Tag Archives: IoT

CloudMile opens new Singapore facilities to house growing ML talent, establish regional AI hub

October 15, 2021 TechENT Syndication Leave a comment

Taiwan’s local Representative Office participated in the opening ceremony to show support for CloudMile taking its digital transformation services across the SEA market

SINGAPORE, Oct. 15, 2021 — CloudMile, Asia’s leading cloud and AI company, announced today the opening of its expanded facilities in Singapore. The new office – located at 7 Temesek Boulevard – is designed to accommodate CloudMile’s continuously growing ML (machine learning) team as it works to develop Singapore into a hub for its AI technology in the region. The setup of the office is supported by Digital Industry Singapore (DISG), a joint office of the Economic Development Board (EDB), Infocomm & Media Development Authority (IMDA), and Enterprise Singapore (ESG). The opening ceremony – a hybrid in-person and online event – was attended by a representative from DISG, Taiwan’s local Representative Office and Google Cloud to highlight their cooperation with the Taiwan-based startup, with over 50 customers and Google partners participating online.

The opening ceremony – a hybrid in-person and online event – was attended by DISG, Taiwan’s local Representative Office and Google Cloud.

Spencer Liu, founder and CEO of CloudMile, says: "With its government-backed initiatives to harness the power of the cloud and AI, Singapore is not only our global base but one of CloudMile’s most strategically critical markets. Our expanded investment in the city-state represents another significant step forward in our goal to build a cross-region hub for our groundbreaking machine learning solutions."

Taiwan’s Representative in Singapore, Kuo-Hsin Liang said: "We are excited to witness CloudMile’s success in assisting Singapore’s public and private sectors to achieve digital transformation. Our office will continue to lend our support to CloudMile Singapore to help it drive local innovation via its AI technology."

"We welcome Cloudmile’s expansion in Singapore and are excited about the new AI innovations that the company will bring to boost Singapore’s tech ecosystem. Cloudmile’s decision to invest in Singapore amid the uncertain environment also speaks to our strong fundamentals and we look forward to the many new opportunities the company will bring to Singapore and Singaporeans," said Ang Chin Tah, Senior Vice President, Digital Industry Singapore.

CloudMile also shared about its close cooperation with Singapore Management University to strengthen the startup’s capabilities in the transportation industry via the adoption of the Drivers Guidance System (DGS). Created by the researchers at SMU, the DGS is designed to anticipate demand and perform coordination at scale to help taxi drivers improve their efficiencies.

Director, Partnerships and Alliances, Google Cloud, Southeast Asia Allan Toner also gave credits on CloudMile’s outstanding job of helping the Singapore government drive digital innovation via AI. As the winner of Google Cloud Partner of the Year, Public Sector, he is excited to see how CloudMile Singapore can continue to support and enrich the Google Cloud ecosystem in the city-state.

CloudMile has also been a key partner of the Singapore government in its pandemic control efforts, providing support to create digital apps that leverage cloud data and machine learning for contract tracing, mass vaccination, and travel safety. Additionally, the company has recently added online food ordering platform Oddle and Our Better World, the digital storytelling initiative of the Singapore International Foundation, to its list of local clientele.

Founded in 2017, CloudMile’s capabilities include a full suite of cloud and AI consulting and transformation services. The company was recently awarded Managed Services Provider (MSP) status in Singapore from Google Cloud, meaning it may now extend a full swing cloud service in the city-state including 24/7 monitoring, multi-account management, system performance tuning and monthly reporting.

CloudMile’s leading role in digital transformation has also been affirmed by its winning of the 2020 Google Cloud Public Sector Partner of the Year – APAC award.

PR Newswire

NextSmartShip Releases Next-Gen AI-Powered Order Fulfillment SaaS for Global Shopify Brands

October 11, 2021 TechENT Syndication Leave a comment

SHENZHEN, China, Oct. 11, 2021 — NextSmartShip, the leading GLOCAL order fulfillment partner for DTC (Direct-to-Consumers) brands, released its next-gen AI-powered order fulfillment SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) platform "Fulfillship".

