Zscaler report provides insights into user behaviour and the challenges with mobility and remote access in the face of cloud transformation.

Zscale has published the release of its Digital Transformation Report EMEA 2019, which found that 72% of organisations have a majority of their employees accessing applications and data in the cloud or the data centre on their mobile devices with 29% of companies claiming that number to be more than 75% across the UK, Germany, France, and the Benelux region. This high rate of mobility coincides with the top drivers for digital transformation initiatives, which include enabling greater flexibility for employees (37%) and implementing more efficient processes (38%).

When asked about the biggest obstacle to digital transformation, however, security topped the list across all four regions. Eighty percent (80%) of enterprises have security concerns about the way in which employees remotely access data and applications, with the primary focus on the use of unsecured networks (34%) and unmanaged devices (21%) as well as blanket access to the entire corporate network (20%).

Companies embarking on digital transformation initiatives are beginning to recognise that the traditional way of providing remote access connectivity to their applications residing in the cloud or corporate networks are riddled with security risks. With the extension of the perimeter to the internet, segmentation on application level is needed to strengthen the security posture in the cloud era, when mobile employees, consultants, and third parties require access.

“Digital transformation is a powerful business enabler with many potential benefits—from added flexibility for employees to cost and efficiency savings —and it must be a process involving input from all aspects of the business, not just IT,” said Stan Lowe, Global CISO at Zscaler. “With applications moving to the cloud, and users connecting from everywhere, the perimeter is long gone. It’s therefore time to decouple security from the network and use policies that are enforced anywhere applications reside and everywhere users connect. Ultimately, as applications move to the cloud, security needs to move there too.”

The report also found that digital transformation is predominantly an IT decision, however business decision-makers are increasingly driving this initiative, such as the Chief Information Officer (54%) and Chief Digital Officer (47%). Furthermore, 18% claim their CEOs are pushing for and owning digital transformation. The top reasons for embarking on a digital transformation journey were increased flexibility for employees (37%), a new business strategy to focus on core competencies (36%), improved profit margins (36%) and increased cost savings (35%).

“Companies have to consider the effect that application transformation has on their network performance, bandwidth consumption and the latency added by hub-and-spoke architectures from the outset,” Lowe concluded, “Moving applications to the cloud needs to be considered in-line with new network infrastructure and security requirements. The new imperative is direct-to-Internet access with security policies that protect users, regardless of their location or chosen device.”

More than half of companies surveyed are putting mission-critical apps in the cloud.

For the first time, a majority of companies are putting mission critical apps in the cloud, according to the latest report released by Cloud Foundry Foundation, home to a family of interoperable open source projects for the enterprise, at its North American Cloud Foundry Summit in Philadelphia. The study revealed that companies treat digital transformation as a constant cycle of adaptation rather than a one-time fix. As part of that process, cloud technologies such as Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), containers and serverless continue to grow at scale, while microservices and AI/ML are next to be integrated into their workflows.

As more companies embrace the reality of digital transformation, they are adapting to the iterative journey that unfolds. Case in point: 74 percent of respondents equate digital transformation to “perpetual shifts and constant adaption of new technology,” compared to 26 percent who view digital transformation as a “one-time change and adoption of new technology.” More than three quarters of IT decision makers believe digital transformation is a reality, and 86 percent of CIOs, CTOs and Line of Business leaders agree.

“The vast majority of companies agree digital transformation is a constant process of incremental change, rather than a one-time initiative, and are realizing their long-term strategy must involve adaptation to a wide range of unforeseen challenges and technological changes,” said Abby Kearns, Executive Director, Cloud Foundry Foundation. “Although companies are starting to see the benefits of advanced cloud technologies, what’s coming next—artificial intelligence, machine learning and blockchain, for example—will continue to prove that the only constant in technology is change.”

Key findings from the report include:

• Multi-platform strategy is flourishing: Almost half of respondents (48 percent) report using a combination of PaaS, containers and serverless technologies together—an increase of nine percent from last year’s multi-platform report. There are increases across the board in companies using a combination of all three technologies in various iterations, with 72 percent using PaaS and containers together (+8%), 50 percent using PaaS and serverless together (+7%), and 49 percent using containers and serverless together (+7%).
• Container usage widens: Among companies using or evaluating containers, there has been substantial growth in the number of containers used. Organizations using 100 or more containers has grown from 34 percent in April 2018 to 48 percent in February 2019. Among the IT decision makers surveyed, 62 percent report they expect containers to be mainstreamed at their organization within a year.
• Serverless evaluation slows, but there is broader deployment among users: While there was a slight pull back in overall usage and evaluation since September, for those using and evaluating serverless, broad deployment doubled since last year—increasing from 9% to 18%.

• Timeline to see digital transformation vary by region: North American companies are largely feeling the benefit of digital transformation or expect to in this quarter (49%), though slightly more than a third (34%) don’t expect to see benefits for a year or more. Conversely, a third of organizations in Asia expect to see benefits later this year while only 24% expect it to take over a year. More than half of European companies (56%) already feel the benefit or expect to this quarter, while a small percentage (19%) expect to feel the benefits within the year.

Almost 5,000 knowledge workers and business decision makers share their insight on how RPA is changing business operations and employees’ working lives.

A global automation report that surveyed nearly 5,000 business decision makers and knowledge workers reveals the majority of the latter (83 percent) are comfortable with reskilling in order to work alongside the digital workforce. A further 78 percent of knowledge workers say they’re ready to take on a new job role, according to a new report called, “Automate or Stagnate: The Impact of Intelligent Automation on the Future of Work” from Blue Prism.

This sentiment is contrary to a popularly held belief of the market and business decision makers (70 percent), that employees are afraid of losing their jobs to automation. In fact, only 37 percent of knowledge workers harbor fears about job loss as Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is having a positive impact on workplaces. One thing is certain, the impact of automation is being felt from the boardroom to the shop floor.

Most business decision makers also believe that RPA (88 percent) and Intelligent Automation (83 percent) are solutions to the global productivity problem and that both RPA (95 percent) and Intelligent Automation (93 percent) are crucially important in driving digital transformation. As evidence of the growing popularity of RPA, more than three-quarters of knowledge workers (78 percent) have experienced some of their daily tasks being automated in the last 12 months.

It’s a good thing too. Over a third of knowledge workers (34 percent) don’t believe their businesses can remain competitive in the next five years with a purely human workforce. This, alongside time-saving, cost-saving and improved accuracy benefits that automation offers, could be amongst the reasons why an incredible 92 percent of business decision makers plan to extend use cases of automation across their businesses.

“A new wave of economics, driven by automation and Artificial Intelligence, is emerging across the globe,” says Chris Bradshaw, Blue Prism’s Chief Marketing Officer. “This technology is disruptive, in the most positive sense. It is changing how organizations view themselves, how they operate and how the people that drive them, live and work. As we enter a new era of connected-RPA, this technology will open doors for the most digitally savvy employees to create and innovate. This is the first technological revolution to place the human at the heart of the creative value chain which is why it has such exponential potential. We will deliver a roadmap for how businesses can transform economic output, with AI and RPA at the heart of that change.”

Change Doesn’t Have to Be Hard

Despite the progress that has already been made, businesses need to address cultural considerations if they are to tap into the technology’s latent potential. In order to increasingly incorporate RPA, two-thirds of knowledge workers agree that their businesses culture needs to evolve. This is because more than half of respondents (53 percent) have colleagues with concerns over the introduction of the technology, and 44 percent aren’t confident about their own ability to adapt to work alongside the digital workforce.

To this end, business decision makers are conscious that they need to build trust among employees and the digital workforce (84 percent). Unfortunately, 68 percent of knowledge workers, believe their employers need to do more to build this trust. Improving internal communications is thought to be the best way to do this by 74 percent of business decision makers and echoed by 67 percent of knowledge workers. Communication is followed by the need for in-depth training (62 percent business decision makers, 59 percent knowledge workers).

The good news is, organizations feel relatively well prepared for changes and are invested in making the adoption of RPA a success. Over three-quarters of business decision makers (76 percent) feel that they are actively on the case of cultural change, incorporating the digital workforce into their daily working practices and encouraging human employees to engage with the technology.

Almost four-in-five knowledge workers (78 percent) do also believe that acquiring new skills is essential to remain employable, which may make the cultural change and adoption process of automation and RPA easier. This is proven by business decision makers (76 percent) who agree their new hires are more prepared to work alongside a digital workforce, and that adopting these technologies is an important factor in attracting and retaining the best talent.

Benefits Outweigh any Challenges

According to business decision makers (94 percent) and to a large extent knowledge workers (73 percent), the benefits of RPA/Intelligent Automation are well understood. However, despite this positive sentiment, there is still a significant gap in understanding between business leaders and their employees. More than three-quarters of business decision makers (76 percent) agree that their organization has been positively impacted by automation, a sentiment that mirrored by 65 percent of knowledge workers.

“Embracing RPA has been a part of the ‘bank-of-the-future’ objective and freeing up colleagues from mundane, repetitive tasks. We’ve taken the robotout of the human, in order to enable those colleagues to fulfil more purposeful roles, as we forge ahead with the next stage of our strategy,” says Gerald Pullen, Head of Continuous Improvement & RPA from Lloyds Banking Group.

“This report proves that there are some dramatic changes ahead in business as far as both technology and the workforce is concerned. But it’s a positive change,” Bradshaw continued. “It is up to the global business community to recognize this and provide the tools that their employees most desire that will release their creativity and innovation.”

As per a new research study from Future Market Insights, the global data centre security market is estimated to exhibit a CAGR of 11.1% during 2018-2028.

