A new Competitive Assessment report puts Microsoft Azure and AWS leading the pack in IoT deployment.
AWS and Microsoft Azure are the two largest cloud platforms, and the two companies play an important role in IoT. According to ABI Research, the two companies are also leading the pack in core IoT deployments.
“Understanding the intricacies of the market is key,” Dimitrios Pavlakis, Senior Analyst of IoT and Digital Security at ABI Research. “Cloud device management alone is not enough to guarantee victory; the importance of critical partnerships is as relevant as ever to increase market reach and not be consumed by the competition. Intelligent solutions and automation are required for a sustainable lifecycle management environment, and even criteria like dev-tools and resource modularity can greatly add to the popularity of certain solutions and shape future IoT-borne revenue streams.”
According to ABI Research, Pelion, Intel, Telit, Device Authority, Thales, and Digicert were in the middle of the pack, with Avsystem and Sequitur Labs following.
All together, twelve criteria were used in the assessment, including encryption and hardware security, dev tools, cloud, software options, IoT connectivity and ecosystem support, strategic partnerships, regulatory policies, FOTA, automation, trusted ID, pricing and monetization.
“Innovation without a clear device-to-cloud roadmap, a flexible monetization strategy, and a solid partnership circle is utterly meaningless in most cases,” Pavlakis concludes.
SAP entered into an agreement with the Department of Justice (DOJ), admitting it illegally exported thousands of copies of its software to Iran.
SAP is the one of the leading enterprise software companies in the world, with a focus on ERP, cloud and IoT solutions. The company does business all over the world, requiring it to adhere to the laws and regulations of the many countries it operates within.
Unfortunately, the company has run afoul of the US, ignoring sanctions and export restrictions against Iran. As a result, SAP has entered a non-prosecution agreement with the DOJ, admitting it sold thousands of copies of its software to Iran, and agreeing to penalties and restitution.
Under the terms of the agreement, SAP will pay combined penalties of more than $8 million. SAP will disgorge $5.14 million of the money it received through the illegal sales.
“Today’s first-ever resolution pursuant to the Department’s Export Control and Sanctions Enforcement Policy for Business Organizations sends a strong message that businesses must abide by export control and sanctions laws, but that when they violate those laws, there is a clear benefit to coming to the Department before they get caught,” said Assistant Attorney General John C. Demers for the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “SAP will suffer the penalties for its violations of the Iran sanctions, but these would have been far worse had they not disclosed, cooperated, and remediated. We hope that other businesses, software or otherwise, we heed this lesson.”
“By supplying Iran with millions of dollars’ worth of illegally exported software and services, SAP circumvented U.S. economic sanctions against Iran—pressure that is intended to end Iran’s malign behavior. However, it was SAP that first uncovered and reported this sanctions violation, and we would like to thank them for working hard to enhance their compliance program to prevent future violations,” said Special Agent in Charge Joseph R. Bonavolonta for the FBI’s Boston Division. “Let this case be a lesson to others that it’s better to self-report and own up to one’s mistakes than undermine U.S. foreign policy and adversely affect our national security.”
GE Research and Verizon have partnered to power a cross-industry GE testbed with Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband.
Verizon’s Ultra Wideband, also known as mmWave, is the fastest flavor of 5G. It offers revolutionary speed, measured in gigabits. This makes it ideal for data-intensive applications that require high speeds and low latency.
GE’s testbed will tackle a range of industries, including wireless, remote patient monitoring, predictive maintenance of aircraft engines and real-time control of wind farms.
“Together with Verizon, we are leading the way in innovating on 5G,” said Vic Abate, GE’s Chief Technology Officer. “It marks a pivotal moment for the industrial world, as we finally have a wireless network platform that delivers the speed, scale, reliability and flexibility to connect industrial devices in a truly transformative way.”
“Verizon’s 5G platform capabilities provide the perfect testbed for GE’s research team to build the next-generation, real-time solutions that will transform every industry,” said Tami Erwin, CEO of Verizon Business. “There’s never been a more critical time to build the 21st century infrastructure built on mobility, broadband and cloud and our 5G sits right at the epicenter.”
Senator Edward J. Markey and Congressman Ted W. Lieu have reintroduced the Cyber Shield Act legislation to tackle Internet of Things (IoT) security.
The Cyber Shield Act will create a voluntary certification program for IoT devices, ensuring they meet a certain security standard. The installed base of IoT devices is expected to hit 75.44 billion by 2025. Those devices include baby monitors, smart locks, cameras, home assistants, cell phones, laptops and much more.
Unfortunately, it’s estimated that 98% of IoT data is unencrypted, leaving important data vulnerable to attack. IoT security is also one of the leading issues the enterprise faces, with 50% listing security and data privacy as their top concern.
The Cyber Shield Act attempts to address those issues by establishing an advisory committee of cybersecurity experts from a wide range of industries. The committee will establish cybersecurity benchmarks for the myriad of IoT devices, giving the industry a clear goal and set of parameters to work within.
