Enterprise IoT Platform Enhancements Enrich Usability, Security, and Application Breadth

Monday.com
by Kitty Weldon, posted in Internet of Things
Kathryn Weldon – Research Director, Business Network and IT Services – Americas

Summary Bullets:

• IoT platform vendor dropouts were in the news in 2023, suggesting not only consolidation but reduced demand and profitability concerns.

• While hyperscalers remain leaders, industrial stalwarts such as PTC, Software AG, and Siemens are still innovating and enhancing platforms with security, easy of use, and integration with adjacent products in their portfolios.

Over the last year, the most compelling changes in the market for enterprise IoT platforms were the dropping out of key vendors including Google Cloud IoT (in August 2023), presumably based on lack of revenues/profitability; the decommissioning of most services from SAP’s IoT PaaS offering, announced at end-2023; and IBM’s winding down of its Watson IoT platform service in December 2023, with IBM focusing instead on offering IoT capabilities via its hybrid cloud solutions and software. In addition to these dropouts of platforms, which focused on IoT application enablement, products focused on connectivity and device management, such as the Ericsson IoT Connectivity platform, changed hands, having been sold to IoT MVNO and platform vendor Aeris. Some of the other original leaders have also marginalized their IoT offerings, embedding them in vertical solutions, or combining IoT with big data and AI tools, positioning IoT primarily as a data collection enabler. Industrial stalwarts Software AG and Siemens, however, are becoming innovators in this market, with good reviews for functionality, vertical solutions, and contributions to positive ROI.

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Peek Into the Future by Following Test and Measurement

by Steven J. Schuchart Jr., posted in Cloud Enable, Communicate, IT Leader
S. Schuchart

Summary Bullets:

• The impact of IT technologies that are growing beyond IT is staggering and shows the need for advanced test and measurement.

• According to the GlobalData Deal Trends database, there have been over 20 acquisitions in this space since 2020 and numerous asset purchases and partnerships.

For every technology product that comes to market, both hardware and software, there is testing. One of the best ways to see where a market is heading, and what technologies are coming up in the next 4+ years, is to watch the testing market. The software testing market for development and deployment gets a lot of press – mostly because that kind of software testing is part of the production chain both at independent software vendors (ISVs) and in enterprises. However, the broader testing market is where the latest technologies that are not even close to release are being evaluated, where chip designers, chip manufacturers, engineers, and product companies are doing cutting edge research. These test tools can be specialized hardware, software, or both. In addition, many of the largest multinational enterprises use testing tools to validate and tweak advanced designs in their own IT and OT environments. Much of this research is done hand in hand with the testing equipment companies. Keeping an eye on what’s happening in the testing/measurement market shows clearly the investments being made for the future.

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Google Cloud Next 2024: Google Under Pressure Leads with Engineering-Driven Reputation

by Charlotte Dunlap, posted in Cloud Enable
C. DunlapResearch Director

Summary Bullets:

• Google leads mega developer conference with its engineering-driven developer reputation.

• Key dev tools include Google’s Gemini Code Assist and Vertex AI Agent Builder.

Google was heavily scrutinized during the Google Cloud Next conference, particularly after 2023’s fumble during its foray into the generative AI (GenAI) space when, during a public GenAI demo, Google Bard returned a highly publicized inappropriate response. The company’s clear directive during its mega developer conference, Google Cloud Next, was to demonstrate its key role in the industry’s hottest emerging technology alongside GenAI and hyperscaler leaders. Its strategy: appeal to its strong following of enterprise developers where it has long established an engineering-driven reputation (through innovations such as cloud-native’s greatest open-source software technology to date, Kubernetes). Its messaging was around a Google Gemini-backed development initiative to make coding, platforms, and operations superior.

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Orange Business Flux Vision Uses AI to Address Sustainability Challenges

by Rob Pritchard, posted in Big Data, IT Leader

R. Pritchard

Summary Bullets:

• Orange Business has enhanced its Flux Vision real-time population flow observation tool with measurement of carbon footprints produced by the movement of people and goods.

• Using anonymized technical data points and AI-driven analysis, it helps local authorities, and tourism, distribution, and transport customers address sustainability challenges and save money.

Orange Business Flux Vision is a real-time population flow observation tool that provides anonymized data from the company’s mobile network. Launched ten years ago, the GDPR-compliant solution helps in implementing development strategies by local authorities and customers in the tourism, distribution, and transport industries.

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The White House Warns US Governors of Serious Threats to Critical Water Infrastructure

by Amy Larsen DeCarlo, posted in Secure
Amy Larsen DeCarlo – Principal Analyst, Security and Data Center Services

Summary Bullets:

• US government officials are advising state governors that drinking water and wastewater systems are under threat.