As the market penetration of data centres has proliferated, a corresponding increase in the demand for the security of its infrastructure and data has been witnessed worldwide. One of the key trends governing the growth of the global data centre security market is the increasing number of initiatives undertaken by several regional governments in collaboration with various Tier-1 and Tier-2 companies. A majority of these companies are among the leading providers of data centre security solutions and services, securing critical data stored at data centres of respective countries and regions.

According to analysis, in addition to joint initiatives of governments and key players, the data center security landscape has been witnessing a surge in the frequency of introduction of virtualized data centre security solutions via collaborations between multiple channel partners. While these channel partners aspire stronger market presence, their joint activities are likely to create a new trend wave in data center security market. However, owing to increasing enterprise virtualization, physical security solutions are expected to exhibit poor demand growth in the data center security market.

BFSI & Healthcare to Remain Highly Lucrative End-use Segments in Data Center Security Market

On the basis of end use, the report envisages higher rate of adoption of data center security within critical end-use verticals such as IT & telecom, BFSI, healthcare, government & defense, and media & entertainment. However, the rate at which data center security adoption has been rising in case of BFSI and healthcare segments will be particularly higher, reflecting several lucrative growth opportunities for the data centre security market.

Fast Developing Asian Markets Generating High Demand for Data Center Security Solutions & Services

While North America will retain a dominant position in the global data centre security market throughout the forecast period, analysis points to a positive growth outlook emerging for some of the developing Asian countries, in the global data center security market. The report opines that the data center security services and solutions will witness strong demand from markets in East Asia and South Asia. Both the aforementioned regions are more likely to register higher CAGR in terms of revenue over the course of projection period.

Due to the increasing adoption of data centres across all-sized enterprises, including SMEs within rapidly developing economies such as Indonesia, India, and China, report estimates relatively higher demand for data centre security solutions and services within these countries over the coming years. However, as the lack of awareness about significance of data center security prevails among various underdeveloped and some of the developing countries, the consulting segment of the data center security market will exhibit a considerably high growth rate, opines the report. 

The highly successful Managed Services Summit series of events is returning to Amsterdam in May for its third year. The event will examine some of the latest developments impacting the industry and assess the impact of new technologies on the Managed Service Provider (MSP) sector in Europe.

The European Managed Services & Hosting Summit 2019 comes at a time when the business is being subjected to many changes. The sector as a whole is growing and the rising demand for skills has caused a surge in the level of merger and acquisition activity as successful MSPs aim to pick up less fortunate rivals and other types of reseller outside their home regions.

Among the speakers now announced is Gartner Research Director Mark Paine who will deliver the opening keynote examining the changing nature and needs of customers. Under the title “Working with customers and their chaotic buying processes” he will present the Gartner view on how the changed customer buying process has become hard to monitor and follow and can be abruptly fore-shortened. “Who are the real customers anyway?” he will ask, using research into changing buying processes.

Jonathan Simnett, director Hampleton Partners, will examine the latest trends in European IT mergers & acquisitions, the factors driving demand and how to build value into an MSP, reseller or services business. Tech services and support need resources and a lot of more successful MSPs are taking the view that it is cheaper and easier to buy rather than build, to get them. This is increasing demand for limited resources and resulting in buyers bidding up prices. Other factors increasing demand include Big Data, Cloud and IoT which are continuing to drive consolidation in the market, as larger customers look to use what they offer.

Igor Pejic from BNP Paribas will discuss the rise of blockchain and its application to managed services, what it means for every industry and what it offers to MSPs. Blockchain is a different way to handle databases, and although it started in financial services, it will enhance supply chains and anywhere where proof of identity is required. “Managed services is a new area addressed by blockchain. There has been a lot of development and we are now seeing blockchain as a service which allows smaller companies to scale it to what their business needs. We will see a lot of industry-specific applications soon,” says Igor. A copy of Blockchain Babel, Igor Pejic's important new book on blockchain, which has been selected as a book of the month by the FT, is being given free to those attending the Managed Services Summit in Amsterdam.

The European Managed Services & Hosting Summit 2019 is a management-level event designed to help channel organisations identify opportunities arising from the increasing demand for managed and hosted services and to develop and strengthen partnerships aimed at supporting sales. Building on the success of previous managed services and hosting events in London and Amsterdam, the summit will feature a high-level conference programme exploring the impact of new business models and the changing role of information technology within modern businesses. These conference sessions will be augmented by both business and technology breakout tracks within which leading vendors and service providers will provide further insight into the opportunities for channel organisations looking to expand their managed services portfolios. Throughout the day there will also be many opportunities for both sponsors and delegates to meet fellow participants within the Summit exhibition and networking area.

The European Managed Services and Hosting Summit 2019 will take place at the Novotel Amsterdam City Hotel, on 23 May 2019. MSPs, resellers and integrators wishing to attend the convention and vendors, distributors or service providers interested in sponsorship opportunities can find further information at: www.mshsummit.com/amsterdam

The full 2019 shortlist is below:

Despite this enthusiasm for AI, early initiatives are prone to failure due to misalignment with business requirements and a lack of agility. Successful AI implementation as a core accelerant of digital business initiatives is reliant on strategic use by infrastructure and operations (I&O) leaders.

Although the potential for success is enormous, delivering business impact with AI initiatives often takes much longer than expected. It is therefore imperative that IT leaders plan early and use agile techniques to increase relevance and success rates.

IT leaders should take account of the following five Gartner predictions concerning the rapid evolution of AI tools and techniques, and how these are likely to apply to their organisation.

AI will drive infrastructure decisions

The use of AI within organisations is growing rapidly. Between now and 2023, AI will be one of the main workloads influencing decisions about infrastructure. Accelerating AI adoption requires specific infrastructure resources that can grow and evolve alongside technology. AI models will need to be periodically refined by the enterprise IT team to ensure high success rates. 

Management of increasingly complex AI techniques will require collaboration

One of the main challenges to using AI techniques like machine learning (ML) and deep neural networks (DNNs) in edge and IoT environments is the complexity of the data and the required analytics. Traditional AI use cases that do not involve customer expectations succeed because of close collaboration between business and IT functions, so securing the help of internal engineering teams is essential.

Simple machine learning techniques will sometime make the most sense

Between now and 2022, over 75% of organisations will use DNNs for use cases that could equally be addressed using classical ML techniques. Traditional approaches to ML are too often disregarded. After the hype attached to AI has been dispelled, it quickly becomes obvious that many businesses are preparing to apply deep learning techniques without fully understanding how they apply to their current initiatives. IT leaders should take the time to get acquainted with the full range of options available to them to address the issues facing their business. A simpler, more pragmatic ML approach may be all they need.

Serverless computing will take the stage

Containers and serverless computing will enable ML models to serve as independent functions and, in turn, run more cost-effectively, with low overheads. Although a serverless programming model is particularly appealing in public cloud environments due to its quick scalability, IT leaders should identify existing ML projects that might benefit from these new computing capabilities.

Automation will be adopted beyond the surface level

As the volume of data that organisations have to manage increases, so too will the challenge of ineffective problem prioritisation. Given the shortage of digital dexterity talent in the I&O sector, automation is a prime solution. By 2023, 40% of I&O teams in large organisations will use AI-augmented automation, resulting in higher IT productivity and greater agility and scalability.

“Currency headwinds fueled by the strengthening U.S. dollar have caused us to revise our 2019 IT spending forecast down from the previous quarter,” said John-David Lovelock, research vice president at Gartner. “Through the remainder of 2019, the U.S. dollar is expected to trend stronger, while enduring tremendous volatility due to uncertain economic and political environments and trade wars.

“In 2019, technology product managers will have to get more strategic with their portfolio mix by balancing products and services that will post growth in 2019 with those larger markets that will trend flat to down,” said Mr. Lovelock. “Successful product managers in 2020 will have had a long-term view to the changes made in 2019.”

The data center systems segment will experience the largest decline in 2019 with a decrease of 2.8 percent (see Table 1). This is mainly due to expected lower average selling prices (ASPs) in the server market driven by adjustments in the pattern of expected component costs.

The shift of enterprise IT spending from traditional (noncloud) offerings to new, cloud-based alternatives is continuing to drive growth in the enterprise software market. In 2019, the market is forecast to reach $427 billion, up 7.1 percent from $399 billion in 2018. The largest cloud shift has so far occurred in application software. However, Gartner expects increased growth for the infrastructure software segment in the near-term, particularly in integration platform as a service (iPaaS) and application platform as a service (aPaaS).

Table 1. Worldwide IT Spending Forecast (Billions of U.S. Dollars)

Source: Gartner (April 2019)

“The choices CIOs make about technology investments are essential to the success of digital business. Disruptive emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), will reshape business models as well as the economics of public- and private-sector enterprises. AI is having a major effect on IT spending, although its role is often misunderstood,” said Mr. Lovelock. “AI is not a product, it is really a set of techniques or a computer engineering discipline. As such, AI is being embedded in many existing products and services, as well as being central to new development efforts in every industry. Gartner’s AI business value forecast predicts that organizations will receive $1.9 trillion worth of benefit from the use of AI this year alone.”

DACH CIOs focus on digital initiatives and operational excellence

Twenty-nine percent of CIOs in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (the DACH region) regard digital initiatives as their top business priority, according to a global survey conducted by Gartner, Inc. They cite the drive for operational excellence as their second priority, a deviation from global results, where driving revenue and business growth comes second.

“Our survey results show that DACH CIOs take more ownership in digitizing operations and efficiency, instead of focusing on business growth and revenue,” said Bettina Tratz-Ryan, research vice president at Gartner. “This is due to the fact that CIOs in the DACH region often lack the resources to drive and enable true business transformation. DACH CIOs are involved in enabling the design of new business models — but do not lead these efforts.”

The 2019 Gartner CIO Agenda Survey gathered data from more than 3,000 CIO respondents in 89 countries and all major industries. In the DACH region, 118 CIO respondents were asked for their input.

