With the world struggling to find the balance between working remotely and in the office, hybrid work is emerging as the way of the future. However, organizations and enterprises are finding solutions to empower collaboration and push productivity further. According to a report by Jabra, a staggering 80% of meetings now happen either fully remotely or in a hybrid fashion. Yet, 37% of employees often feel excluded during these hybrid meetings. This highlights the challenges that accompany the transition to hybrid work arrangements.
To help with this conundrum, Jabra has introduced the PanaCast 50 Video Bar System (VBS). This system is now coming to Malaysia, as part of its PanaCast 50 solution portfolio designed for small to medium-sized meeting rooms.
The PanaCast 50 Video Bar System: Your Ultimate Meeting Companion
The Jabra PanaCast 50 Video Bar System is a comprehensive solution that includes an Android-based compute unit, state-of-the-art System-on-a-Chip (SoC), speakers, microphones, a video camera, and interfaces for network and display, ensuring a hassle-free setup.
One of the standout features is its 10.1-inch touch controller that allows users to manage their meeting experience with a few taps before diving into important discussions. The system, built on top of Android, seamlessly runs Microsoft Teams Rooms or Zoom Rooms. It also supports most major conferencing platforms.
The PanaCast 50 differentiates itself with an immersive meeting experience. It comes equipped with a Panoramic 4K multi-camera that offers a 180° field-of-view. The system can do this thanks to the onboard AI which stitches the images from the three camera sensors to create lifelike representations of all meeting attendees in the room.
The system boasts four powerful speakers in a zero-vibration stereo setup to help with crystal-clear audio quality. This is further complemented by a total of eight professional-grade microphones featuring voice detection and intelligent algorithms that help tune out residual noise.
The PanaCast 50 also offers Intelligent Meeting Room Experiences, which include the Virtual Director, Intelligent Zoom, and Dynamic Composition. These features engage remote participants, enhancing the overall meeting experience. It even comes with an AI-powered feature set that allows the system to highlight and focus on people presenting and speaking even in crowded meeting rooms.
Pricing and Availability
The PanaCast 50 Video Bar System is now available in Malaysia for RM26,070.00.
It seems like Generative AI isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) is bringing a whole suite of Generative AI innovations to its services stack. These innovations are set to empower organizations of all sizes, enabling them to develop cutting-edge generative AI applications, enhance employee productivity, and transform their businesses.
Amazon Bedrock Lays the Foundations for Wider Generative AI Applications & Adoption
Leading the charge is Amazon Bedrock, a fully managed service that simplifies the development of generative AI applications. This service offers a variety of foundation models (FMs) from top AI companies, such as AI21 Labs, Anthropic, Cohere, Meta, Stability AI, and Amazon. These FMs are versatile and can be applied to a wide range of use cases, from content creation to drug discovery.
One key challenge for businesses interested in adopting generative AI has been finding the right FM for their specific needs. Amazon Bedrock solves this problem by providing access to a diverse selection of FMs via a single application programming interface (API). It also removes the need for specialised hardware deployments. This streamlines the process and eliminates the complexity of managing multiple models and infrastructures.
Unlocking the Power of Generative AI Through Amazon Titan Embeddings
One of the highlights is the general availability of Amazon Titan Embeddings. This family of models, created and pre-trained by AWS, includes a large language model (LLM) known as Amazon Titan Embeddings. This LLM converts text into numerical representations called embeddings, which are crucial for tasks like search, personalization, and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG).
What sets Amazon Titan Embeddings apart is its ability to support more than 25 languages and handle context lengths of up to 8,192 tokens. This makes it highly versatile and suitable for various applications, from processing single words to entire documents. Its output vectors, boasting 1,536 dimensions, ensure both accuracy and low-latency performance.
Integration with Meta’s Llama 2
In the coming weeks, Amazon Bedrock will also offer Llama 2, Meta’s latest large language model. Llama 2 models come with significant enhancements, having been trained on 40% more data and featuring a longer context length of 4,000 tokens. These improvements make Llama 2 ideal for dialogue-based applications, providing fast responses on AWS infrastructure without the need for complex setup and management.