The brand-new system features a perfect integration with Shopify and a more flexible, user-friendly and smarter order fulfillment experience. It can auto-sync orders at milliseconds level, keep track of inventory levels across multiple warehouses in real-time, and allow even a starter to easily manage Shopify store orders at zero cost with no minimum order requirement.

"Lacking a powerful and simple order management system has been the Achilles’ heel for most Shopify stores. With a one-stop solution like Fulfillship, online merchants can now enjoy a hustle-free order fulfillment experience with much less investment of cash and time," said William Yu, the CEO and founder of NextSmartShip.

"We wouldn’t say it is a product solely developed by NextSmartship team, because as guided by our genes, we have involved many of our current clients throughout the development process and as a result Fulfillship was greatly improved with their valuable advice and ideas. This co-development process will become our norm and I believe it will bring Fulfillship to a new level very soon."

"LISTEN TO CLIENTS" has been one of the core philosophies at NextSmartShip. With this in mind, it launched a brand-new green packaging solution last month to help e-commerce merchants to shift towards a green journey, and held the very first free-entry virtual global summit on September 10^th to share necessary knowledge and critical resources for sellers to survive and thrive in this post-pandemic era.

As Fulfillship set sail today, Shopify brands are now able to save much of their cost in shipping, ERP software, and heavy manpower for handling data calculation and analysis. NextSmartship will continue to harness its core technologies to activate new functions and serve clients’ growing needs towards winning the market.

What’s unique about Fulfillship

Easier

Easy to install, one-click in market places like Shopify;
Easy to learn in less than 5 minutes with FAQs, video tutorials and live-training;
Easy to use, multi-language and intuitive UI.

Smarter

Smart shipping options recommendation;
Auto order-sync at milliseconds level and smart order information review;
Complete and accurate delivery status track of each package;
Fully streamlined process enabling much higher processing efficiency and accuracy.

Ever-Evolving

More platforms and marketplaces to be supported;
Frequent integration of new features;
Continuous optimization.

To view more details of the next-gen order fulfillment SaaS – Fulfillship, or try it out now for free, please visit: http://fulfillship.nextsmartship.com

About NextSmartShip

NextSmartShip is a tech-centered GLOCAL logistic powerhouse that strives to help DTC brands of different sizes to elevate their e-commerce business into the next big thing.

With a short history from 2019, the company has been helping thousands of global DTC brands to gain exceptional growth via its professional, stable, and affordable fulfillment services. It now delivers over a million packages per year to international destinations.

For media inquiries, please contact: daniel.camilo@nextsmartship.com

PR Newswire

Blue Hat Subsidiary Xunpusen to Provide SMS Channel Services for JD Cloud

October 8, 2021 TechENT Syndication Leave a comment

XIAMEN, China, Oct. 8, 2021 — Blue Hat Interactive Entertainment Technology ("Blue Hat" or the "Company") (NASDAQ: BHAT), a leading communication services and Internet Data Center ("IDC") business provider and developer, and also an operator of mobile games and augmented reality ("AR") education curriculum and products in China, today announced the Company’s operating subsidiary Xunpusen Technology Co., Ltd. ("Xunpusen") has signed an agreement to provide SMS channel services for JD Cloud, a leading cloud computing brand under tech giant JD Technology Group. JD Cloud provides cloud computing services and industry solutions including public, proprietary, and hybrid cloud offerings for various global clients in the Internet, finance, transportation, and energy industries, among others.

According to the terms of the agreement, Xunpusen will be the channel and port provider for JD Cloud’s SMS channels services. Xunpusen will have legal ownership of the network SMS channel port and will provide JD Cloud with the technology and support services needed to use the port. Xunpusen will guarantee the effectiveness and legitimacy of the channel technology and services provided. The Company and JD Cloud will work closely to ensure the necessary personnel and SMS technology are in place for optimal use of Xunpusen’s channel and port services. This agreement is in effect through May 25, 2022.

Management Commentary

Mr. Xiaodong Chen, CEO of Blue Hat, stated, "We are pleased with the positive momentum in our new business partnerships with the signing of this agreement with JD Cloud, another reputable name in tech. We believe our recent new business wins validate Blue Hat’s position as a leading SMS channel service provider and core competency in message marketing and look forward to carrying this momentum into our other related strategic areas of business."

