Accelerating Digital Transformation Efforts with Private 5G

Posted on by Micah Kaplan

Every “G” we’ve experienced so far has been the one that’s going to revolutionize everything, right? Well, it turns out that 5G really is a meaningful step, especially for the Internet of Things. And private 5G networks even more so. Industrial environments definitely stand to benefit from its combination of high speed and low latency.

Richard Webb, Director of Network Infrastructure at CCS Insight, a mobile and wireless research firm, talks about the role of 5G in the digital transformation of organizations, the relationship between 5G and Wi-Fi, and the powerful 5G partners available to this ecosystem.

What’s driving the recent trend toward private 5G networks?

5G is a real game changer because it brings in new capabilities; it’s not just about faster broadband. I think speed is very much how it might be presented to the consumer market, but it means different things to other markets, particularly enterprise and industrial vertical sectors.

Some of the capabilities that 5G has are indeed around better capacity, but also lower latency. And these capabilities are emerging at the same time as the evolution of other digital technologies—such as multi-access edge computing, big data analytics, AI, and machine learning. 5G is a real foundational infrastructure and service environment for those other technologies, but it’s really the combination of 5G with those other digital technologies that makes it more powerful. And that’s something you’re going to see industry really take advantage of.

You’re looking at an industrial environment that’s already going through its own changes—putting more and more of its processes into the cloud, and doing a lot more that’s data-driven and IT-centric and computing-centric within those processes. 5G comes along at a very opportune time because it can really play a role in supporting and accelerating this digital transformation. There are all sorts of new use cases that are emerging for enterprise and industrial verticals built around that 5G connectivity—particularly edge computing.

You’ve got different data streams that could be sending only small pieces of data, but scaled up over tens or hundreds of thousands of data points or connectivity points within an organization. These could be sensors that are just relaying one single piece of information, but relaying it on a very regular basis as a small part of a very complicated manufacturing line, for example. Or a very complicated set of different processes around lots of different types of machinery within a smart healthcare facility, for another example. Different devices and the different data streams they’re capturing offer a number of very, very interesting but very sophisticated and often complex use cases.

So there are a great many possibilities, but there are a great many requirements as well, and this is where 5G really plays its ace. Because it’s got capabilities that are indeed around capacity and latency. But it’s also the mobility of bringing that into an industrial environment where previously those machines were tethered to wired networks, for example. It’s the flexibility that 5G offers in terms of moving machinery around within a location. It’s the interrelation between other network technologies, like Wi-Fi. It’s the nationwide infrastructure—that mobile network that goes beyond a single enterprise’s premises.

What are the differences between 5G and Wi-Fi?

I don’t see it as being a zero-sum game, or a one-or-the-other standoff between Wi-Fi and 5G. Wi-Fi is incredibly broadly deployed within enterprises; I don’t think it’s going to go away, and I see no reason why it should go away just because 5G becomes an option. There’s been a very progressive and coordinated conversation between Wi-Fi development camps and mobile development, so Wi-Fi and 4G, 5G are not strangers to each other. These are technologies that can now talk to each other; they can be integrated within a network, or they can operate as two separate simultaneous networks. And this is how I think we’re going to see both of them coexist within an enterprise location.

“It’s not necessarily that #5G is better than Wi-Fi, it’s just that 5G can be better at certain things or in certain scenarios.” —Richard Webb, Director of Network Infrastructure at @CCSInsight via @insightdottech

Wi-Fi is very well deployed and scales very well indeed. But it may not be suited to mission-critical connectivity. 5G is much better suited to mission-critical capability because when you connect a device, you can typically work within performance parameters to a much greater and more consistent extent. It’s not necessarily that 5G is better than Wi-Fi, it’s just that 5G can be better at certain things or in certain scenarios. Think of them as complementary; when you’ve got both of them working simultaneously, they’ll help each other’s performance.

How can organization go about implementing a private 5G network?

5G is almost an opportunity for telecoms to reset their game for enterprise and industrial verticals—to think differently about how they position not just their services but how they position 5G as a kind of technology platform within enterprise for those digital technologies like edge computing and AI analytics.

Telecoms really need to be open about what their capabilities are, and be honest about the fact that they can’t do everything for everyone—particularly within an enterprise environment. So they’ve got to put in place an ecosystem of solutions that involves network hardware and software; cloud service capabilities; maybe systems integrators, or players with deep, vertically specific knowledge of some of those markets that telecoms want to address.

It’s really something that has to be done on a customer-by-customer basis, or certainly on a vertical-by-vertical basis. In one vertical—let’s say healthcare—there might be a good customer base. The telecom may know a lot about the technology needs of the healthcare industry, and so it feels it could be the direct-touch lead for a particular healthcare transformation environment.

Pick a different vertical and that telecom may not be as strong. So it might take a different approach and be more of a wholesale provider, where the direct interface with the customer in that particular environment could be a cloud partner. So there’s a technology component to it, but there’s very much a commercial component to it as well.

What’s the role of cloud providers such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft in private 5G?

I think these providers like Amazon Wavelength, like Microsoft Azure, like Google Cloud, and so on, have incredibly important roles to play, and a great opportunity within the private 5G network environment. Many of them have preexisting relationships with enterprises—partly because those enterprises are already undergoing their own digital transformations, and a lot of that is revolving around the cloudification of their processes.

I also think there’s a scale and a reach to those cloud providers that can often outperform what a telecom’s operator can potentially offer. Don’t forget that these are global organizations in many cases, and while an operator may have 5G infrastructure, the cloud providers have a great deal of investment in infrastructure of their own servers and data centers, as well as a powerful range of skill sets.

It’s not really a case of the cloud providers usurping the operators—or at least I don’t believe so. But I do hear from some operators that there is a little bit of tension around exactly what the role of the cloud providers is, given their scale and reach. And so there’s still quite a bit to be figured out with regard to how telecoms will interact with those cloud providers. But I do think there is a growing market—a growing pie, if you like—and that there’s room for everyone to coexist and get a piece of that pie.

How about enterprise solution providers like IBM, Dell, and HP?

I think they’re incredibly important. Many of these organizations will have very longstanding relationships and reputation within the enterprise space. A lot of them, particularly HP, are very active in 5G-core environments leveraging their software capabilities. They’ve already been moving in this direction—private 5G networks are really just an extension of that strategy to be part of telecommunications in a networking sense, and not just in a devices sense.

It’s still about access to computing and processing capabilities, but much more in tune with the virtualization of networking. I see these companies having a role that is valuable to the market alongside 5G network operators, and alongside cloud providers. Those IT providers have got heritage with mobile, and what that means is often they have deep knowledge of how those different vertical sectors are evolving, which is a really important piece in putting solutions together.

Where do enterprise network technology providers, like Cisco, fit in?

To Cisco this is meat and drink in some ways. It’s just about figuring out what its strategy is and where it fits. I think that’s what a lot of the different players are still figuring out. It’s not so much: “Have we got the right technology?” But: “Where do we fit best to offer the most value in that value chain? Where can we build business for ourselves?” There are a number of different ways they can position within this market.

But really, I don’t think it’s necessarily even right to think of private 5G as a single market. I think it is going to be a very diverse market, perhaps according to industry sector. But you can be one thing to one market and you can be a different thing to another market. It’s about looking at your channels, your opportunities, your customer base, your partnerships, and figuring out on a case-by-case basis: “What is our best opportunity? Who can we work with? How are we going to put solutions together and run them on a project-by-project basis?”

Can you tell us more about how technology manufacturer EXOR International deployed 5G?

Within its smart manufacturing facility in Verona, Italy, EXOR has implemented 5G as part of a private mobile network environment in partnership with Italian mobile operator TIM, as well as JMA Wireless and Intel®. And it doesn’t just operate a private 5G network for its own processing capabilities; it’s built a 5G smart lab environment. In this lab it tests new use cases for deployment within its own network, but it can also present them as part of its solution suite to customers. And it’s opened its lab to other companies to explore how they, too, can interact with industry 4.0 wireless applications based on 5G.

EXOR isn’t just an example of how to deploy 5G, it’s really a sharing partner for those learnings as well. It’s an incredibly powerful environment to get a sense of not only how use cases are deployed within a smart manufacturing environment but to experiment with what more could be done—particularly when you are looking at the interface between industrial PCs and human machines, and so on. There’s a lot of rich potential coming out of there, and I’m really interested to see how that story evolves over time.

What else about private 5G is important to note?

Private 5G doesn’t exist as an island. In many cases, it’s a very natural place to arrive at as part of an organization’s digital transformation process. It’s simply a better way of connecting the different parts of data functionality with processing and computing capability over a resilient and flexible network.

I’ve talked here about how 5G can be a platform for a combination of digital technologies. And that sounds great, but this is a complicated environment, and you need those technologies to be integrated. Solutions that can cut away some of the complexity are what I think is important for the acceleration of private 5G mobile networks, and I think we’re beginning to see some of those solutions addressed. It’s really about having a collaborative environment on the technology side, and a commercial framework that enables that environment.

