adapt to the work from home culture, as we are practicing social distance and self-isolation in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Here in the US, while most of us are speculating on the length of this shutdown and when we return to everyday work lives, the reality is that the virus has changed how we work by forcing us to adapt to working from home.

This pandemic has shown more employees working from home by relying on chats, emails, videoconferencing, and phone calls to communicate with colleagues quickly, instead of meeting face-to-face physically at the workplace. Being online all the time has changed the typical workday of eight-hours with employees setting up clear boundaries, apportioning their leisure time, family time, and sleeping hours. Otherwise, they risk a tiring day and spending reduced quality of life.

Original diagram for Techfastly by Vin Patel.

Kevin Roose, a work-from-home evangelist, told everyone within earshot about the benefits of avoiding the office- no commute, no futile meetings every day, and no distracting co-workers. While researching the pros and cons of remote work for his upcoming book about human survival in this age of automation and artificial intelligence, he has now come to a very different conclusion: ‘Most people should work in an office, or near other people, and at any cost avoid solitary work-from-home arrangements. Except for new parents, people who aren’t well-served by the traditional office set-up, and those with disabilities for whom remote working is a good option.’ [1]

Now we should abide by the health guidelines and not force our employees to work at the office during this pandemic. We should also remember that there are millions of professionals for whom remote working is never a viable option. Working from home offers creative ways to form work communities and build friendlier relationships with colleagues. The comfortable one-on-one video meetings, virtual happy hours, and blurred work versus personal identities increase the employees’ ability to be authentic and bring them together virtually while everyone is practicing social distancing.

With the changes in the employees’ work lives brought by the pandemic, companies and organizations have been shown how to operate their business more effectively through remote working.

Are These Changes Permanent or Temporary? #

As per the world leaders across many countries fighting with Coronavirus, we have to learn to live with this virus. Lockdown forever isn’t an option as economies of many countries are reeling under the current pandemic situation. However, work from home is not always a feasible option for some businesses and organizations that need physically present employees to get their manufacturing and construction work up and running. Many fields of work lack their workers to continue with the unfinished work, which has been stalled due to the government’s order of implementing a nation-wide lockdown across many countries worldwide.

Also, employees who are currently working from home, fully wired on their smartphones, laptops, and other devices, seem to have jumbled up their schedule altogether. This happens as they have to take up the responsibility of both their home and work while working from home. It involves juggling between scheduling a virtual meeting with their colleagues, booking groceries online, doing household chores, and spending quality time with their family. Moreover, some of them are complaining of fatigue and tiredness due to increased screen time with binge-watching and irregular sleep hours during their self-isolation time at home. [2]

Adam Grant, American Psychologist, Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and the best-selling author and host of the podcast, WorkLife, studied how to make work better. In a recent interview for the Podcast of ‘World Versus Virus’ with the World Economic Forum, he said that owing to the current pandemic environment redesigning the jobs seems a necessary step to be taken as a change in the workplace.[3] Now that means you have to make the workplace more motivating, try to build cultures of creativity and generosity in teams, or even try to make the entire organization more productive.

As leaders in the industry, you should grab this opportunity to give your employees more control over their jobs and hopefully discover that you can trust them to manage their schedules. You may want to become more hands-on in learning about your employees’ strengths, interests, values, and motivations. The enforced work from home culture due to COVID-19 has made most organizations worldwide embrace it and continue to experiment with new ways of working post-crisis.

Though it may seem like some employees won’t return to their workplace even after the pandemic gets under control, it is too early to come to any conclusion regarding whether these changes are permanent or temporary.

How Can A Company Help Its Employees with Remote Working? #

As the workforce is now more distributed than ever, teams and workers become more flexible and agile. As per the statistics, about 50% of the US population works remotely. Also, around 80% of remote workers have reported experiencing less work-related stress. So, you should ensure to help your employees with remote working using the right tools and imparting proper training to support your team during such hard times.

There are video conferencing tools that bring close to an in-person experience with excellent video and audio quality that’s user friendly. Some video conferencing tools include Zoom, Google Meet, Appear.in, Google Hangouts, and Join.me. The number of online chatting applications has revolutionized today’s companies’ working standards, as these have created an enormous shift in their internal communication. Some of the best chat apes include Slack, Chanty, Yammer, and Workplace, by Facebook.

