TECHNOLOGY

Being Anticipatory Ensures Your Place in a Digital World

Published

2 years ago

May 5, 2022

Technology and the disruptions it causes are a Hard Trend future certainty, in that it will continue to upend industry after industry without prejudice.

There are a number of fears surrounding displacement by technology by both business leaders and employees in an array of industries, but the common thread ties tightly to automation software and hardware.

In other words, many fear that robotics and artificial intelligence (A.I.) will lead the charge in permanently removing human beings from their careers, leaving them unemployed and without any new opportunities. Let me dispel it from the start: This is not going to happen. Changes will take place but being human is a highly leverageable asset in the digitally disruptive future.

In my Anticipatory Leader System, there are several competencies that I teach that point to why and how human beings will become more valuable than ever as technology gets more autonomous by the day. Transitioning to an anticipatory mindset as a business leader or employee and using it to shift your company to be an anticipatory organization to stay ahead of digital disruption, is an ongoing end goal in this process.

A.I. Is Prominently Disrupting Business Processes

There are countless applications of artificially intelligent software and hardware in the world today, from content writing applications that can take keywords and generate targeted blogs to robotics in automotive manufacturing that can not only diagnose problems in their systems, but fix them as well using machine learning (M.L.) and edge computing.

It is hard to find an area of the world not impacted by this transformative digital technology. To help get in front of this disruption, let’s look at two current, prominent examples from the past year or so:

Pharmaceutical Labs: In a lab environment, scientists and engineers are constantly at risk of exposing themselves to potentially harmful chemicals while developing anything, really. This is especially true in the manufacturing of pharmaceuticals, where a plethora of chemicals both safe and harmful are abundant.

Not only have A.I. and autonomous machines found their way into this world to help with production of medications, but they are starting to become a more favorable option in all chemical-facing areas of a lab, essentially eliminating the need for a scientist or engineer to ever set foot into the same space.

Rideshare Drivers: This is still a few years off, but it is accelerating in many communities across the nation and around the world. As many automobiles hit the market with fully autonomous capabilities, rideshare platforms like Uber and Lyft — who already disrupted the public transportation industries with their applications — will start utilizing those types of vehicles to transport individuals instead of individual drivers.

Rideshare platforms are in what is referred to as the “gig economy,” where individuals who drive under them do it part time for extra money. Fully autonomous vehicles bring a new level of disruption to those who rely on that extra money to help get them by, while allowing the rideshare companies to save customers money by not having to adjust driver rates so frequently.

Valuable Human Competencies Keeping You Valuable

Those two examples may sound bleak and counterintuitive to what I discussed earlier about human beings still being valuable despite autonomous technology and A.I. being a smoother option. But don’t worry; we have reached the positive resolution of this story, and it too is as much of a Hard Trend future certainty as technology causing disruptions in the first place!

What those who are finding themselves professionally displaced by these disruptive technologies must do is first identify some of the characteristics of being human that are irreplaceable by technology, no matter how advanced that technology becomes. Here are a few to get started:

Communication: Machines cannot communicate using body language, tone of voice, or any other way that humans are proficient in. Given this fact, polishing your communication skills, both spoken and written, is integral in increasing your human value.

Collaboration: Working together as employees or leaders with their employees is irreplaceable by even the smartest A.I. Software and hardware that leverages A.I. and automation is programmed to respond, or to cooperate with you, which is a one-way street. So much more can be accomplished on a two-lane highway of collaboration!

Adaptability: The fact that we make mistakes and take missteps is actually a valuable asset in both professional and personal situations. The reason behind this value is since we then problem-solve to find a solution, often uncovering a better way to solve a problem — precisely what an anticipatory mindset is all about!

Creative Critical Thinking: Machines are not sentient beings. Creative critical thinking is a subcategory of adaptability: the act of us thinking critically and getting creative about how to better solve a problem that we either know is going to cause us issues, or one that has already disrupted us. A.I. and automation can only learn so many ways to solve problems systematically.