Related Content

To learn more about the future of private 5G, listen to our podcast on Private 5G Predictions with CCS Insight and read ​​Challenges and Requirements of the Private 5G Network Market. For the latest innovations from CCS Insight, follow them on Twitter at @CCSInsight and on LinkedIn at CCS-Insight.

 

This article was edited by Christina Cardoza, Senior Editor for insight.tech.

Inside Intel® Core™ Processors and the Industrial Use Cases

Posted on by Micah Kaplan

New advancements in technology are being made every day, each one claiming to be more groundbreaking than the last. But to make a strong claim like that, you need the features to back it up. For instance, the recently announced 12th Generation Intel® Core™ processors, code-named Alder Lake, are already making waves across all industries.

The processors feature a new hybrid architecture that Intel says is the biggest improvement in processor performance in years. It provides both high performance and efficiency, so solutions don’t have to compromise on power to achieve high performance, or vice versa.

In addition, the release includes massively upgraded GPUs, real-time capabilities, and new hardware features. This has resulted in faster single-thread performance, multithread performance, graphics performance, and GPU image classification inference performance.

“The most amazing feature is about the hybrid architecture, combining the Performance-core as well as the Efficient-core. We can adjust which core is doing what kind of jobs accordingly,” says Kenny Chang, Vice President of System Product BU at ASRock Industrial, a leading industrial computer provider.

Alder Lake in the Manufacturing Industry

Chang explains that ASRock Industrial recently started to move towards a microservice architecture, running multiple containers simultaneously on an edge platform. With the 12th Generation Intel® Core™ processors and their flexible architecture, ASRock Industrial can not only manage all microservices and tasks, but it can move them to the cloud, to the edge, and back and forth to minimize bandwidth utilization and latency.

The hybrid architecture also comes into play here, as ASRock Industrial can now configure its system to run on either the Efficient-core or Performance-core, depending on the microservices’ needs.

ASRock Industrial’s close relationship with Intel also allowed it to preview the new processors before they were released, and to prepare for the changes with their customers.

“Intel brings more insights into how to address customer needs and how we can help our customer, especially for systems integrators to reduce their development time,” says Chang.

The recently announced 12th Generation Intel® Core™ processors, code-named #AlderLake, are already making waves across all industries. via @insightdottech

For instance, ASRock Industrial recently worked with a leading manufacturing company to consolidate the workloads in its automated optical inspection (AOI) systems. The manufacturing company wanted to improve product quality and customer satisfaction with the help of machine vision technology. But it was using Windows OS-based industrial control PCs to run machine automation, and a separate Linux-based system to run inspection models. Because of the different operating systems, they struggled to properly transmit data.

“The time between computer A to computer B would take too long to complete the data transition,” says Chang.

By implementing ASRock Industrial’s iEPF-9010S Series, powered by 12th Generation Intel® Core™ processors, into the AOI solution it would address the data transmission using shared memory technology.

The iEPF-9010S Series is an edge AIoT platform that takes advantage the Intel Thread Director for supercomputing power. It also comes with rich I/Os, and flexible expansions to connect multiple devices to the AOI system.

This workload consolidation enabled the company to speed up its data transmission by 100 times compared to the previous method. Additionally, the manufacturing company now has fewer devices to manage, lower system-integration complexity, and a smaller system-equipment footprint, according to Chang.

He explains that the switch to the iEPF-9010S Series was a seamless one. “If a customer would like to use this solution, they can just buy our box and we can have such stuff installed in our system. So they can just open the box and put it on their software application. Then that’s up and running quickly,” Chang says.

Alder Lake’s Hardware Integration

ASRock Industrial is also benefiting from the new hardware-security features in the processors. “Cybersecurity in tech is the hot topic all over the world. When we introduce industrial IoT into industrial automation there are lots of OT devices that become very vulnerable,” says Chang.

The company saw this firsthand in a 5G smart pole/smart city implementation, where the smart pole was integrated with lots of devices for lightning, air quality control, and traffic monitoring. Having a platform based on Alder Lake allowed all the data from those devices to be sent to the edge for image classification. Intel’s latest software guards and PTP technology also helped make sure the data was secure within the hardware.

In addition, Alder Lake’s new real-time capabilities provided real-time visibility into what was going on in the city, so operators could make fast and informed decisions as necessary.

Going forward, ASRock Industrial is excited to see what other customers do with these new features and will continue to help solutions reach their full potential.

“ASRock Industrial is not only for the hardware provider. We also think about and are working across Intel verticals to help customers get a better solution. That’s our goal for our end customers. And we also help to make the world better than ever,” says Chang.

Related Content

To learn more about the 12th Generation Intel® Core™ Desktop and Mobile processors, read CES 2022: Intel® Launches Revolutionary CPU Architecture, and listen to Inside the Latest Intel® Processors with ASRock Industrial. For the latest innovations from ASRock Industrial, follow them on LinkedIn at ASRock-Industrial.

 

This article was edited by Kenton Williston, Editor-in-Chief of insight.tech.

AI Robots Use Vision and Touch to Pack Produce

Posted on by Micah Kaplan

Robots have mastered sight and sound, and new technology is helping them fine-tune their sense of touch for a surprising use case. With a background in electronics, engineering, and bionanotechnology, Dr. Atif Syed was fascinated with nano-scale devices that can have a massive impact on processes. This focus led Syed, the CEO of Wootzano, a UK-based robotics company, to create an electronic skin for robots that enables awareness of pressure sensitive contact.

“I knew that one of the biggest issues was giving robots the sense of real touch like humans have,” he explains. “The electronic skin sensors can feel how much force is applied and the exact direction of a motion. The most interesting part is that this capability is on a completely stretchable material.”

Syed’s goal was to use his innovative new technology in medicine, but he took an unexpected detour, finding a valuable application in the food distribution industry with a potential for supply chain digital transformation.

IoT Machine Learning Transforms an Industry

Traditional methods of picking, trimming, and packing produce are prone to human error, impacting quality and operational efficiency.

“I saw first-hand how difficult it is to find labor to do these tasks and now almost everything is autonomous or automated,” says Syed. “But the fine motor skills needed to pick products without bruising and damaging them couldn’t be fully automated because robots don’t have a fine enough sense of touch.” Since the job is mundane and laborious, the industry is also challenged by high turnover and recruiting expenses.

“Pack houses work with agencies, and employees often come in for a short period of time and then move onto another job,” says Joel Budu, machine learning engineer for Wootzano. “Whatever training you did with that person is more or less gone, and the quality of the output of the work that they do varies as a result.”

Robotic systems equipped with Syed’s electronic skin, like Wootzano’s Avarai, can take over the process, packing produce more efficiently to help improve profit margins and get food from farm to table faster and fresher. The robots can also identify a quality issue before food is sent to the retailer, reducing returns and waste.

How Industrial Automation and IoT Work

Wootzano’s Avarai system is a standalone solution that can be added to an existing conveyor system. Instead of just offering a robotic hand like other systems, Avarai is a complete solution with vision, automation, and the electronic skin that plays a pivotal role, checking for freshness by analyzing data including firmness, chemical sensing, and temperature. The pick tool on the end-effector is customizable, allowing customers to change their system to fit the requirements of their produce (Video 1).

Video 1. Produce processing is streamlined with an AI and CV powered robotic fruit packer solution. (Source: Wootzano)

Avarai robots are equipped with AI and IoT machine learning. Every product that passes through the robot cameras is recorded and analyzed. Data is stored onto an AWS cloud network. Grapes, for example, are one of the most complex fruits to pick and process, and Avarai offers an ROI of roughly just under a year.

“Avarai is very easy to integrate into existing equipment,” says Budu. “The cabinet structure that contains the brains of the robots can fit into a 600-millimeter square space. We use Intel® RealSense™ cameras to capture depth images. And our solution uses a lot of Intel® hardware, including CPUs for the PC and VPUs for the machine learning inference.”

Packers purchase the robot and enroll in a monthly subscription fee, which covers the machine learning models, hardware updates, repairs and maintenance, and replacement of electronic skin.

“Depending on usage, the e-skin needs replacement about every four months,” says Syed. “Unfortunately, unlike human skin, the robot skin doesn’t regenerate itself—yet.”

“The main benefit we are giving to our customers is the fact that they don’t need to rely on human labor which is a big challenge for the industry at present given labor shortages and the ongoing COVID pandemic,” says Syed.

#Robotic systems equipped with electronic skin, like @Wootzano’s Avarai, can help improve profit margins and get food from farm to table faster and fresher. via @insightdottech

The Future of IoT Robots

Syed’s next goal is to democratize robots and get them to a price point that makes sense for customers—both commercial and consumer. He says democratization will expand what’s possible.