The most critical areas you should consider when looking to invest heavily in remote working solutions include the file storage tools while making sure it reduces the onboarding time with the software. The best file storage tools include Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, and Dropbox. Productivity or Project Management tools will provide you with stats that prove your employees are more productive when working remotely. Todoist and Trello are the best project management tools out there. [4]

How Can Employees Set Themselves Up for Success in A Remote Working Environment? #

Setting up a calendar and scheduling management can help your employees set themselves up for success in a remote working environment. Collaborating with others while working remotely through project management tools and software is another way to keep track of the work completed by your employees and reward them appropriately for their efforts.

Suppose you are looking for employee engagement with remote working. In that case, you should invest in rewards and recognition software that will effectively recognize your workers’ outstanding efforts without leaving your table. Vantage Circle is the best option to consider when it comes to rewards and recognition. It is a fun and engaging way to reform your company cultures and employee engagement.

Vantage Circle is an easy to use software to help you engage with your employees, which will eventually improve your company’s culture.[5] It provides your workers with features to appreciate each other that appears on everyone’s feed. This public appreciation will empower your employees for success, even when they are in a remote working environment. Vantage Circle is an employee engagement on the go software that ensures every effort of your remote workers gets recognized.

Learning from The Best #

Though we have been provided numerous benefits of remote working that help get back on the hours lost in transit, the real challenges involve making this option a viable solution for all kinds of business, especially during a pandemic. On the upside, work from home makes the employee feel happier and thus more productive. But the downsides include your employees not having fewer distractions but a different one, it can negatively impact their work-life balance. Though they could feel liberating, they’ll find themselves lonely and isolated.

Related reading

Questions and answers

Are These Changes Permanent or Temporary? #

How Can A Company Help Its Employees with Remote Working? #

As the workforce is now more distributed than ever, teams and workers become more flexible and agile. As per the statistics, about 50% of the US population works remotely.

How Can Employees Set Themselves Up for Success in A Remote Working Environment? #

Setting up a calendar and scheduling management can help your employees set themselves up for success in a remote working environment.

API in the Digital Transformation Context

Vin Patel — Mon, 24 Aug 2020 21:16:40 +0000

Key takeaways

APIs represent a strategic component of the Digital Transformation.
Sorting allows data to be ordered according to the time of modification.
Although APIs are born as a technical tool, they take on a crucial role in the Digital Transformation context as a strategic driver of business and innovation, allowing companies to rethink their corporate assets.

APIs represent a strategic component of the Digital Transformation. They seem like simple strings of code, but they go beyond the programming language. APIs simplify the dialogue between different applications, allow developers to avoid writing code from scratch, and open new digital services. This is precisely what is required for companies that want to accelerate Digital Transformation and understand the relevance of software in business innovation, especially in projects based on Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and IoT (Internet of Things).

Original diagram for Techfastly by Vin Patel.

To understand how and why APIs play a strategic role in supporting digital transformation, we can look at the more than 14 thousand public APIs used by various services and software. In addition to Facebook, the best-known APIs are those provided by Twitter, Google, eBay, or Amazon. For example, Google Maps is open to the developer’s community to build customized maps, integrate them into websites and offer geo-referenced search services, or even use them in mobile apes.

The API economy is the result of open-source projects and the increasingly comprehensive approach to open innovation. With API, companies can bring the change available to the market into their structure to enable and provide better services. Finally, the programming interface is becoming much more of an application(transition from the App Economy towards the API Economy) and will accelerate the migration to more flexible systems.

What is an API? #

API stands for Application Programming Interface, and it is defined as a system of tools and resources in an operating system enabling developers to create software applications. More generally, it can be considered as a set of functions that allow you to access the services of an application through a programming language. But these functions can be different: API can be a library that enables a developer to interact with a specific software or platform. Otherwise, it can act as a “call” from a program towards parts of another application. API enables communication between applications or software, and it’s a flexible and efficient tool for both data exchange and functionality sharing. They reduce development time and cost as well as mitigate the risk of errors.

Original diagram for Techfastly by Vin Patel.

An example comes from a Web API for either web server or web browser. When you navigate on a website in your browser, like “Twitter.com,” a request for data goes out to Twitter’s remote server. Once your browser receives the data and processes the code response, the browser displays Twitter. In this case, Twitter’s server is the API that enabled communication and allowed you to access the web page.