The legislation would also allow for a “Cyber Shield” badge that certified products could display, serving as a way for consumers to make educated choices about what devices to purchase.
“The IoT will also stand for the Internet of Threats until we put in place appropriate cybersecurity safeguards,” said Senator Markey. “With as many as 75 billion IoT devices projected to be in our pockets and homes by 2025, cybersecurity continues to pose a direct threat to economic prosperity, personal privacy, and global security. By creating a cybersecurity certification program, the Cyber Shield Act will give consumers a seal of approval for more secure products, as well as encourage manufacturers to adopt the best cybersecurity practices so they can compete in the marketplace for safety. I thank Congressman Lieu for his partnership on this essential legislation.”
“Championing innovation is important, because technological advancement can make our lives easier and more efficient. But, for every smart refrigerator or wifi-enabled baby monitor, there comes increased cybersecurity risks that make consumers vulnerable to hacking and invasions of privacy. As we connect more parts of our lives to the internet, we have to make sure we’re doing it safely. That’s where Sen. Markey and my Cyber Shield Act comes in,” said Representative Lieu. “By creating a voluntary program allowing IoT manufacturers to certify the security of their devices, we’re encouraging the idea that cybersecurity should be top of mind for industry and consumers alike. It’s a great solution to an ever-increasing problem, and I’m grateful to have Sen. Markey as a partner on this bill.”
A copy of the legislation can be viewed here (PDF).
The Taiwanese government has offered assurances there is enough water to keep the country’s chipmaking industry running till May.
Taiwan has become one of the most important semiconductor manufacturing hubs in the world. TSMC is one of the biggest chipmakers, relied on by companies across a number of industries. That demand is at a record high, with multiple industries impacted by shortages.
Unfortunately, Taiwan is currently in the midst of its worst drought in 56 years, impacting the water supply that’s available for a number of critical industries, including semiconductor manufacturing.
According to Bloomberg, the government has offered reassurances the country has enough water to last until May. At that time, the yearly monsoons should alleviate the drought, although experts are already warning rainfall may fall short of historical levels.
In the meantime, manufacturing at TSMC has not yet been impacted, and the company says it has contingency plans in place.
Dell Technologies CTO John Roese says 2021 will be a big year for 5G, as it moves beyond the consumer and begins to reach its full potential.
When many people think of 5G, their first thought is how fast the service will be on their phone, tablet or computer. More than any previous generation of wireless tech, however, 5G is on the threshold of revolutionizing multiple industries. The speed 5G offers promises to help advance artificial intelligence, edge computing, autonomous driving, Internet of Things (IoT) and much more.
Roese believes 2021 is the year 5G will finally start delivering on its promises, beyond what it offers to consumers.
5G “hasn’t really transformed much because the first wave of 5G was really an extension of 4G, it wasn’t the real 5G,” Roese said, speaking with media, via ZDNet. “But in 2021 with what’s called release 16 and release 17 of the 5G standards, we will now have true standalone 5G materialise and it will include advanced features…[that will]…make 5G interesting.”
“Building a smart city, or smart factory, or smart hospital, or a logistics system, or a transportation network needs these advanced features and as they materialise, the 5G ecosystem will shift from being very consumer focused to really being dominated by enterprise use cases,” Roese added. “Revolutionising transportation, or healthcare, or logistics will become more and more of the dominant thread of why we’re doing 5G.”
Ring has announced it is now offering end-to-end encryption to protect videos through the entire process.
Ring made headlines in late 2019 when a number of users reported their video streams being hacked, and outsiders watching what was happening in people’s homes and even speaking to them. In some cases, the incidents took very disturbing turns, with strangers talking with children or going on racist rants.
It’s little wonder that Ring is rolling out end-to-end encryption, which the company is calling a technical preview at this point.
By default, Ring already encrypts videos when they are uploaded to the cloud (in transit) and stored on Ring’s servers (at rest). With End-to-End Encryption, customer videos are further secured with an additional lock, which can only be unlocked by a key that is stored on the customer’s enrolled mobile device, designed so that only the customer can decrypt and view recordings on their enrolled device.
Privacy, security and user control are foundational to Ring, and video End-to-End Encryption demonstrates Ring’s ongoing commitment to continually delivering enhanced privacy, security, and control to customers.
Ring’s announcement is a welcome upgrade…even if it is long-overdue.
Cisco has reportedly decided to pull the plug on its plans to build a business around smart cities.
Smart cities are considered the future of urban planning, using sensors, Internet of Things (IoT) devices and other electronics to improve the city’s functioning. Everything from utilities to hospitals to policing to medical care to IT services to traffic and transportation can be greatly improved and made more efficient.
Cisco had bet heavily on the technology, centering its efforts around its Cisco Kinetic for Cities software. According to The Wall Street Journal, however, the company is now abandoning its efforts.
