Ruckus introduces IoT suite to enable secure IoT access networks

The IoT suite speeds time-to-return-on-investment (ROI) and reduces deployment cost by allowing for the use of common infrastructure between the wireless local area network (WLAN) and the IoT access network.

IoT access networks

Mobile World Congress, Barcelona, Spain: Ruckus Networks, an ARRIS company, today announced the Ruckus IoT Suite, which enables organizations to readily construct a secure IoT access network that consolidates multiple physical-layer IoT networks into a single network. The Ruckus IoT Suite further speeds time-to-return-on-investment (ROI) and reduces deployment cost by allowing for the use of common infrastructure between the wireless local area network (WLAN) and the IoT access network.

According to market research firm IDC, IoT edge infrastructure is emerging as a key growth domain and an enterprise priority to support the burgeoning IoT applications space. Within the IoT edge infrastructure market— expected to reach nearly $3.4B by 2021— network equipment is the fastest-growing segment, with compound annual growth (CAGR) in excess of 30%, driven by the need for application continuity and high performance coupled with reliable and secure connectivity.

An IoT access network must consolidate multiple access technologies while delivering the provisioning, management and security capabilities found in modern IP-based networks. Such a network must facilitate inter-endpoint communication and provide integration with analytics software and services. The Ruckus IoT Suite consists of:

· Ruckus IoT-ready access points (APs)—APs that accommodate Ruckus IoT modules to establish multi-standards wireless access for Wi-Fi and non-Wi-Fi IoT endpoints; and translate non-Internet protocol (IP) endpoint communications into IP.

· Ruckus IoT Modules—Radio or radio-and-sensor devices that connect to a Ruckus IoT-ready AP to enable endpoint connectivity based on standards such as Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), Zigbee and LoRa protocols.

· Ruckus SmartZone™ Controller—A WLAN controller that provides a single management interface for both the WLAN and the IoT access network.

· Ruckus IoT Controller—A virtual controller, deployed in tandem with a Ruckus SmartZone OS-based controller, that performs connectivity, device and securitymanagement functions for non-Wi-Fi devices; facilitates endpoint coordination, and provides APIs for northbound integration with analytics software and IoT cloud services.

Securing the IoT Access Network and IoT Endpoints
Security concerns top the list of factors that contribute to IoT solution deployment delays. The Ruckus IoT Suite addresses such concerns through a multi-layered approach, including digital certificates, traffic isolation, physical security and encryption.

Enabling the IoT Solution Ecosystem
Enterprises and organizations implementing IoT must reduce payback period and increase ROI in order to justify deployments. By establishing inter-IoT solution policies with industry-leading operational technology and customer technology, solution providers’ organizations can more quickly realize IoT investment gains. Using a Ruckus IoT access network and solutions from Ruckus IoT ecosystem partners offer benefits to hotels, schools and universities, and smart cities by improving end user experiences.

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Avast Announces ‘Smart Life’ IoT Security Platform

Avast, the leader in digital security products, today announced its Smart Life platform, a new Internet of Things (IoT) security offering that protects people’s digital lives. The Smart Life platform uses artificial intelligence (AI) technology to identify and block threats and is delivered through a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model to service providers and customers. The new offering makes it simple for consumers and small businesses to secure their IoT devices, networks and sensitive data whether at home, in the office or on-the-go.

With IoT growth predicted to more than triple by 2025 to over 75 billion connected things, manufacturers are under pressure to deliver smart devices to market quickly and at an affordable price; however, this often means security features are neglected. The Smart Life platform solves the problem of unsecured IoT devices leaving users vulnerable to cyberattacks.

“It has been five years now since the first well-publicized hack of a baby monitor in Texas. Since then, IoT devices have transformed our homes and workplaces, but the security of these connected devices has not been significantly improved and users are still at risk. We increasingly expect convenience and enjoyment from smart devices like smart speakers, smart doorbells or IP cameras, but with this rapid adoption comes a real urgency to address the complex challenge of protecting them,” said Gagan Singh, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Mobile at Avast.

He continued, “With over 400 million active users worldwide at Avast, we get unparalleled insights into how IoT devices work which feed our cloud-based machine learning engine to identify and quickly block anomalies, botnets and other threats to IoT devices. When developing the Smart Life platform to harness the power of this technology, our focus was on delivering a security service that is easy for people to use to secure all of their IoT devices and networks.”

The reality is that many smart devices can be compromised, including thermostats, streaming boxes, webcams and digital personal assistants – and consumers and small businesses are among the most vulnerable users. One of the more common types of attack is when cybercriminals hack thousands of IoT devices in unsuspecting households to create networks of infected devices known as botnets to perform attacks on others. We expect to see an increase in this type of criminal activity along with personal data theft and threats to physical security in 2018 and beyond.

One of Avast’s initial offerings based on the Smart Life platform, Avast Smart Home Security, will provide consumers with protection and visibility into what is happening on their home network. Key features include the detection of privacy threats, botnets and malware as well as safe browsing and prevention of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks.

An example of how the solution works to detect threats is if a smart heating thermostat is turned on at an unusual time and is transmitting data in high volume to an unknown location, then Avast can instantly take action to shut down the attack and alert the family to the strange activity. As the service is rolled-out, additional features will be available. These include the ability to pause Internet access, limit screen time and the addition of robust content filters.