About Blue Hat

Blue Hat Interactive Entertainment Technology Blue Hat is a leading communication services and Internet Data Center ("IDC") business provider as well as a producer, developer and operator of AR interactive entertainment games, toys and educational materials in China. Distinguished by its own proprietary technology, Blue Hat aims to create an engaging, interactive and immersive community for its users. For more information, please visit the Company’s investor relations website at http://ir.bluehatgroup.com. The Company routinely provides important information on its website.

Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain as they are based on current expectations and assumptions concerning future events or future performance of the Company. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which are only predictions and speak only as of the date hereof. In evaluating such statements, prospective investors should review carefully various risks and uncertainties identified in this release and matters set in the Company’s SEC filings. These risks and uncertainties could cause the Company’s actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements.

Contacts:

Blue Hat Interactive Entertainment Technology
Phone: +86 (592) 228-0010
Email: ir@bluehatgroup.net

Investor Relations:

The Equity Group Inc.
Carolyne Sohn, Vice President
(415) 568-2255
csohn@equityny.com

In China
Lucy Ma, Associate
+86 10 5661 7012
lma@equityny.com

[Google I/O 2021] Android 12 is a Big Visual Change for You

May 21, 2021 Darwin Sucipto 1 Comment

Android is currently the most popular mobile operating system (OS) in the world. At least 72% of the entire smartphone market in 2021 runs on Android. That is also mostly because there are so many Android offerings out in the market that fits almost all sorts of budget.

There is also another good reason why Android becomes the OS of choice for plenty of enthusiasts. The fact that no two Android devices looks and feels the same is one of them. You could put a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra beside another similar device with similar colour option but when you pick them up, they could feel completely different in terms of its interactions and layout. If you are its owner, you know which one of the smartphones is which the moment you pick it up. Of course, there is the fact that you cannot unlock the other smartphone.

Android 12 is not the largest update in terms of added feature on the user interface (UI), technically. It is the largest though in terms of visuals. The concept for the 12^th major iteration of Android, as Google puts it, centers around You.

They call the new design language Material You. That also means that the design language is not entirely different from before. It is technically an evolution of the older Material design language. Thing is, it is not like the old Material design felt dated in 2021. Its simplistic and minimalistic language still does well enough in 2021, and we think beyond.

Still, Android 12 is coming and here are the major changes we think you might like; at least we like the changes.

More Personalisation

Colours turn out to be everything in our lives, and that includes our smartphones. We all wanted dark mode at some point in the past two years. Admittedly, Dark Mode looks sick and made our smartphones look extra sleek. But it does get a little boring when everyone starts doing the same things.

Adding some colours is a way to go to make your device even more unique to you other than having different home screen layouts. That is what Android 12 is, colours for your life. The UI can cleverly extract dominant colours and determine complementing colours from your wallpaper and turn your whole theme around that chosen colour. That extends even to the new widgets Material You is introducing. Of course, you can change those colours as well in the settings, if you want to have a different colour scheme for your theme. You technically can decide how thick you want your on-screen volume control knob to be too.

Better, Faster, More Sensible Animations

The UI is designed to be more intuitive and allow certain things to come up front and center for you. For example, picking up the device can turn your screen on, but the fluid animations can flash up according to how you pick up your device. The display might come to life from the bottom of the device up, or vice versa. It responds to touch and gestures too, apparently.

The most visible change on Android 12 in terms of animations though is on your lock screen. On Any Android device, you can view your notifications via your lock screen. You can close the notifications from your lock screen too. Once you cleared out your notifications though, Android 12 brings out your clock front and center to let you know that you are all caught up and tell you the time, obviously.

With Material You as well, Google have supposedly improved animation load times and speed by up to 22%. The development team somehow found a way to cut back on CPU loads for animations which both sped up the animations and extend battery life in the process. On top of that, the cut back in CPU reliance also means that older and lower-end devices can benefit the full animations of Android 12.

Bigger Means Better

A part of system designs in Material design is making things more compact, cleaner, simpler, and more minimalistic. A lof of quick access spaces and buttons are made smaller, more rounded, and take up so little space you could cram a million of them on your large 6-inch display. They sort of rolled back on that for the sack of intuitiveness and better-looking spaces though.