IT budgets in the region increased on average by 2.7 percent in 2019 — 0.6 percent less than in EMEA. This partly explains the focus of DACH CIOs on core system improvements that modernize and upgrade existing platforms and infrastructure. Those measures decrease costs and improve the efficiency and scalability of digital initiatives.

Overall, resources are a major pain point for DACH CIOs. Fifty-one percent cite insufficient IT-business resources as their most significant barrier to achieving their objectives. Not far behind is a change-blocking business culture at 46 percent. Further, 35 percent of respondents state that insufficient depth and breadth of digital skills are slowing their digital transformation strategies.

DACH CIOs Embrace AI and Chatbots

Thirty-four percent of DACH CIOs regard artificial intelligence (AI) as a game-changing technology for their organizations, followed by data analytics (19%) and cloud (15%). When asked for their top use case for AI, 42 percent cited the use of chatbots as conversational agents.

“Our survey shows that DACH CIOs are actually more likely to invest in chatbots than global CIOs are, and there are already some interesting use cases in the region,” said Ms. Tratz-Ryan. “We often see chatbots in customer management, and some banks have already developed chatbots to handle other tasks such as small money transfers.”

Strengthening Digital Initiatives and Core Systems

Digital business is one of the core investment area for DACH CIOs. Forty-six percent plan to increase their investment in digital business initiatives. Core system improvements and transformations, such as legacy modernizations, are almost as important (40 percent).

“Digital business initiatives and core system improvements might seem like independent areas, but they belong together. Investing in digital transformation means that organizational silos need to become connected in a digital value chain and, for that to happen, the core systems need to become more agile and interactive. This is especially the case with the advanced operational technologies and the machines and sensors used in industry 4.0 scenarios,” Ms. Tratz-Ryan said. “DACH CIOs have understood that connection, and are investing their resources in the right places. Digitalization will lead to increased transparency of workflows, which will allow CIOs to identify duplications and inefficiencies. That, in turn, will increase operational efficiency.”

The future of app development is multiexperience

As user application touchpoints increase in frequency, change in modalities and expand in device type, the future of app development is multiexperience, according to a recent survey by Gartner, Inc.

“Development platform vendors are expanding their value proposition beyond mobile apps and web development to meet user and industry demands,” said Jason Wong, research vice president at Gartner. “The result is the emergence of multiexperience development platforms, which are used in developing chat, voice, augmented reality (AR) and wearable experiences in support of the digital business.”

Most Common Enterprise Applications

Despite the web browser continuing to serve as the most popular application touchpoint, mobile apps are on the rise. As immersive devices such as smartwatches, smartphones and voice-driven devices permeate the industry, the modes of interaction (type, touch, gestures, natural language) expand across the digital user journey.

Among enterprises that have developed and deployed at least three different types of applications (other than web apps), the most common are mobile apps (91 percent). “These figures are higher than any other application types we asked about, and suggest that the maturity of mobile app development is necessary for expansion into other interaction modalities,” said Mr. Wong.

Conversational applications are the second-most widely developed type of application type at 73 percent for voice apps and 60 percent for chatbots, according to the survey. “This reflects the natural evolution of application functions to support the digital user journey across natural language-driven modes and devices,” said Mr. Wong.

Technology Behind Multiexperience Development

Cloud-hosted artificial intelligence (AI) services are the most widely used technology to support multiexperience application development (61 percent of respondents), followed by native iOS and Android development (48 percent) and mobile back-end services (45 percent). “This is consistent with the rise of conversational user interfaces, image and voice recognition and other AI services that are becoming commonplace within apps,” said Mr. Wong.

Business Impact Behind Multiexperience Development

Contrary to the perception that mobile apps are in decline, they are in the lead for applications projected to have the most impact on business success by 2020, according to respondents. Following mobile apps are virtual reality (VR) applications and AR applications. “Although respondents indicated a high level of development activity for chatbots and voice apps, very few thought they’d have the most business impact by 2020,” said Mr. Wong.

Barriers in Developing Multiexperience Development

The top barrier to building compelling multiexperience applications is the need for business and IT alignment, according to nearly 40 percent of survey respondents. More than one-quarter of the respondents identified shortcomings in developer skills and user experience expertise as a barrier. “Skills gap in relation to emerging technologies cannot be overstated when discussing inhibitors to scaling digital initiatives, including multiexperience development strategy,” said Mr. Wong.

Worldwide Public Cloud revenue to grow 17.5 percent in 2019

The worldwide public cloud services market is projected to grow 17.5 percent in 2019 to total $214.3 billion, up from $182.4 billion in 2018, according to Gartner, Inc.

The fastest-growing market segment will be cloud system infrastructure services, or infrastructure as a service (IaaS), which is forecast to grow 27.5 percent in 2019 to reach $38.9 billion, up from $30.5 billion in 2018 (see Table 1). The second-highest growth rate of 21.8 percent will be achieved by cloud application infrastructure services, or platform as a service (PaaS).

“Cloud services are definitely shaking up the industry,” said Sid Nag, research vice president at Gartner. “At Gartner, we know of no vendor or service provider today whose business model offerings and revenue growth are not influenced by the increasing adoption of cloud-first strategies in organizations. What we see now is only the beginning, though. Through 2022, Gartner projects the market size and growth of the cloud services industry at nearly three time the growth of overall IT services.”

Table 1. Worldwide Public Cloud Service Revenue Forecast (Billions of U.S. Dollars)

BPaaS = business process as a service; IaaS = infrastructure as a service; PaaS = platform as a service; SaaS = software as a service
Note: Totals may not add up due to rounding.

Source: Gartner (April 2019)

According to recent Gartner surveys, more than a third of organizations see cloud investments as a top three investing priority, which is impacting market offerings. Gartner expects that by the end of 2019, more than 30 percent of technology providers’ new software investments will shift from cloud-first to cloud-only. This means that license-based software consumption will further plummet, while SaaS and subscription-based cloud consumption models continue their rise.

“Organizations need cloud-related services to get onboarded onto public clouds and to transform their operations as they adopt public cloud services,” said Mr. Nag. Currently almost 19 percent of cloud budgets are spent on cloud-related services, such as cloud consulting, implementation, migration and managed services, and Gartner expects that this rate will increase to 28 percent by 2022.

“As cloud continues to become mainstream within most organizations, technology product managers for cloud related service offerings will need to focus on delivering solutions that combine experience and execution with hyperscale providers’ offerings,” said Mr. Nag. “This complementary approach will drive both transformation and optimization of an organization’s infrastructure and operations.”

"Worldwide DX technology investments are expected to total more than $6 trillion over the next four years," said Eileen Smith, program vice president with IDC's Customer Insights & Analysis group. "Strong DX technology investment growth is forecast across all sectors, ranging between 15% and 20%, with the financial sector forecast to be the fastest with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.4% between 2017 and 2022."

The two industries that will invest the most in digital transformation in 2019 are discrete manufacturing ($221.6 billion) and process manufacturing ($124.5 billion). For both industries, the top DX spending priority is smart manufacturing, supported by significant investments in autonomic operations, manufacturing operations, and quality. Retail will be the next largest industry in 2019, followed closely by transportation and professional services. Each of these industries will be pursuing a different mix of strategic priorities, from omni-channel commerce for the retail industry to digital supply chain optimization in the transportation industry and facility management – transforming workspace in professional services. A CAGR of 21.4% will enable the professional services industry to move ahead of transportation in terms of overall DX spending in 2020.

The DX use cases – discretely funded efforts that support a program objective – that will see the largest investment across all industries in 2019 will be autonomic operations ($52 billion), robotic manufacturing ($45 billion), freight management ($41 billion), and root cause ($35 billion). Other use cases that will see investments in excess of $20 billion in 2019 include self-healing assets and augmented maintenance, intelligent and predictive grid management for electricity, and quality and compliance. The use cases that will experience the greatest spending growth over the 2018-2022 forecast period are virtualized labs (108.6% CAGR), digital visualization (53.5% CAGR), and augmented design management (43.9% CAGR).

From a technology perspective, hardware and services investments will account for more than 75% of all DX spending in 2019. Services spending will be led by IT services ($154 billion) and connectivity services ($102 billion). Hardware spending will be spread across several categories, including enterprise hardware, personal devices, and IaaS infrastructure. DX-related software spending will total $253 billion in 2019. The fastest growing technology categories will be IaaS (35.9% CAGR), application development and deployment software (26.7% CAGR), and business services (26.5% CAGR).

"Digital transformation is quickly becoming the largest driver of new technology investments and projects among businesses," said Craig Simpson, research manager with IDC's Customer Insights & Analysis group. "It is already clear from our research that the businesses which have invested heavily in DX over the last 2-3 years are already reaping the rewards in terms of faster revenue growth and stronger net profits compared to businesses lagging in DX initiatives and investments."

The United States and China will be the two largest geographic markets for DX spending, delivering more than half the worldwide total in 2019. In the U.S., the leading industries will be discrete manufacturing ($63 billion), professional services ($37 billion) and transportation ($34 billion) with DX spending focused on IT services, applications, and enterprise hardware. In China, the industries spending the most on DX will be discrete manufacturing ($55 billion), process manufacturing ($31 billion), and state/local government ($21 billion). Connectivity services and enterprise hardware will be the largest technology categories in China. 

Mobile service providers have been challenged to support such a high growth of connected devices and their corresponding increases in network traffic. Adding networking nodes to scale-out capacity is a relatively easy change. Meanwhile, it's essential for service providers to keep offering innovative value-added services to differentiate service experience and monetise new services. These services including parental control, URL filtering, content protection and endpoint device protection from malware and ID theft, to name a few.