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Interpol Tests Global Cops with IoT Simulation

IoT Simulation

Interpol last week held a simulated training exercise for global investigators designed to help overcome Internet of Things (IoT) skills shortages.

The international police organization’s annual Digital Security Challenge saw 43 cybercrime investigators and digital forensics experts from 23 countries face a simulated cyber-attack on a bank launched through an IoT device.

During the course of the simulation, investigators found that the malware was sent in an email attachment via a hacked webcam, and not direct from a computer.

Interpol claimed this is an increasingly popular tactic designed to obfuscate the source of attacks, but warned that police may not have the skills to forensically examine IoT devices.

“The ever-changing world of cybercrime is constantly presenting new challenges for law enforcement, but we cannot successfully counter them by working in isolation,” said Noboru, Nakatani, executive director of the Interpol Global Complex for Innovation.

“A multi-stakeholder approach which engages the expertise of the private sector is essential for anticipating new threats and ensuring police have access to the technology and knowledge necessary to detect and investigate cyber-attacks.”

The first two Digital Security Challenge exercises in 2016 and 2017 simulated cyber-blackmail involving Bitcoin and a ransomware attack, so the new focus on IoT is reflective of the changing nature of threats.

Last week, Trend Micro claimed in its 2017 roundup report that IoT devices are increasingly being “zombified” to mine crypto-currency and launch cyber-attacks like DDoS.

Hackers can target exposed IoT endpoints to infiltrate corporate networks, conscript into botnets or even interfere with critical infrastructure.

However, nearly half (49%) of all IoT “events” observed by the security vendor last year — amounting to a total of 45.6 million — involved crypto-currency mining.

Adam Brown, security solutions manager at Synopsys, argued that IoT attacks will continue until firmware flaws are addressed.

“Good practices by vendors around configuration and authentication need to be initiated or matured to prevent this in future,” he added.

“I would love to see certification for IoT devices become commonplace so that consumers can know that the devices are cyber-safe, much in the same way that if you buy a toy with a CE mark you know it has been through a process of assessment and it won’t, for example, poison anyone because it has lead in its paint.”

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Unlocking the potential of IoT on any device

potential of IoT

Mobile technology disruptor and global service provider Truphone has announced the launch of its new IoT proposition Truphone Io3.

The solution brings together Truphone’s SIM technology and global cellular network, alongside a suite of intelligence systems. Truphone Io3 offers MNOs, and chip and devicemanufactures complete, uninterrupted control of their supply chain. The solution can be easily integrated via API to Amazon, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure.

The launch of Truphone Io3 means Truphone is the only IoT player to offer a single solution covering SIM stack, connectivity, API integration and an application platform based on in-house products.

For brands, Truphone Io3 promises faster time to market, increased incremental revenue and unparalleled customer insight, with suppliers finally able to connect their devices without losing the efficiencies around their manufacturing and distribution channels. For single SKU manufacturers, Truphone Io3 offers its SIM profile loaded with a global bootstrap that can be built in at the point of manufacture.

Crucially, Truphone Io3 offers a single, simple global solution for IoT by centrally bringing together technology that has traditionally only been available from multiple vendors. The result is a seamless integration and a single DNA for all key aspects of an IoT device.

Ralph Steffens, CEO, Truphone said: “Truphone has been pioneering the way people use their mobile devices for years. Now we are transforming the Internet of Things.

“Imagine taking a device with our secure embedded SIM, connecting that device to a mobile network anywhere in the world straight out of the box – as simply as Wi-Fi – with the additional benefit of actually understanding how the user interacts with the device.”

“We make IoT so simple that companies can experiment and make their ideas a reality without having to become telecommunications experts or engage with multiple vendors to bring an IoT product to market.”

“Apart from offering the complete stack in-house, Truphone Io3 is committed to an open marketplace, inviting players from right across the IoT ecosystem to offer their capabilities.

“Truphone Io3 has been designed to remove the barriers that impeded the growth in IoT to date. Our customers will have a unique ability to enrich their product proposition and deliver additional value to their customers way beyond what has previously been thought possible.”

The launch of Truphone Io3 follows Truphone’s 2017 acquisition of IoT SIM specialist Cellnetrix, following a new round of funding that saw Truphone raise an additional £255 million to retire its debt and invest in expanding connectivity beyond mobile phones and tablets.

Truphone’s Io3 proposition is strengthened by the news that the Truphone IoT SIM’s UICC accreditation process is nearing completion, making Truphone the only IoT solution provider with its own SIM stack.

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Nokia’s new blockchain-powered IoT service can detect illegal construction

Nokia’s new blockchain-powered IoT service

Finnish telecommunications firm Nokia has launched a couple of internet of things-based (IoT) services aimed at addressing the needs of smart cities, where technology is the primary infrastructure used to facilitate sustainable living.

Nokia said in a statement that its IoT for Smart Cities framework can efficiently deliver and manage smart city services such as video surveillance, lighting, parking, waste management, and environmental sensing.

The platform enables cross-application data sharing, analytics and automation.

The other service, Sensing as a Service, is expected to provide real-time environmental data and intelligent analytics that operators can sell to cities and other authorities.

The service will be powered by blockchain to boost privacy and security.

Nokia said that operators can utilize existing base station sites, with the company deploying sensors and integrating all available site equipment into an IoT real-time monitoring platform.

“Sensing as a Service enables possibilities to detect unusual environmental behaviour like illegal construction, trash burning or unusual particles in the air,” the company said.