“We recently decided to stop sales and eventually support for the Cisco Kinetic for City product line to align our product investment to evolving market needs and customer requirements,” a company spokesman told The Wall Street Journal.
Cisco has been working for some time to transition into software and services, relying less on hardware. Its latest earnings report showed the strategy is beginning to pay off, especially during the pandemic. Nonetheless, it appears the smart city business presented too many challenges for continued investment.
Verizon partners with Microsoft to create new ways for enterprises to accelerate the delivery of fast and secure 5G applications to enable state of the art low-latency IoT solutions.
Verizon’s on-site 5G Edge network integrated with Azure edge services can enable ultra-low latency, many times faster than the blink of an eye, according to Verizon, which can help businesses tap into real-time data analysis and delivery. Applications incorporating computer vision, augmented, mixed and virtual reality, digital twins or machine learning can be enhanced with 5G and MEC on the customer premise, helping transform the way industries such as retail, transportation, and logistics operations.
Think of automated high-precision asset localization, tracking and positioning in manufacturing. In healthcare, the increased speed, reduced latency and high bandwidth connectivity of 5G networks could enable real-time precision medicine leveraging mixed reality and AI capabilities as well as seamless and fast sharing of large files to improve patient care.
“We have built a network that provides real-world, 5G-enabled solutions TODAY,” said Rima Qureshi, EVP and Chief Strategy Officer at Verizon. “By bringing together Verizon’s 5G network and on-site 5G Edge platform with Microsoft’s expertise in cloud services, we will enable the development of the next-generation technologies everyone has been envisioning.”
The collaboration brings Azure cloud and edge capabilities together with Verizon’s on-site 5G Edge, a mobile edge computing platform designed to enable developers to build applications for mobile end-users and wireless edge devices with ultra-low latency. By utilizing on-site private 5G, businesses will be able to realize increased power efficiencies and reduced costs of end user devices while addressing their privacy and security needs.
Logistics and supply chain solutions company Ice Mobility is already testing on Verizon’s on-site 5G Edge platform, integrated with Microsoft Azure. The company is using 5G and MEC to help with computer vision assisted product packing. By gathering data in near real-time on product packing errors, the company has the potential to improve on-site quality assurance and save 15% to 30% in processing time.
“We are especially excited to join Verizon and Microsoft to test how 5G and MEC can improve the quality assurance process,” said Mike Mohr, CEO of Ice Mobility. “They truly have listened to our needs to provide automated real-time quality oversight and feedback, which will enable us to cost-effectively launch unique new products, while maintaining the highest execution standards, significantly increasing throughput and reducing costs. And, this is just the beginning.”
“By leveraging Verizon’s 5G network integrated with Microsoft’s cloud and edge capabilities, developers and businesses can benefit from fast, secure and reliable connections to deliver seamless digital experiences from massive industrial IoT workloads to precision medicine,” said Yousef Khalidi, corporate vice president Azure for Operators at Microsoft.
Moving forward, Verizon will explore opportunities to co-innovate with Microsoft to deliver new value to industries ranging from manufacturing to healthcare.
Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband network enables throughput at least 25 times faster than today’s 4G networks*; delivers ultra-low latency; and offers very high bandwidth. Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband is expected to eventually enable 100 times larger data volumes than 4G; and the ability to connect more than a million devices per kilometer. Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband service is available to people in 55 cities and its 5G Nationwide service is available to more than 200 million people in more than 1,800 cities around the U.S.
A Dell Technologies commissioned an independent survey of 4,300 worldwide business leaders indicates a massive shift toward digital transformation in 2020 accelerated by the pandemic. The survey indicates that 80% of organizations globally have fast-tracked some digital transformation programs this year. But just 41% accelerated all or most of their programs. Dell says that this is the third installment of their Digital Transformation Index (DT Index), designed to show how businesses are adapting to unprecedented uncertainty during a global pandemic.
Incredibly, 79% are reinventing their business model as a result of the disruption caused by the pandemic and 50% of international business leaders worry they didn’t transition fast enough. The study notes that digital transformation is not easy, 94% of businesses surveyed say they are facing entrenched barriers spanning across technology, people, and policy.
According to the 2020 DT Index, the following are the top-3 barriers to digital transformation success:
Data privacy and cybersecurity concerns (up from 5th place in 2016)
Lack of budget and resources (#1 in 2016, #2 in 2018)
Unable to extract insights from data and/or information overload (a jump of eight places since 2016)
“We’ve been given a glimpse of the future, and the organizations that are accelerating their digital transformation now will be poised for success in the Data Era that is unfolding before our eyes”, says Michael Dell, Chairman, and CEO, Dell Technologies.
Additionally, the survey reveals a huge shift toward remote work. About 25% of employees worked remotely before the pandemic and today it is more than 50% of all employees are remote. According to the survey, remote work has become the new normal.