• Recent attacks carried out by bad actors working on behalf of the Iranian and Chinese governments used different techniques to breach critical infrastructure; the government expects more to come. A letter from the White House included a link to guidance on what security controls water systems should have in place.

Concerns about attacks on critical infrastructure are nothing new, but recent events have shown that bad actors are becoming more brazen. A survey conducted by Mitre and the Harris Corporation in February 2024 found that 81% of 2,046 Americans reported concern about critical infrastructure safety and security. Drinking water and wastewater systems are particularly attractive targets to attackers because they are essential to the population and typically under-secured.

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Mobile Operators Announce Few New Private Network Services but Note Diverse Trials and Customers

by Kitty Weldon, posted in Mobilize
Kathryn Weldon – Research Director, Business Network and IT Services – Americas

Summary Bullets:

• Since October 2023, there have been few public announcements of new private wireless services or enhanced capabilities of existing services from key mobile operators in the US and Europe.

• However, operators have announced interesting new trials or commercial launches of private 5G, expanding use cases in verticals that ranged from automotive to retail, heavy industry, event venues, universities, ports, and utilities.

Recent PCN Announcements

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European Commission Agrees Data Center Emissions Reporting Act

by Rob Pritchard, posted in Big Data, Cloud Enable, Communicate, IT Leader
R. Pritchard

Summary Bullets:

• The European Commission (EC) continues to set the benchmark for sustainability reporting in technology as part of the European Energy Efficiency Directive (EEED).

• Signs of ongoing innovation to mitigate climate damage from data centers and use scarce resources as efficiently as possible as demand continues to grow.

The European Union’s climate goals aim to “enhance present and future energy security and affordability.” With the information and communication technology (ICT) sector as a focus for sustainability, the EC notes that in 2018, the energy consumption of data centers in the EU was 76.8 TWh. This is expected to rise by 28% to 98.5 TWh by 2030, with data centers accounting for 3.2% of energy demand by 2030 (2018: 2.7%). It notes that “these projections are expected to be revised upwards considering the strong growth of emerging services and technologies such as streaming, cloud gaming, blockchain, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and virtual reality.”

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AI is Hot, but Data Center is Hotter  

by siowmeng, posted in Big Data, Cloud Enable, IT Leader
S. Soh

Summary Bullets:

• While both generative AI (GenAI) is having widespread interests, and more use cases are emerging, companies need to ensure the infrastructure does not become a bottleneck.

• GenAI will need new approaches from the processors to data centers and cooling systems to ensure the development can be efficient and sustainable.

AI continues to be a hot topic moving into 2024. The technology has evolved from predictive AI to GenAI and multi-modal GenAI, over a relatively short period of time. This technology is creating endless possibilities, and various use cases have started to emerge. For example, GenAI/AI have been applied for disease diagnosis, application development (assisted code development), marketing content creation, and demand forecasting for retail businesses. Against this backdrop, it is no surprise to see many forecasters expecting a rapid growth of revenue related to GenAI. However, amid the excitement, there have been concerns, particularly the need to address ethical issues and responsible AI. One area that AI technology providers have not been highlighting is the infrastructure, including the physical facility required to host the hardware for AI workloads.

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Proposed TikTok Ban is a Symptom of the Need for Strong Privacy Laws

by Steven J. Schuchart Jr., posted in Big Data

S. Schuchart

The news has been abuzz for the last few days about the US federal government banning TikTok in the country unless its Chinese owner, ByteDance, sells the company. Federal lawmakers contend that TikTok is beholden to the Chinese government and that ByteDance would be compelled to share TikTok data on Americans if asked, constituting a national security threat.

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Calling All MNCs: The EU AI Act Has Passed – It’s Time to Expand Corporate Ethical AI Strategies

by Rena Bhattacharyya, posted in IT Leader

R. Bhattacharyya

Summary Bullets:
• With the passage of the EU AI Act, staying on top of issues related to AI and ethics is going to become increasingly important to multinational organizations.
• The need for individuals that can help organizations adapt business processes to meet evolving ethical AI requirements will become increasingly urgent.

The EU AI Act is groundbreaking legislation that strives to hold organizations more accountable for their use of artificial intelligence. It categorizes use cases by risk, stipulates greater oversight of riskier AI use cases, bans certain use cases outright, and requires increased transparency over the use the technology, in addition to many other requirements. While these new obligations provide much-needed consumer protections, they create increased complexity for enterprises already struggling to scale their use of AI. To meet the requirements outlined by the EU AI Act, organizations operating in Europe must start devising a strategy to enhance documentation and oversight of AI technology.

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