Increased rollouts of 5G in 2020, will unlock the development of more advanced technologies says Gianfranco Lanci, corporate president and chief operating officer of Lenovo.
Prediction 1 – 2020 will be the Year of 5G
With potential speeds of up to 10 gigabits per second, under ideal conditions, 5G is set to be as much as 20 times faster than 4G. It’s the additional benefits of greater stability and lower latency though that make it an all-round win. The reason everyone is so keen for 5G to roll-out is because those combining factors mean it is the key to unlocking the development of more advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, edge computing and others.
South Korea, the UK, Germany, and the US are currently leading the 5G rollout race. They all have multiple companies that have deployed networks and are selling compatible devices. China has the world’s largest 5G network, which was launched by the country’s three largest network operators in October 2019.
On the African Continent however, 5G is still very limited. In South Africa, Rain launched their commercially available 5G network in September 2019, with coverage in Johannesburg, Tshwane and Cape Town, and Vodacom has a limited availability 5G network in Lesotho.
MTN and Vodacom will have to wait for ICASA to assign more bandwidth before they can rollout 5G in South Africa. We will also need more 5G compatible devices available for purchase in the country.
5G has the potential to disrupt entire industries and to start new ones. Its low latency is optimal for IoT, as it will enable real-time communication between connected machines and devices, and it is more suited for driverless vehicles, drones, tele-medicine, and anything AI-related.
The ability to use such advanced technologies can be a game changer for an organisation giving it a greater competitive edge; and for the healthcare, manufacturing, energy, agriculture, retail, financial services, transportation, and media and entertainment sectors, the opportunity for innovation through 5G connectivity are limited only by our imagination.
While we will have to wait until 5G networks are more universally available, to see larger scale adoption, the resulting value companies are already preparing and building towards a more efficient 5G future.
Prediction 2 – AI will Go More Mainstream
Faster, more stable connectivity will enable a superior artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning ML environment.
As we start to gain a better understanding of AI and appreciate how it can make our lives easier — rather than raising our anxiety about being replaced by a machine — we’re going to look for more ways to incorporate it so that it can provide consistent, valuable services for our internal and external customers.
In South Africa currently, AI is most commonly used for automation and prediction.
Companies however, will need to become more cognisant of individual’s right to privacy, and decide how to handle all that data they collect, as they increase their efforts to incorporate AI and ML into their business and products to streamline operations; proactively maintain machinery; analyse user behaviour; or predict consumer purchasing behaviour.
There is also the need to comply with data privacy regulations such as GDPR, and POPI that will dictate how companies approach their governance and data infrastructure.
It’s an exciting space and AI will prove to be a game changer on the African continent, as AI and ML have the ability to answer to challenges in agriculture, mining, manufacturing, healthcare, and education for example.
Prediction 3 – Organisational Security will Remain a Main Priority
Organisations are going to need to be even more vigilant in the coming year.
Mimecast’s 2019 annual report revealed that 88% of South African organisations experienced a phishing attack in the past 12 months. Impersonation attacks are on the rise, with eight out of every 10 South African organisations experiencing an impersonation attack, and 63% reporting an increase in such attacks.
The effects of cybercrime resulted in lost customers, financial and data loss.
As we all become more connected, protection against cybercrime becomes an even greater challenge. Organisations cannot simply rely on technology to stop attacks, you need to ensure that your employees understand the threat, and act in a responsible, proactive manner when it comes to security. Responding quickly to any threat is the best way to manage and minimise attacks on your brand’s reputation, and financial loss.
The use of a context-based AI-endpoint security solution will be fundamental. The ability to predict, prevent, detect and respond to malicious activity at the endpoint will be vital to helping lock-down that endpoint and to be able to remediate in the event of a breach.
As the lines of demarcation between security products start disappearing, users will demand solutions that leave no exploitable gaps in coverage and businesses will be dependent on increasingly interconnected systems. The volumes and value of data contained in these systems will continue to grow, which will intensify the potential damage associated with a breach.
Prediction 4 – Smart Business will Move from the Cloud to the Edge
The advent of the Internet of Things (IoT) has resulted in specific environmental demands causing changes to the way we need to manage our data-storage. While the cloud is replacing conventional data centres at the core of the network, an entirely new technology tier, the edge, will emerge as a complementary source of IT infrastructure, supporting many innovative technologies that promise to extend the use and impact of technology into entirely new domains.
Edge computing is enabling data transfers in non-traditional server environments, such as dusty manufacturers’ shop floors, where limited space and increased vibrations and noise levels would traditionally have created a no-go zone, or African border posts where unstable power supply, high temperatures, and humidity could cause standard servers to crash.
The transition to edge computing has been driven by higher compute that can process more complex workloads including machine learning and AI. With over 20 billion ‘things’ projected to be connected to the Internet by 2020, more businesses will move data analytics and AI-powered apps from the cloud to edge computing to reduce latency, lighten core server loads and improve business operations.