Top IT Investments Are For Emerging Technologies
Prior to the pandemic, business investments were strongly focused on foundational technologies, rather than emerging technologies. The vast majority, 89 percent recognizethat as a result of disruption this year, they need a more agile/scalable IT infrastructure to allow of contingencies. The DT Index shows the top technology investments for the next one to three years:
Cybersecurity
Data management tools
5G infrastructure
Privacy software
Multi-Cloud environment
And recognizing the importance of emerging technologies, 82 percent of respondents envision increased usage of Augmented Reality to learn how to do or fix things in an instant; 85 percent foresee organizations using Artificial Intelligence and data models to predict potential disruptions, and 78 percent predict distributed ledgers – such as Blockchain – will make the gig economy fairer (by cutting out the intermediary).
Despite these findings, only 16 percent are planning to invest in Virtual/Augmented Reality, just 32 percent intend to invest in Artificial Intelligence, and a mere 15 percent plan to invest in distributed ledgers in the next one to three years.
AMD is in talks to buy chipmaker Xilinx, with a deal possible as early as next week.
Xilinx is a chipmaker based in San Jose, California, specializing in the programmable chips used in wireless networks. The acquisition, will help AMD better compete with Intel in the datacenter market.
As Bloomberg points out, Xilinx has historically made chips for the telecommunications industry. In recent years, however, it has been branching out to the datacenter market. This market is a high-profit market that has caught the attention of AMD and Nvidia, a factor in the latter’s acquisition of Mellanox Technologies and potentially Arm.
Given Intel’s recent supply chain issues, not to mention bugs that have delayed the move to 7nm chips and Zombieland flaws that some experts have deemed “unfixable,” more options would likely be welcomed within the industry.
“The barriers have broken down now in digital transformation because of people working from home and the need to adopt faster,” says Brenda Harvey, General Manager at IBM Asia Pacific. “We see continued growth of hybrid cloud and of cloud services after the pandemic. It’s touching every element of a company’s business processes from the inside out and the outside in.”
The benefits coming from new personalized services, workflow automation, infusing AI to help drive this more personal experience, are actually driving better business impact. When we think about hybrid cloud which enables you to leverage all of your investments across your infrastructure we’re actually seeing two and a half times value than traditional models. We’re also seeing the benefits from regulatory cloud and capabilities that we’re putting into our platforms. We just announced a financial services cloud and we’ll do the same with insurance and healthcare.
We’ll take the costs out of the regulatory risk and compliance while providing more value from a business perspective. We’ve had a number of relationships across multiple industries including BNP Paribas, MUFG Bank, Adobe, across telecom with Vodafone Idea, Bharti Airtel, Verizon, and even Schlumberger and Ernst & Young. Companies are seeing the value of these platforms. In fact, in the study, 94% of the respondents said that by 2022 they would have a new business platform model that would continue to power their business.
Barriers To Digital Transformation Have Broken Down
We see continued growth of hybrid cloud and of cloud services after the pandemic. It’s touching every element of a company’s business processes from the inside out and the outside in. The inside out includes HR, finance, risk compliance, procurement, supply chain. Then the outside in, marketing, sales, customer engagement, and customer service. With marketing at marketing events, we saw a 3X response into our Think Digital than previous years because we could have more reach. So now marketing is taking into account a digital transformation of the clients’ needs.
Customer service and engagement are the number one priority of our clients. They are building and investing in the contact center to improve the experience and drive more value. This cloud platform will bring in new capabilities with 5G such as IoT (internet of things), blockchain, and of course quantum capabilities. We’ll see the technology advance while the cultural change is advancing too. The barriers have broken down now in digital transformation because of people working from home and the need to adopt faster.
IBM: Barrier To Digital Transformation Have Broken Down
“What we’re announcing today is the democratization of AI,” says VMWare CEO Pat Gelsinger. “VMWare and Nvidia are coming together to leverage all the work they have done over the last decade and a half in AI. This partnership will put it on the industry-standard VMWare footprint to enable every enterprise to have this game-changing technology of AI. We see it as a game-changer for the AI industry broadly.”
Patrick Gelsinger, CEO of VMWare, announced just before this year’s huge virtual VMworld 2020 conference a partnership with Nvidia that will bring on the democratization of AI:
The Democratization Of AI
Nvidia and VMWare are coming together in a new partnership. Nvidia has been building their capabilities in artificial intelligence are for quite a number of years. But AI is used by only 10 to 15% of enterprises where specialized hardware sits in the corner of the data center and is only available in remote cloud environments. What we’re announcing today is the democratization of AI. VMWare and Nvidia are coming together to leverage all the work they have done over the last decade and a half in AI.
This partnership will put it on the industry-standard VMWare footprint to enable every enterprise to have this game-changing technology of AI. Literally, that software can introspect on data and write software and bring that to every enterprise application. We are quite excited about the partnership. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and I have known each other for several decades and it really is exciting to see us bring the partnership to the next level.