“We see a future where there are more robots in people’s homes,” he says. “Today, consumers have robot lawn mowers, robot vacuum cleaners, and even robot litter boxes that clean themselves. We envision one that cooks your favorite meal for you! Our biggest innovation is bringing the cost down to enable customers to adopt technologies and integrate them as quickly as we can. We believe in a world where people have more free time to do the things they love.”

 

This article was edited by Georganne Benesch, Associate Content Director for insight.tech.

Top IoT Influencers to Watch in 2022

Posted on by Micah Kaplan

2022 is expected to be a transformative year for the Internet of Things. From digital transformation to AI, 5G, and edge computing—big changes are ahead. But it can be overwhelming to keep up with all the latest advancements. That’s why we are working to make it easier for you.

At insight.tech, we pride ourselves on staying on top of all the latest tech, trends, and industry news. So we’ve identified eight of the top IoT influencers to watch this year:

1. Harold Sinnott

Harold is a technology influencer, speaker, author, and digital consultant specializing in emerging technologies, digital transformation, and the future of work. Why follow this expert? He is continuously ranked in the top 10 for digital disruption and across frontier technology subjects.

2. Avrohom Gottheil

Avrohom is focused on helping high and emerging technology companies reach their full potential. He works to amplify their marketing efforts, boost their engagement and reach, and become thought leaders for their industry. Follow him as he takes on all things AI, IoT, cloud, and cybersecurity.

3. Chuck Martin

Considered one of the foremost IoT thinkers in the world, Chuck has written multiple books on digital transformation, IoT, and business. He’s even been named a New York Times bestselling business author. If you’re looking to learn about emerging digital technologies, the Internet of Everything, AI, machine-to-machine, wearables, and more—Chuck has you covered through books, podcasts, and daily news.

4. Dr. Ganapathi Pulipaka

Want a deep dive into deep learning and machine learning? Bestselling author Dr. Ganapathi Pulipaka has more than a decade of experience in both fields and will keep you up-to-date with all the latest AI news.

Check out eight of the top #IoT influencers to watch this year: via @insightdottech

5. Dr. Fei-Fei Li

Looking to expand your AI knowledge with cognitively inspired AI, machine learning, deep learning, computer vision, and smart healthcare content? Dr. Fei-Fei Li is the influencer for you. Especially if you’re looking for a dash of cognitive and computational neuroscience.

6. Spiros Margaris

This venture capitalist was the first international influencer to achieve Onalytica’s “Triple Crown” ranking for his leadership in fintech, blockchain, and AI. He is also considered the number-1 fintech influencer in the banking community. If that doesn’t have you convinced, check out his TEDxAcademy talk as well as his long list of accolades.

7. Giuliano Liguori

Giuliano is not only a digital thought leader but also founder of Digital Leaders—a global initiative to promote digital transformation. Having acted as a trusted digital transformation advisor to multiple companies and being on the forefront of emerging digital technologies, he can help support business growth and ensure you’re adopting the right IoT tech.

8. Rob van Kranenburg

As founder of Internet of Things Council, the largest independent IoT think tank, Rob paves the way for more robust, secure devices within the IoT and IIoT ecosystems. Give Rob a follow for the latest in IoT and the impact it has in the EU.

Related Content

Looking for more industry thought leaders? Check out our previous top influencers to follow from 2021, 2020, and 2019.

 

This article was edited by Christina Cardoza, Senior Editor for insight.tech.

Private 5G Predictions with CCS Insight

Posted on by Micah Kaplan

Richard Webb

[podcast player]

With the recent allocation to enterprises of more spectrum, private 5G is rapidly making inroads in industries like manufacturing. The engineering company EXOR International is just one example of this, as it is using 5G spectrum to capitalize on the benefits of Industry 4.0—enabling engineers to quickly collaborate, experiment, test, and deploy new technology.

Wondering how you and your industry can benefit? Listen to this podcast, as we explore the use cases for private 5G networks, the role of cloud providers like Amazon Web Services, Google, and Microsoft, and ways to incorporate 5G into existing networks with solutions from companies like Cisco, Dell, HP, and IBM.

Our Guest: CCS Insight

Our guest this episode is Richard Webb, Director of Network Infrastructure at CCS Insight, a mobile and wireless research firm. Richard has been an industry analyst for more than 20 years, with a focus on the 5G networking landscape and markets like RAN architecture, 5G network enterprise considerations, Wi-Fi, and 6G. Prior to joining CCS Insight, he worked for a business conference company, where he was introduced to the telecommunications industry and gradually moved to an analyst role.

Podcast Topics

Richard answers our questions about:

  • (4:14) The trend toward private 5G networks
  • (7:56) Different 5G use cases
  • (11:08) Wi-Fi 6 versus 5G
  • (13:44 ) How organizations can implement private 5G networks
  • (17:35) The role of cloud providers in private 5G
  • (19:57) Where enterprise solution providers fit in
  • (22:00) Enterprise network technology providers in a 5G/Wi-Fi world
  • (24:04) What private 5G looks like in practice

Related Content

To learn more about the future of private 5G, read ​​Challenges and Requirements of the Private 5G Network Market. For the latest innovations from CCS Insight, follow them on Twitter at @CCSInsight and on LinkedIn at CCS-Insight.

 

This podcast was edited by Christina Cardoza, Senior Editor for insight.tech.

 

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Transcript

Kenton Williston: Welcome to the IoT Chat, where we explore the trends that matter for consultants, systems integrators, and end users. I’m Kenton Williston, the Editor-in-Chief of insight.tech. Every episode we talk to a leading expert about the latest developments in the Internet of Things. Today I’m exploring the rise of private 5G networks with Richard Webb, Director of Network Infrastructure at analyst firm CCS Insight.

With every new generation of cellular technology, the hype is always there. But with the rise of private networks, 5G is set to be a true game changer for manufacturers and other businesses. To successfully take advantage of everything 5G has to offer, you need collaboration between telecom operators, cloud service providers, systems integrators, and even enterprise solution providers.

In this podcast, we’ll talk about these partners and their role in the 5G ecosystem, the reasons enterprises should deploy private 5G networks in the first place, and the differences between Wi-Fi and 5G. But before we get started, let me introduce our guest. Richard, welcome to the show.

Richard Webb: Thank you very much. Pleasure to be here.

Kenton Williston: Can you tell me what CCS Insight does and what your role is there?

Richard Webb: Sure. CCS Insight is an industry analyst firm focused on a range of different emerging digital technologies. Everything from AI, machine learning, automation, analytics, mobile network infrastructure, enterprise, digital transformation, IoT, smartphones and mobile devices, including wearables, VR, AR, a range of different technologies. And really a lot of the work we do is consulting on the market opportunities for the intersectionality of those different emerging technologies. We’re a relatively small firm based in the UK, but with the global remit. So we look at markets across the whole world. We serve a customer base of mobile operators, cloud service providers, network equipment providers, software solution providers, everything in between.

Kenton Williston: I look forward to getting into that, but I’m curious. Actually earlier in my career I did a little bit of work as an analyst myself. So I’m curious what got you into this line of work and what you did before your current role.

Richard Webb: Okay. So I’ve been an industry analyst for over 20 years now, but I started my career actually working in entertainment. I was running a venue and it held a number of different corporate events, as well as public entertainment. One of the corporate events was a conference, a business conference, focused on technology. And I got speaking to the organizer who was putting the show on and hiring our venue. And I got really interested in that as a possible career. I jumped lanes as it were, and got into a conference organization and media company and got put into the telecommunications division. So a lot of the European telecoms markets were liberalizing. Really interesting time, GSM, 2G mobile networks were just beginning to proliferate around the world. We were all getting mobile phones for the first time. A huge range of business opportunities and lots of dynamism there to investigate. And that evolved into more in-depth research. And I sort stepped sideways into the analyst environment. That was a very natural move. And I’ve been an analyst for over 20 years.

Kenton Williston: You know that history where you started with the emergence of 2G and the changes in the European landscape is really reminiscent in some ways of where we are now in the telecom space, right? Every G that we’ve experienced so far has been the one that’s really going to revolutionize everything, right? The hype, the hype’s always there, but I think in a lot of ways, 5G really is a pretty meaningful step change. And especially for the world that we care about here at insight.tech, which I should mention is an Intel® publication. You know, 5G is incredibly important for the Internet of Things. I would love to hear a little bit from your perspective, what in particular is driving the trend toward private 5G networks. Because this is something that’s relatively new. Private networks really haven’t been a thing before now. And like I said, this is something that’s going to be incredibly important for the Internet of Things. What are you seeing in this area?

Richard Webb: Well, firstly, I think you’re absolutely right about 5G. I think previous it’s iterations from 2G to 3G. And then 3G to 4G have really been about developing mobile communications, but on a fairly straight line. Adding data to voice and then improving the speeds and feeds of that data capability in particular. But you come to 5G, I think absolutely you’re right. This is a real game changer simply because 5G brings along new capabilities. It’s not really just about faster broadband. I think that’s very much how it might be presented to the consumer market, but I think it means different things to other markets, particularly enterprise and industrial vertical sectors.