Nokia also launched S-MVNO (Secure Mobile Virtual Network Operator) for Public Safety, which enables operators to leverage their commercial LTE networks to offer mission-critical broadband services to public safety agencies, and thus generate new revenue streams.

“Cities need to become digital in order to efficiently deliver services to their habitants,” said Asad Rizvi, head of global services business development at Nokia. “Smart infrastructure, which is shared, secure, and scalable, is needed to ensure urban assets and data are efficiently used.”

Nokia has also been testing blockchain technology in healthcare.

Last November, Nokia and Helsinki-headquartered OP Financial Group started a pilot to explore new opportunities in digital health, with the aim of giving people more control over their personal health data – how it is shared, who can access it, and how it can be used – with a focus on privacy and security offered by blockchain technologies.

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Warren Buffett Is Sticking to His Strengths By Selling IBM and Buying More Apple

The Oracle of Omaha’s tech investments all have one thing in common.

For a very long time, even as the legend of his investing prowess grew to mythic proportions, Warren Buffett refused to take positions in tech companies out of a belief that their future cash flows are — due to the sector’s dynamism — too hard to project.

But gradually, the Oracle of Omaha has softened his stance on tech a bit, opening up sizable positions in IBM (IBM – Get Report)  and Apple (AAPL – Get Report)  and also taking less-publicized stakes in some smaller tech firms.

However, it wouldn’t be fair to say that Buffett has completely abandoned his old stance on tech: His investments in the space have skewed towards well-established businesses that (on the surface at least) could be trusted to deliver strong cash flows for years to come. And by recently upping his stake in Apple and nearly liquidating his position in IBM, Buffett’s tech portfolio now bears an even stronger resemblance to his non-tech portfolio.

Ahead of the Feb. 24 release of Buffett’s annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway  (BRK.A – Get Report) shareholders, Berkshire disclosed in its Q4 Form 13-F filing that it had slashed its IBM position by 35 million shares last quarter to a mere two million. The conglomerate also disclosed its Apple position had been upped to 165.3 million shares (current value of $29 billion) from 134.1 million. That amounts to a 3.25% ownership stake in Apple, according to FactSet.

Positions in two other tech firms — domain name registrar Verisign  (VRSN – Get Report) and insurance risk analytics firm Verisk Analytics (VRSK – Get Report)  — were unchanged at 13 million and 1.6 million shares, respectively.

Buffett originally disclosed a $10.7 billion position in IBM back in November 2011. Even after accounting for substantial dividend payments, Big Blue’s shares only delivered a 4% return from Sep. 2011 to the end of 2017. The S&P 500, meanwhile, more than doubled over that time.

The near-liquidation of the IBM position came before the IT giant (though beating Q4 estimates) issued slightly below-consensus 2018 EPS guidance on its January earnings call, and forecast its free cash flow (FCF) would drop by $1 billion this year to roughly $12 billion. As it is, IBM’s FCF had fallen sharply from a 2012 peak of $18.2 billion, something that doubtlessly wasn’t lost on Buffett, Charlie Munger and the rest of Berkshire’s investment team.

On the other hand, Apple, which Berkshire first took a stake in during the first quarter in 2016, has seen its FCF rise from $33.3 billion in fiscal 2011 (ended in Sep. 2011) to $51.1 billion in fiscal 2017. And in spite of recent iPhone X sales pressures, analysts on average expect Apple’s FCF to rise 13% in fiscal 2018 to $57.8 billion.

Verisign, for its part, has seen its FCF grow 48% over the last five years to $720 million. Verisk’s has risen by 42% over that time to $560 million.

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Cloud-centric IBM patents promise payoff

Cloud-centric IBM

IBM plans to sow its latest crop of U.S. patents with a strong cloudemphasis, and prepare a feast for its hungry customers.

A substantial number of IBM patents for 2017 — more than 1900 out of 9043 total patents — were for cloud technologies, the company disclosed last month. Those numbers illustrate a clear shift in the company’s roadmap for products and services. In past years chip technology dominated IBM’s patent portfolio, which supported the bulk of the company’s business.

But IBM has pivoted to embrace the cloud as its foundational technology, and shored up its cloudpresence through research and development. The company also received a substantial number of patents for AI (1,400 patents) and for security (1,200).

These thousands of cloud-centric patents is a competitive advantage for IBM because the cloud is the vehicle to deliver its strategic imperatives: Watson artificial intelligence technology, analytics, blockchain, cybersecurity, and other  areas such as microservices and serverless computing. For instance, two cloud projects that tap growing interest in serverless computing came out of IBM Research: IBM Cloud Functions, IBM’s serverless computing platform formerly known as OpenWhisk; and IBM Composer, a programming model to help developers build, manage, and scale serverless computing applications on IBM Cloud Functions.

“Many of these patents will be very useful in helping customers with cloud performance, integration and management of a multi-cloudenvironment,” said Judith Hurwitz, CEO of Hurwitz and Associates, Needham, MA. “Hybrid cloudmanagement patents will be really important.”

Intelligence at the edge works with simpler predictive models and locally generated data to make real-time decisions, while clouddatacenters work with massive amounts of data to generate much deeper context, insight, and predictive models, said Paul Teich, an analyst with TIRIAS Research in Austin, Texas.