Making AI Broadly Available For Enterprises
We are excited about it. We do see that this idea that we can now make AI broadly available for enterprises. It’s exciting for Nvidia because even as successful as they’ve been, they are still only cracking a small piece of the application workload. For us, this is a major accelerant not just in the data center but also extending to the Edge. As we see 5G and Edge emerge this is a major new area for both companies.
With our Tanzu offerings and virtualization offerings, it really is saying that now every enterprise can start to take availability of these powerful AI capabilities. We see it as a game-changer for the AI industry broadly and cleary an accelerant for us and for Nvidia and for our financials.
The Edge – Next Major Move Of Application Development
Multi-cloud is the core of our Tanzu offerings. We want to help companies take advantage of the most modern CI/CD pipeline DevOps, DevSecOps capabilities. But they need to be able to take advantage of it in their private data centers, across multiple clouds, and to the Edge. For this, clearly, our preferred partnership with Amazon has really taken off. Now with Azure and Google and Oracle and the Alibaba partnership showing up now they can take advantage of that across any cloud and be able to go from their private data centers to the cloud and back.
We now have major customers of which a number of those we are highlighting at VMWorld who really are taking advantage of both to the cloud as well as from the cloud. This hybrid approach enables us to save 30% on average for customers. It’s a big savings but it also enables customers to have consistent developer environments and take advantage of the Edge. The Edge will be the next major move of application development as 5G starts to become broadly available in the industry.
“Today starts a new chapter in our close collaboration with the telecommunications industry to unlock the power of 5G and bring cloud and edge closer than ever,” said Microsoft Azure Executive Vice President Jason Zander in a blog announcement. “We’re building a carrier-grade cloud and bringing more Microsoft technology to the operator’s edge. This, in combination with our developer ecosystem, will help operators to future proof their networks, drive down costs, and create new services and business models.”
Jason Zander, Executive Vice President, Microsoft Azure, announces new collaborations with the telecommunications industry that will unlock the power of 5G and bring cloud and edge closer than ever:
The increasing demand for always-on connectivity, immersive experiences, secure collaboration, and remote human relationships is pushing networks to their limits, while the market is driving down price. The network infrastructure must ensure operators are able to optimize costs and gain efficiencies, while enabling the development of personalized and differentiated services. To address the requirements of rolling out 5G, operators will face strong challenges, including high capital expenditure (CapEx) investments, an increased need for scale, automation, and secure management of the massive volume of data it will generate.
Today starts a new chapter in our close collaboration with the telecommunications industry to unlock the power of 5G and bring cloud and edge closer than ever. We’re building a carrier-grade cloud and bringing more Microsoft technology to the operator’s edge. This, in combination with our developer ecosystem, will help operators to future proof their networks, drive down costs, and create new services and business models.
In Microsoft, operators get a trusted partner who will empower them to unlock the potential of 5G. Enabling them to offer a range of new services such as ultra-reliable low-latency connectivity, mixed reality communications services, network slicing, and highly scalable IoT applications to transform entire industries and communities.
By harnessing the power of Microsoft Azure, on their edge, or in the cloud, operators can transition to a more flexible and scalable model, drive down infrastructure cost, use AI and machine learning (ML) to automate operations and create service differentiation. Furthermore, a hybrid and hyper-scale infrastructure will provide operators with the agility they need to rapidly innovate and experiment with new 5G services on a programmable network.
More specifically, we will further support operators as they evolve their infrastructure and operations using technologies such as software-defined networking, network function virtualization, and service-based architectures. We are bringing to market a carrier-grade platform for edge and cloud to support the operator’s goals to future proof their infrastructure with disaggregated, and containerized network architectures. Recognizing that not everything will move to the public cloud, we will meet operators where they are—whether at the enterprise edge, the network edge, or in the cloud.
Our approach is built on the acquisitions of industry leaders in cloud-native network functions—Affirmed Networks and Metaswitch and on the development of Azure Edge Zones. By bringing together hundreds of engineers with deep experience in the telecommunications space, we are ensuring that our product development process is catering to the most relevant networking needs of the operators. We will leverage the strengths of Microsoft to extend and enhance the current capabilities of industry-leading products such as Affirmed’s 5G core and Metaswitch’s UC portfolio. These capabilities, combined with Microsoft’s broad developer ecosystem and deep business to business partnership programs, provide Microsoft with a unique ability to support the operators as they seek to monetize the capabilities of their networks.
Your customer, your service, powered by our technology
As we build out our partnerships with different operators, it is clear to us that there will be different approaches to technology adoption based on business needs. Some operators may choose to adopt the Azure platform and select a varied mix of virtualized or containerized network function providers. We also have operators that have requested complete end-to-end services as components for their offers. As a part of these discussions, many operators have identified points of control that are important to them, for example:
Control over where a slice, network API, or function is presented to the customer.
Definition of where and how traffic enters and exits their network.
Visibility and control over where key functions are executed for a given customer scenario.
