Smart Cities, Smart Buildings

FountainBlue’s December 9 VIP Roundtable was on the topic of ‘Smart Cities, Smart Buildings’. Our executives in attendance represented a wide range of backgrounds, experiences, roles, industries and organizations, but they agreed on many things.
Foundational to the success of smart cities and smart buildings is the collaboration and infrastructure to 1) design, create and deliver a wide range of connected sensors, 2) integrate these sensors with the tools and applications which will track, measure and disseminate the volumes of data generated by these sensors in a secure and efficient manner, and to 3) create, implement, and sustainably deliver actionable real-time dashboards leveraging the most relevant information. It takes leaders and innovators working in collaboration throughout the process to envision, manage, integrate, implement, maintain each piece of this puzzle.
Below is a summary Smart City and Smart Building use cases provided by our executives in attendance:
Smart Cities:

• Proactive management of transportation systems can lead to more reliable, more efficient, and more popular commuting options.
• City-wide adoption of sustainability and Net Zero standards can be supported by a host of tracking, measuring, reporting, and usage applications. The trick is to determine which solutions provide the most useful data, which dashboards will lead to timely decision-making, and which stakeholders can collaborate to achieve win-win results. 
• Tools and solutions which leverage AI and ML can make predictions on autonomous cars for example. With large adoption and implementation, traffic may be improved with more functional, useful cars and more plan-ful maintenance of all vehicles on the road. 
• Disaster management may be supported at the city-wide level, again with the adoption of collaborative solutions which benefit all stakeholders. 

Smart Buildings:

• Detailed metrics on energy usage can help track and report on current and projected future usage, with the intent of reaching sustainability goals.
• Managing, tracking and integrating various IT solutions and applications within buildings can help manage energy and water usage as well as carbon emissions goals.
• Automated solutions can help manage wasteful use of energy and water, as well as optimize heating and cooling, in order to better serve employees and residents.
• Proactively designing office space for the hybrid, collaborative, and flexible workforce of the future supports the bottom line, while also better serving employees. 
• Proactive building management might also focus on the safety of residence – protecting from gas leaks, unapproved access, and even IT and data privacy and security breaches.
• Studies around the ‘fingerprinting’ of individual water and energy usage patterns can help operators and managers more proactively serve building renters, owners and lessors. 

Our executives concluded that we have come so far, but there is so much more to do to better equip our cities and our buildings, and to better serve people living in them. It will take a human-centric, collaborative approach and progressive, proactive management by governments to ensure that the infrastructure and policies are in place so that leaders and innovators can better serve a larger swath of people living in smart cities and smart buildings.

Data is the New Black

FountainBlue’s November 10 VIP Roundtable was on the topic of ‘Data is the New Black’. We were fortunate to have such an experienced and diverse group of executives for this month’s VIP Roundtable. They both exclaimed at how far we have come over the past few decades and also the challenges for further progressing our collection, management, and productive usage of data going forward.

Our executives agreed that our future will continue to be fueled by data – it will be prominently used in every industry and seamlessly integrated into our day-to-day lives at work and at home. There was a clear description of the evolution of data over the past several decades. We have quickly evolved from a period where executives and companies did not understand how data helps their organizations get more done, serve more companies, and provide more value to a period where we embraced the need to quickly develop the technologies, infrastructure, and solutions which make it easier for everyone to gather and store data.Indeed, we have evolved to the point where we are overwhelmed by the volume of data generated, the multitude of devices generating the data, and the need to manage and track that data.

The requirements and mandates around security, privacy, protection, relevancy, usage, access, etc., provide additional challenges to the strategic management and integration of data, and the sheer volume of generated data makes that management and integration more difficult.  But forward-thinking companies are adopting strategies and techniques to better ensure compliance with security and regulations while also filtering data for most relevant usage, based on customer requirements.It’s no wonder that today’s top companies collect, store and manage large volumes of data representing a large range of use cases for a broad swath of customers. 

