EME Outlook - Mobile World Congress 2019

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MWCI A1 L ISSU 9 E

From connected cars and flying taxis to folding phones and 5G beehives, Mobile World Congress provided the ultimate forum to showcase innovation

ERICSSON 6 Håkan Andersson, Head of Technology Strategy, talks transformation

NOKIA 14 Enabling the implementation of intuitive technologies

ALSO FEATURING: A T & T

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K P M G

VODAFONE 22 Phil Skipper of global IoT leader Vodafone Business on the bounds of connectivity

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L A L I G A

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S A P

CISCO 30 Gee Rittenhouse on the evolving security landscape

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Contents 6 Ericsson

18 AT&T

28 LaLiga

HĂĽkan Andersson, Head of Technology Strategy, talks transformation

Tapping into new, creative, aspirational ideas

Expanding experiences to the benefit of fans, players and officials alike

10 KPMG

22 Vodafone

30 Cisco

How the auditing giant is helping to put smaller enterprises on the map

Phil Skipper of global IoT leader Vodafone Business on the bounds of connectivity

Gee Rittenhouse on the evolving security landscape

14 Nokia

26 SAP

34 Lenovo

Enabling the implementation of intuitive technologies

SAP on the increasingly customer-centric cloud

Intelligent alteration in new, fresh, practical directions

5G For All

Startup Springboard

Administering the Intelligent

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Inspiring Innovation

IoT: The World’s Great Enabler

Counting on Cloud

Football Transfigured

Countering Complexity

Transforming Perspectives

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Making the most of Mobile World Congress 2019 Stepping off an early evening flight and strolling through the Josep Tarradellas Barcelona El Prat Airport, it was near impossible to miss that Mobile World Congress was in town.

A short taxi ride from the airport to the city centre, this remained a running theme wherever you looked, with countless billboards and signs showcasing the unavoidable black and red logo of GSMA. Monday morning, however, was when this perceived hype really came to fruition. From Liceu to Espanya to Fira, navigating the crowded city metro was easier than anticipated, owed to the countless attendants sporting red gilets who shepherded swarms of people up to the grand entrance of the Fira Gran Via. A quick security check aside, the 400,000 square metre building swallowed us up into a new world of technology and innovation for the next 48 hours. Finding our bearings quickly transitioned into being greeted by a robot band, flying taxis, autonomous supercars, countless VR demonstrations and more.

Despite often feeling like children in a chocolate factory, however, Mobile World Congress itself provided the perfect opportunity for myself and Tom to meet and speak to some fantastic people, covering topical subjects such as 5G, IoT, enterprise transformation and even technology in football.

Surrounded by countless experts in each field, the majority of our time was insightfully spent sitting down with executives from globally renowned companies such as Ericsson, Vodafone, SAP and Nokia – conversations that are presented to you in this special portion of the 29th edition of EME Outlook.

Jonathan Dyble Deputy Editor, Outlook Publishing

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Around MWC in seven stories…

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GSMA announces GLOMO Award winners for 2019

GSMA wraps up successful MWC19 Welcoming more than 7,900 CEOs from around the world during the world’s largest exhibition for the mobile industry, GSMA has revealed that Mobile World Congress attributed approximately €473 million this time around.

Highlights included GSMA’s infamous Innovation City, the participation of 2,400 companies, 2,000 delegates, the hugely

successful 4 Years from Now (4YFN) startup showcase and the introduction of biometric recognition that provided attendees with easy access to the event.

Alongside this, emphasis on women and education in technology were two prominent topics, while the event retained its status as the world’s largest carbo neutral event, recognised by Guinness World Records.

MWC event organiser GSMA named the winners of the 2019 GLOMO Awards during the Tuesday of the exhibition, showcasing companies and individuals driving innovation in the rapidly evolving mobile industry.

With 38 awards up for grabs, the likes of Nokia, Ericsson, Samsung, Huawei, SK Telecom and Accenture were recognised in a multitude of different categories.

“Our congratulations to all of the winners and nominees of the GSMA’s GLOMO Awards 2019,” said John Hoffman, CEO of GSMA. “The GLOMO’s are a testament to the incredible innovation and ingenuity shaping our industry and it is truly an outstanding achievement to have been selected by our esteemed judging panels.”

decisions about their daily transportation options including cars, scooters, bikes and public transport.