Configuration and performance parameters of core network functions.
As we build out Azure for Operators, we recognize the importance of ensuring operators have the control and visibility they require to manage their unique industry requirements. To that end, here is how our assets come together to provide operators with the platform they need.
Communication Service Providers
Interconnect
It starts with the ability to interconnect deeply with the operator’s network around the globe. We have one of the largest networks that connect with operators at more than 170 points of presence and over 20,000 peering connections around the globe, putting direct connectivity within 25 miles of 85 percent of the world’s GDP. More than 200 operators have already chosen to integrate with the Azure network through our ExpressRoute service, enabling enterprises and partners to link their corporate networks privately and securely to Azure services. We also provide additional routes to connect to the service through options as varied as satellite connectivity and TV White Space spectrum.
Edge platform
This reach helps us to supply operators with cloud computing options that meet the customer wherever those capabilities are needed: at the enterprise edge, the network edge, the network core, or in the cloud. The various form factors, optimized to support the location in which they are deployed, are supported by the Azure platform—providing virtual machine and container services with a common management framework, DevOps support, and security control.
Network functions
We believe in an open platform that leverages the strengths of our partners. Our solutions are a combination of virtualized and containerized services as composable functions, developed by us and by our Network Equipment Provider partners, to support operators’ services such as the Radio Access Network, Mobile Packet Core, Voice and Interconnect services, and other network functions.
Technology from Affirmed and Metaswitch Networks will provide services for Mobile Packet Core, Voice, and Interconnect services.
Cloud solutions and Azure IoT for operators
By exposing these services through the Azure platform, we can combine them with other Azure capabilities such as Azure Cognitive Services (used by more than 1 million developers processing more than 10 billion transaction per day), Azure Machine Learning, and Azure IoT, to bring the power of AI and automation to the delivery of network services. These capabilities, in concert with our partnerships with OSS and BSS providers, enables us to help operators streamline and simplify operations, create new services to monetize the network, and gain greater insights into customer behavior.
In IoT our primary focus is simplifying our solutions to accelerate what we can do together from the edge to the cloud. We’ve done so by creating a platform that provides simple and secure provisioning of applications and devices to Azure cloud solutions through Azure IoT Central, which is the fastest and easiest way to build IoT solutions at scale. IoT Central enables customers to provision an IoT app in seconds, customize it in hours, and go to production the same day. IoT Plug and Play dramatically simplifies all aspects of IoT device support and provides devices that “just work” with any solution and is the perfect complement to achieve speed and simplicity through IoT Central. Azure IoT Central also gives the Mobile Operator the opportunity to monetize more of the IoT solution and puts them in a position to be a re-seller of the IoT Central application platform through their own solutions. Learn more about using Azure IoT for operators here.
Cellular connectivity is increasingly important for IoT solutions and represents a vast and generational shift for mobile operators as the share of devices in market shifts towards the enterprise. We will continue our deep partnership with operators to enable fast and efficient app development and deployment, which is critical to success at the edge. This will help support scenarios such as asset tracking across industries, manufacturing and distribution of smart products, and responsive supply chains. It will also help support scenarios where things are geographically dispersed, such as smart city automation, utility monitoring, and precision agriculture.
Where we go next
Our early engagement with partners such as Telstra and Etisalat helped us shape this path. We joined the 5G Open Innovation Lab as the founding public cloud partner to accelerate enterprise startups and launch new innovations to foster new 5G use cases with even greater access to leading-edge networks. The Lab will create long-term, sustainable developer and commercial ecosystems that will accelerate the delivery of exciting new capabilities at the edge, including pervasive IoT intelligence and immersive mixed reality. And this is just the beginning. I invite you to learn more about our solutions and watch the series of videos we have curated for you.
Mozilla has announced it is spinning of its WebThings endeavor as a standalone open source project.
WebThings is Mozilla’s open source take on Web of Things (WoT). WoT is a set of standards aimed at combining Internet of Things (IoT) with the web, using the web as the application layer. WoT will allow IoT devices to be discoverable and linkable on the web via URLs.
With the change, “Mozilla WebThings” will become “WebThings” and the project’s homepage will move to www.webthings.io.
“Mozilla is winding down its direct investment in WebThings and is transitioning control and responsibility to the community,” writes David Bryant. “It is important this happens in a way that allows easy continued contribution to the project as an open source effort, and so all the WebThings Gateways running around the world continue to function properly. To enable that independence from Mozilla some changes will be needed in how the project is named as well as how project infrastructure operates.”
The announcement is not a surprise given Mozilla’s recent layoffs. The company has struggled to find a major profit generator outside of its search deals with Google and Bing.
This may or may not worry you depending on your point of view. IBM has deployed a super intelligent face mask surveillance system for businesses (or government) to discreetly track face mask usage by employees, customers, and anyone who enters a building where their system is installed. The platform will send alerts to the powers that be if anyone is either not wearing a face mask properly or not wearing one at all.