Service providers, however, are now facing new challenges of operational complexity and extra network latency coming from those services. Such challenges will become even more significant when it comes to 5G, as this will drive even more rapid proliferation of mobile and the IoT devices. It will be critical to minimise latency to ensure there are no interruptions to emerging mission-critical services that are expected to dramatically increase with 5G networks.

Gi-LAN Network Overview

In a mobile network, there are two segments between the radio network and the Internet: the evolved packet core (EPC) and the Gi/SGi-LAN. The EPC is a packet-based mobile core running both voice and data on 4G/ LTE networks. The Gi-LAN is the network where service providers typically provide various homegrown and value-added services using unique capabilities through a combination of IP-based service functions, such as firewall, carrier-grade NAT (CGNAT), deep packet inspection (DPI), policy control, traffic and content optimisation. And these services are generally provided by a wide variety of vendors. Service providers need to steer the traffic and direct it to specific service functions, which may be chained, only when necessary, in order to meet specific policy enforcement and service-level agreements for each subscriber.

The Gi-LAN network is an essential segment that enables enhanced security and value-added service offerings to differentiate and monetise services. Therefore, it's crucial to have an efficient Gi-LAN architecture to deliver a high-quality service experience.

Challenges in Gi-LAN Segment

In the today's 4G/ LTE world, a typical mobile service provider has an ADC, a DPI, a CGNAT and a firewall device as part of Gi-LAN service components. They are mainly deployed as independent network functions on dedicated physical devices from a wide range of vendors. This makes Gi-LAN complex and inflexible from operational and management perspective. Thus, this type of architecture, as known as monolithic architecture, is reaching its limits and does not scale to meet the needs of the rising data traffic in 4G and 4G+ architectures. This will continue to be an issue in 5G infrastructure deployments. The two most serious issues are:

1. Increased latency
2. Significantly higher total cost of ownership

Latency is becoming a significant concern since lower latency is required by online gaming and video streaming services even today. With the transition to 5G, ultra-reliable low-latency connectivity targets latencies of less than 1ms for use cases, such as real-time interactive AR/ VR, tactile Internet, industrial automation, mission/life-critical service like remote surgery, self-driving cars and many more. The architecture with individual service functions on different hardware has a major impact on this promise of lower latency. Multiple service functions are usually chained and every hop the data packet traversing between service functions adds additional latency, causing overall service degradation.

The management overhead of each solution independently is also a burden. The network operator must invest in monitoring, management and deployment services for all devices from various vendors individually, resulting in large operational expenses.

Solution – Consolidating Service Functions in Gi-LAN

In order to overcome these issues, there are a few approaches you can take. From architecture perspective, Service-Based Architecture (SBA) or microservices architecture will address operational concerns since leveraging such architecture leads to higher flexibility and automation and significant cost reduction. However, it less likely addresses the network latency concern because each service function, regardless of VNF or microservice, still contributes in the overall latency as far as they are deployed as individual VM or microservice.

So, what if multiple service functions are consolidated into one instance? For example, CGNAT and Gi firewall are fundamental components in the mobile network, and some subscribers may choose to use additional services such as DPI, URL filtering. Such consolidation is feasible only if the product/ solution supports flexible traffic steering and service chaining capabilities along with those service functions. By consolidating Gi-LAN service functions into one instance/ appliance, it helps drastically reduce the extra latency and simplify network design and operation. Such concepts are not new but there aren't many vendors who can provide consolidated Gi-LAN service functions at scale.

Therefore, when building an efficient Gi-LAN network, service providers need to consider a solution that can offer,

• Multiple network and service functions on a single instance/ appliance
• Flexible service chaining support
• Subscriber awareness and DPI capability supported for granular traffic steering
• Variety of form-factor options - physical (PNF) and virtual (VNF) appliances
• High performance and capacity with scale-out capability
• Easy integration and transition to SDN/NFV deployment

However, this isn’t the first time we have heard that mobile or m-commerce is on the way up. Over the past few years, it’s been predicted that ‘this is the year for mobile’ – but it has never really come true. The good news is that Forrester states that over the next five years, Western European online retail sales will grow at over three times the rate of total retail sales, driven in part by the boom of mobile commerce.

At the risk of joining in with the crystal ball gazing, 2019 may mark a watershed in mobile retail – but only if retailers can seize the opportunity that is now on offer.

The mobile opportunity

No one claims that mobile will surpass other retail channels in terms of conversions in the foreseeable future. In-store, where consumers can examine items and talk to knowledgeable sales assistants, still provides a unique experience and should never be compromised; meanwhile, traditional online retail presents the shopper with enormous choice on an easily viewed browser.

But mobile does have a key role to play in shoppers’ experience. Whilst our recent research showed 11 per cent of UK shoppers planned to use mobile as their preferred channel in the run-up to Christmas 2018, it also revealed that of those using mobile, almost 40 per cent were using it to look for inspiration for gifts rather than make the actual purchase.

We also found that just under a third of shoppers planned to use mobiles to check online prices while in-store (the old “showrooming” phenomenon). This insight is supported by figures from Deloitte’s annual UK mobile consumer survey, which reveals the rising influence of smartphones on retail sales – including how 84 percent of millennials claim to use their phones for shopping assistance while in a store.

How to keep shoppers coming back

It’s clear that mobile is a large and increasingly important part of the customer experience journey. The challenge for retailers – and their great opportunity – is ensuring that the mobile experience is easy to navigate and consistently fantastic, whether shoppers are making purchases, looking for gift inspiration or comparing prices.

Retailers might think that the best way to turn browsing into sales is by offering something that others don’t – and to some degree they’re right. But getting the basics correct counts for much more than a gimmick.

According to Forrester, smartphone-savvy consumers have high expectations for mobile experiences, with 61 per cent of shoppers more likely to return to a website if it is mobile-friendly.

What steps can retailers take to ensure their mobile sites keep shoppers coming back?

For starters, m-commerce sites should be optimised for every device and mobile OS. Differences in screen size and resolution, button placement, or operating system can have a huge effect on the mobile experience. Retailers often claim that they optimise their websites for every device, but do they take into account the small factors which can have big consequences on the path to purchase?

One example is placing the checkout or “Buy Now” button in the space where push notifications usually appear. This could lead to the user becoming distracted or accidentally clicking out of the purchase – perhaps a small problem but one which, multiplied by thousands of users, could severely affect sales.

Another key consideration is designing websites to be mobile-first. Many websites carry a large amount of content that is right for bigger screens, such as long blogs, videos or interactive content. Mobile-first sites, on the other hand, need to be crisp, clear, uncluttered and easy to navigate, with visuals specifically designed for mobile devices.

Finally, we would urge retailers to think about devices holistically. M-commerce is about much more than buying something through your device’s browser. An effective strategy should embrace loyalty apps with a range of functions that optimises navigability, provides a variety of services and boosts loyalty. This could include self-service options such as checking availability and setting up click-and-collect delivery options, or providing product reviews, social integration and single-click ordering.

An m-commerce approach is much more than simply venturing into another sales channel. It’s opening the door to a new generation. By optimising their mobile offering now, retailers have a unique opportunity to connect with always-online consumers, who were practically born with a smartphone in their hand. Forrester’s claims are bold, but this could be the year that m-commerce finally takes off.

When compared to existing 4G LTE networks, 5G will offer unprecedented speeds, much lower latency, higher connectivity, and higher availability to power smart cities, connected and autonomous vehicles, AR/VR streaming, and numerous other advanced applications.

AI, fuelled by analytics, has the potential to help improve the efficiency of network communications and maintenance, while safeguarding network uptime through automated policy-based decision making through streaming real-time network data. It also has the potential to identify and prevent potential service disruptions, detect suspicious network behaviour for increased security, and proactively improve overall network reliability. This combination represents significant value for operators preparing to adopt emerging technologies, such as 5G, as they mature.

AI and 5G have the potential to help solve the challenges that impede network evolution. Together they could reduce costs related to maintenance and network downtime and improve decision-making on bandwidth allocation and network repairs to ensure high-availability and performance for users across the globe.

AI: Challenges vs. prospects

For network operators, understanding the value of AI must start with an understanding of AI itself and what it can offer in terms of network management, efficiency, profitability, and security.

AI is a “thinking” machine capable of monitoring network behaviours, identifying potential problem areas, detecting what is “not normal”, and taking corrective action. Harnessing the power of data – analytics, AI can introduce greater efficiency to the workflow by removing the requirement for human operators to make basic decisions on migration and path selection. This will optimise network functionality and enable bandwidth on demand.

Despite the apparent benefits of ‘automated networks’, it’s clear that operators will not surrender complete control of their networks– instead opting for adaptive networking practices that harness the power and efficiency of data-driven AI and combine it with the invaluable experience of their engineers.

AI should be implemented in controlled stages, with rigorous testing to ensure it has both enough data and the right data to form solid decision-making policies. By developing projects individually, operators can ensure they are satisfied with the results in one area, before scaling up deployments to cover more network functions, thereby reducing the potential for errors ahead of broader adoption.

AI’s role in 5G

It is predicted that there will be one billion users of 5G by 2020 with one in seven mobile connections made via 5G by 2025. And, while 5G is still in the testing phase, the initial rollouts seen in South Korea, the US, and the UK, will be used as proof points for how the technology will enable operators to determine the most cost-effective models upon which to expand to national and regional coverage.

AI won’t just be beneficial to 5G, it will be a necessity. By drawing on the massive influx of data to form superior policies, AI can be used to examine network activity and suggest the appropriate action in the event of service disruptions. In addition, AI will enable self-healing capabilities. Through real-time data analysis, AI will compress decision-making timelines by orders of magnitude, repairing or even reconstructing the network in a matter of minutes to minimise disruptions from damaged cables or attempted network intrusions. The potential savings through the prevention of revenue loss will be a crucial factor in ensuring cost-effective 5G services as operators evolve their networks over the next decade.