And I think this is really where we get to see the kind of full-flavored 5G really reach fruition. And that’s because some of the capabilities that 5G had, yes, some of those are around better capacity, but also lower latency, kind of emerge at the same time as the evolution of other digital technologies, such as multi-access edge computing, such as big data analytics, such as AI and machine learning. And really the combination of 5G with those other digital capabilities that makes it more powerful.

5G is a real foundational infrastructure and service environment for those other capabilities. And when you put those into combination with each other and other technologies as well, you get a much richer environment. And I think that’s something that you’re going to see industry really take advantage of. Early-phase 5G was very much around—non-standalone 5G infrastructure that really was kind of a slightly better iteration of mobile broadband. As we get into the second phase or the later phase of 5G, it’s going to be built around standalone. And there’s a lot that’s happening, the core infrastructure there that really kind of releases some of those capabilities and some of that ability to interact with those other technologies. When you look at private 5G networks, you’re looking at an industrial environment that’s already going through its own changes. Those industries, those enterprises are going through their own digital transformation.

So really they’re putting more and more of their processes into the cloud. They’re doing a lot more that’s data driven and IT-centric and computing-centric within their own processes. And 5G comes along at a very opportune time, because it can really play a role in supporting that digital transformation in enterprises. And also accelerating that by bringing those other digital capabilities to an enterprise. It could say, “Hey, there’s possibilities here that you haven’t ever had before.” So there’s all, all sorts of new use cases that are reemerging for enterprise and industrial verticals built around that 5G connectivity as a kind of means of access, those other digital capabilities I was talking about. Particularly edge computing, which is incredibly powerful.

Kenton Williston: Yeah, absolutely. And like you said, the overall trajectory of 2G, 3G, et cetera, has been greater bandwidth than the more consumer facing things. And I think on the 5G networks there are flavors. Now granted these sorts of things were starting to come into fruition with LTE, but much more fully fleshed out in 5G, where there are flavors of it that are really designed specifically for things like industrial environments, where the emphasis is not so much on having huge, fat pipes to pump the latest of your HBO Max show or whatever it might be. It’s more about having low latency connections to an awful lot of devices, which is really perfect, like you said, for an industrial setting.

Richard Webb: Yeah, absolutely. I think once you stop thinking in terms of the connected device being attached to a human necessarily, and being attached to a machine instead, and gathering data that is related to the activity that that machine is there for, then you’ve got different data streams that could be maybe only sending small pieces of data, but scaled up over tens or hundreds of thousands of data points, of connectivity points, within an organization. These could be sensors that are just relaying one single piece of information, but on a very regular basis as a small part of a very complicated manufacturing line, for example. Or a very complicated set of different processes around lots of different types of machinery within a smart healthcare facility, for example, or a smart grid environment. They’re very specialized environments with very different requirements to what was capable even or what was even possible over 4G. But the different devices and the different data streams they’re capturing offer a number of very, very interesting, but very sophisticated and often complex use cases.

There’s a great deal of possibilities, but there’s a great deal of requirements as well. And this is where 5G really plays its ace. Because it’s got capabilities that, yes, are around capacity and latency, but it’s the mobility bringing that into an industrial environment where previously those machines were tethered to wired networks, for example. It’s the flexibility that 5G offers in terms of moving machinery around its actual mobility within a location as well. Its interrelation between other network technologies, like Wi-Fi, can be a very useful capability for 5G as well. Of course, it’s that nationwide infrastructure, that mobile network that goes beyond a single enterprise premises that is another dimension to it as well. So there’s an awful lot that 5G can bring to the table, but these are very demanding, very exacting requirements. And that is not just shaping the technological landscape, but it’s shaping the commercial landscape around private 5G networks.

Kenton Williston: Yeah, absolutely. And so you touched on the idea of the relationship between 5G and Wi-Fi, and I’m curious where you see that positioning exactly. And especially as Wi-Fi itself continues to advance. We’re seeing Wi-Fi 6, for example, coming out. Where do you see the interface between those two technologies? Why would you use one versus the other?

Richard Webb: Yeah, it is a good question. And it’s something that I’ve seen quite a bit of debate around. I don’t really see it as being a zero-sum, kind of one or the other standoff between Wi-Fi and 5G. Wi-Fi is incredibly broadly deployed within enterprises. I don’t think it’s going to go away, and I see no reason why it should go away just because 5G becomes an option. There’s been a very progressive and coordinated conversation between Wi-Fi development camps and mobile development. So Wi-Fi and 4G, 5G are not strangers to each other. These are technologies that can now talk to each other. They can be integrated within a network, or they can operate as two separate simultaneous networks. And this is how I think we’re going to see both of them coexist within an enterprise location. Wi-Fi is very well deployed. It scales very well indeed.

It may be better suited to non-critical communications because of the contentious nature of Wi-Fi. You can have Wi-Fi get a little bit overloaded when you’ve got too much going on that network. It may not be suited to mission-critical connectivity. When you have 5G, that’s much better suited to that mission-critical capability. You connect a device, you can typically, if not guarantee, then you can work within performance parameters to a much greater and more consistent extent. So it’s not necessarily that 5G is better than Wi-Fi. And certainly Wi-Fi 6 have their own capabilities that make them very applicable in many use case environments. It’s just that 5G can be better at certain things or in certain scenarios. If you think in terms of how best to get performance out of Wi-Fi and how best to get performance out of 5G, think of them as complementary. It’s actually when you’ve got both of them working simultaneously, they’ll help the performance of each other.

Kenton Williston: One of the things that I think comes to mind that’s really important about the distinction between these two technologies, beyond all the points you’ve been making, is just the fact that Wi-Fi is so familiar, right? Whereas, cellular technologies to many organizations are a new idea. It’s not something they’ve broadly deployed, not something they’re IT department is necessarily particularly familiar with. And that makes me curious about how organizations might go about implementing a private 5G network. Is this something that the IT team can develop expertise on in house? Is there a role here that they should be looking to partners to bring in to deploy these technologies? How do you see that playing out?

Richard Webb: 5G is almost like a reset opportunity for telcos to reshape their game for the enterprise and industrial verticals. To think differently about how they position, not just their services, but 5G as a kind of technology platform within enterprise. And bringing on board all those other capabilities, some of which enterprises and industrial verticals are already grappling those capabilities like edge computing, AI analytics, and so on. So 5G can really harness that and be an accelerant of those digital technologies, fueling the transformation that’s already in play for a lot of enterprises. Again, there’s a lot they have to do on the commercial side, not just figuring out the right way to approach the market and these channels to market, but really being open about what their capabilities are. And here is where I think the market environment is going to get very, very different for mobile, and really sort of based around that private 5G opportunity.

It’s around telcos being honest that they can’t do everything for everyone, particularly within an enterprise environment. That itself is becoming more complex, more demanding in terms of its digital transformation processes, its potential use cases, and so on. They’ve got to put in place an ecosystem of solutions. That’s both network hardware and software. Involves cloud service capabilities, could involve systems integrators, could involve players with deep vertically specific knowledge for some of those markets that telcos want to address. And figuring out that value chain is by no means an easy thing to do. It’s almost something that you have to do on a customer-by-customer basis, or certainly on a vertical-by-vertical basis. And telcos might have different strategies to approach different verticals. In one vertical, let’s say healthcare, they may have a good customer base. They may know a lot about the technology needs of that healthcare industry.

And so they feel they could be the direct-touch lead for a particular healthcare-transformation environment. Pick a different vertical and that telco may not be as strong. So it may take a different approach, being more of a sort of wholesale provider, but the lead could be a cloud partner that is the direct interface with the customer in that particular environment. Or it could be a network-equipment provider when you see offers from the likes of Erickson and Nokia, in which certainly Nokia has a direct-touch approach amongst a number of different strategies for reaching out to different vertical environments. It isn’t necessarily something that the telco has to front up, but they do have to play a part in positioning that solution for a particular customer as part of an ecosystem of solutions that’s going to pull in resources from a number of different plays. So there’s a technology component to it, but there’s very much a commercial component to it.

Kenton Williston: Yeah. One of the things that was really interesting in your list of potential partners and who is involved in the ecosystem are the cloud service providers, right? These are not folks who would traditionally think of having a role in telecom networks. So I’m thinking here, let’s say the Amazons, the Googles, the Microsofts, what role do these cloud providers have in these private 5G networks?

Richard Webb: I think these providers like Amazon Wavelength services, like Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and so on, have it incredibly important roles to play, and a great opportunity within the private 5G network environment. Many of them have existing relationships with enterprises, partly because those enterprises are already undergoing their own digital transformation. A lot of that is revolving around the cloudification of their own processes. Their process is becoming more data-centric. And so they’re already customers of those cloud providers. And secondly, because I think there’s a scale and a reach to those cloud providers that can often outperform or out-scale what a telecoms’ operator can potentially offer. Don’t forget these are global organizations in many cases. And whilst yes, an operator has 5G infrastructure, those cloud providers have a great deal of investment in infrastructure of their own servers and data centers and so on. And a great range of skill sets and a flexibility that’s very powerful.