The headwinds and tailwinds posed by the Data evolution (and revolution) provide many opportunities and challenges:

• Software for managing the high-volume streaming of unstructured data will continue to add immense value and even more successful use cases.
• The hardware and software solutions which were adopted decades ago are now outdated, and it will be difficult (but not impossible) to migrate from those solutions to more progressive, modular, flexible, sustainable, reliable solutions. 
• There will continue to be more sophisticated AI and ML solutions around the data, allowing organizations to better build, manage, store, distribute, filter, and integrate data for specific use cases. 
• Data can provide contextual awareness while driving, operating machinery and doing medical procedures.
• Image/video processing in public places can proactively help identify threats, personalize experience or manage natural disasters.  
• Historical data in business and financial decisions can help identify and predict market trends.
• Solutions leveraging algorithms and automation around data capture, storage, management, filtration, distribution, etc., will continue to add value.

Below are suggestions and best practices for managing data:Be Strategic

• Understand and report on the costs and exposure for not proactively managing your data. 
• Think about the local as well as global implications around data usage, while also considering privacy and security requirements.
• When managing data, consider the ‘WWWWH’ – the who, what, when, where, how the data is used. 
• Look not just at how data was used in the past and projecting/extrapolating how the data would be used in the future based on market trends and customer preferences. 
• Treat the data management and optimization solutions as not just operational and infrastructure costs, but also business opportunities. 

Be Operationally Excellent

• Policy, regulation, security, access, and other data management compliance issues will continue to surface, so partnering with an ecosystem of trusted others will help leaders and organizations stay in front of the trends and requirements.  
• Simplify how processes are done, how data is collected and managed. It might be painful in the short term, especially for slow-moving industries with outdated systems which must be all 24×7, but the upgrades are necessary.

Look to the Future

• Embrace digital transformation solutions in all industries. 
• Invest in start-ups and entrepreneurs with groundbreaking ideas and solutions for enterprise customers in particular. 

Resource: 

• Top 10 Scariest Things IT Pros Hear, Yousuf Khan on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/top-10-scariest-things-pros-hear-yousuf-khan/ 

The bottom line is that we have seen incremental changes over the past few decades, and will continue to witness and drive these digital transformations worldwide, across all industries, for Data is the New Oil. 

Hyperautomation Use Cases

FountainBlue’s October 14 VIP Roundtable was on the topic of ‘Hyperautomation Use Cases’ with opening remarks by IBM. We were fortunate to have such an eclectic, experienced and diverse group of executives for this month’s VIP Roundtable. 

The conversation began with mention of the Gartner definition for hyperautomation, a top business trend over the past few years:

Hyperautomation is a business-driven, disciplined approach that organizations use to rapidly identify, vet and automate as many business and IT processes as possible. Hyperautomation involves the orchestrated use of multiple technologies, tools or platforms, including:

• Artificial intelligence (AI)
• Machine learning
• Event-driven software architecture
• Robotic process automation (RPA)
• Business process management (BPM) and intelligent business process management suites (iBPMS)
• Integration platform as a service (iPaaS)
• Low-code/no-code tools
• Packaged software
• Other types of decision, process and task automation tools

Our executives point out key aspects of the hyperautomation definition –

• It’s an initiative that’s driven by the business, but it leverages technology and counts on execution by people.
• It’s a disciplined, methodical approach which leverages a wide range of data, in collaboration with large swaths of people, while focused on generating rapid results.
• It rapidly integrates strategy, planning and execution, and agilely moves from one problem to the next, while serving the organization and its people as a whole.
• It leverages a wide host of technologies and solutions and relies on ongoing collaboration, communication and leadership.

The adoption of hyperautomation use cases is a key differentiator for leaders and organizations, and will continue to evolve for greater impact because businesses are inundated by data and need to quickly collect, filter, process, manage, communicate, store, distribute, that data to better strategically plan and run operations, processes, and the organization overall.