“Traffic congestion and environmental challenges are putting huge pressure on cities to transform,” said Spanish carmaker SEAT and US Jordi Caus, SEAT’s Head of New Urban tech giant IBM have announced Mobility Concepts. “At SEAT we are the development of a new solution designed to transform driving in cities. leading the way by working with innovative cities and technology companies Announced at MWC, ‘Mobility to come up with solutions to make Advisor’ uses IBM Watson AI to mobility easier and more efficient.” help urban citizens make informed T R AV E L

SEAT and IBM in urban mobility partnership

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EME H A N D S E T S

A U T O M O T I V E

Samsung and Huawei unveil foldable phones A major highlight of this years MWC has been the launch of foldable devices.

Asian tech powerhouses Samsung and Huawei both unveiled their visions of the future, showcasing phones which are folded in the middle, unfolding to make the screen twice as large.

Huawei’s consumer business CEO Richard Yu announced the company’s Mate X, while Samsung’s Galaxy Fold was on display in a glass box surrounded by security personnel.

Yu said that he believes the Chinese firm can become the number one company in the industry inside two years – its fate may well be decided by the success of its folding innovation.

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Ericsson, Telefónica sign AI-powered network agreement Global telecommunications players Ericsson and Telefónica penned a new four-to-six-year managed services deal for AI-powered network operations spanning the UK, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Uruguay.

The deal supports and reinforces Telefónica’s strategy to focus on

Connected cars: Vodafone teams up with AT&T

Unveiled February 20th, the Samsung Fold pictured above will be first released in the US on April 26, 2019 and in Europe on May 3, 2019

increased use of AI-based automation for evolved network operations.

“Expanding our long-term partnership with Ericsson with the implementation and support of their global Network Operation Centers will now allow us to build a more agile network, while implementing new tools and developing technologies for the network and our customers. AI and automation are key pillars of the network operations of the future,” stated Juan Manuel Caro, Global Director of Operations & Customer experience, Telefónica.

AT&T and Vodafone Business are working together to accelerate IoT connectivity and innovation in the automotive industry.

The companies will bring together their expertise to develop connected car solutions and experiences for customers across their combined footprints in North America, Europe and Africa.

Stefano Gastaut, IoT Director, Vodafone Business, said: “As technology complexity increases, this is the right time to make technology adoption easier for the automotive industry to help them achieve their business outcomes. This is the goal of this alliance.”

The companies will prioritise projects to enhance safety, security and entertainment capabilities.

5 G

5G to account for 15 percent of mobile connections by 2025 According to a report from GSMA released February 25, 5G is expected to account for 15 percent of global mobile connections by 2025.

The mass-increase is expected to be owed to the rising number of 5G network launches and compatible devices throughout the coming six years, with a further 16 markets worldwide set to switch on commercial 5G networks in 2019 alone.

It is calculated that mobile operators around the world are investing approximately $160 billion yearly on upgrading their networks, despite growing regulatory and competitive pressures.

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FOR ALL

Leveraging immense research capabilities, Ericsson is making transformative technologies available for everyone, from global manufacturing firms to refugees Writer: Jonathan Dyble

A

bba’s single ‘Does Your Mother Know’ has remained timeless since its release in 1979.

Celebrating a landmark 40th anniversary next month, the song heavily featured in box office hits Johnny English in 2003 and Mamma

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Mia! in 2008, even being performed

by UK rapper Dizzee Rascal during a recent tour.

However, despite having established itself as a staple of the pop genre, a booming live performance of the song was not what we were expecting to hear as we entered Ericsson’s Mobile

World Congress booth.

Paying tribute to its home nation’s favourite band, the Swedish telecommunications giant put on a collaborative spectacle with Vodafone, showcasing 5G’s ever growing capabilities by demonstrating how a live band can now play together when not together.

“The idea, from Ericsson’s side at least, came from two guys at the Ericsson Research team,” explains Håkan Andersson, Head of Technology Strategy at the company. “Exploring the seemingly endless potential of 5G and low latency technology, they put forward the idea that then worked its way through an internal incubator, and it’s now become a reality here at

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Mobile World Congress.”

One of the largest booths at MWC 2019, Ericsson’s showcasing portfolio offered a true glimpse into the future.

From allowing attendees to remotely drive an all-electric autonomous truck in Gothenburg in real-time to providing attendees with access to its new Batman AR/ VR experience, a sweep of the firm’s stands reinstated that this is a company pioneering next generation technologies, shaping the future of global connectivity.

Ahead of the game

“Myself? I’ve been responsible for both the strategies and investment decisions for the development of our

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LTE and 5G technologies,” explains Andersson as we sat down for a chat behind the scenes. “From very early research activities to engagement with customers and the European Union, it’s been a real journey.”

Having joined Ericsson back in 1990, Andersson has worked across various internal divisions, starting out at Ericsson Research before moving into product development, portfolio management and now technology strategy.