It’s not really a case of them usurping the operators, or at least I don’t believe so. But I do see from some operators that I’m speaking to there is a little bit of tension around exactly what the role of the cloud providers are, given their scale and reach. But I think it’s again about that powerful combination of different service providers in the mix. And so I think there’s still quite a bit to be figured out with regard to telcos and how they interact with those cloud providers. But I think there is a growing market, a growing pie, if you like, that there’s room for everyone to coexist, so everyone can get a piece of that pie.

Kenton Williston: Yeah. So on that point, it’s not just the telcos, not just the cloud providers, but there are also enterprise-solution providers, the likes of IBM, Dell, and HP, who are also getting involved in this private 5G space. Can you tell me a little bit more about what role they play in this ecosystem?

Richard Webb: I think they’re also incredibly important. Many of these organizations will have very longstanding relationships and reputation within the enterprise space. You mentioned IBM, that’s got decades of heritage as an enterprise-computing provider. Others like HPE, Dell, absolutely the same, and have been very progressive in their moves into the telco environment as a solution provider. A lot of them, particularly HP, very active in 5G-core environments leveraging their software capabilities. They’ve already been moving in this direction.

Private 5G networks is really just an extension of that strategy to be part of telecommunications in a networking sense and not just in a devices sense. It’s still about access to computing and processing capabilities, but it’s much more in tune with the virtualization of networking. I don’t see that they’re any more a dangerous threat or a predator in this environment. I see them having a role that is valuable to the market alongside 5G network operators, alongside those cloud providers. Those IT providers have got heritage with mobile. And what that really means is often they have deep knowledge of how those different vertical sectors are evolving, whereabouts they are on their roadmap of digital transformation. That’s a really important piece, if you like, of the jigsaw puzzle in putting solutionstogether.

Kenton Williston: Yeah, for sure. And of course there’s one other element of this ecosystem I think is going to be quite important, and that’s from the enterprise-network-technology providers. I’m thinking here, for example, of the Ciscos of the world. Can you tell me where they fit into this? And really, I suppose, not just from a 5G perspective, from the larger perspective of 5G, Wi-Fi, and everything networking that’s going on in the enterprise space.

Richard Webb: You know, this is meat and drink in some ways to Cisco. It’s just, yeah, figuring out what their strategy is and where they fit. And I think that’s where a lot of the different players are still figuring it out. It’s not so much, have we got the right technology, but where do we fit best to offer most value in that value chain? Where can we build business for ourself? For Cisco, it may well be around the integration capabilities sitting at the middle of telco and enterprise networking, having capabilities across that whole gamut of technology intersection, if you like.

There’s a number of different ways they can position within this market. But really, I don’t think it’s necessarily even right to think of private 5G as a single market. I think it is going to be a very diverse market, perhaps according to industry sector. But you can be one thing to one market and you can be a different thing to another market. And it’s really sort of looking at your channels, your opportunities, your customer base, your partnerships, and so on. And figuring out almost on a case-by-case basis, what is our best opportunity? Who can we work with? How are we going to put solutions together and run it on a project-by-project basis.

Kenton Williston: You’ve mentioned quite a few times, and I absolutely agree with you, that exactly what private 5G networks will look like will depend entirely on the context, not just the industry that you’re talking about, but even the particulars of the given organization’s needs. It’d be great to talk in a little bit more detail about a specific example, and I’ll point to the report that we’ve got hosted on insight.tech, and I’d encourage our listeners to go over there and check out the CCS Insight report on 5G private networks. And in that report there’s some discussion of deployment that’s happened with Exor in one of their manufacturing facilities. I’d love to hear from your perspective what is significant about that example, and what takeaways folks can have from it. And I suppose even really what did Exor do in that deployment exactly anyhow?

Richard Webb: Exor is a technology manufacturer. And within its Verona smart-manufacturing facility in Italy it has covered that with 5G as part of a private mobile network environment in partnership with Italian mobile operator TIM, and also in partnership with JMA wireless and Intel. And what it’s done is not just operate a 5G private network for its own processing capabilities, but has built a 5G smart lab environment. It’s actually testing new use cases within its own network environment that it can then deploy within its own network, but also present as part of its solution suite to customers as well. It’s opened its door to allow other companies into its 5G lab, to explore how they can interact with industry 4.0 wireless applications based on 5G.

It’s not just an example of how to deploy it, but it’s really a sharing partner for those learnings as well. It’s an incredibly powerful environment to get a sense of not only how use cases are deployed within a smart-manufacturing environment, but to experiment with what more could be done. Particularly where you are looking at the interface between industrial PCs and human machines, and so on. A lot of rich potential coming out of there. And I’m really interested to see how that story evolves over time.

Kenton Williston: Yeah, likewise. There’s a lot of exciting things happening in that example. And again, I’d really encourage our readers to go check out the full report. Not only for more details on that example, but more details of all of your thinking on the future of private 5G networks. We’re getting close-ish to the end of our time together. I want to leave a little bit of time here just to see if there are some particularly important things that we may have wanted to cover from your point of view.

Richard Webb: Thank you very much. One thing I’ve talked about a little bit in some of my responses has been around complexity and around the sophistication of use cases and the high demand that that can put on connectivity and data processing and so on. And how 5G can be a platform for a combination of digital technologies. And that sounds great, but you need those technologies to be integrated. This is a complicated environment. So what I think is important for the acceleration of 5G private mobile network adoption are solutions that can cut away some of that complexity. And I think we’re beginning to see some of that addressed in some recent announcements. I’m thinking particularly of AWS’s reinvent that took place recently at which it launched its private 5G solution service. And really this was about providing, if you like, a one stop shop, plug-and-play 5G network as a service. To present that directly to enterprises in conjunction with 5G telco partners.

That’s probably one example of an attempt to cut through some of that complexity, make it really easy for enterprises to pull the trigger and green-light 5G private mobile network adoption within their organizations. It’s really about that collaborative environment on the technology side, and having a commercial framework that enables that. That is what’s really powerful potentially, but you’ve got to get 5G adopted into the enterprise first, and to do that, simplicity and reducing complexity is going to be very, very important.

Kenton Williston: Yeah, absolutely. And I think one thing that’s worth pointing out here, as we mentioned briefly some of the enterprise solution providers like IBM, Dell, and HP, and I think one of the things that’s important to note here is that it’s not just about the private 5G–specific solutions that these folks are starting to introduce, although that is very important. But just the wider sphere of how these folks are starting to deploy server technologies and edge-computing technologies that are well suited for being out on a factory floor, or being in other sorts of edge-computing use cases. And this is very much an integral part of being able to make use of these private 5G networks.

Richard Webb: Yeah, I’d agree. And that’s why I think the likes of Dell and HP and IBM are very powerful partners for enterprise within this environment. Because they’re already partners. They’re already holding the hand of their enterprise customers as they go through this digital transformation journey. And don’t think of private 5G networks as something separate. Private 5G is really part of that digital transformation. It doesn’t exist as an island. It’s in many cases a very natural place to arrive at as part of that ongoing process of evolving your data processes within an organization. It’s simply a better way of connecting those different parts of data functionality with processing and computing capability over a resilient and flexible network. So it’s really kind of a natural evolution. And that’s why I think it’s absolutely right that the likes of HPE, Dell, IBM, and others are very much integral to this adoption of private mobile networks. They have a role to play because they’ve already been playing that role, and that’s not going to change.

Kenton Williston: Absolutely. I think this is a great place for us to wrap things up. Richard, this has been a really fascinating and wide-ranging conversation, and really appreciate you sharing your thoughts with us.

Richard Webb: Thank you very much. Pleasure to be here and thank you very much for having me.

Kenton Williston: And thanks to our listeners for joining us. To keep up with the latest from CCS Insight, follow them on Twitter at @CCSInsight, and on LinkedIn at CCS-Insight.

If you enjoyed listening, please support us by subscribing and rating us on your favorite podcast app. This has been the IoT Chat. We’ll be back next time with more ideas from industry leaders at the forefront of IoT design.

This transcript has been edited by Erin Noble, proofreader.

 

The preceding transcript is provided to ensure accessibility and is intended to accurately capture an informal conversation. The transcript may contain improper uses of trademarked terms and as such should not be used for any other purposes. For more information, please see the Intel® trademark information.

The IIoT As-a-Service Streamlines Digital Transformation

Posted on by Micah Kaplan

Industrial machines produce an inordinate amount of data. But manufacturers have predominantly relied on this valuable information to control their production flow rather than to drive automation or support forward-looking activities like predictive maintenance.

