Big Data, cloud and mobile must leverage augmented reality

Data is a big deal. We digitise more data in a day than we have ever done before, as social media and quick tech have given us access to the ability to collect more information than we would ever have thought possible a few years ago.

In the world of data, mobility is playing a crucial role. Eighty percent of the world’s population will have access to mobile devices by 2020. Compounding this, the cloud gives us the opportunity to store this data and access it from remote devices. It is an emerging trend that comes with serious opportunities. The cloud market is after all estimated to be worth US$270-billion by 2020.

“The world of computing is changing — we are seeing a disruption in the tech space where we are aiming for cloud services for every individual,” says Charbel Fakhoury of Microsoft.

Fakhoury was speaking at the MENA ICT conference in Jordan, an event that describes itself as the premier tech event in the region, with a panel which unpacked the trends around the latest tech wave.

Society is getting smarter and consuming so much information that we are seeing another wave of tech evolution says IBM’s Tarek Saeed.

“There is a third wave in tech, a smarter planet, where you will see big data, cloud, commerce and mobile taking precedence,” he says. “It’s already happening with technologies like Watson. Big data is an important aspect of these kinds of technology and the cloud is the essence of this. All this will be part of the next wave of tech — a smarter world.”

Understanding mobile, cloud and big data makes sense in a world where there is new information everyday and the need to access old information often arises. CEO of Wikitude Martin Herdina believes there is an extra layer to this new wave of tech. He argues that augmented reality presents unique opportunities for innovation.

“There is a magnitude of content to deal with — there are many landmarks that have data attached to and that can be augmented. You can store all that in the cloud, these can also add a layer of advertising and these success reports can be measured (something that has been difficult to do before),” says Herdina. “There are opportunities for magazines and television networks and through augmented reality we can leverage ecommerce and content.”

Building interesting technologies and innovating is key to all the panelists. “It is important to innovate all the time and meet your costumers at the point of their need. The cloud is about being cost-effective, agile and time effective. Before, building services like this for consumers used to take years now it takes days,” says Fakhoury.