Securely Customise Amazon CodeWhisperer Suggestions with Your Own Codebase
For developers, Amazon CodeWhisperer has been a game-changer. This AI-powered coding companion is trained on billions of lines of Amazon and publicly available code, making it a valuable tool for improving developer productivity. Now, developers can securely customize CodeWhisperer’s code suggestions using their private codebase, addressing the challenges of working with internal, proprietary code.
This customization capability streamlines the process of finding and incorporating internal code into applications. Developers save time, as they no longer need to manually search through extensive internal code repositories. Additionally, administrators can centrally manage customizations, ensuring adherence to quality and security standards.
Generative Business Intelligence with Amazon QuickSight
Amazon QuickSight, a unified business intelligence (BI) service, is introducing Generative BI authoring capabilities. These capabilities go beyond answering structured queries and allow business analysts to easily create and customize visuals using natural-language commands. Analysts can describe their desired outcome, and QuickSight generates compelling visuals, reducing the time spent on manual tasks like data source identification and visualization creation.
Availability
Amazon Bedrock is now generally available, offering businesses the opportunity to leverage the power of generative AI. Amazon Titan Embeddings is also available, while Llama 2 is set to launch in the next few weeks. Customizations for Amazon CodeWhisperer are coming soon while Generative BI authoring capabilities in Amazon QuickSight are already available on AWS.
Cisco has announced that it is discontinuing its HyperFlex hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) product family, effective March 12, 2024. The company cited evolving customer needs and market dynamics as the reason for the decision.
Cisco HyperFlex HCI combines data centre elements, including storage, compute, networking, and management, into a single unified system. It has been a popular choice for organizations of all sizes, offering a simplified and scalable way to manage their IT infrastructure.
However, in recent years, there has been an increasing number of companies shifting towards hybrid and multi-cloud computing which requires more flexible or scalable solutions. This has led to a decline in demand for traditional on-premises HCI solutions, such as Cisco HyperFlex.
Source: Cisco
In response to this trend, Cisco has decided to focus its efforts on developing and supporting hybrid and multi-cloud solutions. The company has recently announced a strategic partnership with Nutanix to offer a complete hyperconverged solution for IT modernization and business transformation.
Cisco has assured existing HyperFlex customers that they will continue to provide support for the product for the next five years. The company is also offering platform migration support and services to help customers transition to other HCI solutions, such as Nutanix. Cisco also offers a Take Back and Recycle program that allows its customers to sustainably remove and dispose of obsolete products.
This article is contributed by Jerry Paradise, Vice President of Global Commercial & Product Management at Lenovo IDG
In product and device design there are inflection points that really lend themselves to new and innovative thinking. Some of these points involve disruption – the sudden move to working from home because of the Covid-19 pandemic around the world is the obvious example. Others are longer-term, with some being the consequence of that initial disruptive event – the new thinking around hybrid working for example.
Right now, there have never been so many areas in which to innovate, because there are so many new problems and opportunities. The past 2 years have certainly sharpened the focus across many industries on how to solve problems with technology and while the shift towards cloud-based collaboration and productivity was already underway, the pandemic has accelerated digital transformation initiatives across so many functions.
The focus of much of this innovation is on hybrid working. Technology and devices, supported by connectivity and software, remain the foundation for what this will look like and will shape design and engineering for some time.
What is necessary for hybrid workstyles?
It starts with defining what technology-for-hybrid means. At its most fundamental, for the end-user, it means technology that supports being able to move back and forth readily between home – and “everywhere”. For businesses and IT departments, it means offering the flexibility of roaming workspaces, while maintaining maximum levels of productivity and security.
On the surface, it may all sound familiar, but there’s an underlying fundamental change. Pre-Covid, for most this meant office-based with occasional “after-hours” at home, with some remote working at a customer, perhaps via an airport. We went from one tethered environment, for power and connectivity, to another.
Now we’re seeking to create new experiences that are shared by people who no longer sit next to each other in the same space. We need high-speed wireless connectivity, always-on always connected, and using high-bandwidth applications that include voice and video nearly every hour of the working day, we need collaborative hardware and software that’s up to the job.
In the new hybrid working models, we have been starting to see the next generation of devices designed specifically for this new world.