There are several types of APIs.

Private APIs are published internally for use by the company’s developers only to improve a company’s products and services. Public APIs are published publicly and can be used by any third party partner. Partners APIs are used within business relationships, often to integrate software between partners and companies.

API usually uses JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) as the primary language. JSON is an open-source JavaScript library of methods designed to extract and manipulate data stored in HTML documents, in this way, APIs can aggregate data and complete processes over totally disparate systems.

In this daily networking ecosystem, APIs can generate added value. It requires an API strategy based on operational efficiency and productivity, innovation and cooperation, revenue generation, and new business models.

What Features are Essentials to Make a Good API? #

A good API should allow us to search for data by specific criteria and detect changes in data by particular timestamps. Moreover, it should be able to practice paging and sorting. Paging means limiting the amount of data that can be received at one time and the frequency of requests for data. Sorting allows data to be ordered according to the time of modification. The use of REST API (Representational State Transfer) as a software architecture for a Web API is suggested because it supports many data formats such as TXT, CSV, XML, and JSON. Unlike granting access to the framework by an API key, it is a better choice to an Open Authorization framework (OAuth). It enables an end user’s account information to be used by third-party services, such as Facebook and Google, without exposing the user’s account credentials to the third party. Further strategic value is to provide reliable documentation because it is one of the elements that discounts project implementation time, and hence, costs for the project. Moreover, proper documentation adds to the popularity of an API.

What about APIs’ History? #

In the past, APIs were mostly relegated to software developers looking to fix interface and data sharing issues linked within compatible software solutions. The advent of APIs dates back to the dawn of the IT age, well before personal computers. At the time, an API was typically used as a library for an operating system. After about 30 years, APIs have emerged from their local environments, and in the early 2000s, they have become an important technology for remote data integration.

Original diagram for Techfastly by Vin Patel.

Deep Dive into Success Histories. #

In 2000, the eBay API was rolled out. The API purpose was to standardize how applications integrated with eBay, and make it easier for partners and developers to build a business around the eBay ecosystem.

In 2006, the social network Twitter platform introduced its TwitterAPI. Much like the release of the eBay API, Twitter’s API release was in response to the growing usage of Twitter by those scraping the site or creating rogue APIs. Twitter exposed the Twitter API via a REST interface using JSON and XML. In some years, Twitter’s API has become the center of many desktop clients, mobile applications, web apes, even by Twitter itself. In August 2006, Amazon EC2 or Elastic Compute Cloud, a new cloud computing service, was launched. After some months, the cloud storage service Amazon S3 was launched. Amazon EC2 provides computational capacity in the cloud by allowing developers to launch different sizes of virtual servers within Amazon data centers. Using the Amazon EC2 API, developers can launch small, large, and extra-large servers and pay for every hour that the server is running. Amazon EC2, combined with AmazonS3, has built a platform for the next generation of computing with APIs at the core.

Where can APIs be exploited? #

Artificial Intelligence and Big Data are the areas where APIs can be exploited. Examples come from chatbots as a link between these conversational agents and websites or customer care services. APIs are rethinking the cloud services market through Machine Learning and Deep Learning for facial recognition, document classification, voice and text recognition, sentiment analysis, and predictive modeling. IoT APIs are another example of an intersection between devices and internet networks or other applications connected with the network.

Original diagram for Techfastly by Vin Patel.

If properly managed, APIs provide a critical “innovation pool” of digital resources; they can become relevant tools to improve the user experience. Although APIs are born as a technical tool, they take on a crucial role in the Digital Transformation context as a strategic driver of business and innovation, allowing companies to rethink their corporate assets.

Happy Digital Transformation with APIs world.

Related reading

Questions and answers

What is an API? #

API stands for Application Programming Interface, and it is defined as a system of tools and resources in an operating system enabling developers to create software applications.

What Features are Essentials to Make a Good API? #

A good API should allow us to search for data by specific criteria and detect changes in data by particular timestamps. Moreover, it should be able to practice paging and sorting.

What about APIs’ History? #

Where can APIs be exploited? #

Artificial Intelligence and Big Data are the areas where APIs can be exploited. Examples come from chatbots as a link between these conversational agents and websites or customer care services.