Relationship Building: Human beings develop long-term relationships with customers, colleagues, and business partners. Artificially intelligent bots that connect with those same individuals can easily be ignored and disregarded for a different bot, leaving you without a trustworthy connection to an individual.

Humans and Machines: A Both/And Combination

If technology and digital disruptions caused by them are Hard Trend future certainties that are not going away, and we as humans will always need to be employable to continue to make money and have purpose, how do these meet?

By way of a competency from my Anticipatory Leader System known as The Both/And Principle, there will always be a place for both human beings and autonomous technologies in all industries.

Revisiting our previous examples, scientists and engineers in pharmaceutical labs may not be able to work hands-on with the development of medication, but they are still irreplaceable by way of creative critical thinking about scientific breakthroughs, or collaboration with like-minded professionals in the industry.

For our rideshare example, there is going to be a growing need for service shops to keep autonomous vehicles used by the likes of Uber and Lyft on the roads, and if they are electric automobiles, there will be new maintenance routines needed that were nonexistent in the past. The adaptability of those who integrated driving under rideshare platforms will shine through, and they may find themselves in a newer, more lucrative career as an autonomous vehicle repair specialist.

In these and so many other examples, using an anticipatory mindset to stay aware of what can and will disrupt your world keeps you ahead of the game. Being anticipatory is a human competency, one that employs all those valuable human traits mentioned earlier, and therefore, you will always have an edge on the machines.

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TECHNOLOGY

HCLTech and Cisco create collaborative hybrid workplaces

Published

2 days ago

November 29, 2023

Max

Digital comms specialist Cisco and global tech firm HCLTech have teamed up to launch Meeting-Rooms-as-a-Service (MRaaS).

Available on a subscription model, this solution modernises legacy meeting rooms and enables users to join meetings from any meeting solution provider using Webex devices.

The MRaaS solution helps enterprises simplify the design, implementation and maintenance of integrated meeting rooms, enabling seamless collaboration for their globally distributed hybrid workforces.

Rakshit Ghura, senior VP and Global head of digital workplace services, HCLTech, said: “MRaaS combines our consulting and managed services expertise with Cisco’s proficiency in Webex devices to change the way employees conceptualise, organise and interact in a collaborative environment for a modern hybrid work model.

“The common vision of our partnership is to elevate the collaboration experience at work and drive productivity through modern meeting rooms.”

Alexandra Zagury, VP of partner managed and as-a-Service Sales at Cisco, said: “Our partnership with HCLTech helps our clients transform their offices through cost-effective managed services that support the ongoing evolution of workspaces.

“As we reimagine the modern office, we are making it easier to support collaboration and productivity among workers, whether they are in the office or elsewhere.”

Cisco’s Webex collaboration devices harness the power of artificial intelligence to offer intuitive, seamless collaboration experiences, enabling meeting rooms with smart features such as meeting zones, intelligent people framing, optimised attendee audio and background noise removal, among others.

Want to learn more about cybersecurity and the cloud from industry leaders? Check out Cyber Security & Cloud Expo taking place in Amsterdam, California, and London. Explore other upcoming enterprise technology events and webinars powered by TechForge here.

Tags: Cisco, collaboration, HCLTech, Hybrid, meetings

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TECHNOLOGY

Canonical releases low-touch private cloud MicroCloud

Published

2 days ago

November 28, 2023

Max

Canonical has announced the general availability of MicroCloud, a low-touch, open source cloud solution. MicroCloud is part of Canonical’s growing cloud infrastructure portfolio.

It is purpose-built for scalable clusters and edge deployments for all types of enterprises. It is designed with simplicity, security and automation in mind, minimising the time and effort to both deploy and maintain it. Conveniently, enterprise support for MicroCloud is offered as part of Canonical’s Ubuntu Pro subscription, with several support tiers available, and priced per node.