Below are best practices for adopting hyperautomation use cases for your organization:

• Think BIG – broadly and widely about how to design and implement hyperautomation use cases for workflows which are complicated, involve a lot of people, works with a wide range of data, and must be done efficiently.  
• Hyperautomation is not just for specific use cases, people, organization, offering, etc., It is for all aspects of a business which 1) works with a lot of data, 2) relies on workflow and processes which touch a number of groups and people, 3) can be more efficient/resilient/sustainable and productive if automated, 4) can help better serve internal and external customers, and 5) is the inevitable wave of the future.
• Consider creating a center of excellence (COE) to collect and manage a repository of (reusable/adaptable) individual hyperautomation use cases as well as an Advisory board on the adoption of hyperautomation use cases.
• Think not just about the tools and solutions which can be used for any individual solution, but also about the unique combination necessary to solve the current (and anticipated) challenges.
• Measure and report on the impact of each adopted hyperautomation use case.
• Keep evolving hyperautomation use case solutions so they continue to be relevant and useful for internal and external clients and their evolving needs.
• Consider using internal customers as ‘Customer Zero’, designing hyperautomation use cases which address internal needs makes your organization more effective while also potentially piloting a solution which might be useful for other organizations.

Our executives also mentioned the double-edged sword brought on by the huge volumes of data brought in from on-site sensors for everything from temperature to usage, or pressure to light, etc., 

We did not go into detail on this data, for next month’s topic is on the data collection and management itself, but the point is that hyperautomation use cases 1) are reliant on this on-site data, 2) must quickly filter in relevant data, providing automated responses where appropriate, 3) provide a dashboard of recommended actions with detailed charts, graphs and data, 4) connect the right internal and external people to facilitate joint problem-solving and decision-making, 5) track and report on historic, current choices made and consequences, and even 6) make recommendations based on historical and current and projected future data.

Below are some interesting and exciting new offerings in this space:

• Digital Blueprinting so you can more efficiently generate user cases and acceptance test criteria 
• Designing Modules of solutions rather than full customizations 
• Hyperautomation use cases for robots and cobots (collaborative robot – a robot intended for direct human robot interaction within a shared space, or where humans and robots are in close proximity)
• Leveraging Citizen Development Frameworks to manage local (especially edge case) hyperautomation use case implementations using no-code and low-code tools.
• Adopting Value Stream Mapping and other LEAN strategies to optimize value and minimize risk

The bottom line is that again leadership and innovation will win the day as successful organizations increasingly adopt hyperautomation use cases, but only if there is collaboration and communication to support it.

AR/VR Immersion Solutions

VIP Roundtable – AR/VR Immersion Solutions, September 9, 2022

FountainBlue’s September 9 VIP Roundtable was on the topic of ‘AR/VR Immersion Solutions’, with opening remarks by NVIDIA.  Our executives in attendance represented a wide range of roles, backgrounds and industries, but they share an enthusiasm for the many real-life opportunities around AR/VR immersion solutions. 

Our executives spoke about how AR/VR immersion solutions have facilitated the design of new products and solutions, provided in-depth experiential training for thousands, ensured compliance and security for robots and workers, optimized manufacturing floors and processes, and provided customer support. 

They spoke of a turning point in the industry, expecting broad and wide adoption. Below is a summary of their suggestions and recommendations for leaders adopting AR/VR solutions.

• Ensure that your solutions are compliant and secure, scalable and available.
• AR/VR solutions have applications across industries – aerospace, automotive, healthcare, industrial automation, construction, and many more.
• Plan for the business cases and practical applications around AR/VR, particularly for enterprise customers
  • Customers experiencing high-risk scenarios, even if that happens in low volume would benefit from simulations and training to help mitigate those risks.
  • Customers that will experience an activity in high volume would benefit from training and simulation which provides medium to high gain.

Our executives also spoke to the challenges for implementing AR/VR immersion solutions.

• The combination of hardware and software poses cultural, technical, operational and other challenges for the internal teams charged with implementation.
• There are many exciting use cases and business cases, but it’s hard to focus on the lowest-hanging fruit – the easiest solutions to implement for a target audience with the greatest need, and willing and able to pay for it.