What does Attribution mean in Digital Marketing

Vin Patel — Sun, 12 Apr 2020 03:12:08 +0000

Key takeaways

Mufti-channel and mufti-screen browsing is the nature of the current digital economy.
These new tendencies have affected the way marketers measure the effectiveness of marketing and advertising.
It articulates the need to make customer-centric journey’s the center of your digital transformation.

Mufti-channel and mufti-screen browsing is the nature of the current digital economy. Consumers are likely to have engaged with your marketing initiatives on several channels and devices before they commit to a purchase.

Attribution models that contribute towards the dynamics between channels and devices allow analyzing the full journey to purchase or a call to action and attribute the right credit to each event, making marketing spend decisions for digital leaders, far more accurate and financially viable. Digital attribution is one of the core fundamentals for a successful digital marketing transformation Digital attribution is the set of events based on user actions. These events or set of actions contribute in some manner to the desired digital marketing results. Each of these events is assigned values according to its importance in marketing and its impact on consumers. Digital attribution specifies what combination of events involves users in the desired behavior, mostly referred to as conversions. Leveraging Digital Attribution and make data-driven decisions is foundational to digital transformation.

This article covers the basics of digital attribution from a marketing angle as a quick read for executives and digital transformation leaders.

The current application of attribution marketing has emerged from the transition of marketing from traditional to digital ways. The field is highly affected by large data collected through digital channels such as online surveys, social media data, conversion, emails etc. Its main purpose is to quantify and study the effects each advertising impression leaves on the purchase decision of the user. Subsequent to analyzing and studying what influences customers more, marketers optimize media for conversions and compare the importance of different media channels for marketing, such as E-mail, affiliate marketing, social media networks, display ads, and others. Analyzing the whole conversion path across the whole marketing mix eliminates the accuracy challenges of analyzing data from isolated marketing means. Usually, attribution statistics is utilized by marketers to map future ad promotions and campaigns by evaluating which media assignments (ads) were the most cost-efficient as shown by metrics like CPA (effective cost per action).

Models of attribution #

Rapid growth and popularity of digital advertisement and online marketing have concluded in a large amount of user data for tracking, ROI and effectiveness of conversions. These new tendencies have affected the way marketers measure the effectiveness of marketing and advertising. The trends have also opened a new door to development of new marketing metrics that are CPI (cost per impression), CPC (Cost per click), CPA (cost per acquisition/action), and click-through conversion. For this reason, a number of attribution models have emerged with time since the explosion of data and devices have boosted up the creation of attribution technology. Digital attribution is very important because it assists advertisers in analyzing behaviors and responses of customers.

The types of attributions are:

Single source attribution Also known as single touch attribution, allocates all credit to the single event or action, for instance, the last channel used to show the ad, last click or initial click. Single attribution model does not justify and contribute to all elements involved in creating results. This is the reason model isn’t considered verified and accurate especially by Google. Fractional attribution This attribution model comprises of consumer credit, U-curve models, and equal weights. Here equal weight based models assign the same amount of credit to all media channels and media mix, consumer credit involves studying guesswork or past experiences of customers to assign credits, and whole credit is allocated to first and final click in U-curve where idle actions are ignored across conversion path. Algorithmic attribution This model of attribution utilizes proprietary algorithms to allocate conversion among all touch points before conversions with the help of auto scripts to locate where credit is unpaid. Model is started from very first event level and assesses converting and non-converting paths crosswise all media channels. After that weights are combined to figure out hidden associations and correlations inside marketing.

These are the high-level attribution models that can make your marketing data more meaningful and useful in your digital transformation journey.

Our last article covers on How to build a digital transformation culture in your organization leveraging data. It articulates the need to make customer-centric journey’s the center of your digital transformation.

Related reading

Building a digital transformation culture

Vin Patel — Sat, 11 Apr 2020 20:55:00 +0000

Key takeaways

If you feel that your digital transformation initiatives are stuck in the planning phases, you are not alone.
These solutions are Free, don’t cost anything rather than to prove a business case.
If these steps are done correctly, make your employee’s responsibility to move the needle.

If you feel that your digital transformation initiatives are stuck in the planning phases, you are not alone. Digital transformation is not a one-off project on an executive’s roadmap but is a constantly evolving culture. So let’s make digital transformation possible in your organization.