It is also likely that the increase in device traffic on 5G networks will usher in a greater threat to operators from Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks, as hackers will be able to launch attacks of unprecedented size. AI will offer increased security through proactive network monitoring, using historical data to spot anomalies on network services and signs of intruder connections, and taking action to protect the network and preserve functionality.

Therefore, it makes sense for operators to start integrating AI capabilities into their existing 4G network infrastructure now, where it makes sense, to provide the additional functionality that will be a must for managing independent 5G networks in future.

AI at 5G speed

There is no doubt AI and 5G will soon take on a significant role in mission critical telecommunications services. As operators define the most effective models and connect individual deployments to create broader networks, AI-enabled 5G will evolve to uncover exciting new possibilities and use cases. Together these technologies will drive greater business profitability, innovation and enhanced user experiences. 

For operators, the time to lay the groundwork for 5G connectivity is now. A big part of that journey will involve developing AI capabilities that go beyond today’s network functionality and embrace the world of high-bandwidth, always-on connectivity, to give rise to intelligent infrastructure and widespread connected device networks across the globe.

Why SD-WAN? Improving the User Experience on diverse connectivity  

In a cloud dominated user environment, the quality and reliability of the WAN to deliver application performance has become an essential component of IT infrastructure design. The current consensus is that traditional MPLS networks struggle with the volume of Internet-based cloud traffic, the diversity of routing locations (applications are delivered from multiple clouds, not a single datacentre), and ensuring application performance across both MPLS and Internet-bearing services. The impact of this is an increase in the number of customers evaluating and requesting SD-WAN solutions from their service providers. Indeed, it would be hard to find an organisation today taking the decision to go for traditional MPLS without considering the SD-WAN alternative. Given the increasing commitment to improving user experience and enhancing the management of application performance, it is the ease with which the benefits of the SD-WAN technology can be utilised – from agility and rapid change to multi-linked failover and application prioritisation – that should be an essential consideration.

And as such, the way in which organisations decide to deploy SD-WAN will be key. Right now in the UK it is the Managed SD-WAN service model that dominates the market, as experienced MSPs can rapidly deploy the solution with demonstrable high performance and multiple built-in capabilities from day one, meaning that organisations can reap the benefits almost immediately. Replicating the familiar outsourced services used by many organisations to achieve WAN connectivity, MSPs are rapidly adding SD-WAN technologies to existing managed services portfolios. The services include every aspect of the SD-WAN solution, from hardware to software, networking and connectivity, all delivered within the standard Service Level Agreement (SLA) model.

In contrast to the Managed Service where every aspect of the service and all changes to the parameters of that service are undertaken by the MSP, the alternative deployment model is SD-WAN as a Service. This approach, which has yet to become widely available in the UK, is gaining significant interest in North America. This software only model provides a multi-tenanted infrastructure set up that enables companies to rapidly connect sites while also providing the IT Manager with the tools to monitor, manage and change service parameters as required.

A Hybrid Approach to SD-WAN

SD-WAN has the potential to be a replacement for MPLS, but this is not necessarily the right option for every organisation. For a UK multi-site operation, many of the sites could still be in contract with months or years still remaining – so a replacement to SD-WAN would be commercially challenging. An alternative approach to consider is to combine MPLS and SD-WAN together as a hybrid approach in order to augment capacity, enable rapid expansion, increase control to IT managers and not having to increase the overall MPLS contract term for the addition of a few sites – without a huge financial outlay. By adopting such an approach, the case for complete replacement of MPLS can then be considered longer term without penalty.

For an IT Manager used to outsourcing WAN connectivity, the evolution from MPLS to Managed SD-WAN should be culturally straightforward: the model is the same, the difference is simply the underpinning technology and the benefits associated with the software defined model. Differentiating between MSPs will be based on issues such as access to a diversity of connectivity options and quality of service – for example, does the MSP support the need for agility and flexibility, as well as future proofing, by offering a network agnostic SD-WAN?

SLAs will be key and, over time, the managed SD-WAN services on offer will undoubtedly become ever more sophisticated as MSPs look to exploit the intelligence within the SD-WAN technology. Certainly traditional response times are no longer good enough in application centric organisations, so it is important to determine whether or not an MSP is leveraging the software only nature of SD-WANs to overhaul its own support operation. With a software defined solution, it is possible to scale support three, four, even five-fold, which should enable far faster response to business demands.

SLAs are already evolving from a response timeline to a respond and fix time. With the addition of analytics and artificial intelligence (AI), Managed SD-WANs should include increasing levels of automation, such as the use of application aware routing to enhance the performance within increasingly application centric organisations.  

Maturity & Confidence

Many of these benefits can, of course, be achieved immediately in-house with the as a Service model, if organisations have the resources and confidence to manage the SD-WAN network. This option provides the chance to maximise the value of the SD-WAN technology, such as immediately reallocating application resources as required, with no need to wait for the MSP to respond.

However, given the current level of market maturity, few organisations in the UK have yet to achieve the required level of confidence or technical skills. It is, however, likely to gain interest as SD-WAN maturity and confidence improves. Indeed, as organisations become ever more application centric given the huge increase in cloud based applications, IT departments are looking to dedicate ever more resource to monitoring the application performance which is so critical to business operations.

As such, these skills will be increasingly embedded within IT teams which means, looking ahead, the SD-WAN as a Service model is likely to become increasingly popular, dovetailing neatly into the next generation of application aware monitoring and management tools that will be key to improving end user experience.  

Cost Consideration

In terms of service model, the cost differential between a Managed MPLS and a Managed SD-WAN service are negligible – although a number of the SD-WAN technologies being developed are significantly more expensive than MPLS alternatives. These are incredibly feature rich solutions, and companies will need to take a robust approach to assessment to determine whether any of the expensive add-ons are really required.

The SD-WAN as a Service model is significantly cheaper – but it will require additional internal resource, so the operational cost comparison will depend upon the existing IT skill base and need to add heads to manage the network.  Finding and recruiting the required skills internally could result in a higher cost than the managed service model.

With either approach, SD-WAN delivers cost and performance benefits. Certainly for those used to the Managed Service approach, the better speed of response and automation enabled by SD-WAN technology should enable IT Managers to reallocate internal resource previously dedicated to managing application problems. Where the slow response delivered by MPLS MSP services could take hours to determine whether application performance was caused by the WAN, LAN or device, the intelligence delivered by an SD-WAN makes such diagnosis – and repair – far quicker to achieve, reducing the resources required. SD-WAN technology also makes it far easier to manage performance: by combining traffic information with analytics organisations can spot trends and determine pinch points within the network, insight that can be used to immediately remediate and deliver an ever better quality of experience for the user.

Conclusion

As the market reaches the tipping point and SD-WAN becomes the technology of choice, there is no doubt that a Managed Service option should be the easiest approach: culturally familiar but with the added benefits of better performance and radically improved response. Plus, with the number of MSPs now offering Managed SD-WAN Services, companies have a far broader choice. For multi-site organisations, in particular, the option of a hybrid SD-WAN and MPLS approach offers flexibility for businesses to start migrating to SD-WAN now, without being constricted by lengthy MPLS contracts.

Given the increasingly application centric nature of most businesses, there is a strong case for IT teams to continue to reallocate resources towards real-time application performance monitoring and management.  As such, not only will expectations of MSP responsiveness rise steeply but it will also be important to consider a potential migration to the SD-WAN as a Service model in the future.

A WAN investment today needs to be future proofed for at least ten years – so MSPs must not only support both models but also a hybrid of MPLS and SD-WAN sites so that organisations can begin to embrace the benefits that SD-WAN can offer. Furthermore, by supporting migration between the two models, even embracing a blended approach that includes opening up levels of permission and authorities to the IT Manager to provide better visibility and control over the network, will offer businesses rapid access to the world of SD-WAN.

When thinking about IT automation, some of the biggest benefits that come to mind are efficiency and increased productivity. Automation can certainly help companies do more with less by introducing smart workflows and removing redundant tasks. Automation also increases the visibility of what’s happening in daily operations, freeing up even more time to focus on critical business matters. Here are five ways businesses can benefit from IT automation.

1.   Improved organisation

Automation tools distribute information seamlessly. For instance, automatically creating a quote for a new project and being able to invoice it from the same system, all of the information regarding the project is in the same place. It stops the need to go looking for the information across multiple systems.

Automation ensures that the information is automatically sent where it’s needed it, keeping the information current, and preventing teams from spending copious amounts of time looking for it.

2.   Reduced time spent on redundant tasks

One of the biggest benefits to IT automation is the amount of time teams save on manual, repeatable tasks. Leveraging automation helps IT professionals reduce the time spent on creating tickets and configuring applications, which adds up over time. Based on estimates, it takes 5 to 7 minutes for tech teams to open up new tickets due to manual steps like assigning companies and contact information, finding and adding configurations, and more.

With automatic ticket routing, time spent on tickets can be reduced to just 30 seconds. For someone that works on 20 tickets a day, that results in 90 minutes a day, or 7.5 hours a week, in additional productivity.

3.   Well-established processes

The best way to leverage the most benefits from IT automation is to ensure workflows and processes are created that are set up in advance. Establishing these workflows will ensure a set of standards are created, that everyone on the team can follow without having to do additional work. Once these workflow rules are established, these processes can help establish consistency and efficiency within operations – and ensure a consistent experience is delivered to customers, regardless of which teammate handles their tickets.

Furthermore, the documented, repeatable processes can help businesses scale by making it easier to accomplish more in less time. Teams can focus on providing excellent customer service and doing a great job when they don’t need to waste time thinking about the process itself.