The bottom line is that AR/VR immersion solutions will be inevitably adopted as it will help 1) better innovate and collaborate, 2) plan-fully mitigate risks 3) efficiently deliver support and services, 4) save money.

Balancing Privacy, Security and Access

FountainBlue’s August 12 VIP Roundtable was on the topic of ‘Balancing Privacy, Security and Access’, with opening remarks by Samsung. Please join me in thanking our executives in attendance for their remarks and input.

Our executives in attendance represented a wide range of roles, backgrounds and industries, but they share many common perspectives around balancing privacy, security and access.

• Balancing privacy, security and access will continue to be of primary importance. 
• No longer will companies be able to rely on single individuals or teams to proactively manage privacy, security and access. 
• It will take a concerted and collaborative effort, driven by senior leaders, and implemented across the organization.

Balancing privacy, security and access is not easy. 

• Managing to ensure compliance is complicated as the data volume is huge and growing, individual users are untrained, uninformed or even unethical, and the ways data is used and the number of users continues to grow.
• Cultural and international standards vary greatly, and many companies have employees and customers all over the world.
• It’s hard for executives to manage the data when each data set might have different associated experts, and multiple data sets are integrated into individual applications and programs.
• The stakes are high and are continuing to grow, so bad actors are more motivated to access sensitive data.
• Consumers and end users are becoming more adamant about their rights around privacy, while also insisting on efficiently accessing the information they need.  

Below is a compilation of thoughts and best practices.

Be Strategic

• Be fully aware of the type, flow, storage and distribution of data and proactively manage that data to ensure the right people have the right access at the right time for the right reason.
• Build a partnership between the legal, technical, executive, and product/engineering teams so you can plan-fully manage product development and support.
• Create standards and agreements so collaborations can be made to proactively manage secure access to targeted information, while respecting privacy needs.
• Consider the needs of the team and organization over the rights of individuals, while also respecting the rights of individuals.
• Manage to the weakest link – perhaps the human who does not set up proper passwords for access to the corporate network.

Leverage Technology

• Leverage technologies and tools so that you can easily identify data or users or systems who may be at risk.
• Create dashboards for your network so you can proactively manage potential data breaches.
• Factor in different types of data (transient, persistent, meta, etc.,) as you manage, collect, store and distribute that data. 

Manage the Give and Take

• Focus on business outcomes while respecting technical requirements. 
• Minimize exposure and risk, especially when mission-critical applications are at stake.

Empower and Enable Your People

• Support product and engineering teams, who are constantly challenged to create and update code to meet the shifting security, privacy and access requirements.

The bottom line is that we can all collaborate to build a Zero Trust network – where only the right Users, have the right Access, to the right Data, for the right Reason, all the time, every time. 

Next Generation Hardware

FountainBlue’s July 8 VIP Roundtable was on the topic of ‘Next Generation Hardware’, with opening remarks by Honda. Please join me in thanking our executives in attendance for their remarks and input.Collaboration and integration were both themes in this morning’s far-ranging discussion about the next generation of hardware. Hardware must integrate with software and processes to deliver full-featured customized solutions which add value, are safe, protect privacy, and, ideally, also be cost-effective, efficient and sustainable. This is no small task, but our experienced and dynamic executives in attendance shared many best practices on doing this well.

• Embrace carbon-neutral, sustainable solutions because the customers demand it and because it’s the right thing to do.
• Look for interconnections between solutions, problems, customers, etc., as it may be a basis future innovations.
• When designing hardware prototypes, understand the stressors which would impact the integrity of the hardware, including temperature variations, SW integration requirements, power needs, etc.,
• Accept that managing material availability and supply chain challenges is part of the hardware innovation challenge.
• Optimize for efficiency and effectiveness while ensuring low-failure rates, sustainability, reliability, and compatibility. 
• When designing and producing prototypes, assume that speeds will continue to double and that there will be a shorter time to market.
• Differentiate on user experience and ease of use.
• Work with researchers as well as engineering, business and operations staff to address the design, prototyping, manufacturing, production, and distribution challenges inherent with hardware innovations.