In Material You the notification is a much cleaner space to look at. Gone re the clutter that you might see in the current iteration of Material design. The notification page is much easier on the eyes to navigate and work with as well with a slightly larger interaction space.

You see the biggest change in Quick Settings though. Instead of little round balls that you are used to, they are now bigger buttons to work with. This not only prevents clutter, but also wrong presses when you use your device one-handed. The have added Google Pay and Home Controls button too for you to quickly access your ewallet payment gateway and even quickly control your Home IoT devices just through a couple of taps.

Privacy Dashboard

Transparency over data collection and sharing has been one of the most important features we look for in our smartphones today. Apple’s iOS now allows you to track each app and what they do with your data. For Android, it is a little different.

Instead of implementing app specific algorithm to identify what data is being used by each app and how, Android 12 gives you a one stop shop to understand what apps are using what and when. The dashboard allows to check also the kinds of permissions you give each app. You even can revoke access of the apps too from one Privacy Dashboard.

At the same time, Android 12 tells you when an app is using your camera or microphone. In some ways, Android 12 can help you track which apps use the two items when it does not need to as well. You can either revoke camera or mic privileges from apps via Privacy Dashboard in that sense.

There is more to that, however. You can revoke the entire systems access to both microphone and camera. All you have to do is pull down the notification bar, and then pull down again to quick access and turn off camera, or microphone access, or both. In that case, even if you launch your camera app, you are not going to see anything.

Regarding location, sometimes apps do not need to know where you are precisely. In that case, Android 12 allows you to set “approximate location” sharing with some of the apps that you feel might not need your precise location. An example of that kind of app is the weather app, to tell you what the weather is like in your general area.

And More…

There are more subtle changes in Android 12. To be really honest, we have not had our hands-on with the Android 12 Beta just yet, because we do not own devices that supports Android 12 Beta at this time. We are hoping that the list might expand a little more soon though. If you want to get your hands on Android 12 Beta, you can check if your devices are supported at the Android 12 Beta page.

Accessories, Reviews

Samsung Galaxy SmartTag & SmartThings Find Review: Keeping Track & Finding Your Galaxy

May 11, 2021 Nur Jeevan 1 Comment

Samsung announced their SmartThings Find and SmartTags not too long ago. The new feature to their growing SmartThings ecosystem opened the doors to a whole new galaxy of possibilities when it comes to keep track of your devices. However, in announcing SmartThings Find, they also created a new opportunity for a brand-new class of devices: trackers. Like the ones that came before their time, the Samsung Galaxy SmartTag brought the feature to items that aren’t necessarily connected to the internet – something a lot of us would find very useful especially when it comes to keeping track of often misplaced items like your keys or even your pet dog.

SmartThings – All Your IoT in One, Unified Place

One of Samsung’s biggest updates to their SmartThings ecosystem in recent memory is the inclusion of SmartThings Find. The new feature allows users to keep track of their Galaxy devices and other SmartThings compatible devices. While it may seem pretty rudimentary with other brands like Apple already using Find My in their ecosystem, Samsung has actually made SmartThings find a tad more user friendly and useable overall.

App Design & Usability

Samsung has seemingly put a little more thought in implementing features into their SmartThings Find platform. Before we go into the nitty gritty of the features, let’s first look at the design of the SmartThings app. The fact that Samsung has opted to keep its tracking feature as a part of the main app is a boon to the platform. It makes the app a one stop shop when it comes to Samsung devices. In fact, you will be directed to the SmartThings App even when you want to track the location of your Galaxy Buds and Galaxy Watch devices.

The app overall is pretty sleek. The home screen brings you a summary of the dashboards you have access to which includes “On the Go”, “SmartThings Find”, “Directly Connected Devices” and, if you have them setup, the rooms where your other devices such as your TVs and sound systems setup. The at a glance dashboard is pretty convenient allowing access to actionable widgets which allow you to check your device’s last known location and, in the case of TVs and sound systems, a simplified remote widget for quick control. Clicking on any connected device brings up more detailed controls which differ depending on the device.