But big data is gradually bringing about big disruption in manufacturing. Along with the IoT and edge computing, digital transformation may finally take hold within the industry. q.beyond, a leading IT service provider, is making this happen by employing a “digitization-as-a-service” approach. In this way, the company is helping midsize manufacturing customers fully harness the power of data in their business.

Why Manufacturing Digital Transformation Now?

Many companies have been slow to adopt transformative technologies due to the lack of time and expertise for innovation outside their core business. Yet digitization is critical now more than ever for manufacturers. With a shortage of skilled labor, increased global competition, and profitability pressures, they must foster more agile operations.

But modernizing a business with legacy processes into a digitally driven organization isn’t that simple. Innovation is often time- and cost-intensive, which is why some companies have turned to managed services to accelerate their transformation.

From cloud modernization to IT outsourcing, q.beyond’s platform-based services empower manufacturers to digitize their business. The company combines edge computing infrastructure and hardware devices with advanced engineering software to help manufacturers innovate without having to overhaul their existing systems or significantly expand their IT capacity.

“Companies do not have to develop software themselves and don’t have to integrate it themselves. That saves them time and risks,” says Uwe Schnepf, Head of Industrial IoT Solutions and Strategic Partnerships at q.beyond.

The #Edge is advancing shop floor connectivity and transforming #manufacturing companies into digitally-enabled businesses. @qbeyondag via @insightdottech

Transforming Industrial Processes with the Edge

q.beyond’s model is anchored around its EasyEdge platform service, which uses Intel® processor-based edge gateways to securely collect, process, and analyze data from industrial equipment on the factory floor. The solution is interoperable and extensible, so manufacturers can use it to expand the capabilities of existing systems and to connect any device they use in production without encountering vendor lock-in or issues with data sharing.

Partnerships are key to q.beyond’s overall solution and services. One of the company’s partners is IoT supplier Advantech, which provides edge devices that can be directly connected to machines via industrial fieldbus or ethernet protocols. Software from another partner, cbb software GmbH, is integrated into the edge device to facilitate OT-IT integration and to collect machine data, which can be stored locally on the device or in the cloud.

q.beyond also has a middleware solution called Edgizer used by EasyEdge that serves as the operating system for the edge gateways and provides centralized device management

Combining software and hardware from its partners allows q.beyond to deliver several benefits for customers, including the ability to decouple data collection, abstraction capabilities that reduce data complexity, and support for various protocols such as OPC UA, MQTT, and REST API. Customers can access real-time shop floor connectivity and insights, numerous interfaces for integration, and remotely access machines.

q.beyond offers all these services to customers through a cost-efficient, pay-as-you-grow model. Schnepf says manufacturers can start with just one edge gateway connected to a single machine and the Edgizer platform for centralized device management. Once a customer decides to continue with the service, they can then connect additional machines and pay a monthly service fee per device.

Driving Innovation for Manufacturers

One example of how q.beyond help customers achieve more agile operations is with Schütte, a Germany-based leading global manufacturer of machine tools.

Schütte uses edge gateways and the Edgizer platform, along with its own proprietary software. This allows them to collect data and run analytics in real time to measure machine performance, and remotely access and update equipment on their customers’ shop floors.

“They use the processes running on the edge gateway to do their analytics and to visualize it. Then they talk to the people operating the machine at shop floor level about system status,” Schnepf says.

Schütte also has used the platform for around-the-clock remote monitoring of machines at customer sites and to remotely access machines and perform updates. This has minimized on-site deployments and increased uptime of its machines worldwide.

Schnepf says Schütte showcases how other manufacturers can use this emerging technology to digitize their businesses.

“You do not need people onsite to do setup. That helps a lot in terms of lifetime support and establishing new models for smart service,” he says. “Also, having the data about how their machine is used to produce parts provides a lot of feedback to the manufacturer about how to optimize the machine itself.”

Bringing the Smart Factory to Life

The edge is advancing shop floor connectivity and transforming manufacturing companies into digitally enabled businesses. But this all starts and ends with data. Data will serve as the foundation for so many future manufacturing innovations — whether it’s AI-driven predictive maintenance or smarter product development.

“We think there are many, many ways of improving services and products using this type of technology,” Schnepf says. And with all these edge-driven services and capabilities, manufacturing’s long-anticipated digital transformation is coming to fruition.

 

This article was edited by Georganne Benesch, Associate Content Director for insight.tech.

Forecasting the Future of IoT with CCS Insight

Posted on by Micah Kaplan

Who in the business world doesn’t wish they could predict the future? But there are some out there who try to gaze into the crystal ball—and are brave enough to publish the results. Analyst firm CCS Insight is one such soothsayer with the release of its annual IoT predictions. They’ve surveyed the whole CCS Insight staff on topics from sustainability to the future of the cloud and even the evolving definition of “IoT.” They’ve prepared a special version of the 2022 report that focuses on the IoT transformation space for readers of insight.tech.

We’ll get some of the highlights in our conversation with Martin Garner, COO and Head of IoT Research at CCS Insight. He’ll look back at 2021 to see where the crystal ball was clear—and where it was cloudy—as well as forward into the trends to watch in 2022 and beyond.

How did your predictions for 2021 play out: What went right, and what went wrong?

There were a few we were quite pleased we got right. One was that COVID would accelerate the adoption of robots, automation, and IoT across sectors. There was an initial pause in investment, but people realized they needed this stuff to keep their operations going. Another one was that security and privacy in AI and machine learning would become much stronger areas of concern. Machine learning has quite a big attack surface, and it could be initially really hard to detect a hack.

Now we did get a few predictions wrong as well. We did predict that somebody would buy Nokia, and no one did. We also predicted that the regulation of the big tech players would slow down, and it’s actually moving faster than we expected.

And then there are a few that were longer-term predictions, which we’re still waiting on. For example, a big cloud player will offer the full range of mobile network solutions by 2025. Another one is that tiny AI will move up to being 20% of all AI workloads. There is a lot going on here—especially in IoT—and the role is growing, but we’re not at that level yet.

What’s on your mind for IoT in 2022?

We have nearly a hundred predictions for 2022 and beyond, and obviously we can’t go through all those here. What we did do was a cut of those that are relevant in some way for the IoT community, and we’ve packaged that up in a report that is available as a download from insight.tech.

I’ll just highlight a few that caught my attention. Several were follow-ons from the impact of COVID. By 2025 there will be somewhat less use of office space in the developed world—down about 25%. And there will be much more use of 5G as an additional home broadband; we think maybe 10% of households will have it.

“We think #IoT is going to fade away as a term. There will be much more focus on the intelligence—the way people use it, and the value they get out of exploiting the #data they’ve got.” –Martin Garner, COO and Head of IoT Research at @CCSInsight

We also saw, coming out of last year, much higher attention paid to sustainability. We really think clean cloud is going to be something of a battlefield this year. We also think that IoT can really benefit from using sustainability in its marketing. IoT is great news for sustainability, generally speaking, and we’re mostly not making enough use of that. We also think sustainability will be built into the specifications for 6G—when we get there.

And then there’s quite a lot around IoT itself. A much greater focus on software and machine learning—a shift toward higher intelligence of things. Also a much greater linkage between smart grid and wide-area networking. We actually expect to see pan-utility—where one company is both an energy provider and a network provider, doing both by 2025, because those two networks are becoming remarkably similar.

How will the role of cloud providers such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft evolve going forward?

One area where they’re all pushing very hard is telecoms networks. And they’re doing more in the 5G world—especially as 5G moves from its current consumer phase more into an industrial phase. If you are, say, a global automotive manufacturer and you want a 5G private network in all of your manufacturing sites across the globe, who is best placed to provide that? Well, I don’t think it’s the local telco, because they’re not global enough. It’s more likely to be your big cloud provider. So we think they’re going to become a really key distribution channel for some of the telecoms products. And I think this is a good example of where the domain between what the cloud providers do and what the telecoms guys do is going to blur quite a lot over the coming years.

Where do on-prem cloud-like experiences fit into the landscape?

What we’re seeing now is that companies like Dell, HP, and other computing providers are offering cloud-like experiences, and—this is really important—they’re offering them as a service-business model for on-premises computing. You don’t have to have the big capital costs in order to get started with quite a major computing program—you can do it all on OpEx. We’re also seeing the big cloud providers offering local cloud containers in on-premises devices—AWS Greengrass, Azure Stack, and so on—and they’re offering as-a-service hardware.

Our expectation is that on-premises will, if anything, make a bit of a comeback, and that will tend to slow the growth of public cloud. We also think that IoT is a really, really big part of this because of the strength of edge computing—the fact that we’re generating such a lot of data in industrial IoT systems, and the fact that we often need to act on that data really quickly. We can’t do everything just in the cloud; we need the on-premises side. And as IoT grows and grows and grows, we think that will enhance that trend back toward a stronger on-premises suite.

Where do you see technologies like AI, machine learning, and computer vision going?