Presumably, if the tech savvy eye in the sky notices an infraction it will quickly enable management and their enforcement teams to confront the individuals to rectify their face mask violation. How dare they! It will also monitor in real-time crowd density, social distancing, and elevated body temps of those who are entering an establishment.
IBM Cloud released a video narrated by Ian Smalley (below) that explains how their technology works to enable any business or government to surveil and enforce mask usage:
Here is a really cool way that Edge Computing is being used to help businesses reopen and operate safely. We know face masks can substantially reduce the transmission of aerosol borne viruses. But sometimes people forget to wear them properly or at all. IBM Edge Application Manager places analytical workloads with Edge enabled cameras that can recognize face masks and determine if they are being worn effectively.
Since analysis is being performed at the camera the video data and individual privacy are protected. You also avoid the expense of transmitting, storing, or analyzing that image data any further. Alerts are sent every time the camera detects improperly worn or non-existent face masks. Then it sends the aggregated data back to the IBM Maximo Worker Insights platform allowing you to highlight face mask activity in your facilities.
It’s pretty amazing stuff and that’s only scratching the surface. IBM Application Manager is also using Edge Computing to monitor crowd density, social distancing, and elevated body temps of those who are entering an establishment.
Intel launched their 10nm Tiger Lake CPU today increasing product performance by 20 percent. “Our 10-nanometer process that our Tiger Lake product will run on today is a step function improvement from the 10-nanometer process we launched just last year,” says Intel CEO Bob Swan. “Its process will deliver 15 to 20 percent more performance in the products that we are launching. At the end of the day, product performance is what matters most to our customers.”
Bob Swan, CEO of Intel, discusses the launch of their 10nm Tiger Lake CPU which provides a significant improvement in product performance:
Product Performance Is What Matters
The PC is a more and more an essential ingredient of our everyday lives. Whether you are studying from home, working from home, and trying to stay connected from home, it’s just more important. The Tiger Lake product that we are launching today, in essence, addresses those activities that we are doing. Whether it’s content creation, inherent productivity, or connectivity, it addresses those key things that are becoming more relevant in terms of how we engage with our PC and how we engage with each other.
At the end of the day, product performance is what matters most to our customers. Under that umbrella, there are multiple things that have evolved over time. Process continues to be very important. Packaging becomes more relevant as we pull different technologies together. Software plays an increasingly important role. The technologies required to build a computer today are much different than they used to be. With Tiger Lake, it’s not just about the CPU or the microprocessor, it’s about the WiFi. Connectivity is so important, upgrading WiFi, and upgrading graphics capabilities, The nature of the PC today and how it’s evolved incorporates more technology. Where process continues to be important, it’s not relatively as important as it once was.
Tiger Lake Will Deliver 20 Percent More Performance
The naming convention over time has lost its relevance. It’s become less of a technical articulation of capabilities and a little bit more of a marketing articulation. Our 10-nanometer process that our Tiger Lake product will run on today is a step function improvement from the 10-nanometer process we launched just last year. Its process will deliver 15 to 20 percent more performance in the products that we are launching. It’s a very exciting time not just because of the Tiger Lake product (the CPU) but how we’ve coupled it with other technologies to address the most top of mind experiences with advanced processing technology that we refer to as SuperFin.
The relative importance of graphics and the role that it plays, not just in gaming but in communications today is so much higher. That’s why with this product launch the enhanced capabilities of our integrated graphics is a real big bump in overall performance. It’s also an increasingly relevant technology and capability in today’s PC. In essence, the use of the PC and what the graphics technology we’ve built into this product does is rising the role that the PC will play as it become more and more an essential ingredient in our everyday lives.
There Will Be Significant Demand For Tiger Lake
Over the last several years we’ve added $20 billion in revenue to the size of the company. From our PC, our internet of things, our communication, and from our cloud businesses, we’ve experienced dramatic growth. It was critical for us to keep pace in ensuring that we have the capacity and the supply to deal with that growth. We’ve made tremendous progress at the end of last year and through the first six months of this year getting that capacity in place.
For both 14-nanometer, which today is the lion’s share of the products we are shipping, but increasingly we are adding capacity. We expect there will be significant demand for the new product that we announced today but also the new products that we have coming in the second half of this year, particularly in the server Xeon chip.
https://youtu.be/PMAi5lXMkXA
Intel CEO Bob Swan: Tiger Lake Will Deliver 20% More Performance
Verizon has introduced the next generation location service, featuring Hyper Precise Location using Real Time Kinematics (RTK).
GPS has become one of the most important tools in modern times, used by civilians, governments and militaries worldwide. While GPS access used to require dedicated devices, such as those by TomTom, modern cell phones have largely taken over the consumer market. Compared to cell phones, however, dedicated devices are often more accurate, despite only providing three to nine meter accuracy.