A great example is artificial intelligence (AI) will start to work out whether or not to close down a side conversation because it’s not front-and-centre to the meeting for security reasons, or that in fact it should be part of the conversation because that person is an integral part of the discussion. Context will play its part, and technology will slowly take that into account.
From webcams to security
Previously, companies were suspicious of webcams, and our Customer Advisory Councils made it clear that a physical shutter was needed to guarantee that even if a camera was hacked remotely, the criminal could not see anything.
That design thinking started when hybrid working wasn’t even a concept. Now we’re looking at accommodating hybrid workspaces around new experiences that will demand cameras and microphones as essential to improve the efficiency and the comfort of meetings and be smarter as a result. That’s an interesting evolution that requires new thinking, and it demands new designs and innovation that we are actively working on.
Corporate security is also inverted. We previously had corporate networks where 80% or 90% of people were inside the firewall. If you entered your company’s building with your security tag, you were inside the VPN and were deemed safe to access the network.
Now, 80-90% of employees are outside the building at least some of the time and are outside the firewalled network. Often using their own devices on vulnerable home networks or remote hotspots without suitable VPN protection. For a company like Lenovo, I believe the responsibility lies with us, to put the security wrapper around the devices in this hybrid world, coordinating with the hardware layer and the operating system.
A great example is the Lenovo ThinkPad P14s i Gen 4 operating on Windows 11. Shield valuable data and enable secure hybrid work with the latest advanced security that businesses say results in 2.8X fewer instances of identity theft.[1]
Security fundamentals are too numerous to go into detail here, maybe for another time! But we’re taking a view of the multi-layer approach to security that says we’re going to do everything in our power to make the hardware design as secure as possible from supply chain integrity to endpoint protection for the end user.
And much more
Other design factors also come into play.
As we’re more mobile and more remote, we need longer battery life. Even if we’re based at home, we still don’t want to have to be tethered to the power outlet in the wall. So that means application management, chip management, and power and heat management.
How can the device balance the resources that create heat, with those to keep it cool, all of which use up battery power – and still retain everything the user demands for instant use?
The answers include ultra-high-performance software and hardware tuning according to the different tasks and needs, and using AI to manage high power consumption of technologies such as displays, 4G LTE and 5G (which is high).
Above all else the challenge we relish is that it’s our job to ensure that, when users open the lid of their laptops, the devices are ready to do useful work, on-demand, secure, fully connected, using applications that are only going to get more sophisticated, in more ways than we have ever done before.
Welcome to the hybrid future – and the devices we will use in it.
[1] Windows 11 Survey Report. Techaisle, February 2022. Windows 11 results are in comparison with Windows 10 devices
In efforts to advance hybrid cloud capabilities and empower Singapore’s workforce with essential tech skills, Nutanix and ST Engineering have joined forces through a two-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
Hybrid cloud technology is a way of using both public and private cloud services together. It allows organisations to store some data in a public cloud while keeping other sensitive data in a private cloud.
Nutanix, a multi-cloud computing company, and ST Engineering, a technology and engineering group, have outlined their commitment to several key areas. Among these areas are:
Develop cutting-edge hybrid cloud technologies
Firstly, the partnership aims to develop cutting-edge hybrid cloud technologies tailored to the specific operational needs of organisations.
This collaborative effort combines public and private clouds to store data and manage multiple cloud services. It does this while prioritising strong security measures for data protection.
Additionally, the partnership aims to create a user-friendly cloud management portal. This portal will simplify multi-cloud management for businesses and enhance their control over cloud resources.
Cultivate a future-ready workforce through a curated training curriculum
Secondly, ST Engineering and Nutanix plan to cultivate a future-ready workforce through a curated training curriculum focused on hybrid cloud technology. This educational initiative will target higher learning institutions, equipping students with the skills necessary to excel in cloud-centric environments.
The training curriculum will include various cloud-related domains, aligning with government-wide efforts to build deep tech skills, particularly in cloud computing.
In conclusion, this collaboration between Nutanix and ST Engineering represents an important step towards enhancing Singapore’s hybrid cloud capabilities. It should also ensure that the workforce is well-prepared to navigate the evolving technology landscape.