There will be a huge focus on the intelligence, rather than on the IoT itself. What we see at the moment is that there’s a very strong focus on the tools for machine learning and AI—making it easier for ordinary engineers in ordinary companies around the world to choose algorithms, set them up for use, and build them into development. It’s actually really challenging for ordinary people to choose and use systems in this area, so we’re also expecting a lot more focus on providing finished systems for machine learning and AI. We may even increasingly see some of the finished AI bundled into things like market-ready solutions.

We are also expecting the role of smaller or specialist systems integrators to grow a lot here. They can take on a lot of the training and configuration for you, because it’s still true that the widgets that you make in your factory are not the same widgets that other people use, and you need to train the models on images of what you are doing.

There’s also a little caveat here. It’s a large task to get thousands and thousands of specialist systems integrators up to speed in this area. Maybe they originally trained as installers for surveillance systems, and they may not be very skilled in machine learning. One of our other predictions, left over from a couple of years ago, is that we will move over time toward much more distributed training, rather than centralized training. And then, having done that, you will need to trust it enough to run your operations off it.

What do you think will be the impact of making AI more trustworthy and democratized?

I think this is one of the most fascinating areas in the whole tech sector at the moment. But I want to sound just a little bit of a warning here. We think that AI is a special category of technology—small assumptions or biases introduced by a designer or an engineer at the design stage can cause huge difficulties in society. So we need more layers of support and regulation in place before we can all be comfortable that AI is being used appropriately and properly.

Another key aspect is the formation of ethics groups that are not tied to specific companies. I think we need to take away the commercial-profit focus, and instead focus purely on the ethics. It’s also clear that to build strong user trust we’re going to need a mix of other things, like external regulation. But we also then need industry best practices and standards, and we need sector-level certification of AI systems.

Then we need to certify the practitioners. There have got to be professional qualifications for people who develop AI algorithms. All these layers are being developed and introduced, but we’re just not there yet. So one prediction we have in this area is that 80% of large enterprises will formalize human oversight of their AI systems by 2024. There’s going to be a whole layer of quality control that we put in place with human oversight before we let it loose.

Tell me more about your predication of the Internet of Things becoming the Intelligence of Things.

Actually very few people buy IoT. What they do is they buy a solution to a business issue. And somewhere inside that is IoT, which is used as a technology to make it work. The real value of IoT is not in the connection that you’ve created with the things, but in how you use the data that you now have access to. With computer vision on a production line, you don’t care much about the camera; you do care about what it’s telling you.

The trouble is, we are now generating so much data that we increasingly need lots of machine learning and AI to analyze it. And then it has to be done at the edge to do it really quickly, and so on. So getting the maximum value out of those systems is going to become all about the intelligence that can be applied to the data.

Monitoring something is useful, but you still need good analytics to help you focus on the right data and not get distracted. Controlling something is even more useful—you can make huge savings by controlling things better. And, finally, with suitable intelligence, you can now optimize a machine, a system, or a whole supply chain in ways you never could before.

We think IoT is going to fade away as a term. There will be much more focus on the intelligence—the way people use it, and the value they get out of exploiting the data they’ve got. Then you will need suitable systems for aggregating and analyzing the data, data lakes analytics, digital twins, machine learning, AI, and so on. And many, many companies are already well down this path, but actually there’s still a lot to learn.

I think the ecosystem angle is a really important theme to bring out here. Very few companies can do this on their own. There’s also an interesting organizational point here for a lot of IoT suppliers. From what I can tell, most IoT suppliers are 80% engineers working on the product and 20% other—which includes HR, marketing, sales, and so on. I think it needs to be the other way around. They need to have big customer-engagement groups. If you’re in healthcare, you employ ex-nurses and ex-doctors—people who really understand what’s going on within the customer organizations, and who feed that back into the product.

Assuming you get all of that done, really a lot of the value you get comes from then applying it across the organization. And that’s a people issue more than a technology issue. It comes back to one of the truisms of digital transformation, which is that success depends on taking people with you more than on the technology that you’re using to make it all work.

Related Content

To learn more about the future of IoT, listen to IoT Predictions: What to Expect in 2022 and Beyond and read CCS Insight’s IoT predictions for 2022. For the latest innovations from CCS Insight, follow them on Twitter at @ccsinsight and on LinkedIn at CCS-Insight.

 

This article was edited by Christina Cardoza, Senior Editor for insight.tech.

Global SI Reimagines Security with AI and Computer Vision

Posted on by Micah Kaplan

“Culture is the foundation for our company,” says Eric Yunag, Vice President of Technology for Convergint, a global systems integrator. “Our top priority is service in every way—service to our customers, our colleagues, and our community.”

Founded 20 years ago, the service provider goes beyond simply offering security, fire, and life safety solutions, to dedicating time and resources for actions that help secure a better future. For example, Convergint participates in local service projects that are meaningful for their frontline businesses. They provide safety and security resources for underfunded organizations. And they give financial help to employees who are experiencing hardships through a colleague emergency fund launched in honor of one of its founders.

When it comes to serving their customers, Convergint works to stay accountable for their number-one objective: “We want to be our customers’ best service provider in any category across the board,” says Yunag.

Global Systems Integrators: Partners in Innovation

They accomplish this mission by leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), computer vision, and other IoT technologies to create transformational opportunities, moving the role of security beyond surveillance and into data collection that provides insights.

“AI, IoT, and computer vision are fundamentally changing the way the world operates,” says Yunag. “Convergint helps its customers assess opportunities and create a new technology roadmap that serves overall organizational objectives. These technologies can re-architect security, fire, and life safety systems that can drive better customer and employee experiences.”

Connecting a variety of different cameras and sensors, Convergint pieces together situational intelligence models that connect the physical world to the digital. And Intel® has been an important partner. “The vision that Intel® is casting around IoT and the intelligent edge is an important catalyst for a lot of conversations,” says Yunag. “At a practical level, the Intel® Solutions Marketplace is an important way for us to package and position solutions that solve customers’ problems.”

By leveraging #ConnectedIntelligence and reimagining how security #systems provide value, businesses can take advantage of opportunities that weren’t possible before. @Convergint via @insightdottech

IoT Security Solutions Transform Industries

Convergint’s customer list is a who’s who of Fortune 5000 companies in energy, transportation, retail, government, healthcare, and finance industries. For example, a manufacturing customer in the mining space operates expensive equipment that digs for a specific type of material in a water-based pit. Objects like tree stumps or rocks can damage the equipment. Convergint developed a model that identifies these objects and, when detected, shuts down the equipment before damage is done.

Convergint deployed cameras connected to business intelligence infrastructure at a food processing company that does high-volume production of packaged foods. A machine learning model was created based on the company’s specific requirements that looks for defects.

And brick-and-mortar retailers leverage computer vision to generate analytics, such as how many people come into the store, where they go, what they look at, and how long they dwell in certain areas. The technology can also determine if customers convert through a cash register or leave the store without purchasing.

“All of the metrics that can be collected for eCommerce can now be collected in the physical world,” says Yunag. “Bringing those types of metrics into the physical space gives brick-and-mortar retailers a competitive advantage, connecting the physical to the digital world.”

IoT Solutions Transform the Future of Security

Connecting the dots with edge intelligence can solve previously unsolved problems with new technologies. And as innovative technology continues to emerge, security systems of the future can be leveraged for revenue-generating activities and process automation.

Visual intelligence is a completely disruptive theme and powerful outcome driver for organizations. Anything a camera can capture can be turned into data that can drive those customer experiences and outcomes in very different ways.

The challenge for traditional security buyers is to break the mental paradigm, stop thinking of cameras as security devices, and start thinking about camera technology as a visual intelligence platform for their whole organization to leverage. The new approach opens the door to conversations with other areas within organizations, such as marketing or operations. By leveraging connected intelligence and reimagining how systems provide value, businesses can take advantage of opportunities that weren’t possible before.

“Security is going from being a profit-and-loss expense line item to being leveraged for revenue-generating or cost-reduction activities in other areas of the business,” says Yunag. “We think about the hundreds of billions of IoT devices that will be put into the world in the next 10 or 20 years and the impact that it’ll have on the world. It’s exciting to think about the opportunities ahead and the changes that bringing those things together start to unfold.”

This article was edited by Georganne Benesch, Associate Content Director for insight.tech.

The On-Premises Performance and Reliability Guarantee

Posted on by Micah Kaplan

Contrary to popular belief, not everyone is rushing to the cloud. While the cloud does promise better flexibility, scalability, and speed, many organizations remain suspicious of its performance, availability, and security. Especially when every major cloud provider has suffered through multiple massive outages.

“Many companies have the mindset of ‘It’s my data, and I don’t want it on someone else’s computer,’” says Philip Elder, owner of MPECS, a hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) provider. Because of this, he believes some workloads will never make their way to the cloud.