Below are some thoughts on some hardware innovation ideas to watch for:

• Scenario-based, photo-realistic renderings are driving real-world innovations
• Optimization for power consumption
• Novel memory processors which don’t require additional capability, packaging or overhead
• 3D Printing options which minimize risk and optimize for efficiency and functionality
• Digital Twin technology to do prototyping with software to better inform hardware design and layout, hardware requirements and even hardware development and integration.

The bottom line is that hardware innovations are continuing to evolve at breakneck speed, and it’s the innovative leaders, like the ones in attendance, and their organizations who are collaborating with others to stay in front of the curve.

The Future of Work

FountainBlue’s June 10 VIP Roundtable was on the topic of ‘The Future of Work’, with opening remarks by Cisco. Please join me in thanking our executives in attendance for their remarks and input.Our executives in attendance all sat at different leadership seats through this pandemic, and shared many similar perspectives about how the pandemic has affected the future of work.

• We are leveraging networking, collaboration and security technology more, making hybrid work scenarios work for each of us and our organizations.
• There are mixed receptions to the range of company requirements on return-to-work policies.
• We have raised our standards on the value of our health, our families, and the role of work in our lives. 

Below is a compilation of thoughts on opportunities around the future of work.

• When a distributed workforce is hybrid, networks, devices, applications may all put individuals, teams and companies at risk for privacy and security breaches. Hence there is an opportunity to more proactively manage the security and privacy of individual users, and minimize the risk, and isolate and quickly recover from any breaches.
• AI-driven bot solutions will continue to automate workflows and processes so customers are more efficiently served, so humans can handle more complex issues. (It also follows that the workforce of the future must be more prepared to address more complex issues.) 
• Telepresence robots will help increasingly more employees participate in in-person activities which support collaboration, community-building, and engagement, but social and technical issues will still provide barriers to adoption – at least for now.
• Creating and growing communities of experts will help distributed and hybrid workforces collaborate and connect with others to share best practices, while developing, supporting and influencing each other.
• Securely providing access to common data and information will continue to support an organization’s collaboration, engagement and innovation goals.
• Immersion AR/VR experience will take video-calling to the next level, adding more life-like audio and visual experiences. 
• Solutions which enhance the employee experience and customer experience, providing them easier access to informed support, will drive customer and employee retention and engagement.
• There may be a trend toward broader engagement from a wider range of people to manage cloud-based no-code and low-code solutions which manage the data captured.

It’s hard to make predictions on what the future of work will look like, but it’s clear that roles will change, tasks will change, and robots and automation will work closely with humans and that leaders must leverage technology to proactively manage and optimize employee and customer experiences.

Carbon-Neutral Energy Solutions

FountainBlue’s May 13, 2022 VIP Roundtable: Carbon-Neutral Energy Solutions

FountainBlue’s May 13 VIP Roundtable was on the topic of ‘Carbon-Neutral Energy Solutions’, with opening remarks by GE Digital Grid. Please join me in thanking our executives in attendance for their remarks and input.

Our executives in attendance exclaimed many times about the major shift in focus toward  carbon-neutral energy solutions over the past decade. No longer do we need to make the business/social/ sustainability/practical business case about WHY we must adopt more carbon-neutral solutions.

Our executives agree that the focus will now be on WHICH options we adopt (try them all), WHAT we do collaboratively (everything) and HOW we can work better together to drive leadership and innovation to better adopt more technologies and solutions for each of us today, and for the future. Our executives are bullish about the market and technology opportunities over the next decade for carbon-neutral energy solutions. They agree that it will not be easy to implement and realize these solutions because they:

• must leverage hardware and software designed to manage energy generation, storage, distribution, and usage. 
• must support the reliability, sustainability, safety, sustainability, security, policy, affordability, demand goals from a wide range of customers. 
• must collect and manage, filter and process huge volumes of data real-time in order to provide meaningful dashboards of information to stakeholders so that decisions can be made, actions can be taken.
• must manage the integration of both traditional and renewable energy into a common grid, ensuring that customers only receive usable energy sources. 
• must work with utilities and their customers, using the infrastructure around the electrical grid, and selectively integrating devices on the edge. 