Capital A’s digital arm, airasia Digital, is set to transform into MOVE Digital. This rebranding also marks a restructuring of airasia Digital’s business which will now encompass both the airasia Superapp and BigPay. As part of the change, the airasia Superapp, will also undergo a comprehensive rebranding, morphing into ‘airasia move’ in the near future.
As part of the restructuring and rebranding of airasia Digital, co-founder of AirAsia and the CEO of Capital A, Tony Fernandes, will assume the mantle of Executive Chairman of MOVE. He will be overseeing the synergy between airasia move and BigPay.
Tony Fernandes, Executive Chairman of MOVE, expressed, “The name MOVE embodies our essence as the digital arm of Capital A, reinforcing our commitment to propel people, ideas, and innovation in the realm of travel. Imagine having seamless access to travel and financial services on a single platform, complete with integrated financial features like balance display, top-ups, and payments from BigPay. This strengthens airasia move’s position as the go-to travel app. My role as Executive Chairman of MOVE will be to enhance synergy between both businesses. With this transition, users can anticipate an enriched experience and deeper integration of BigPay features within airasia Superapp, soon to be airasia move.”
[From left] – Nadia Omer, the incoming CEO of airasia Superapp (now airasia move), Tony Fernandes, CEO of Capital A, and Executive Chairman of MOVE together with Zubin Rada Krishnan, CEO of BigPay during the unveiling of MOVE Digital today.
Nadia Omer will be heading MOVE as its Chief Executive Officer starting on the 26 October 2023. Her primary task will be driving airasia move’s vision of being a low cost travel platform with high conversion rates. She will be taking over from Mohamad Hafidz, the acting CEO. She will also be working closely with Zubin Rada Krishnan, head of BigPay as the MOVE ushers in a new era of travel innovation with airasia move and BigPay as their focus.
The airasia Superapp, soon to be airasia move, has rapidly evolved into a one-stop travel hub, offering seamless end-to-end booking experiences over the past two years. On the other front, BigPay has carved a niche as an innovative fintech provider empowering Southeast Asians with superior financial management tools.
Both of Capital A’s digital entities have made remarkable strides, with airasia Superapp (soon to be airasia move) registering a record-breaking Monthly Active Users (MAU) of 15 million by the end of the second quarter. Simultaneously, BigPay has witnessed a remarkable 16% Year-on-Year growth in its carded users during the same period. This rebranding initiative sets the stage for an exciting journey ahead in the digital travel and finance landscape.
The landscape of work is evolving rapidly, and technology is at the forefront of this transformation. To navigate the complexities of hybrid work, VMware has unveiled a series of innovative AI integrations within its Anywhere Workspace platform, an integral part of the VMware Cross-Cloud services portfolio. These integrations leverage the power of data, intelligence, and automation to enhance employee experience, bolster vulnerability management, and streamline application lifecycle management. In essence, VMware Anywhere Workspace is designed to provide a seamless and secure workspace accessible from any device or location.
A Holistic Approach to Enhancing Employee Experience
VMware is a pioneer in harnessing data and automation to elevate the employee and IT experience. The latest enhancements include Insights and Playbooks that utilize expanded data sources and advanced machine learning algorithms to enhance the Digital Employee Experience (DEX). This broader access to data strengthens VMware Insights and enables more effective issue remediation.
One noteworthy addition is app performance scores, supplementing the existing experience scores for mobile devices, desktops, and virtual environments. This means that if a SaaS app experiences downtime, IT is immediately alerted, and employees are automatically informed, eliminating the need for cumbersome support tickets.
But it’s not just about providing more data to IT; it’s about empowering them to work smarter. VMware’s AI-driven Insights now incorporate anomaly detection, identifying potential experience issues for frontline devices and VDI environments, in addition to mobile and desktop setups. This latest announcement introduces Playbooks, enabling IT to create step-by-step remediation workflows for efficient incident resolution. Success rate analytics automate the resolution process over time.
George March, Manager of Digital Workspace and Development at USA Health, praised Workspace ONE intelligence for streamlining lifecycle management and enhancing security. Their roadmap includes implementing the ITSM connector, and with the addition of remediation playbooks, they anticipate further streamlining their help desk support teams’ workflows.