IBM also can extract value from new server, storage, and network technologies that underpin and improve cloud infrastructures, because cloud-based real-time assistance depends on affordable, reliable, and persistent network latency and bandwidth, Teich said.

“IBM is funding R&D work in all of those areas, as well as developing new algorithms to run on all that clever new hardware, which then enable new services based on their Watson software platform,” he said. “Complex neural network, neuromorphic, and eventually quantum computing accelerators for machine learning and artificial intelligence will live in the cloud for the foreseeable future.”

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Predictions #8-10: Apple, IBM & Zuckerberg

Apple, IBM

It’s time to wrap up all these 2018 predictions, so here are my final three in which Apple finds a new groove, IBM prepares for a leadership change, and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg gives up a dream.

Apple has long needed a new franchise. It’s been almost eight years since the iPad (Apple’s last new business) was introduced. Thanks to Donald Trump’s tax plan, Cupertino can probably stretch its stock market winning streak for another 2-3 years with cash repatriation, share buy-backs, dividend increases and cost reductions, but the company really needs another new $20+ billion business and it will take every one of those years to get a new one up to scale.

Turning into a movie studio won’t be Apple’s next big business. The profit margins aren’t high enough for one thing, but even more important there simply isn’t room for another $20 billion player in an already crowded entertainment market. Apple realizes this or they would have committed a lot more than $1 billion to video productions in 2018. By Apple standards, making TV and movies is a hobby.

The only place where Apple can make a high-margin splash that really makes sense is in the cloud. Its cloud infrastructure is in place but underutilized. Remember my column years ago about visiting Apple’s North Carolina data center? Well things haven’t changed much since then yet Apple just keeps building capacity. Its cloud capacity is easily as big as Microsoft’s. Now all Apple needs is something to do with the excess.

There is a significant trend right now in moving both applications and desktops to virtual cloud machines. The U.S. government, for example, seems headed to replacing its eight million PCs with virtual devices.  So far the only government computers that won’t be replaced, however, are Macs because of their proprietary PROMs. Windows and Linux run fine from the cloud but so far Macs do not unless the target data center is made entirely of Mac Minis as some have done.

My prediction #8, then, is that Apple will in 2018 buy one or more of the many startups helping shift desktop computing loads to the cloud. Cupertino will compete with Amazon, Google, and Microsoft offering virtual cloud PCs.

This might look like a hobby, too, given that Mac sales are only about 15 percent of Apple’s total volume. But that would be a very near-sighted look. Customer devices are still needed to access these virtual desktops and many of those devices in business — even for Windows virtual desktops — are iPads and iPhones running iOS. So promoting Mac app cloud migration would sell more iOS devices.

Even more important, however, is that there’s an opportunity here to grab market leadership. It would be uncharacteristic of Apple to make a grab for enterprise IT leadership but crazy times call for crazy actions. And by offering a public cloud service that would support Apple, Linux and Windows virtual PCs, Apple would have a shot at literally stealing from Microsoft the future of the Windows business — a typical Apple lead from behind move. Remember Apple didn’t invent the smart phone or the tablet yet today leads both markets.

IBM also needs new $20 billion businesses. Remember that CAMSS (cloud, analytics, mobile, security and social) were supposed to be the sources of IBM’s growth in the next decade? Well that hasn’t been working or Warren Buffett would have held onto his IBM shares. Over the past year, Berkshire Hathaway has dropped its IBM holdings from $10 billion to $300 million. And given the delay Berkshire inserts in reporting such sales it is likely the company now holds no IBM shares at all. All Buffett has said so far is that the company wasn’t what he once thought it was, whatever that means.  But it leads me to my easiest prediction by far, which is that Ginni Rometty will this year be replaced as IBM CEO.

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IBM gives Services staff until 2019 to get agile

‘Agile Ceremonies’, Slack instead of email, but still some red tape to cut through

IBM gives Services staff

Exclusive IBM has told its Services workers to get agile – as in the development practice, not as in yoga – by the end of the year.

Internal documents seen by The Register inform IBMers of a new program called: “New ways of working – Agile Values and Practices.” This latest effort calls for all Big Blue services staff to quickly complete a course titled “A taste of agile.” Managers must complete another course called “Agile leadership & strategy.”

Kanban tools have been introduced to project teams, and workers are expected to attend “agile ceremonies.” By June 30, employees are all expected to have self-assessed as having attained “level two practicing (active use of agile practices).”

IBM has spent years telling the world that its Notes suite is as fine a collaboration environment as there is to be found anywhere, if only you’d give it a chance and appreciate its charms. But among the changes required to demonstrate agility is cessation of email use in favour of devops darling Slack. Staff are also expected to start using WebEx.

Come September 30, IBM wants its services staff to have hit level-three agility maturity, and to see “positive trending of agile metrics.” Come December 30, Big Blue wants “continuous improvement leading to client advocacy.”

IBM bosses are clearly very keen on becoming more agile. Whether the corporation can walk the talk is another matter: staff have been told they need to ask a manager before they’ll be given access to WebEx or the Slack channel to offer feedback on the ongoing effort to attain greater agility.

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IBM report, “Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance?”

Major firms learning to adapt in fight against start-ups, says IBM

Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance?

Major corporations are learning to defend themselves against startups that threaten their business models, hitting back by adopting the disruptors’ playbook, according to a survey of top executives by computer services firm IBM.