Below are some thoughts on opportunities and innovations for carbon-neutral energy solutions:

• Leverage digital twin technology may help utilities and organizations plan for energy management and distribution scenarios.
• Gather data from the edge can better inform energy usage and generation patterns real-time and also make projections for future energy usage.
• Connecting a network of disparate renewal energy generation sources so we can help better manage the energy in the grid.
• Providing temporary power solutions to customers with utility/infrastructure challenges may be necessary if customers adopt solutions before the infrastructure/utilities are ready. 
• Consider last-minute drone and robot solutions for providing more carbon-neutral solutions for the delivery of goods.

Below are thoughts on how we can drive innovation in this space.

• Invite the participation of a wide breadth of scientists and technicians to collaborate on designing and implementing carbon-neutral energy solutions – from chemical engineers to data scientists, from physicists to pharmacists, from geologists to rocket engineers.
• Technology will play a major role in creating, designing, planning, and delivering a carbon-neutral future. 
• Create demand from the ground up, and visioning and execution from the top-down so we can drive more momentum for a carbon-neutral future. 
• Be consistently vocal to policy-makers and influencers, and insist that they rise above the politics and support the carbon-neutral solutions which serve us all today and in the future. 

In closing, we agreed that there is no silver bullet, but we brainstormed what each of us today today to embrace and support carbon-neutral energy solutions:

• Start now, and do something little and big every day.
• Educate yourself on practical carbon-neutral solutions and integrate them into your day-to-day work and life.
• Adopt electric vehicles which offer better torque/acceleration/power at lower cost.
• Choose a role/job/activity/vision which would support a carbon-neutral future. 
• Push for policy and legislative changes using your influence in ways big and small.
• Push the boundaries on what’s possible.
• Support your local utilities and policy-makers in upgrading and updating the infrastructure which will take us from here to there.
• Be open-minded about the technology and market opportunities for carbon-neutral solutions. 
• Collaborate with others to make commitments and sacrifices for the greater good.

It is conversations like this that give me hope for a better world – one that leverages innovation and leadership for the greater good. Please join me again in thanking our participating executives and the larger FountainBlue community for their insights and participation.

Leading Industry 4.0

Leading Industry 4.0

FountainBlue’s April 15 VIP Roundtable was on the topic of ‘Leading Industry 4.0’, with opening remarks by Intel. Please join me in thanking our executives in attendance for their remarks and input.

Water and steam brought on Industry 1.0, which brought people and things efficiently from place to place. Electricity brought power to a large mass of people, bringing huge transformations characteristic of Industry 2.0.Electronics and IT and the underlying networking around it enabled the advances for Industry 3.0. Now connected devices and networks are bringing on the Digital Revolution foundational to Industry 4.0. This revolution will continue to enable the convergence and acceleration within and between industries, even those not traditionally in tech. Specific advancements across industries include:

• accessibility to data
• mobility of devices and robots
• simulations leveraging hardware and software
• innovations on the edge
• advanced connectivity
• storage on the cloud and on devices

The opportunities are great, but the risks and challenges also exist, including the need to balance privacy, security and access, the need to manage data so that the relevant data informs decision-making, the need to overcome resistance to the adoption of digital technologies, tools and processes, the need to upgrade policies and protocols, etc.,
Below are recommended best practices for leading Industry 4.0 in manufacturing:

• Manage a ‘dark fab’ which would best leverage automation, robotics and co-botics while also ensuring that humans are actively involved in the design and oversight of the same.
• Optimize the supply chain to proactively plan to meet manufacturing and customer goals without compromising quality and integrity, while respecting the work-life balance for team members. 
• Use scenario-based planning to optimize the visioning, planning and execution around manufacturing goals.
• Leverage the expertise and insights of a wider range of backgrounds and industries – including chemical engineering, data science, energy generation, material science, – to more broadly address the challenges and opportunities.
• Collaborate to design, plan and deliver solutions which are energy-efficient, cost-efficient, resilient and sustainable, while optimizing for performance and versatility.
• Innovate in collaboration with others so that you can more effectively design solutions which address a broader range of needs for a longer period of time.