On-Premises Versus Cloud Computing

But questions around reliability are just one of the reasons companies decide to stay on-premises. Other factors include performance and costs. “The marketing has been very successful as far as the cloud is concerned; however, the reality is that public cloud gets very expensive fast when the workloads require performance,” Elder says.

For instance, Elder recently worked with a customer in the surveying and mapping industry that wanted to run everything in the cloud. But the amount of data they generated, stored, and processed was massive.

“We are talking about terabytes of data per minute. As soon as we get into a high-performance solution set where we need volume, the public cloud doesn’t make sense,” he explains. “After doing an assessment of their company, best practices, and business model, we found the cost to run their business in a Tier One cloud would be seven figures per month.”

The #cloud pendulum is swinging back toward #OnPrem solutions as customers realize they can achieve the same if not better benefits on-premises. @MPECSInc via @insightdottech

This is one of the reasons why Elder founded MPECS: to give businesses a choice to keep critical workloads out of the public cloud and run HCI-based solutions either fully on-premises or in a hybrid cloud approach.

The company focuses on small to medium-size businesses providing HCI solutions that Elder says deliver the performance, reliability, and cost public clouds cannot match.

The survey and mapping customer was able to save hundreds of thousands of dollars using a hyperconverged cluster solution.

According to Elder, MPECS was one of the first companies to build a Hyper-V cluster on the Intel® Modular Server platform. This allowed the company to deliver resilient storage and networking. As the industry shifted to the cloud, MPECS stuck with the on-premises cluster approach, adding a hybrid option for customers that wanted some level of cloud capabilities.

The Promise of On-Premises

With MPECS, Elder says organizations get an on-premises guarantee that enables them to confidently keep their services online with no interruptions.

This capability was particularly important to one of MPECS’ nonprofit customers, which relies on donations for 100% of its revenue. The nonprofit organization often operates on deadlines, sending out time-sensitive emails to collect funds. An outage that would interrupt its operations is out of the question, Elder says: “So the preference in that case, where there’s a sensitivity to timing, is for on-premises solutions.”

The number of organizations that require keeping their data in-house expands across all industries, according to Elder. “Some companies want everything on-premises. They want everything to be hands-on,” he says. “The cost per hour for downtime or being locked out of a cloud service, for instance—for even a small accounting firm of 18 to 20 seats—can be in the thousands of dollars per hour.”

Elder thinks of MPECS solutions as an insurance policy that ensures servers keep working for the duration of their lifetime. For instance, one accounting customer has been running an MPECS solution that leverages Intel servers for more than six years, and the solution has run since Day One without a single interruption.

MPECS does perform regular maintenance to keep its solutions running, but there are no unscheduled outages that occur. “It’s like owning a car,” Elder says. “You have to change your oil, you have to change your tires and your brakes, and all the obvious maintenance that needs to be done.”

Hybrid Cloud Security You Can Trust

In addition to performance and reliability, MPECS solutions are designed with security in mind. The host infrastructure, whether it is a standalone Intel server or a Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct cluster, is separate from the production layer.

“The advantage we have with the on-premises model versus a public cloud or even a hybrid situation is we have control over the security,” Elder says. For example, if a user clicks a ransomware link, MPECS can isolate the machine and prevent the infection from spreading.

But even more important, Elder says, is user awareness. Since the company focuses on small to medium businesses, MPECS works with customers to ensure they understand the consequences of what they do and how to spot vulnerabilities. “The first rule of thumb of on-premises or cloud security is to train the human. That’s the first line of defense, and then the second line of defense is in the way the system is architected,” he says.

As Elder looks toward the future, he believes the cloud pendulum is swinging back toward on-premises solutions as customers realize they can achieve the same if not better benefits on-premises.

“I see that pendulum continuing as more and more people take an honest evaluation of their costs and realize that the little box in the corner and software licensing is all they really need to run their business at a much-reduced cost,” he says.

 

This article was edited by Christina Cardoza, Senior Editor for insight.tech.

Smart Factories Close Data Gaps Between OT and IT

Posted on by Micah Kaplan

Industry 4.0 has the potential to be a real game-changer. As manufacturers overcome data-related challenges, they become more agile and achieve considerable operational improvements. The promise of digital transformation in manufacturing lies in its ability to make data “talk” and deliver insights to act on. But challenges persist.

While data-driven manufacturing is not a particularly new idea, what is new is using data in context and applying learned lessons at scale. With industry 4.0, data from new sources such as machines outfitted with IoT sensors adds to the holistic picture and delivers context.

Manufacturers can see the forest and the trees—and plan accordingly. They can relieve some of the many pressures they face, including meeting sustainability goals, working with a talent shortage, and a growing need for remote monitoring of production processes.

Closing the Gaps Across OT and IT

“Unfortunately, the lofty ambitions of digital transformation frequently come to a grinding halt when the rubber meets the road,” says Florian Hoenigschmid, Vice President of Strategy and Sales at azeti, an IoT platform provider.

For one thing, because machines have been phased in over decades, the data they generate is not always uniform. “You can’t apply a one-size-fits-all solution when shop floors have to work with a lot of different machine interfaces, different protocols, and different standards,” Hoenigschmid says. Heterogeneous data is a challenge because it is not easy to process.

Patchwork solutions proliferate. Soon, you start missing the trees in the forest.

Second, even if you wrangle all the data in one format, granularity is a problem. “Getting data at a certain quality and scale that is useful for applications like machine learning is another challenge,” Hoenigschmid says. Low-resolution fuzzy data paints an inaccurate picture.

Gaps between operation technology (OT) and information technology (IT) integration further complicate the process of deriving insights. “There’s the software piece, the network piece, how to get data while still following corporate security policies—plus the OT piece of working with controllers and machines on the shop floor,” Hoenigschmid says. Getting data from these silos to talk to one another and in one language is no easy feat.

The azeti #IoT platform connects heterogeneous protocols and #machines on the shop floor to a central #software platform—solving many headaches in one fell swoop. @azeti_gmbh via @insightdottech

Digital Transformation in Manufacturing

The data challenges might be frustrating but are not insurmountable.

Case in point: The azeti IoT platform connects heterogeneous protocols and machines on the shop floor to a central IoT software platform, solving many headaches in one fell swoop. “We are able to connect most of the machines which are already on the production line into our software stack. On the software side, we convert raw data in an understandable way and make that available to our customers,” Hoenigschmid says.

The industrial rugged computers that azeti uses to bridge data gaps all run on Intel® processor-based hardware. “Intel technology helps us actually do the job of connecting and talking to machines, understanding the different protocols, and converting them to something that makes sense for our platform,” Hoenigschmid says.

Real-World Industry 4.0 Examples

Beyond building a robust data foundation, azeti also helps clients with the insights part of the equation.

For example, a large metal producer faced the following challenge: how to best operate the ventilation systems depending on the varying conditions of the smelting process. Conventional SCADA and PLC systems are used to control the operational conditions of the industrial ventilators, but they fall short for maintenance planning. Progressive deteriorations are difficult to recognize, SCADA data must be manually evaluated by the personnel, and temporary anomalies are recognized with delay.

The azeti solution supported the manufacturer by the means of a flexible platform for data collection, analysis, and visualization. After data acquisition, the relevant measurements are clustered over longer periods, while charts and a derived indicator are created on a dashboard. This provides the maintenance personnel with a tool to quantitively compare deterioration effects, detect anomalies in real time, and easily identify persistent patterns for reliable maintenance planning.

“The client now has a holistic and unified view of production-critical assets, which help them plan resources more efficiently,” Hoenigschmid says. “This provides the foundation to transition from preventive to predictive maintenance at some point. The process has been kicked off but is not yet concluded. Improved productivity and maximizing asset use are the welcome outcomes of the solution.

The IoT platform also helps metal companies use resources more efficiently. When workers fill dosing furnaces with metal to start production, many eyeball the amount of material to the fill line but miss the mark. Furnaces end up using wasted energy.

The platform connects to sensors and controllers that are part of the furnace so workers can see fill volume, and when to kick-start the melting process. “Maximizing utilization of these furnaces and using resources like gas efficiently can drive up efficiency,” Hoenigschmid says. “And that can add millions of dollars to the bottom line.”

Ushering in a Data Revolution

Digital transformation in manufacturing can unlock a range of additional possibilities. It can drive digital twins that simulate production processes so manufacturers can use resource-efficient methods and meet sustainability goals.

Product quality assessments can be fine-tuned. Data itself becomes valuable currency that can be traded as a service, enabling companies to rent their facilities to specialty manufacturers.

The digitalization of the shop floor may enable manufacturers to also negotiate lower insurance rates. Hoenigschmid foresees. He is excited about the future of smart manufacturing: “We can forecast the future in a very precise way and that is possible with very good and lots of granular data.”

In turn, manufacturers will finally work with the right toolkits in their digital transformation arsenal.

 

This article was edited by Georganne Benesch, Associate Content Director for insight.tech.