The proportion of executives who thought competitors were set to flood into their industry has halved from 54 percent to 26 percent from two years ago, the broad-based poll of business decision-makers showed.

“There’s been a feeling historically that the elephants can’t dance, the incumbents will find it hard to respond and that everyone will be Uber-ed or Airbnb-ed out of existence,” Mark Foster, senior vice president of IBM Global Business Services, told Reuters in an interview.

“But what we are seeing is, actually, there is a limit as to how far that can go.”

While some sectors had been hugely disrupted by new digital entrants and some intermediaries were pushed out, many of those changes were now being led by existing industry players, he said.

Disruption is a catch-all term for the use of digital technology to upend existing business models, for example, Uber’s effect on the taxi industry by using smartphones to connect riders with drivers, and pricing according to demand.

But just 27 percent of the executives surveyed said they were experiencing significant disruption, an unexpected finding, given the deluge many predicted, IBM said. Only 23 percent said the big drivers of change were from outside their industries.

Digital giants, like Google, Apple and Facebook, continued to concentrate their power in some industries, but, according to the executives surveyed, they were not leading the disruption, and startups were increasingly quiescent, the survey found.

Instead, 72 percent said it was the most innovative incumbents who were leading the disruption, including in industries aimed at by startups, such as financial services.

IBM said the incumbents had become better at spotting and acquiring nascent disruptors. They had also realized the need to find partners, even sharing physical assets and people with them, to acquire new skills.

They are investing in the technologies that facilitate the sharing of data across organizations – such as the Internet of Things, which bridges physical and digital assets, and blockchain.

“Disruption hasn’t gone underground,” IBM said in its report, released before the start of the mobile industry’s biggest event, the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

“Instead, it’s emerging as a capability incumbents are ready to embrace.”

IBM surveyed 12,854 top executives, such as chief executives and finance directors, from 112 countries for its report.

“Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance” was the title of the memoir of 1990s era IBM CEO Lou Gerstner, who is credited with bringing the company back from a near-death experience by shifting it into software and services and exiting most hardware businesses.

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Colleen Langevin becomes new Chief Marketing Officer for Epicor

Epicor Software Corporation, a global provider of industry-specific enterprise software to promote business growth, has appointed transformational technology marketing leader Colleen Langevin as the Chief Marketing Officer reporting directly to Epicor CEO Steve Murphy.

“We are thrilled to have a marketing executive of Colleen’s caliber join the leadership team,” said Murphy. “Colleen brings extensive marketing leadership experience coupled with a customer and growth-oriented mindset, and a recognised track record of raising brand profiles.”

As CMO, Langevin is responsible for global marketing strategy and the global marketing organisation at Epicor, including corporate marketing, field marketing, and tele prospecting. She brings over 20 years of proven executive experience cultivating customer-driven marketing, building global brands, and launching into new lines of business and markets to drive impactful revenue growth.

“I’m thrilled to join Epicor at such a pivotal time for the company, our customers and our industry,” said Langevin. “From artificial intelligence (AI), big data and blockchain, to Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things (IoT)—business leaders are striving to identify the digital transformations they can make that will have the biggest impact on enhancing employee and customer experiences and drive growth. And Epicor is leading the way for its customers to leverage the advantages innovative technologies bring.”

Prior to joining Epicor, Langevin was the CMO for CLEAResult, the market leader in designing and implementing technology-enabled demand side management programs for utilities. While at CLEAResult, Langevin led the development and execution of the go-to-market strategy and the marketing organisation that drove significant revenue growth for the company. She has also previously held executive leadership positions with Dell and also Iron Mountain, where as senior vice president of marketing her leadership of market strategy, product marketing and branding as well as the field marketing teams resulted in growing the business into a global market leader with over $3B in revenue. Langevin holds an MBA from Babson College and a Bachelor of Arts from Purdue University.

The appointment of Langevin as CMO completes the growth-oriented leadership team led by Murphy, which also includes:

“The talented global management team assembled at Epicor will accelerate the execution of our strategy to drive a culture of growth, investment and customer-centricity—while raising the bar on innovation and transformation,” Murphy said. “I’m excited about the team and what we can accomplish together—bringing experience in cloud solutions and coming from industry leaders and high-growth companies. With cloud as our fastest growing deployment segment, we are poised to continue to increase speed, efficiency and scale delivering technology solutions that in turn enable our customers to achieve the kind of transformation that fuels growth.”

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Latest oneM2M IoT standardisation progress to be showcased at MWC 2018

The outcome of the ever-increasing efforts to further advance the Internet of Things (IoT) will be revealed at Mobile World Congress 2018, as numerous oneM2M members demonstrate their latest innovations across multiple sectors.

From smart cities and automated vehicles to e-health and industrial processes, the number of connected devices in all areas of life is only set to vastly increase. Gartner Analyst Group places IoT at the top of its emerging technologies and anticipates a five-to-ten-year period for the market to reach full maturity. But interoperability remains a key concern for the IoT industry and as market demands continue to accelerate, a multi-purpose and collaborative approach is required.

As the global IoT standards initiative, oneM2M addresses this challenge by providing a universal framework for IoT deployments. These standards are being supported by leading industry players – including Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), iconectiv, Intel, InterDigital and Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., which will have oneM2M-based solutions showcased at MWC 2018. Experts from IBM will also speak at the event.