4.   Multi-department visibility

Maintaining separate spreadsheets, accounts, and processes makes it difficult to really see how well a business is doing. To see how many projects are completed a day or how quickly projects are delivered, professionals may need to gather information about each employee’s performance to view the company as a whole.

Automation tools increase visibility into business operations by centralising data in a way that makes it easy to figure out holistically how a company performs, in addition to the performance of each individual team member. It’s even possible to isolate the performance of one department with automation.

5.   Increased Accountability

With so many different systems in place, it can be difficult to know exactly what is happening at every moment. For instance, if an employee wanted to delete tasks they didn’t want to do, businesses need processes in place to know this went on. What if deleting something was an accident? How would you know something was accidentally deleted and have the opportunity to get the information back?

Automation reduces human errors by providing a digital trail for the entire operation in one place. It provides increased accountability for everybody’s actions across different systems, so issues like these aren’t a problem.

Automation is an easy way to develop the increased accountability, visibility, and centralised processes required for businesses to grow and serve more clients. Technology that helps manage workflows, automate redundant tasks, provide consistent experience to all customers will help businesses provide superior levels of service – and help improve your bottom line.

In order to successfully transform the network, businesses must be prepared to ask challenging questions that drive conversations around open networking, automation, modularity, scalability, segmentation and re-usability. Before moving forward, it is essential that organisations consider the following list of business and technical guiding principles:

1.     The network architecture should use standards-based protocols and services: Over the past few years, adoption of open source technology has increased significantly, as more organisations discover its considerable advantages which extend far beyond low costs. While proprietary protocols and closed ecosystems require highly specialised engineers, limit inter-operability, and force organisations into particular designs that are difficult to escape, standards-based protocols promote interoperability, competition and innovation.

2.     The network should be serviceable without downtime: It goes without saying that fault tolerance is a must. Service outages are always a risk and can occur for any reason, to any type or organisation, leading to financial and reputational damage. For example, a 2017 AWS outage cost publicly traded companies $150 million dollars, and the recent Google cloud outage generated negative headlines around the world.

To prevent outages, all compute nodes must be dual-connected to redundant upstream Leaf switches. Leaf switches should have redundant peer-link connections between each other, and to each Spine switch. Equal-cost multi-pathing ensures that all paths are active and forwarding. Inserting or removing a Leaf or Spine switch should not affect production traffic.

3.     The network architecture should promote automation: Manual configuration changes are time-consuming and prone to human error. When designing or monitoring a network, it’s important to ensure that it’s running as intended and adheres to set network and security policies. Automating tasks can make the network self-healing, more consumable, and easier to audit. Familiar Linux APIs allows DevOps engineers to integrate the network into automation engines without the friction of dealing with numerous, vendor-specific APIs. Having the same network operating system (NOS) on each device, regardless of the underlying hardware, opens the door for simplified network automation.

4.     The network should be consumable: Tied into automation is the concept of consumable self-service networks. Whether the data centre is private and serving a single organisation, or built for a busy IaaS platform, having the capability to empower administrators or customers with self-deployable networks should be a key consideration with new network designs. Creating networks in the public cloud is a fundamental feature everyone expects.

Customers should have the capability to deploy segmented networks on the fly, without the intervention of network engineers. A Linux NOS is ideal for orchestration solutions, due to native Linux modules and APIs. Deployments that harness EVPN with automation facilitate the deployment of new networks while simultaneously enabling customers to build their own on the fly.

5.     Physical boundaries should not restrict segmentation capabilities: Modular portability is critical when thinking about network design. Organisations can use EVPN to compartmentalise and segment tenant traffic across the data centre, providing an open and flexible architecture irrespective of physical boundaries, transporting network segments anywhere in the data centre or across data centres.

6.     The network must be scalable: A Leaf-Spine Clos architecture is ideal for data centres; with equal-cost multipathing of 128 links, Leaf-Spine pods can become massive. Additional pods can be added to grow horizontally, or new tiers to grow vertically, interconnecting indefinite numbers of pods. EVPN scales with the physical topology, providing the ultimate modularity for scale. If port-density or port-speeds in specific areas become insufficient, a disaggregated model allows data centre admins to swap hardware modularly, automating the NOS and network provisioning with ONIE, proving flexibility at the micro and macro scale.

7.     Network changes should be verifiably testable before implementation: Downtime and SLA violations can cost organisations significant dollars in the form of refunds or reputation. Organisations can reduce the risk of downtime by fully simulating network changes and upgrades before flipping the switch and making them live, assuring that simulated tested network changes will be successful on systems in production.

Modern IT demands automation, scalability and agility. The implications for businesses now are not just technological support but economical as well. An inflexible network becomes expensive to scale at the speed of customer expectations and business innovation. Business innovation puts pressure on data centres to offer extensive automation of the entire network life cycle, from provisioning and deployment to day-to-day management and upgrades.

When designing their next data centre network, organisations should carry the above guiding principles with them from project inception through to network deployment. While the list is far from all-encompassing, these ideas will help generate specific results for a highly effective and agile data centre, built to scale, and designed to lead.

This has created a fragmented security market. Historically, innovative and very effective software solutions were developed to meet a particular attack vector. However, over time advances in technology have created more and more threat options that older defences are not designed to fight, which means  organisations are being overwhelmed with a volume and variety of threats.

Why big isn't always better

Looking at a large enterprise - a typical target for cyber criminals - they tend to have many tools for defence. This would suggest they have all the bases covered in the event of an attack. However, the volume of security tools is both a blessing and a curse.

While these tools help spot and mitigate potential attacks, the flipside is that they create a monumental amount of work for in-house analysts and security teams to deal with. Aside from the time required to read, understand and act on information, dashboards need to be managed with the resulting information then digested and processed. Similarly, all these tools need to be upgraded and understood, which involves training. Teams are spending more time trying to wrangle the tools than actually managing potential threats.

One of the most time consuming, but most important, roles of security analysts is triaging the data - quickly understanding what needs prioritising versus what doesn’t. However, in order to do this effectively internal teams need to ensure they can get data of all types, investigate it from all angles, and create an output suitable for action. This relies on deploying solutions that can aggregate and correlate data from a range of different tools.

The need for best in breed

Organisations are continually looking for better ways to tie data together in order to get a more holistic view of what’s happening in their universe, but one of the the things we hear regularly is that there is no easy way to do this. If organisations deploy single-stack, integrated solutions from a single vendor, they might get better integration between various functions, but lose out by not being able to deploy best-of-breed solutions for those individual functions. So they’re stuck between a rock and a hard place whichever route they choose.

A chief information security officer needs the ability to pivot between interfaces and be able to build what is most suitable for their organisation. Similarly, they need to make the most of their analysts time and not waste it moving from platform to platform, training on tools or trying to navigate internal processes in finding ways to shore up their defences in the best way possible. This means tools need to be able to talk to each other.

A common platform means less complexity in the hardware deployment – which also reduces cost – because an organisation can deploy a common hardware layer and then simply change functions in software. It also enables a common standard investigation workflow process, regardless of the security tool being used - the tool raises an alert, the analyst can go from the alert to the packets to see what happened and respond appropriately. All the tools see exactly the same source of network traffic, and analysts can reference that same common source of truth – which provides a common reference point.

Winds of change

Thankfully, more and more vendors are recognising that a heterogenous, multi-vendor environment is a reality, and that enabling integration between its solutions and that of other vendors is necessary - and something that customers are asking for. Many products - like SIEMs, or SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation and Response) platforms - or even AI tools like Darktrace's and BluVector's - are designed to work with a wide range of other vendor solutions because they need to in order to be able to automate response. And firewall and networking vendors like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks and Juniper are building in the functionality to enable their systems to receive "instructions" from security tools, for example, isolating a host that a tool has identified is possibly compromised from other hosts on the network.

We are also seeing a commonality of framework coming into certain areas, building on the excellent Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (sometimes Exploits) database to identify and track vulnerabilities. There are others too, both open source and commercial. Examples include; The National Vulnerabilities database, The Vulnerabilities database, The Exploit database and The Vulnerability Notes Database. Advances in data analytics too means there are particular frameworks that can be applied to the same data over and over again to help find solutions and answers to the same problem but from different angles.

Certainly there is a move within individuals to share programmes via the open source community but, openness is not something that is yet top of mind for organisations. It is simply not part of the security strategy. Not yet anyway. The combination of the evolving threat vector, constantly improving of tools and the appreciation that we’re all fighting the same battle against a common enemy, means that the market motivation is there to have joined-up security solutions. It is now incumbent on the vendors to bring this vision to life.

Remote work policies are becoming increasingly popular as businesses recognise how providing a better work-life balance can result in an overall boost in productivity. Bring your own device (BYOD) culture is also on the rise with businesses allowing employees to use their own preferred personal devices such as smartphones, tablets, and laptops instead of devices supplied by the business.

From a security perspective, this puts business networks at risk. Companies enabling remote work environments and BYOD policies must formulate an effective MDM strategy. Here are the elements that enterprises should consider when approaching MDM:

1.     Set a clear objective

Begin by selecting which of the four main device categories each device falls into. These categories are BYOD (user-owned devices); choose your own device (CYOD); corporate-owned, personally-enabled (COPE) devices; and single-use devices. Once the device categories have been defined, it’s essential to set clear objectives on what the business needs to provide to ensure data security is managed effectively. 

This can be achieved using a set of questions, including: Which types of devices are permitted? Which employees are eligible to access corporate data from their mobile devices? What level of business access should the enterprise provide from each device? What security policies have to be imposed on each device? And finally, which apps should be provided?

The answers to these questions will help identify basic strategies to allow enterprises to use mobile devices for corporate access. 

2.     Ensure clear communication

An effective MDM strategy must provide clear communication to end users around what the user will be accessing from their mobile devices and what level of access the user will have on the device. For example, in an enterprise allowing employees to use their personal devices, employees should be given a clear understanding of what data they can access from their mobile devices and whether their personal data will be accessible to the company. 