Verizon’s announcement, however, ushers in a significant evolution of GPS, leapfrogging the accuracy provided by traditional devices. The company deployed RTK stations nationwide to provide IoT devices with pinpoint accuracy.
“We are scaling RTK to enable mobile location accuracy to within a few centimeters, transforming what is currently possible when it comes to location-enabled services and new IoT solutions coming onto the market,” said Nicola Palmer, Chief Product Development Officer for Verizon. “Continued growth in the IoT environment means billions of devices in fields where precision location services are becoming more critical, such as vehicle automation, unmanned aerial vehicles, precision agriculture technology, infrastructure monitoring, asset tracking, and high value shipping.”
Verizon’s new RTK network will have far-reaching implications on multiple industries, and will help the company continue to play a dominant role in the wireless industry.
“What’s important is that we are building a transformative 5G,” says Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg. “It will have the ultra-wideband that nobody else has with the highest speeds in the world on 5G. Then we are going to have 5G nationwide in the second half. We are also going to have the best 4G network. Our customers are going to feel how transformative our 5G is. It is not an incremental improvement from our 4G, it is transformative.”
Hans Vestberg, CEO of Verizon, discusses their planned nationwide launch of their “transformative” Verizon 5G in the second half of 2020:
We Are Building A Transformative 5G
I’m really excited because we have so many launches coming in the second half of 2020. We are on-plan or ahead of all the things we have committed to. What’s important is that we are building a transformative 5G. It will have the ultra-wideband that nobody else has with the highest speeds in the world on 5G. Then we are going to have 5G nationwide in the second half. We are also going to have the best 4G network. Our customers are going to get a great opportunity here.
We will also have a high penetration with IoS (Apple) and the Verizon customer base. Of course, it is going to be more important even when Apple comes out with a 5G phone. We have a great network all the way to the ultra-wideband to 5G nationwide on top of having the best 4G network. Our customers are going to feel how transformative our 5G is. It is not an incremental improvement from our 4G, it is transformative.
Everyone Wants To Beat Us But We Will Not Let Them
We are well-positioned in terms of the competitive landscape. We have worked on our network for three years now to put us in the best position for 5G now. We also have worked on our mix and match that are customers have asked for. In this quarter, we had a record uptake on our premium unlimited. Our customers are moving up the ladder to be part of our services.
Ronan Dunne, who runs the Verizon Consumer Group has a really good plan on how we are going to compete. This is nothing new for us. We have been leading this market for a long time and of course, everyone wants to beat us. We will not let them beat us. We will just execute on the plans we have.
Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg: We Are Building A Transformative 5G
The next generation of SD Express memory cards are about to smoke the current generation, providing roughly quadruple the speed.
Current SD cards, based on the SD 7.0 or 7.1 specification, have a maximum transfer speed of 985 megabytes per second. Under the announced SD 8.0 specification, that will jump to nearly 4 gigabytes per second, thanks to its use of the PCI Express® (PCIe®) 4.0 specification.
The announcement, made by the SD Association, could result in a whole new generation of mobile storage devices offering speeds that compete with SSDs.
“SD Express’ use of even faster PCIe and NVMe architectures to deliver faster transfer speeds creates more opportunities for devices to use SD memory cards,” said Mats Larsson, Senior Market Analyst at Futuresource. “This combination of trusted and well- known technologies makes it easier for future product designs to leverage the benefits of removable storage in new ways.”
“By dramatically increasing the speeds for SD Express we’re giving device manufacturers and system developers more storage choices,” said Hiroyuki Sakamoto, SDA president. “SD 8.0 may open even more opportunities for extra high performance solutions using removable memory cards.”
The SD Association’s announcement is exciting news for individuals and organizations that rely on removable media. Even those that don’t may find new uses for SD cards at those speeds.
Sony Semiconductor has announced it is partnering with Microsoft to develop AI-driven smart cameras for enterprise customers.
The two companies will embed Microsoft’s Azure AI on the IMX500, an intelligent vision sensor that analyzes images taken with smart cameras. Azure IoT and Cognitive Services will also power an app that works in conjunction with the IMX500.
“By linking Sony’s innovative imaging and sensing technology with Microsoft’s excellent cloud AI services, we will deliver a powerful and convenient platform to the smart camera market. Through this platform, we hope to support the creativity of our partners and contribute to overcoming challenges in various industries,” said Terushi Shimizu, Representative Director and President, Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation.
“Video analytics and smart cameras can drive better business insights and outcomes across a wide range of scenarios for businesses,” said Takeshi Numoto, corporate vice president and commercial chief marketing officer at Microsoft. “Through this partnership, we’re combining Microsoft’s expertise in providing trusted, enterprise-grade AI and analytics solutions with Sony’s established leadership in the imaging sensors market to help uncover new opportunities for our mutual customers and partners.”
The two companies will also provide a way for partners to use their own AI models if they choose. The combination of vision sensor and AI is a significant step forward in the enterprise smart camera market.