“The IoT device and platforms market is continuing to grow at a rapid rate and interoperability is essential to ensuring that this momentum continues,” said Jim Nolan, Executive Vice President, Chordant at InterDigital. “Horizontal, standards-based approaches to further evolve IoT are pivotal, as they ensure IoT deployments are scalable and cost-effective. This year’s Mobile World Congress will highlight real-world deployments already demonstrating this and it is fantastic to see so many fellow oneM2M members shining a light on their developments.”

Chordant™, an InterDigital business, will also host a number of IoT demonstrations at the InterDigital stand in Hall 7, Stand C761. These will demonstrate how the Chordant platform, a solution based on the oneM2M standard, is used to harmonise devices, data and services. Some of the featured use cases enabled by the Chordant platform will include smart city data marketplace, multi-connectivity and edge processing, SCEF interface to core networks, and monitoring over LPWA networks.

Meanwhile, Qualcomm Technologies’ Seshu Madhavapeddy, Vice President of Product Management for IoT, will speak during Mobile World Congress’ IoT Security & the Blockchain conference on Monday, February 26 at 11am and discuss how the IoT can be protected end-to-end through strong ecosystem collaboration – from chip to cloud.

HPE will host a number of IoT demonstrations at its stand in Hall 3, Stand 3E11. These will show how the HPE Universal IoT Platform utilises the oneM2M-based horizontal approach across verticals such as Smart Cities and Precision Agriculture, including integration with edge-based solutions from HPE’s Edgeline Converged Edge Systems. The HPE Universal IoT Platform has been designed from its inception to be aligned with oneM2M and, as a result, can support multiple industry-specific use cases on the same horizontal platform.

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How and why police lights are used? Complete quick book of police vehicle lights

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How data analytics can identify toxic work environments

Inside SAP: As Cloud Surpasses License Revenue In 2018, 10 Strategic Insights

Inside SAP

Helping global corporations like Emirates Group undergo massive digital transformations even as it remakes itself for the digital world, SAP is confidently predicting that its cloud revenue will overtake its license revenue this year on the strength of having “the most complete cloud in the enterprise,” according to CEO Bill McDermott.

“We believe this is not a time for measured ambitions–in a world filled with anxiety about automation, SAP will lead a new economy where intelligent machines enable augmented humanity,” McDermott said on SAP’s recent Q4 earnings call.

If that type of aspirational vision seems hard to square with images of R3 workscreens, bear in mind that McDermott’s been in the CEO chair for 9 years and has pretty much completed his end-to-end transformation of the company: its move into databases, its move to the cloud, the many acquisitions that have accelerated that journey, an aggressive embrace of powerful new technologies, and a grand new sense of the role SAP can play—and should play—in a world rapidly moving to digital lifestyles and digital business.

Like every tech megavendor competing in the Cloud Wars, SAP has its challenges:

• savage competition for SaaS deals from cloud natives Salesforce.com and Workday as well as from longtime nemesis Oracle;
• a huge product lineup that can at times be difficult to orchestrate elegantly;
• a rapidly evolving competitive landscape in the cloud where IaaS superpower Amazon along with resurgent IBM and fast-growing Google will inevitably want to expand into the SaaS and PaaS segments where SAP does well; and
• a strategic partnership with Microsoft that offers tremendous promise but also potentially distorts the clarity of SAP’s own cloud and digital-business aspirations.

So let’s dig into 10 strategic insights revealed during SAP’s recent earnings call  with financial analysts and see where this extraordinary company—whose applications power huge portions of the global economy—is headed (hat tip to SeekingAlpha.com for the transcript).

1. Cloud Revenue Becomes King Inside SAP.“Cloud revenue is expected to overtake license revenue for the first time,” McDermott said in his prepared remarks. Looking a bit further ahead, he added, “We expect cloud to grow at again 30% compounded annual growth rate and more than double by 2020.”

With SAP’s cloud revenue for calendar 2017 coming in $4.71 billion, that means SAP expects to come very close to $10 billion in cloud revenue for 2020. Meanwhile, SAP’s traditional on-premises business continues to grow in single digits even as the cloud business surges—and for an excellent analysis on how and why companies are balancing their cloud and on-premises strategies, I heartily recommend this insightful analysis from the always-excellent Holger Mueller of Constellation Research. (Warning—don’t be scared by Holger’s headline—it’s a must-read overview!)

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Article Credit: Forbes

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Microsoft, SAP And Oracle Join Cloud Industry Obsession Over New Performance Metric

Cloud Industry

The clearest and most-unequivocal proof that the enterprise-cloud business has grown up and is fully ready for industrial-strength deployments is the recent pledges from top executives at Microsoft, SAP and Oracle to make customer success—not customer satisfaction or loyalty, but customer success—their top priority in 2018.

Those tech-industry giants have joined cloud-native SaaS providers Workday, Salesforce.com and ServiceNow in committing unconditionally to this new top-priority metric in the following ways:

revamping salespeople’s compensation to be based on cloud-services consumption and business success, rather than on what Microsoft CFO Amy Hood called “the billing cycle”;

creating new roles and positions within the organization specifically designed to bring all the cloud vendor’s resources to bear on ensuring successful deployments, go-lives and ongoing operations; and

launching new programs specifically designed to enable and enhance customer-to-customer communications.

These latest public pledges from three of the world’s biggest enterprise-tech companies—Microsoft, SAP and Oracle—underscore a prediction I made late last year that customer success would become the single most-important and defining issue for the entire industry in 2018.