When it comes to app design, Samsung has got this one down pretty good. The app has well designed features and is customisable to what you want as a user. However, there are a few gripes that we have with the app, particularly with how Samsung has designed the menu with the more advanced SmartThings features. These features are kept within the main menu of the app which you have to swipe to reveal. Considering Samsung is touting SmartThings to be a ubiquitous platform it needs to bring these features into the spotlight. Features like automations and companion apps are kept in the side menu where you’re not likely to use them unless you spend the time to discover them. These features are actually some of the more useful features in SmartThings that we, unfortunately, couldn’t test as we were unable to track down products which supported them.

While it may seem like the app has a ways to go before it’s properly useful, that’s far from the truth. The app creates a unified platform for Samsung devices and also devices that support the SmartThings platform. Devices that are connected via Bluetooth also appear in the app albeit in a limited capacity. Samsung has the bases of a platform that can be very robust and ubiquitous, but they have to expand the partners they work with for the platform to become truly a one-stop-shop especially with their own Galaxy ecosystem being adopted by more users.

Samsung SmartThings Find – Finding What Was Once Lost

That aside, let’s take a deep dive into SmartThings Find. The platform’s most recent “upgrade”. To be honest, this is one of the most useful features of the SmartThings platform. If you have a Samsung account, the platform opens even more – which could be a detriment to the ubiquity of the platform that Samsung envisions.

That said, devices registered to your Samsung account automatically appear in SmartThings. This includes tablets, smartphones and even TVs. Once they’re registered, they appear in a device list where you are able to highlight the 10 that you want to keep an eye on. In the SmartThings Find section of the app, these items will appear on a map with their most recently retrieved location pinned.

The SmartThings Find interface is very straightforward. As mentioned, it presents you with a map with pins for each of your devices. Tapping on them either brings up a list if they are overlapping or a device specific menu. The device specific menu will present you with the last known location and address of the device. It will give you options to navigate or ring the device. Yes, this includes your Galaxy Buds.

In fact, Samsung has one of the better implementations of tracking for their wireless buds. The app allows you to track each individual bud separately which, in our opinion, is genius! Of course, they aren’t the only ones with this implementation but credit where credit is due. This feature came in really handy when my left Galaxy Buds Pro decided to go for stroll. Clicking the ring makes the bud produce a loud, high pitched sound which allows you to locate the bud.

Samsung Galaxy SmartTag – Keeping Tags on & Automating Everything

The newest additions to the SmartThings ecosystems are the Galaxy SmartTag and Galaxy SmartTag+. Both are tags that allow Galaxy users to track and locate whatever they are attached to – even your pet dog. The proposition to have a simple device that allows you to make stuff like your keys and even bags “smarter” is pretty intriguing.

The design of the SmartTag is pretty simple – it’s a rounded square plastic tag which can easily be attached to any keychain or bag tag. One thing Samsung’s Galaxy SmartTag has over their competition, at this point is, their design which doesn’t require users to purchase additional accessories to make them properly useful. The SmartTag’s simplicity continues with their use of regular CR2032 batteries instead of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. Samsung claims that these batteries will power the SmartTag for about 300 days. After which, you can swap the battery by simply prying the SmartTag open with a coin via the slit.

The thread of simplicity continues even in setting up the Galaxy SmartTag. All it took is turning on the SmartThings app and pressing the large button on the Tag itself. This will make it beep that then activates the Bluetooth connectivity which allows it to connect to the smartphone. Once connected you get access to the same controls as other devices in the SmartThings app.

That said, the Galaxy SmartTag becomes more useful when you use it together with automations. You can recreate “If… then” recipes straight in the SmartThings app which allows you to do things like send you a notification or message if your car keys leave the house or even set your phone to vibrate when your keys enter the house. It’s even more useful when you use the button on the trigger other SmartThings supported. You can use a single press to turn on your lights or even a long press to kick on the thermostat.

The Galaxy SmartTag feels like it has a lot of potential to become even more useful with future iterations. Overall, for MYR119 a piece or MYR209 for a two pack, the Galaxy SmartTag more than just the peace of mind that comes with tracking your keys and other valuables. However, until the SmartThings ecosystem is mature enough, you may be struggling to truly get the most out of the automation and IoT features of the SmartTag.

