Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 44 | Page 78

t cht lk technologies – from the mobiles that customers use to connect to service, to the sensors that can track activity, and the Artificial Intelligence (AI) that can analyse the data collected in real time – make it possible for every organisation to provide a radically improved level of service. This has implications for all industries and sectors of the economy. In a hospital, it could mean that initial diagnoses are made seconds after someone crosses the threshold. In a school it should allow the classroom experience to be tailored to the learning needs and comfort level of every pupil, supporting attainment and wellbeing. In the workplace it will enable more effective collaboration between people, wherever and whenever they are working. While in sectors such as retail, it will add an entirely new layer to the consumer “ THE OPPORTUNITIES OF THE EDGE ARE ALSO INTRINSIC TO THE POTENTIAL OF SMART CITIES. experience, with the possibility for people to have clothes modelled to them dynamically, seconds after they have snapped them on their smartphone. The opportunities of the Edge are also intrinsic to the potential of Smart Cities to harness technology in the service of enhanced mobility, improved sustainability and reduced running costs. Two thirds of the futurists and industry experts surveyed by Fast Future said that they expect at least a third of companies to be achieving ‘mainstream personalisation’ in the next five years. From retail to hospitality, education and healthcare, the Edge will increasingly allow providers to move beyond a one-size- fits-all approach and provide customised experiences at scale. This has immense implications for the ability to more effectively serve customers, employees and public service users. Within the next few years, Fast Future’s experts believed that the ability to localise products and services, price dynamically and improve customer satisfaction will be among the core benefits of Edge computing. That said, the opportunities of the Edge will not be accessed without companies embracing the need for structural and strategic change. The book suggests that enterprises need to get comfortable with new realities, such as autonomous decision- making by edge devices, and an experimental approach to devising new products and services that arise from the data collected. To provide the faster, more dynamic services that the Edge makes possible, enterprises themselves need to become more fluid, responsive and fast-moving. Both investment and culture must be led from the top, working hand-in-hand with the IT department, which has a central and strategic role to play. Enterprises need to focus not just on installing technology but upgrading the institutional mindset towards a more experimental approach and improving digital literacy across the board. Morten Illum, VP of EMEA, Aruba 78 INTELLIGENTCIO Perhaps most significantly, every enterprise that moves towards the Edge must act to pre-empt the security threats inherent to a network newly flooded with connected devices. Fundamental to these opportunities is the need for robust, centrally-managed network infrastructure – one that provides visibility and control in an increasingly complex, and potentially vulnerable, enterprise environment. www.intelligentcio.com