Partnering for Security and Manageability
End-to-end manageability and security for distributed workforces are paramount. VMware recognizes the importance of collaboration with best-of-breed partners to achieve these goals. To this end, VMware has expanded its partnership with Intel to create a cloud-native integration of Workspace ONE with Intel vPro®. This integration enables secure and remote device management directly from the cloud, eliminating the need for additional on-premises infrastructure and management software.
With this integration, IT teams gain below-the-OS vulnerability insights for vPro-powered devices, enhancing security. It also provides centralized visibility into these devices, accelerating patch remediation cycles for devices beyond office perimeters, even when they are powered off. This results in improved security and compliance, with higher patch saturation and minimal disruption to employee productivity.
Simplifying Virtual Environments with Modern App Management
Managing and delivering applications across various virtual environments has grown increasingly complex. Silos of legacy tools have compounded inefficiencies. VMware has introduced Apps on Demand, powered by VMware App Volumes, to address this challenge. It unifies app management and intelligently deploys apps to published app hosts or non-persistent desktop environments based on real-time app usage.
Moreover, VMware is expanding App Volumes support to deliver apps on demand to persistent virtual desktops. This automation of app delivery streamlines processes with remarkable compatibility and cost savings. VMware App Volumes is the only solution capable of delivering and managing apps across multiple virtual desktop and app deployments.
Boeing’s Remarkable Hybrid Work Transformation
Boeing, a global leader in aerospace, leverages VMware Workspace ONE to support its extensive global workforce. Comprising 140,000 employees across the globe, Boeing’s workforce plays a crucial role in developing, manufacturing, and servicing aerospace and defence products.
Recognized as a ‘Hybrid Workforce Innovator,’ Boeing has utilized VMware Anywhere Workspace to enable its employees to work from anywhere globally. This transformation has not only improved the user experience but has also fortified security for devices and applications.
Kristina Ross, Boeing Workplace Solutions Director for Research & Technology, emphasized that Workspace ONE has streamlined their transition to modern management, enhanced scalability, and shifted their focus from infrastructure to business-facing solutions.
Atomicwork, a startup focused on improving the employee experience at work, has emerged from stealth mode with an $11 million seed funding round. Blume Ventures and Matrix Partners spearheaded the funding round, backed by Storm Ventures, Neon Fund, and notable angel investors.
For those who are not familiar with the startup scene, ‘stealth mode’ means that a startup company is launched with a certain level of confidentiality. Certain information about the business or products are usually kept confidential from competitors.
Leverages AI to enhance employee experience
In a world where remote and office work coexist, Atomicwork deploys artificial intelligence (AI) to streamline employee interactions with various daily tools. The platform seamlessly integrates with platforms like Slack and Microsoft Teams. It also utilise conversational intelligence to automate support, service delivery, and operations on a large scale.
Atomicwork’s AI assistant, Atom, uses company processes and shared knowledge to help employees without human intervention. It aims to make things smoother for both employees and companies.
During their stealth phase, the Atomicwork team conducted a survey of leaders from mid-market businesses and large corporations. They found that 80% of the bosses were dissatisfied with their company’s worker experience. This has negatively impacting employee morale and productivity.
According to Atomicwork, this aligns with the 2022 industry studies from Willis Towers Watson (also known as WTW). The WTW study reveals that 92% of employers across sectors expressed intentions to invest in their employee experience over the next 3 years.
Aims to improve efficiency and productivity
Vijay Rayapati, CEO and Co-Founder of Atomicwork, highlighted that the company wants to help businesses provide a better employee experience with efficiency. Businesses can shift from just supporting employees to making them successful, aligning their productivity with business goals.
Founded in September 2022 by Vijay Rayapati, Kiran Darisi, and Parsuram Vijayasankar, Atomicwork boasts a team with a strong track record in the tech industry. Vijay, a SaaS veteran, previously led Minjar before its acquisition by Nutanix. On the other hand, Kiran and Parsuram played pivotal roles in taking Freshworks from startup to a publicly traded company in just over a decade.
HMD Global, the Finnish company renowned for resurrecting the Nokia brand, is embarking on a transformative journey. It intends to introduce smartphones under its very own HMD brand, diversifying its portfolio while continuing to develop Nokia phones.