I laid out this new premise for cloud leadership in an article called Cloud Computing Outlook 2018: The Top 10 Predictions For Winning The Cloud and here’s a quick excerpt to offer some context on just how transformative and sweeping this new movement has become:

Yes, brilliant cloud technology will remain essential—but I would argue that in as the cloud marketplace evolves at a stunning pace, that brilliant technology and resulting cloud services are becoming table stakes in the Cloud Wars.

And as a consequence, the true measure of strategic differentiation in the cloud will be how well those cloud vendors can, as noted above, map their offerings to their customers: the business priorities of big, mid-size and small companies in every industry and across every region on the planet.

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Article Credit: Forbes

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SAP HANA: Concerns remain over tech skills, complexity, licensing – survey

SAP HANA

Customer confusion and a lack of technical skills are still dogging migration to SAP HANA, but the days of deployment horror stories are fading, according to a report penned by an integrator.

The ERP giant launched its in-memory data platform SAP HANA in late 2010, but the firm had problems conveying what it actually was, and organisations found it hard to drum up compelling business cases.

This confusion, combined with reports of delayed and over-budget migrations, meant SAP’s task to convince customers to commit to ditching their traditional relational databases was even more of a struggle.

However, a report from SAP HANA managed service biz Centiq has indicated that – despite underlying confusion remaining – acceptance of the platform is on the up.

Centiq surveyed 250 UK punters of varying sizes about their opinions and experiences with SAP HANA, finding 68 per cent of respondents claimed SAP HANA had delivered its return on investment, and 75 per cent said projects were finished on time, on budget or both.

Paul Cooper, chairman of the UK SAP User Group – which wasn’t involved in producing the survey – said that the findings chimed with those of his own group, which has seen more people considering SAP HANA.

There had been a “huge effort” from SAP and its partners to “try and overcome the horror stories of the past,” and convince customers that things have changed, he said.

“It’s a good sign if people are seeing that, because it indicates that the rhetoric is coming true.”

Direct access licensing

But there are still a number of issues SAP will have to overcome if it is to migrate its customers before 2025, when it has planned to cease support for some products.

Among them, the long-standing fears about direct access and licensingloom large, with 86 per cent of customers saying they are still confused on these issues.

But Centiq also outlined broader concerns around a lack of technical skills for migration and problems defining the migration strategy to SAP HANA.

It noted customers are now faced with more choices, such as weighing up the various benefits of on-premise, public and private cloud.

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Article Credit: The Register

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One Major Problem Amazon Must Fix

When Amazon was trading at $700 in May of 2016, Rex Jacobsen told us The Market Is Underestimating Amazon and set a target price of $1,100. Nearly 2 years later, Amazon is at $1,500 and I have 8 managers who own it. But after listening to their arguments in favor of Amazon, there is still 1 thing that bothers me particularly now that the price-earnings ratio is 326; It is Amazon’s third-party sellers program.

When a stock is trading at 326 times earnings, it is vulnerable to corrections whenever there is disappointing news. So, if there is any part of the business that is not rock solid, it bears close scrutiny if you own the stock or thinking of buying it.

The New York Times estimates that third-party sellers account for nearly $8 billion, or 13% of Amazon’s total revenue in its most recent quarter and that it grew 42% from a year earlier. I believe this is a high-margin part of their business as the third-party sellers put up the capital for inventory and pay Amazon fees and a percentage of sales.

This is not so different from the business model of a retail mall. The stores in the mall pay the mall owner a percentage of their sales in addition to rent and other fees. This is a business model that has been successfully used over and over again.

However, a mall has a limited amount of space for stores. This makes the mall owner careful to select stores that do a good job for their customers so they attract more shoppers, making the mall more valuable for all the stores.

In contrast, Amazon has unlimited store space so they can say yes to everyone who wants to set up shop. And, they have said yes to some sketchy sellers.

In Amazon Offers LG’s 32-Inch IPS Monitor For $4.89, But I’m Not Buying It, I wrote about some of the sketchy deals I found on Amazon in March of 2017.

Since then, I have discussed the situation with Amazon representatives, and there have been improvements, but there is still a problem.

I no longer see third-party sellers offering deals that are too good to be true like the LG 32-inch monitor for $4.89.

However, there are plenty of “just launched” sellers with no ratings offering lower prices than other sellers including Amazon. Most of these sellers are no doubt legit. After all, every seller has to launch before customers can rate them. Nevertheless, I routinely pay a higher price to buy from either Amazon or a third-party seller with a track record, to avoid getting scammed.

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Article Credit: Forbes

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How Amazon, JPMorgan, Berkshire could transform American healthcare

American healthcare

The burgeoning collaboration between Amazon, JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway seeking to transform the American health care system is long on ambition and short on details.

By their own admission, the companies are stepping up to the plate without much experience playing the game, which could easily translate into a swift strikeout.

But they’re already being taken seriously — and for good reason.

With two of the world’s three richest people leading the charge – Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Berkshire CEO Warren Buffett – as well as JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, the newly minted coalition is hoping to lower health care costs for the companies’ employees and deliver significant advancements for all patients.

The challenge is monumental. Health care spending represented 17.9% of the U.S. economy in 2016, totaling about $10,348 per person, and continues to rise, according to the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Based on their past accomplishments, how might the alliance leaders tackle what Buffett called “a hungry tapeworm on the American economy”?