MicroClouds are optimised for repeatable and reliable remote deployments. A single command initiates the orchestration and clustering of various components with minimal involvement by the user, resulting in a fully functional cloud within minutes. This simplified deployment process significantly reduces the barrier to entry, putting a production-grade cloud at everyone’s fingertips.

Juan Manuel Ventura, head of architectures & technologies at Spindox, said: “Cloud computing is not only about technology, it’s the beating heart of any modern industrial transformation, driving agility and innovation. Our mission is to provide our customers with the most effective ways to innovate and bring value; having a complexity-free cloud infrastructure is one important piece of that puzzle. With MicroCloud, the focus shifts away from struggling with cloud operations to solving real business challenges” says

In addition to seamless deployment, MicroCloud prioritises security and ease of maintenance. All MicroCloud components are built with strict confinement for increased security, with over-the-air transactional updates that preserve data and roll back on errors automatically. Upgrades to newer versions are handled automatically and without downtime, with the mechanisms to hold or schedule them as needed.

With this approach, MicroCloud caters to both on-premise clouds but also edge deployments at remote locations, allowing organisations to use the same infrastructure primitives and services wherever they are needed. It is suitable for business-in-branch office locations or industrial use inside a factory, as well as distributed locations where the focus is on replicability and unattended operations.

Cedric Gegout, VP of product at Canonical, said: “As data becomes more distributed, the infrastructure has to follow. Cloud computing is now distributed, spanning across data centres, far and near edge computing appliances. MicroCloud is our answer to that.

“By packaging known infrastructure primitives in a portable and unattended way, we are delivering a simpler, more prescriptive cloud experience that makes zero-ops a reality for many Industries.“

MicroCloud’s lightweight architecture makes it usable on both commodity and high-end hardware, with several ways to further reduce its footprint depending on your workload needs. In addition to the standard Ubuntu Server or Desktop, MicroClouds can be run on Ubuntu Core – a lightweight OS optimised for the edge. With Ubuntu Core, MicroClouds are a perfect solution for far-edge locations with limited computing capabilities. Users can choose to run their workloads using Kubernetes or via system containers. System containers based on LXD behave similarly to traditional VMs but consume fewer resources while providing bare-metal performance.

Coupled with Canonical’s Ubuntu Pro + Support subscription, MicroCloud users can benefit from an enterprise-grade open source cloud solution that is fully supported and with better economics. An Ubuntu Pro subscription offers security maintenance for the broadest collection of open-source software available from a single vendor today. It covers over 30k packages with a consistent security maintenance commitment, and additional features such as kernel livepatch, systems management at scale, certified compliance and hardening profiles enabling easy adoption for enterprises. With per-node pricing and no hidden fees, customers can rest assured that their environment is secure and supported without the expensive price tag typically associated with cloud solutions.

Tags: automation, Canonical, MicroCloud, private cloud

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TECHNOLOGY

AWS and SoftwareOne collaborate on RISE with SAP

Published

1 week ago

November 22, 2023

Max

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and SoftwareOne Holding AG, a global provider of end-to-end software and cloud technology solutions, have partnered to help customers transition to RISE with SAP on an AWS cloud environment.

Called the Ready for RISE on AWS bundle, it combines SoftwareOne’s deep SAP advisory and implementation knowledge with AWS technologies to expedite a client’s SAP transformation journey.

The collaboration comes at a time when there is growing pressure on organisations to decide how to modernise their SAP environments driven in part by the end of mainstream support for SAP ERP Central Component (SAP ECC) in 2027. Despite the imminent deadline, many organisations are still confused as to which path to take, including when to adopt RISE with SAP, SAP’s bundled offering of cloud solutions, infrastructure, and services that helps migrate SAP ERP to the cloud.

