Data-Centric Innovation Day panelists predict the future of DX technologies
Intel made some big announcements at the company’s Data-Centric Innovation Day in San Francisco. Business leaders from tech and enterprise gathered to discuss how data specifically, and digital transformation technologies as a whole, are driving change throughout industries across the globe.
“Less than 2 percent of the world’s data has been analyzed,”
creating great, untapped opportunity ahead for @IntelBusiness says Navin Shenoy, GM of Intel’s Data Center Group#datacentric #DX pic.twitter.com/z2jQnD0Snc— DX Journal (@DXJournal) April 2, 2019
Data, AI and Analytics
While it may seem like data and AI are pushing enterprises to evolve at light speed already, the best is yet to come, according to Intel’s panelists at Data-Centric Innovation Day.
Madhu Matta, VP & GM of High Performance Computing and AI at Lenovo, says he believes AI is still in its infancy, and companies like Lenovo and Intel need to make AI easier for customers to harness. Dirk Basenach, Senior Vice President, SAP HANA, concurred, adding that explainable artificial intelligence will be key in the coming years, as customers are not adapting to AI because they don’t understand why it’s working.
Adding to the AI conversation,VP Product Development at IBM Data, Madhu Kochar, said that there is “no AI without IA” (information architecture) — indicating that business leaders who are paying attention to their information infrastructure are best positioned to develop value from their AI processes and tools.
Madhu Matta, VP & GM of High Performance Computing and AI at @Lenovo, says he believes #AI is still in its infancy, and companies like Lenovo and Intel need to make AI easier for customers to harness @mmmatta18 #datacentric pic.twitter.com/rqqFZJnmeX
— DX Journal (@DXJournal) April 2, 2019
Regarding data and analytics, Alex Lam, Vice President and Head of Fujitsu’s North American Strategy Office, indicated that with the volume of data being the biggest challenge for Fujitsu’s customers, the next big question is, “how do they shift gears and start looking at the relevance of data?” The ease of use when it comes to data management is not where it could be, said Lam, in order to allow enterprises and businesses to work smarter with their data on a regular basis. The heterogeneity of database systems is also a challenge for vendors, driving serious demand for data engineers.
The panelists made some predictions on where they see things headed for AI, data and analytics in five years’ time:
- Kochar emphasized the need for developing trust in relation to AI, stating “I do think AI is going to generate a lot more jobs”, and foresses the development of devices which will help humans in every part of our lives
- Matta said he hopes to see a move to machine-supporting-machine processes, rather than the machine-supporting-human processes which currently dominate AI practice
- Lam said that as AI is incorporated more into edge computing processes, we will see more of what AI can deliver, from the home to the smart city
The changing face of networks
The promise of edge computing and the rise of 5G networks excited the panel moderated by Sandra Rivera, Intel SVP, GM, Network Platforms Group.
While Rivera asked panelists to nail down a killer use case for 5G and edge computing, the field is just too wide for the panel to have come to a conclusive answer. Quanta Cloud Technology President Mike Yang did mention early success for enterprise: Rakuten’s deployment of 5G technology has helped the company to provide better service to its large user base, boosting the company’s revenue growth. Looking ahead, Nokia’s Sandro Tavares made the case for cloud gaming, using 5G networks in order to increase the reach of the gaming industry to a whole group of people currently out of the market, with edge-based operation to create a high-latency service.
The panel also discussed the developing trend of networks administering to thing-to-thing networks, rather than person-to-person, as the IoT continues to evolve. Chris Wright VP and CTO at Red Hat emphasized how this evolution in networks will benefit remote medical care, smart city environments, and enterprises. While adopting 5G is not as appealing as some other technological projects, argued Wright, they will seriously move the masses forward when it comes to sustainable revenue models for bigger parts of the tech industry.
Life in the cloud
As the cloud panel at Data-Centric Innovation Day made apparent, we are still in the early stages of seeing exactly where cloudification is headed and what kinds of services businesses will be looking for from cloud providers.
There are many directions multi-cloud environments could go in the next few years. But in these early days of cloud adoption, said Paul Nash, Group Product Manager at Google Cloud, the focus remains on customers who are trying to make the right decisions about what kind of cloud to move to; it’s a question of determining the right workload in the right place for the right business case. Microsoft Azure’s Senior Direct Talal Alqinawi expanded on this point by indicating that providers are no longer building the cloud and then waiting for people to use it whole-cloth, but building it with customers and what they want in mind first and foremost.
Alqinawi outlined the three aspects of cloud services that people are asking for currently:
- discovery/assessment — is the cloud the right answer for the solution?
- help me move to the cloud
- help keep me in the cloud
Connecting these three aspects of cloud will drive value and improve service quality as a whole, said Alqinawi.
Moderator Lisa Davis, Intel’s VP, Data Center Group, GM, Digital Transformation and Scale Solutions, asked the panelists for what they saw as the biggest challenges customers are currently facing in the multi-cloud environment:
- Alqinawi pointed out the need for consistency of products across cloud environments; while also mentioning how crucial it will be to develop seamless, secure user experiences in the cloud
- Nash indicated that reckoning cost and financial control in terms the customer can relate to will be key; making the new, cloud-oriented resource economy more visible makes the customer feel more in control and comfortable with the cost of cloud options
The panel discussions during Intel’s Data-Centric Innovation Day showed that, while there’s a lot to be aware of as great changes sweep through enterprise businesses, the animated discussion from Intel’s partners showed there’s also a lot to be optimistic about.
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