Communicating to employees what changes are afoot and what access and restrictions they can expect from their devices will help avoid an influx of help desk tickets when the changes take place on their devices. 

3.     Manage data by device

The main purpose for an MDM strategy is to identify or secure the data on devices. There are three types of data on mobile devices: data at rest, data in transit, and data in use. Each of these must be managed in their own way. 

When it comes to data at rest, it’s important to encrypt the mobile device. Unauthorized data transfer should be restricted, whether it's through USB, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth. If the device is stolen, the sensitive data on the device should be wiped.  

Data in transit requires routing all network traffic to a common, secure proxy or VPN channel. If the enterprise suspects using public Wi-Fi is not secure enough for users to accessing data through, that type of Wi-Fi connection can be prohibited. This way, organisations can ensure devices only use secure Wi-Fi connections while avoiding public ones. 

When it comes to data in use, enterprises should blacklist certain applications from devices to prevent access to malicious websites. Data sharing between managed and unmanaged apps and backing up to third-party cloud services or other third-party applications should be restricted. 

Secure, sensitive documents should also be managed. Sensitive data can be distributed to devices while ensuring data is only accessible from a secure, managed app. For example, if an enterprise allows certain devices to access email from Exchange Server, they should ensure that devices can only access the data using a managed application. If the device is not managed, access to email from Exchange Server should automatically be blocked.  

4.     Implement one solution to manage all devices

Implementing and managing an effective MDM strategy can be made easier by investing in a solution that enables device management anywhere at any time. It should include the capability to scan devices remotely, install agents, and monitor for and install operating system updates as well as other software updates. The solution should also have the capability to manage prohibited software and add or remove devices from the business network.

By following these steps and implementing a singular device management solution, enterprises will benefit from a safe, secure, and reliable MDM strategy that works around the clock and requires minimal input from the IT team. 

European businesses from all industries are innovating to keep up with digital transformation. Organisations are stuck in a continuous cycle, where customers are asked for instant feedback of their experience, for the businesses to then collect this data and improve their services in shorter amounts of time. However, for this relationship to be truly beneficial, a company must be able to change fast in response to increasing consumer demands. It is unsurprising, then, that the developers who continuously innovate businesses’ digital offerings have become the key players in digital transformation across Europe.

The catalyst to digital transformation

Digital transformation feeds into all aspects of a business from logistics and finance, through to customer experience. No matter the business function, software development provides a foundation for businesses to seize a range of opportunities to digitise their offering, from creating market-leading apps through to streamlining their operations. As the demand for innovative software grows, businesses must optimise available resources to ensure fast development.

Developers are using Open Source Software (OSS) models to develop software because of its efficiency in joining disparate, geographically separate teams asynchronously; enabling them to turn ideas into solutions in a quick time frame. In turn, software development is influencing and redefining industries. Take IKEA for example, just last year the company announced it was bringing a huge focus to its digital experience following demands for catering to online consumers during a period of rapid growth in online shopping. It even launched projects such as co-creation, a digital platform in which consumers can make suggestions in the development process of products. This ability to evolve the business model, understand and interact with customer feedback and pivot fast is helping businesses like IKEA retain loyalty and customer spend.

Keeping pace with your customer

There is a huge disparity when it comes to digital innovation within businesses. One the one side, there are disruptors leading transformation in their industries while traditional businesses are grappling to keep pace and remain competitive. Look at Spotify; set up in Sweden in 2008, the business has since grown into the most popular online music streaming service in the world. Spotify’s culture is built around the consumer’s experience of discovery where listeners have a collective impact in shaping the platform. The developer teams are the key driving force behind this; constantly working to innovate the service, introducing quirks throughout the year such as the annual ‘Wrapped’ campaign, which picks out user listening habits and brings their global consumer base together in conversation. Its success has placed pressure on its competitors to keep up as it continues to dominate the European market.

Software development is ultimately enabling businesses to deliver new products and services focused around the demands of their customers. Digital transformation is disrupting the traditional business value chain, just as the role of developer is constantly changing: new technologies and new languages ​​appear regularly which require training and cultivating creativity. Through using software development, companies can also innovate solutions that are already strong, to further improve the customer experience. Developers have undoubtedly fuelled digital transformation, and lack of a talented developer team means companies will fail to keep up with their competitors.

Rise in demand for specialist developer skills

As the above examples demonstrate, there is a growing market for skilled developers across European businesses. They are the roots of organisations’ efforts to drive innovation, helping them remain relevant in a fast-evolving, digital world. Recent research from Stripe found that the number of software developers employed increased 56 percent on average from the previous year.

However, the same report showed that 42 percent of developers still weren’t confident that their company had enough skilled employees or sufficient engineering resources to react to technology trends in their industry. As the infrastructure of companies primarily becomes programmable software systems, it is important to encourage staff to learn programming languages. This in turn boosts in-house developer talent, whilst appeasing the rapidly increasing demand for OSS. For most large tech companies in the land of free platforms and methodologies, OSS is the accepted method for software engineering because of the extensive benefits it brings to the business, such as faster software development and access to other public codes.

For businesses of any size, in any sector, the key to digital transformation is staying ahead of customer expectations and the competition. It is the strength of the developer team that will make or break a business’ efforts here — and they have rightfully become the heart of digital transformation. 

Decentralised, tamper-proof and traceable, the technology’s core ability to make data immutable has made it a compelling solution. Most notably for use in transactions where trust and visibility are critical, and a growing maturation has expanded scope beyond the world of crypto currency in finance.

Yet complexity and a lack of standardisation continues to deter developers and thwart mainstream take up. A recent study by Deloitte, lays bears the extent of the inconsistency and highly fragmented nature surrounding the technology’s creation and implementation. It reveals that the 6,500 active blockchain projects currently featured in the cloud-based repository GitHub are written in different coding languages and using multiple platforms and protocols, consensus mechanisms and privacy measures.

Fundamentally, the technology is a complex web to negotiate. It’s an ecosystem that demands a deep understanding from the developer and the ability to overcome challenges including integration within existing legacy systems and the lengthy deployment times in the cloud.

While for some, there is an acceptance that the blockchain’s growth trajectory is long term, for others the seismic shifts within their particular industry means that accelerating blockchain’s commercialisation has become a necessity in order to remain competitive. As such, the obstacles must be overcome now. 

Driven by the juggernaut of open banking, financial services is an obvious example. Research by industry analyst CACI predicts that 35 million people globally will be using mobile banking as their preferred choice of platform by 2023.  Blockchain technology is therefore set to play a pivotal role in its success as the mechanism for forging the trust between customers and the third-party financial services.

Furthermore, this is the year we will see the provision of services through open banking become the norm, and with it, the subsequent integration of mobile wallets, blockchain, video chat and data analytics with existing offerings viewable across one complete interface.

We see a similar urgency in the gaming sector, a $140 billion global industry driven predominantly by digital micro-transaction economies. Finding solutions that can support these economies at scale with cross-chain interoperability has become the Holy Grail for companies that need to set the foundation for long-term, sustained consumer adoption of blockchain technology.

So, what are they turning to? Well, tools that foster agility by overcoming storage and computing hurdles and negate the requirement for a deep programming knowledge. Notably, a new breed of plug and play iterations are gaining strong traction, and for very good reason.

When rooted in integration and visualisation expertise, these graphical interfaces can sit over the underlying technology to enable the creation of easily written, visualised, tested and audited smart contracts - one of blockchain’s core concepts.

Furthermore, the use of low-level code makes it a more accessible, user-friendly option for those without programming experience. Complex transactions can be visualised, customised and identified and the ability to run on any blockchain or cloud platform boosts flexibility, operational efficiency and time to market.

This enhanced agility becomes apparent when we home in on one specific area - the handling of computation processes that may need to flit between being on and off the blockchain.

While inevitably the bulk of activity will happen on chain – for example, maintaining the security and integrity of transactions processed at high speed on a bank’s network – there are times when it is beneficial for specific processes to be handled off-chain. I am thinking specifically of validating a large data file that may previously operate on a standalone basis before it is let loose on the main network.

Minimising any delay, friction or risk when operating across the two spheres becomes a critical concern that must be addressed if blockchain is to deliver its true value without compromise.

1.  We must start with the name change – Uninterruptible Power Supplies Ltd has become Kohler Uninterruptible Power (KUP) – what’s the thinking behind this?

Firstly, it’s worth mentioning that UPSL became part of the Kohler Co organisation in 2008, so there has been no ownership change or need to be concerned about procedural or staff changes. Our decision to rebrand as Kohler Uninterruptible Power was driven by Kohler raising its own profile global, through activities like the sponsorship of Manchester United men’s and women’s football teams, as well as our own portfolio expanding from purely UPS systems, into the complementary areas of emergency lighting inverters and generators. It therefore made a lot of sense to rename the business to reflect those developments.

2.  In other words, is it just a cosmetic change, or a signal of intent?

The answer to that is a little of both. We have taken the opportunity to freshen our cosmetic appearance, and as you can imagine there has been a lot of work updating logos and signage across the company. However, the reference to uninterruptible power, rather than purely uninterruptible power supplies more accurately reflects our focus on supporting our clients’ solutions, rather than just products.

3.  Can you give us some brief background on the company’s journey up to the name change at the beginning of this year?

Certainly. The company was established in 1997, with the goal of building a portfolio of advanced UPS systems, combined with a national support and maintenance infrastructure. In 1999 it introduced the first three-phase, transformerless UPS to the UK and Ireland, and in 2001 there was another first with the introduction of the first transformerless modular 3 phase UPS. The success of these innovations set us on the track that led to our acquisition by Kohler in 2008 and their investment in building the business, subsequently leading to a move to new HQ in 2012. In the interim, we established our own service and sales company in Singapore in 2010 and a couple of years ago acquired our partner in Ireland, Pure Power Systems, who have also now rebranded to Kohler Uninterruptible Power.

