South African companies moving to cloud-based infrastructure need to understand that the cloud is not the end of the journey – it is just the first step on the way to truly revolutionary new ways of doing business. Cloud Adoption After a slow start in South Africa, cloud adoption is picking up fast, following global trends in which spend on cloud services is rapidly doubling and even tripling. According to IDC, spend on public cloud services will grow from around $70 billion in 2015 to over $141 billion in 2019, with Infrastructure as a Service and Platform as a Service...
What would you do if you were faced with a zombie apocalypse? With the popularity of fiction like The Walking Dead and World War Z, it’s become something of an internet cliché to imagine how you would survive if you were faced with a horde of brain-eaters at your door one day. It’s a fun exercise, but I find it to be a little pointless. Not because a zombie apocalypse might never happen – sometimes when I look around my neighbourhood, I’m convinced it’s already started – but because we have the technology in place to prevent it from spiralling out of control...
Nothing makes people quite as uppity about the future as technology. And few things get as much attention as a high-profile tech personality making a wild prediction about the future. Take The Singularity -- the point at which progress is so rapid it outstrips humans' ability to comprehend it -- for instance. In 2006, Ray Kurzweil predicted that it would occur by 2045 and that the outcome would be less than favourable for human beings. Similarly, Stephen Hawking has warned that Artificial Intelligence (AI) could end humanity. Thing is, those kinds of predictions are a complete crock and should almost always...
Technology is changing everything. As a reader of this site, you know that all too well. But what you might not know is that some of the biggest changes are occurring thanks to changes in the networking space brought about by the consumerisation of enterprise tech. While some of those changes have been scary for network administrators, the ones who've adapted have actually found that they suddenly have eyes on some incredible contextual data that is immensely useful to other aspects of the business. That was the message from HPE Aruba CTO Partha Narasimhan during the day two keynote at the...
World-renowned expert in artificial intelligence (AI) Toby Walsh, recently gave a talk at the University of Cape Town (UCT). The talk, entitled "Will Artificial Intelligence end jobs, wars or humanity?" covered a range of topics, including technology singularity, the Third Revolution of Warfare, and even the difference between AI, autonomy, and sentience. It's a lecture that speaks for itself (pardon the pun). "The fact that 47% of jobs risk automation does not translate to 47% unemployed. There will also be jobs created." According to Professor Walsh, even the job of journalism isn't safe from AI. For those of you who missed it, you can...
Picture this: A vehicle stops outside your home. You get in. Your favourite music starts to play. The news that you are interested in, or the next episode your favourite series, appears on the in-vehicle screen. Today, there’s an obstacle on your usual route, the vehicle automatically figures out and takes an alternate route. It stops at your destination and you get out. Exactly on time. On the roads, a quarter of a million minibus taxis are travelling at 100km per hour, one vehicle’s length apart. Nothing new there. Except that...
Just what is the Internet of Things? The generally accepted definition is a digital ecosystem wherein everyday objects have network connectivity, allowing them to send and receive data. The ‘things’ in this case are just about anything that can be fitted with a chip and connected to the internet – cars, wearables, appliances, machines and many more. The culmination of all this is a world where your devices all talk to each other. Your fridge sends a reminder to your watch to buy milk when it detects you’re about to run out. Meanwhile, your car is busy telling your...
Fear-mongering is everywhere, in every industry. And most recently, the contact centre has experienced its own dose of this with the announcement that Facebook will be making use of chatbots via Messenger to deal with customer queries. The concern, of course, is that the development and inclusion of intelligent tech will replace humans in a contact centre. There are many opinions on the matter, but many industry experts maintain that while the advancements of technology are remarkable, for the foreseeable future there will remain an important place for people, with the help of automation, in a contact centre. The reality is...
Nanotechnology is rapidly gaining traction across a range of industries, from agriculture to water treatment to energy storage. While nanotechnology was first developed in 1959 as a way of manipulating matter at the atomic and molecular level, it wasn’t until the early 2000s that it really began to flourish. Today, nanotechnology is one of the most innovative, cutting-edge areas of scientific study and it continues to advance at staggering rates. From scientists at technology-focused companies and institutions like NASA or Lockheed Martin, to students pursuing a nanotechnology degree, leaders in nanotechnology are creating the latest breakthroughs in the field. These...
The results of the Intel Security International Internet of Things Smart Home Survey are in. The survey polled over 9000 consumers in nine countries of various economic and developmental standings, and the results show that people are excited about the prospect of bringing IoT solutions into their homes, but that they also have concerns about the safety of these devices. And rightly so. Smart homes offer many benefits for homeowners. Firstly, they can reduce the admin associated with managing your home, giving you valuable insights into the running costs of your water and electricity, for example. Secondly, by automating...
Car navigation systems that can predict where and when traffic jams might occur, by siphoning data from sensors in roads and other vehicles. Cameras that can spot litter in public places and call in the cleaning crew. Self-adjusting street lamps. These are just a few of the scenarios that could become commonplace as smart cities take hold over the next few years. Driven by rising urbanisation and fuelled by technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and data analytics, smart cities are on the cusp of explosive growth. Glasgow, Barcelona, Nice, New York City, London and Singapore have...
A quarter of the way through 2016 and it’s clear that service delivery is set to be one of the main topics of conversation in political circles. In his State of the Nation address, President Jacob Zuma was careful to highlight the importance of delivering municipal services. “Our Back to Basics local government revitalisation plan was launched in September 2014, and 2015 has been the year of intensive implementation. In this second phase of implementation, national government will engage in more active monitoring and accountability measures.” In light of the upcoming municipal elections, it’s the perfect time to ask exactly how...
South Africa’s telecoms industry is on the cusp of its next wave of growth, thanks to the growing uptake of bandwidth intensive applications such as Cloud services and Internet TV streaming from businesses and consumers alike. Fast-changing user behaviour is putting pressure on telecom operators to evolve their business models. It’s thanks to competition from innovative start-ups and small operators that the larger players have had to step up their game in fibre, Ramdhani says. We’ve been talking about the cloud and Internet TV for years but didn’t have the infrastructure to support the concepts. Now it’s finally coming to fruition...
Words… words … words ... When I speak to clients, I hear many different interpretations of what “digital transformation” is, illustrating that the term confuses as often as it clarifies. Some believe that it’s simply a matter of using digital channels to sell and service clients more effectively, more efficiently and in a more personalised manner. A significant number think it is about a new application or digital marketing initiative. Many regard it as a matter of using technology to drive business process innovation. And others say that their goal is nothing less than to be the Uber of...
Every year we see players in the business, technology and media space vying to outdo each other in predicting the digital trends that are likely to hold sway in the coming year. One of the best collections is put together by the online business publication Business Insider, which performs months of research and deep investigations before putting together a sober and realistic prediction for the year. Its latest list has just been released, and you can download it right here. But if you’re stressed for time and patience, we’ve gone to the trouble of digging out the gems for you....
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