Accessories, Android, Consumer Electronics, Lifestyle, Mobile, News

Samsung’s Galaxy Upcycling Programme Turns Your Old Smartphones into an IoT device!

April 22, 2021 Darwin Sucipto Leave a comment

There is a problem with the smartphone and smart device industry today. That problem is accentuated by the accelerated growth of the industry as well. It is not just a localised problem, mind you.

That problem is electronic waste. Technically, electronic waste has started becoming a problem since electronics have become a part of our lives. Today, electronics are an excessively big part of our lives. Wherever you go, you carry your smartphones with you. Every where you go too, you are exposed to at least one electronic display that is not your smartphone. When these devices go out of phase and gets replaced, it becomes electronic waste. We are sure you could be spared from the lecture though.

In that case, plenty of the current electronics manufacturers look for ways to reduce their own electronic waste, or waste in general in some cases. Apple claimed that they are reducing their own electronic wastes by not including charging adapters when you buy your Apple iPhone 12 series devices. Samsung followed suit with their Samsung Galaxy S20 devices. Superficial or not, you have to admit that your old chargers are still effective in charging your modern devices, albeit at a slightly lower speed (that also protects your battery a little bit).

Samsung also took liberties in redesigning their packaging so that users can opt to repurpose their unused packaging for some other purposes, like a pencil holder or something. This is all part of their Galaxy Upcycling Programme, very clever stuff. But your old smartphones are still collecting dust in your drawer.

With SmartThings Labs though, your old Samsung Galaxy devices can stop collecting dust in your drawer and be a smart home accessory. Of course, this is not a new thing that we have heard about. Samsung has been talking about upcycling their older Galaxy devices into an IoT device for a couple of years now, correct us if we are wrong.

Via SmartThings Labs within the SmartThings app on a Galaxy device, your old device can now become an enhanced sound and light sensor. The implementation uses Galaxy’s improved Artificial Intelligence (AI) to accurately distinguish sounds in its surroundings. It can even record certain sounds too, if you want it to. You can get it to record knocks, dogs barking, baby crying, and even cat meowing. If any of those sounds are recorded, it will send notification to your current smartphone of choice and you can listen to the recording yourself. Nothing too new here, except you do not need the camera function.

Other than sounds, Samsung Galaxy device can be turned into a light sensor. Thanks to the existing light sensor on your smartphones, the Galaxy devices can measure the brightness level of a room quite accurately. That could also be an indication to automatically turn on the lights in a room or even adjust the brightness level of your TV through SmartThings.

What makes it cleverer is that Samsung’s SmartThings implementation to make your device a smart sensor for sounds and lights technically reduces its battery consumption as well. Your smartphones already uses its mic and light sensors constantly anyway, which also means that they devices already consume minimal battery life on their own. With the implementation though, Samsung also introduces their very own battery optimisation solution to minimise battery consumption. We suspect that the implementation turns off other sensors in favour of the sensors the device has exclusive access to for the purpose of measuring light and sounds. So, is this another glorified light sensor? Sort of, but it is a start.

Business, Contributed

Beyond the Now: Thrive in 2021 with These Five Trends

January 21, 2021 Frank Feldmann Leave a comment

From shifting to work from home policies to customers’ increasing demand for better services and experience, organizations are finding that they need to transform faster to address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. We expect technology trends to only continue to evolve as reliance on technology becomes more critical in our current social and economic landscape. To ride out the wave rather than sink in it, forward-thinking organizations in Asia-Pacific (APAC) should rethink their digital transformation strategies based on these trends we expect to see in the coming year.

5G, IoT, Edge computing: The trio for intelligent connectivity

APAC will continue progressing on its 5G journey. While commercial 5G services are already available in nine markets in the region — including South Korea, Japan, and China — another 12 have officially announced similar plans. The increased availability of 5G will help drive the adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) and edge computing to deliver ultra-low latency, high bandwidth network, and effectively support large-scale distribution of endpoints. For example, 5G, IoT and edge computing can be applied to smart fleet management, wherein edge devices can monitor critical vehicle systems and access the 5G network to send alerts, track the flow of goods, plan routes, and facilitate communications between a vehicle and any IoT-enabled entity that may affect or be affected by the vehicle.

