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