Cultivating an agile mindset

Culture is the game and it is the most difficult thing to change. Culture maintenance is as strenuous as culture change. For an executive who is leading a digital transformation in the organization, culture change, should become an agenda item forever and maintain it forever. An executive needs to monitor culture like any other metrics 24 x 7 x ‘Every Minute?. Companies often fall into the trap on not investing time effort and money on changing the culture and this happens when the leadership is focused on quantifiable ROI based metrics. This happens because ROI based metrics are easy to quantify. CEO’S, CMO’S, COO’S, CFO’S all should believe and invest time and money in changing the culture and make the organization ready for an agile mindset and when they all stop speaking the language of finance is when the digital transformation actually starts happening. Finance metrics are equally important but they have to be measured separately. Management commitment to drive digital transformation with a secured investment will kickstart innovation at a much faster rate than waiting for your employees to build a business case around digital economy adaption. Paying emphasis to build people talent and digital competencies should be a focus area for a digital transformation leader.

Communicate, Communicate & Communicate and then launch

Communication to the employees why digital transformation is required in an organization and how will it be done is also important. Putting big posters and innovative messages of digital revolution across an organization are proven to be effective for many companies. Creating a digital transformation playbook and making it available openly in the organization can help as well. The ideal place for it is the internal employee portal or the global communications platform for the organization. Setup a launch date and encourage all employees to be a part of it. Launch digital transformation as a lighthouse project. The term lighthouse project refers to a model project that aims, besides its original purpose, to have a signal effect for numerous follow-up projects as they look towards it for inspiration and guidance. In companies, this term is used for projects intending to change direction or restructure. This project has to be always on and the road map of this project should influence the rest of the projects in the organization. Build a cross-function team across the organization to deliver this project. Make the employees with the longest duration in the organization as change agents and advocates.

Adapt Open Source Technologies

The new breed of innovative startups uses new agile business models and modern technologies like cloud computing, Blockchain, Real-time analytic, Deep Machine Learning. Most of these technologies are based on open source and that is the way the organization should start the digital transformation. These solutions are Free, don’t cost anything rather than to prove a business case. Some organization will need enterprise support but leading open source technologies to provide support element and is cheaper than monolithic software licensing agreements. I do agree that maintaining the status quo for business operation and keeping the lights on should be the top priority for executives but to balance out the budget between operations and innovation will drive transformation.

Data-Driven Culture to build personalized customer experience

Keeping Customer at the center of every decision you make in the organization and using data as a vehicle quadruples digital transformation in an organization. Amazon, Google, Airbnb and Netflix and many startups that grow exponentially are pioneers in transforming insights into data-driven action. Airbnb leverages data to improve their search and services but also to improve their hiring processes. Airbnb characterized data by giving it a human touch: Voice of customers. They translated data coming out of customer interactions as the voice of customers and made this as part of their culture. They invented a term — Datum. A datum is a record of an action or event, which in most cases reflects a decision made by a person. They build customer journey’s leading to a decision to say ‘make a booking? and then learn from. It is a metric that actually tells you what your customer like and don’t like. This is a perfect example of how you can make a direct connection of your customer with the data you generate in your organization. The organizations that connect their data with customers and then make the voice of the customers as the key metric, as well as a culture, wins Just wins. Another example, Amazon uses data to automatically personalize user experience by leveraging customers past purchases. This will lead to a definite outcome for Amazon, that is increased sales. Netflix leverages customer interaction data from their app to present them with movies and show that they like and this will again lead to a definite business outcome that is increased user engagement. In recent years Netflix has become a giant in the creation of original content and data is a key ingredient in deciding what type of content they generate based on user engagement metrics. Leveraging the organization data to make a business decision is easier said than done. 1?2?3 of data to achieve maximum value is: Make an inventory of your organization’s data. It is a difficult task but has to be done once only. Doing it correctly with all stakeholders involved is critical ( again a culture thing to achieve ) Leverage on ’low hanging fruits? first. Take the datasets which are most easy to get hold of and can create the most impact. The example is clickstream data. This data can be acquired easily but can make the most value to a business, as described earlier. Make data transparent in your organization. This is the most difficult thing to achieve especially if you are in a regulated industry like healthcare, finance etc. But if you have your employee’s sign all proper agreements that most of the organizations do, there is not too much to worry about. If these steps are done correctly, make your employee’s responsibility to move the needle. Gain insights and leverage data to make business decisions.

Kickstart your digital transformation journey today.

Related reading