4.  And how would you define KUP’s UPS USP – what distinguishes the company and its technology in what is quite a crowded market place?

That’s an interesting question and something I as a marketing professional was keen to try and distil when I joined the organisation last year. We often find people originally looked at us for innovative products but having experienced our pre-project design, project engineering and ongoing service and maintenance they have come to us with follow on opportunities. Therefore, our USP is that “special blend”, between highly-efficient products and a real focus on support by people who know their stuff and care about our customers.

5.  Focusing on recent company news and thought leadership activities – can you talk us through the new PowerWAVE 9250DPA modular UPS?

Yes, the new PowerWAVE 9250DPA is something we are really proud to be bringing to market. Not only does it provide a scalable solution from 50kW to 1.5MW, with 250 kW N+1 capability in a rack, but it does it with market leading efficiency; 97.6% at the module and 97.4% at system level. And these are independently certified figures, which I think is important when we consider how self-certification has been undermined through problems in building construction and automotive manufacturing.

Smart deployment of modules via our XTRA VFI mode increases efficiency even further by balancing the number of modules which are online and which are on hot standby. I was recently with some customers at a factory test with a fully instrumented UPS in this mode and they were surprised and impressed by how effective this could be.

Combined with the compact footprint, ease of access design and modular functionality, we can see the PowerWAVE 9250DPA being a great addition to our portfolio.

6.  And modular UPS systems are going to become increasingly popular over time?

I think that the market has really woken up to the benefits of the modular approach – the scalability, faster time to repair, increasing availability and the cost effectiveness, especially where an N+1 or 2(N+1) topology is demanded. Industry reports confirm the trend we’ve seen and new innovations such as smart deployment / XTRA VFI will only help to drive growth.

7.   Issues-wise, can you explain the relative pros and cons of on-line, off-line and line interactive UPS design architectures?

Off-line and line interactive UPSs work by monitoring the mains and providing protection only when the mains deviates outside set parameters. By design, this type of technology will therefore not provide continuous uninterrupted protection for all mains disturbances and is priced accordingly. Typically, off-line and line interactive UPSs are used for very small applications where total protection is less important. For the majority of UPS applications, on-line UPSs should be used due to the greatly improved resilience that they provide by producing a smooth, conditioned and uninterrupted source for the supported critical equipment.

8.  Sticking with architecture, can you talk us through decentralised parallel architecture and why it’s important for ‘true modularity’?

With the growing trend for modular systems, I suppose it is not surprising that there are some solutions on the market that profess to be a lower cost, “halfway house” between standalone systems and truly modular systems with fully a decentralised parallel architecture (DPA). In these “semi-modular” systems there remain some shared components, which results in the same disadvantages as standalone systems. To clarify, KUP is not against standalone systems, we have some great standalone products of our own and where an N+N topology is needed or the load is constant and unlikely to grow significantly, they can be a cost effective solution.

However the halfway house, semi-modular products have muddied the water somewhat so we would always recommend that engineers check what is common and what is shared in a UPS rather than assuming a reference to “modular” means all critical components are unique per module – as would be the case in a truly modular product.

9.  Moving on to the KUP product portfolio, what can you tell us about the single phase UPS systems?

Small, single-phase UPS systems are typically found in offices and IT rooms. Such operations are usually limited for installation space and/or budget, yet for their users, they are just as mission critical as a larger-scale data centre solution. We offer compact, flexible rack-mounted or tower solutions that are reliable and resilient, while providing single-phase power protection from 1 kVA upwards.

Yet we also provide critical power protection solutions for larger-scale applications needing a protected single-phase supply; our PowerWAVE 3000/TP delivers up to 80 kVA for mid-sized server rooms, industrial processes, networks and telecommunications systems. It’s simple to install, run and maintain.

10. And the three phase UPS systems?

The key issues for IT and telecommunications users across financial services, education, healthcare and other industry verticals are high availability and energy efficiency, along with cost-effectiveness, flexibility, scalability and compact sizing.

Our modular three-phase solutions, which include vertical and horizontal scaling possibilities, range from 10 kW to 3 MW. Up to 99.9999% (six nines) availability is possible, along with up to 97% energy efficiency, or over 99% on systems where Eco-mode can be used. With our Xtra VFI smart module deployment mode, high efficiency is even maintained at low loads below 25%. Hot-swappable modules minimise system downtime, while scalability and efficiency manage total cost of ownership and real-estate demands.

11. How do you see Lithium-ion solutions impacting on the data centre over time?

We are still in the early stages of Li-ion adoption. Pricing – originally a significant barrier to Li-ion uptake in data centres and other applications – is still decreasing, although at a lower rate than it used to. Manufacturers have come a long way in addressing safety fears through highly segregated cell designs and mandatory advanced monitoring. There are also various projects to improve Li-ion recyclability, which is always a user concern today. Additionally, users appreciate that Li-ion, even with its mandatory monitoring system, uses a smaller footprint than lead-acid.

Because of these factors, adoption of Li-ion is increasing. However, the long-established VRLA solutions will remain popular, especially as we see a potential for increasing their life by 30% through using battery management technology.

12. KUP also offers generators for the data centre market?

Yes, we do; we offer standalone generators, or complete UPS/generator sets, with capacities from 5 kVA to 4.4 MW. Single-phase and three-phase solutions are available. Overall, our generators offer high reliability, low cost and durability, and are available with a choice of engine manufacturers, including Kohler’s own engine range.

We also offer ancillary products, with a choice of automatic changeover panels. Our control panels range from entry level types to models that can run the entire standby generator. All generator products are backed with technical support, commissioning and maintenance services.

13. Services is a big area for the company – starting with maintenance?

Actually, our range of service offerings begins before our solution is supplied, or maintenance is required. We can perform a free site survey to establish and advise on an operation’s requirements for a conditioned power solution, including ongoing maintenance and remote monitoring needs. Then, we can perform installation and commissioning services.

Once up and running, we offer maintenance contracts to cover UPSs, generators and batteries. These are tailored to individual requirements, but generally cover emergency callouts and scheduled maintenance to agreed service levels. We also hire out UPSs and generators. Our onsite presence is complemented by our remote monitoring services.

Overall, we use our technical expertise, and depth of power protection industry knowledge, to ensure that customers cost-effectively achieve the level of security and protection they need.

14. And there’s a range of services around batteries?

Certainly. We supply and fit batteries of all types into all models of UPS and secure power systems. KUP also offers a battery replacement programme for a wide range of battery supported products. With regular UPS battery maintenance, we ensure that weak battery blocks are replaced before they put the load at risk by failing during operations.

Predictive maintenance is optimised through regular battery impedance testing; a significant change in a battery’s impedance indicates that it’s approaching end of life and should be replaced. We also perform load bank testing, as it’s the only way to fully prove the integrity of the complete system. Then, at end of life, we remove batteries in line with the Hazardous Waste Regulations and place them into the recycling chain. I find it very encouraging to know that 98% of a KUP UPS VRLA battery is recycled, either into more batteries, chemicals for use in other manufacturing processes, or as polymer to make other plastic items.

These are in addition to the battery monitoring and management services we offer, discussed elsewhere.

15. And monitoring solutions?

In fact, we provide remote management as well as monitoring solutions for UPS batteries. Through PowerNSURE, our integrated network-based battery monitoring and management service, we can monitor the internal resistance, temperature and voltage of every individual battery. However, PowerNSURE also manages the battery condition, and runs an equalisation process, by regulating the charging voltage. This can help increase battery life by up to 30%.

The system also regularly generates reports displaying key parameters in graphical form, providing clear warning when remedial action is needed.

16. What advice would you give to end users who are looking to upgrade and/or replace their existing UPS systems – what should they look out for?

UPSs, when looked after, typically last 10 – 15yrs. At this point it is advisable to look at replacements. A modern UPS will often reduce the running costs due to increased efficiency and when looking at replacing it is advisable to consider the whole installation to assess if it is still valid. For example, is the resilience high enough for the criticality of the load? It is often relatively simple to improve the resilience and therefore the availability of the UPS system with a modern design. Another consideration should be the current and future load on the UPS, as this may have changed significantly from the original design and when evaluated may well change the requirements. Users should be advised against replacing the UPS with like for like without an assessment.

17. Finally, we must ask, are you a glass half empty or half full when it comes to power availability in the long term?

Power availability I think it is accepted that the UK’s energy capacity will need to increase year-on-year until around 2050, with most analysis putting that increase at around 30 per cent from today’s capacity levels. On top of growth due to electric vehicles, connected devices will also contribute to that increase. It might even be that future direct and indirect power requirements are being underestimated due to the potential volume of data that will need to be transmitted and the number of physical devices.

When you look at the specifics, there are a lot of unknowns relating to what the energy mix will look like and how fast it will evolve. Production from fossil fuels and even nuclear is in decline, and the downward cost-pressures on renewables and related energy storage solutions is undoubtedly going to mean we see their position grow. Which is a good thing. 

One thing is certain, in 20 years, the market won’t look like it does today, with customers playing an ever-bigger role in determining the energy mix. The impact of shifting attitudes towards fossil fuels was demonstrated recently by Norway when residents successfully lobbied the country’s politicians to not pursue new exploration fields in the north of the country.

Overall, businesses in the energy sector, and there will be lots of new players, will need to provide services cleanly, cheaply and efficiently – and the only way to do that is to leverage new technologies across production and distribution. So, I think I am sitting on the fence a little. It can be done but only if everyone accepts that change is necessary and embraces the opportunities that are already or will become available.