The announcement comes directly from Jean-Francois Baril, Co-founder, Chairman, and CEO of HMD Global. According to his LinkedIn post, both HMD and Nokia phones will coexist, ensuring that consumers can still expect new Nokia devices. However, this bold move shows that HMD Global is ready to establish itself as an independent player in the telecommunications market.
The decision to venture into smartphones under its own brand might be attributed to several factors. Firstly, it’s indicative of the changing dynamics in the smartphone industry, where competition is fierce, and market trends are ever-evolving. By introducing its own brand, HMD Global aims to carve out a distinct identity and cater to the evolving needs of consumers.
Moreover, this strategic shift could be related to the forthcoming expiration of HMD’s licensing agreement with Nokia, which was initially inked in 2016. The agreement allowed HMD Global to reintroduce Nokia-branded devices to the market. With the expiration date approaching in 2026, HMD Global may be preparing for a future beyond Nokia-branded devices.
Source: HMD Global
The move to establish its own brand is not a sudden decision. HMD Global has been diligently building its brand for years with consistent filings with the EUIPO office. However, recent global challenges, including those posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, seem to have accelerated its quest to establish a unique identity in the industry.
Jean-Francois Baril emphasized the company’s commitment to sustainability and affordability, reflecting the company’s vision to offer high-quality yet affordable mobile devices to consumers worldwide. HMD Global takes pride in its position as one of the fastest-growing 5G smartphone manufacturers, showcasing its resilience in adapting to changing market dynamics.
With an extensive global distribution network, operational capabilities, and a robust in-house software development team, HMD Global appears well-prepared to make a significant impact in the consumer smartphone market. The company’s growth trajectory and sustainability efforts are key indicators of its readiness for this transformation.
The news of HMD Global’s independent smartphone brand has sparked various discussions among internet commentators. Speculation has arisen regarding the future of the Nokia brand, particularly amid rumours of its potential licensing to other companies, including Huawei. However, these discussions remain speculative.
Google’s Generative AI, Duet is here to lend a hand when you use apps in Google Workspace. Duet has just entered general availability and is poised to transform how you work with Google Docs, Slides, Sheets, and Gmail.
Duet AI’s integration into Google Workspace is such that it’s your digital collaborator. It doesn’t replace you. As the name suggests, it works together with you; simplifying tasks and streamlining your workflow. Its capabilities are nothing short of remarkable, allowing you to harness the power of AI to improve your productivity and efficiency. Here’s a closer look at what Duet AI brings to the table:
1. Summarize with Ease: Imagine being able to instantly generate summaries on topics you’ve saved, like your business’s quarterly performance. Duet AI can do just that. It scours through your Gmail, Docs, Slides, and Sheets to craft comprehensive summaries, saving you precious time.
2. Fact-Checking Made Simple: Duet AI is committed to transparency. When it compiles information, it provides links to the sources, empowering you to fact-check and verify data accuracy. It’s a handy feature that ensures the reliability of your work.
3. Presentation Perfection: Need to create a compelling presentation? Duet AI has you covered. It can generate presentations complete with relevant text, charts, and images sourced from your Drive. This feature streamlines the presentation creation process, making your work more visually engaging.
4. Gmail Assistance: In Gmail, Duet AI builds on the Smart Reply feature. With a click, you can access various options to help you compose emails effortlessly. You can instruct Duet AI to draft messages of specific types, refine tones, make drafts more elaborate or concise, or even opt for some creative fun with the “I’m feeling lucky” option.
5. Smarter Document Creation: Google Docs users will appreciate the AI’s prowess in generating documents. You can instruct Duet AI to craft drafts with different tones, create summaries for sections or entire documents, employ bullet points, or even use custom instructions to fine-tune generated content.
6. User-Friendly Interface: The “help me write” feature in Docs offers access to Smart Canvas features, enhancing your document creation experience.
Google is continuing to commit to transparency and responsible AI usage with Duet AI. The company reassures users that Duet will respect the privacy of their data, ensuring that their inputs and code remain theirs. Any data in private clouds, Google Drive and Google Workspace remain private and aren’t used for training shared models or product development.
While Duet AI is currently available for Google Workspace Enterprise users, Google has plans to roll it out to small- and medium-sized businesses and consumers in the near future. The pricing details for these expanded offerings are yet to be revealed.