We foresee more APAC organizations and cities adopting 5G, IoT, and edge computing in 2021 to become more connected and efficient. Emerging use cases for the three technologies include analyzing sensor data for predictive maintenance and quality control, augmented reality systems for remote operations, and personalized ‘connected experiences’ for customer and supplier engagement.

Security is a growing priority for hybrid cloud

Customers and employees alike now expect business applications and services to be highly available, on-demand and secure. To achieve that, we recommend organizations to embrace hybrid cloud in order to run workloads across any environment (i.e., on-premises, private or public cloud) more easily and quickly. Red Hat’s 2021 Global Tech Outlook found that 77% of APAC organizations surveyed plan to use more than one cloud platform — be it private and public clouds — in the next 12 months, up from 53% in 2020. According to the survey results, the top three reasons for organizations to run their applications across hybrid cloud include improving data security, gaining IT agility, and addressing data privacy concerns.

Security will remain a focus area as organizations progress in their hybrid cloud journey — nearly half of the organizations we surveyed globally cited cloud security as their top funding priority next year. The challenge when it comes to security is that it is made up of different elements such as endpoint, network and data security. One way of overcoming this is by adopting an open security automation framework that unifies the different security practices using a set of automated workflows. By doing so, organizations can gain greater visibility across the entire security function, enabling them to identify threats or remediate cyber attacks faster.

Cloud-native will drive container adoption

Cloud-native applications can respond quickly to change, adapting and evolving with new features and functionalities released incrementally more quickly, reliably and frequently with less risk. As more organizations adopt hybrid cloud to increase the scalability and availability of apps, those that also embrace cloud-native development are in a better position to build and run responsive, scalable, and fault-tolerant apps on any cloud.

Containers are a key technology for unlocking the benefits of cloud-native development. Containers enable applications to be packaged and isolated with their entire runtime environment, making it easier to move them between environments while retaining full functionality. With containers, developers can more easily release and update apps as a collection of loosely coupled services, like microservices, instead of having to wait for one large release. Recognizing that containers can help accelerate innovation, 45% of APAC respondents from the 2021 Global Tech Outlook expect more than half of their workloads to be containerized in the next 12 months.

Automation is on the rise

Customers are demanding more at a faster pace, while IT architectures are ever-changing and built on increasingly complicated technology stacks. Organizations also need to support a work-from-home productivity model during the COVID-19 pandemic. To address these requirements, APAC organizations are increasingly turning to automation to reduce complexity, improve productivity, and lower operating cost. However, they must have an enterprise-wide automation strategy instead of deploying automation in silos in order to fully benefit from the technology.

More organizations are increasingly using automation in conjunction with artificial intelligence and machine learning to create an additional layer of automated insight to optimize business processes. Some APAC banks are already using robotic process automation (RPA) to approve credit card applications, automate payments, and validate claims. Because RPA can augment and mimic human judgment and behavior to replicate rules-based human action, it reduces the time taken for those tasks.

Open culture needs to complement technology modernization

According to a November 2019 study sponsored by Red Hat, 80% of APAC business leaders surveyed rank cultural change and technology modernization of equal importance for digital transformation. Cultural characteristics key for transformation include adaptability, inclusivity, transparency, and collaboration – all of which are open source principles. Organizations that have supported their cultural change initiatives with efforts to modernize their infrastructure and application architecture have been able to quickly develop and deliver new applications, respond rapidly to customer demands, and control maintenance costs.

photo of people doing handshakes — Photo by fauxels on Pexels.com

With APAC businesses recognizing that digital transformation is driven by a change in mindset, we foresee more organizations embracing open principles, processes, and culture next year. By doing so, organizations can nurture collaboration and empower employees to bring their best ideas and selves to work, which can help accelerate innovation and address changing customer and business requirements in an agile manner.

All in all, global events in 2020 have caused organizations to focus on near-term survival goals to support business continuity. As the business landscape continues to evolve, APAC organizations must prepare for the future by adopting flexible, agile and scalable technology solutions. Considering trends such as 5G and edge computing, hybrid cloud and automation can help organizations as they develop or update their digital transformation plans in 2021.

techENT