Below are examples of cutting-edge thoughts and ideas which will drive the next level of innovation around manufacturing:

• Carbon-neutral technology which would help more efficiently and effectively support manufacturing goals
• AR/VR Immersion solutions leveraged by field service engineers to more efficiently serve customers with personalized solutions
• LEAN manufacturing solutions which help develop supply chain resilience and even at times make qualified projections for future needs
• Industrial automation solutions which are seamless and integrated
• Proactive waste management planning across the manufacturing process
• AI solutions which help filter and manage data, and make recommendations based on data
• ML solutions which make projections based on past data trends 

The opportunities and challenges are mind-boggling. But core to success is the ability to: 1) bridge silos and collaborate within and across teams, organizations and industries; 2) jointly create the infrastructure to enable innovation and the platform for collaboration; 3) focus on the ARR (annual recurring revenues) for the choices made for the short-term, while ensuring long term growth; 4) work with organizations to do the right (social, environmental, political, economic) thing by and for others and 5) invest in the people and leaders who will bring it all together, including each of the executives who joined our discussion today.
The bottom line is that the customers are demanding efficient and effective manufacturing to provide the high-quality, customized solutions they need to live and work and thrive. The winners are the organizations and leaders who can collaborate with others to best serve them.

Innovating on the Edge

FountainBlue’s March 18 VIP Roundtable was on the topic of ‘Innovating on the Edge’, with opening remarks by Micron. Our executives in attendance had a wide range of experience and perspectives on the challenges and opportunities around innovating on the edge. Below is a compilation of their advice.

About Edge Computing

With the continued evolution of technology, there will be continued consolidations, aggregations, innovations, etc., but edge computing will be a foundational piece of current and future technology trends.
Advice for Managing Innovations on the Edge

• Strategize and manage to ensure optimization and continuous improvement, even when we can’t predict our future.
• Take an end-to-end management perspective to oversee all the moving parts which could positively or negatively impact your ability to deliver customized solutions on the edge.
• Design hyper automation (extreme automation) algorithms based on data delivered from the edge.
• Look for areas where technology innovation on the edge could greatly improve a process, and more efficiently deliver an accurate result.

Thoughts on Challenges 

As we continue to develop more devices/sensors/phones etc on to the edge, there will be amplified needs to:

• ensure the privacy, security and access for individual users while aggregating the most relevant content for immediate and future use
• minimize latency times so that automated actions can take place – lives are at times at stake!
• securely and efficiently manage the huge volumes of data for immediate, short term, and long term usage
• manage multiple operating systems and applications on individual computers to ensure efficiency, productivity and security
• integrate legacy and bleeding edge solutions into applications which serve current need
• consider supply chain issues which would impact the hardware we design, manufacture and distribute to be placed on the edge

Opportunities for growth, including:

• designing sensors which capture temperature, vibration, sound, photo and audio input
• producing devices on the edge which can check their own status and even automate processes based on these checks
• creating always-on sensors which use little power and only act when triggering events occur
• offering predictive analytics based on volumes of data collected
• managing collected data to ensure privacy and security while gathering relevant aggregated data  
• focusing on specificities around locations which may help multiple entities manage solutions in specific areas

In the end, as we look at innovating on the edge, we must look at the journey of the data (as it touches the software, hardware, apps), the needs of the customers (for privacy, security and access), the infrastructure and requirements (policy, broadband), and need to manage the old and the new (tools, technologies and people). Now that’s a TALL order. The innovators and collaborators will have an ‘edge’ in this market.