Ireneusz Hołowacz, Director of Application Development Center at GAVDI Polska, said: “A stable, efficient, and cost-effective environment for consultants and programmers is one of the most important priorities of our daily work. Thanks to the migration of our SAP systems to the AWS cloud with the help of SoftwareOne, GAVDI Polska has achieved all the goals set for this process.

In a survey recently conducted by SoftwareOne with Americas’ SAP Users’ Group (ASUG) – the full details of which will be revealed in January 2024 – showed that while 42% of respondents were familiar with RISE with SAP, 40% had heard of it but weren’t familiar with the details and 18% had never heard of it. Over half (52%) said they were still unsure how RISE with SAP would impact their existing relationship with cloud service providers.

“SAP customers have implemented some of the most comprehensive and complex enterprise systems in the industry and moving them to cloud services like AWS requires many important decisions to be made to optimise these investments,” says Joshua Greenbaum, Principal at EAC. “SoftwareOne’s extensive experience in the SAP ecosystem, combined with its unique capabilities around system rationalisation, cost containment, contracts and licenses, and cloud service management, among others, will provide customers deploying on AWS with the ability to make the most of RISE on SAP and other SAP offerings. Ready for RISE on AWS is an important offering for SAP customers at this critical moment in their business transformations.”

The Ready for RISE on AWS bundle will help clients understand their SAP transformation options and offer a comprehensive solution to organisations who consider RISE with SAP. It includes advisory data preparation, conversion services, data and AI, cloud innovation platform, supporting the entire journey to RISE on AWS. Clients will benefit from accelerated Return on Investment (ROI), optimal data management, and cost-saving strategies while laying the foundation for ongoing innovation and long-term business success.

Matt Schwartz, worldwide director, SAP Alliance & Partner Network at AWS, said: “As a valued AWS Premier Consulting Partner, AWS is working closely with SoftwareOne to offer SAP customers comprehensive assistance through each step of their journey to RISE with SAP on AWS. SoftwareOne’s ability to bundle Advisory, Data & AI, Cloud Platform, and Operations considerations can be of high interest to customers who are seeking to understand RISE with SAP as well as the cloud native and operation considerations that surround and support the RISE with SAP construct.”

PF Grillet, SAP Business Lead at SoftwareOne, said: “There are many choices available to SAP clients who know they need to modernise but aren’t sure of the best option, particularly given the business-critical nature of the applications.

“All of our services are centered around our customers and what is right for them. This includes supporting and optimising RISE with SAP in scenarios when it’s the right decision based on their requirements. Our extensive knowledge of and relationship with AWS means we can help them better prepare and achieve a seamless transition to S/4HANA using RISE with SAP on AWS with reduced costs and risks. This collaboration goes beyond preparing businesses for change; it’s making transformation and becoming innovation-ready a reality using AWS technologies.”

The offering includes SNP tooling to reduce a customer’s data footprint and accelerate migration. SoftwareOne will migrate selected data to an AWS data lake, accelerate innovation readiness and ensure SAP data is suitable for broader data analytics and AI use cases. Clients gain access to innovative tools like AWS’ Sagemaker for Machine Learning, continuous data management and optimisation within the AWS environment. The AWS innovation platform also includes Amazon Bedrock that helps organisations accelerate adapting Large Language Models and deploying GenAI use cases that leverage the extended data set.

“While the future innovation opportunities are exciting, clients need to balance these with a pragmatic approach to costs,” explained Marilyn Moodley, Country Leader for South Africa and WECA at SoftwareOne, “We integrate ‘Cost-Out’ recommendations into the core of our services, providing a more cost-effective solution for customers, like reducing the data footprint size and optimising storage and archiving.

“Our expertise in the complexities of SAP licensing further drives cost savings while our FinOps capabilities enable customers to optimise their AWS cloud spend and effectively manage their AWS cloud environment, ensuring full transparency in their budgets. The overall result is a significantly reduced time for RISE migration, which translates into a quicker time to value.”

Tags: AWS, partnership, SAP, SoftwareOne, transition

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