Any prediction about the alliance’s plans must glean insight from Amazon’s success, which has been based on removing entire layers of product sales and distribution and adopting new ways of thinking. That’s caused massive disruption in the retail and tech industries.

With retail, Bezos refused to travel the well-worn path established by leaders in the business. Victims that failed to adapt, such as bookstore chain Borders, are gone. Others, such as Sears, are teetering.

The lesson for health care? The system you know today won’t necessarily exist in its current form for much longer if Bezos, Buffett and Dimon get their way.

To shake up health care, “it takes bold thinking on the part of thought leaders who are willing to go out there and stake a claim that they will be able to do something grand,” said Jean Abraham, a health care administration professor at the University of Minnesota and former senior economist on health issues for the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

Momentum building

One sign the new alliance is building momentum is that more companies are interested in joining them.

The Health Transformation Alliance, which was formed in 2015 by American Express, Macy’s, Verizon and Caterpillar, hailed the new coalition’s formation. Since its creation, the Health Transformation Alliance has added a few dozen additional members, including JPMorgan Chase and one of Berkshire’s subsidiaries, BNSF Railway.

“We are interested in exploring ways we can work together, and I trust that we will,” says Rob Andrews, CEO of the alliance.

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Article Credit: USA Today

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How Artificial Intelligence, Automation & Big Data Analytics Are Shaping The Future Of HR

Future Of HR

HR is changing. Not surprisingly, the trends that are driving this are similar to those driving change in the business world as a whole.

Organizations are being forced to adapt, as a wave of disruptive technologies—artificial intelligence (AI), automation, big data analytics, and robotics—offer the potential for a more focused strategy to harness business value.

A more coherent, value-oriented strategy for HR teams within a firm is thus needed, as the sector needs to become more than a humdrum of paperwork and workforce regulation—there have even been calls to split HR down the middle, having it at the confluence of an old-school, traditional stream of thought, and a modern, fast-flowing river of data and analytics.

Dana Minbaeva, professor of strategic and global HR management at Copenhagen Business School—ranked among the top 100 business schools in the Financial Times’ Global MBA Rankings 2018—is harnessing this potential on her course, aiming to create the next generation of data-savvy HR leaders.

Big data analytics brings along with it “a quest for more simplicity, less complexity, more innovation, and more customer orientation,” she says, as it is made more possible to objectively analyze a company’s workforce performance.

That directly shapes the way strategic and global HR management is taught on the Copenhagen MBA, as Dana taps more into human resources in terms of human capital, as businesses nowadays need managers who know how to generate value from their workforce.

“I talk a lot about strategic implementation and the value that human capital has for a company, and how to use it to achieve a sustained, competitive advantage,” she explains.

On the Copenhagen MBA she handpicks selective topics—from HR capital, talent management, performance management, and pay compensation—that are linked to the increasingly proximal relationship between HR and line managers.

“The relations are changing,” Dana admits, “in the old days a line manager needed to sit down and have a face-to-face meeting with their HR business partner.

But new developments in data analytics mean that questions around staffing numbers, workplace productivity, staff retention and turnover, can now be answered by an algorithm that provides hard, objective evidence for line managers.

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Article Credit: BB

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Steve Wozniak explains why he used to agree with Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking on A.I. — but now he doesn’t

Steve Wozniak

Tesla and SpaceX chief Elon Musk and renowned physicist Stephen Hawking have issued some terrifying predictions about the future of artificial intelligence.

Musk has said AI is more dangerous than North Korea. He’s also warned it is “fundamental risk to the existence of human civilization.”

Hawking has said “AI could be the worst event in the history of our civilization. It brings dangers, like powerful autonomous weapons, or new ways for the few to oppress the many. It could bring great disruption to our economy.”

Steve Wozniak used to agree with Musk and Hawking’s foreboding about AI, but he doesn’t anymore, said the Apple co-founder at the Nordic Business Forum in Stockholm on January 24.

“Artificial intelligence doesn’t scare me at all,” Wozniak said.

That’s because in cognitive ability, machines are eons behind even a young child. He’s not impressed.

“I agree with the ‘A’ in AI,” Wozniak said. “A little girl, 2 years old, sees a dog one time and knows what a dog is forever,” said the Apple co-founder.

Meanwhile, a computer has to see an image over and over again before it can recognize what it is looking at, Wozniak says.

“For machines to override human beings, they would have to do every step in society, of digging oars out of quarries and refining materials and building up all the products and everything we have in our lives, and making clothes and food.

“That would take hundreds of years to change the infrastructure,” Wozniak explained.

This isn’t the first flip-flop Wozniak has made on AI. For a long time, Wozniak was was unimpressed by early examples of AI and didn’t feel afraid of what was to come.

Then, according to Wozniak, he was on a panel speaking with Ray Kurzweil, the famed futurist and author, who, in his book “The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology,” prophesied that machines will be able to process as much as and as fast as the human brain by 2045.

Kurzweil convinced Wozniak with his explanation of exponential technologies: At first the impact of an exponential technology is imperceptible, but then all of a sudden, as with the curve, the impact of the technology is felt quickly and significantly.

“His formulas were right and I bought in! For two years, I was up on stages saying, ‘These machines are going to be conscious. They are going to be having conversations and thinking for themselves. It is going to happen!’”

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Article Credit: CNBC

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