“With such wide flexibility in opportunity, I’ve never had the desire to move on,” he explains. “The company offers personal diversification from within, the chance to travel extensively, and it’s a business where

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ABOUT ANDERSSON Currently acting as Head of Technology Strategy for Ericsson, Håkan Andersson has been a part of the company for 29 years. With an MSc in Electric Engineering and PhD in Physics from the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Andersson has held various management positions for the firm in Singapore, the Philippines, the US and in Sweden itself.

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the culture is defined by innovation.”

Having accumulated broad oversight of Ericsson during the past three decades, Andersson is quick to emphasise that the firm’s research arm has been key to its ongoing success. A unit constituting 700 of the firm’s best and brightest, this division provides the platform from which its overriding strategies can thrive.

“Ericsson Research effectively makes it possible for us to navigate the technology landscape by piecing together calculated long term forecasts,” Andersson affirms.

ERICSSON’S GLOBAL MOBILE AWARDS 2019 NOMINATIONS Best Mobile Network Infrastructure: Ericsson for 5G high-band Massive MIMO (Winner) Best Network Software Breakthrough: Ericsson and Telstra for NB-IoT extended cell range Best Mobile Innovation supporting Emergency or Humanitarian Situations: Ericsson and Vivo (Telefónica Brazil) for Connecting Venezuelan refugees European 5G Pioneer Award: Ericsson and Swisscom for Getting 5G Ready for Business 5G Industry Partnership Award: Ericsson, Fraunhofer Institute and MTU Aero Engines AG for 5G real-time process monitoring and control in manufacturing

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“Historically this is something Ericsson has been extremely effective at. We don’t push technologies aimlessly – everything we pursue is built on the foundations of measured research, an approach that provides us with substantial credibility.”

One such example can be found in the firm’s introduction of the 5G PlayStations, products that the company has been producing since 2015, according to Andersson.

“We’ve now actually shipped three million such consoles that have been 5G-readied,” he reveals. “Our research allowed us to have a good early understanding of how 5G should be used and we made early adjustments to ensure that this was aligned with the existing LTE interface.

“As a result, we could actually start developing these PlayStations in order to support 5G, even before the technology itself was rolled out. This futureproofing really provides us with an edge.”

Inspiring collective excellence

Collaboration, alongside research, is another area that the Head of Technology Strategy is quick to highlight as a hugely important aspect of Ericsson’s grasp on innovation.

Readily involved in transformative industry bodies like the 5G Automotive Association and aiding Stockholm’s smart city efforts, Ericsson has established itself as a fundamental player within the global technological ecosystem.

“We’re not betting on any one thing,” explains Andersson. “We have extremely smart guys working at Ericsson Research, however, we also recognise that cooperative agreements an alternative yet fantastic source of new ideas.”

The company’s extensive 5G collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institute for Production technology and MTU Aero Engines showcases this strategy effectively. Leveraging the different expertise of the three

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organisations, the trio researched and developed new methods for improving process control and discovering manufacturing failures during the production of bladed disks in real-time.

The result? MTU Aero Engines is now able to use 5G and sensory technology to reduce the time for the process design phase by 75 percent, create annual savings of up to €27 million for a single factory.

Moreover, the firm often benefits from similar synergies between itself and its customers, this revealed in its work with leading Australian telecommunications giant Telstra in expanding its Narrow Band IoT range.

“This was an exciting challenge,” Andersson states, “looking at how to get good coverage in a country like Australia with its huge landmass and geographically divided populations.

What we’ve done is extend the range of many existing cell towers to 100 kilometres, 60 kilometres more than 3GPP standards-based limits.

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“A big focus of our 5G research from the beginning was focusing on bolstering antenna capabilities and the Telstra project is a real showcase of this evolution. In certain instances, we’ve actually driven 10-fold capacity increases in Telstra’s networks in a cost-effective manner, something we’re really proud of.”

Virtualisation and realisation

The Telstra and Fraunhofer Institution collaborations are two of examples for the firm’s wide remit, a third being its Technology for Good @ Roraima project.

First conceived in 2017, the programme was borne in the wake of the Brazilian government’s requests for a new technological solution to provide an enhanced response to the Venezuelan migration situation that would benefit both the migrants themselves and the local Roraima population.

In response, Ericsson founded a

EME new partnership with Vivo (Telefónica Brazil) in order to both bring 4G connectivity to the region and build a digital lab in Boa Vista, the capital of Roraima, that would provide digital inclusion for many of the Venezuelan migrants.

A prime example of how technology can be used not only to the benefit of industrial and commercial spheres but equally humanitarian ventures, the Technology for Good project was nominated as Best Mobile Innovation supporting Emergency or Humanitarian Situations – one of five Global Mobile Award nominations that Ericsson received this year, one of which they won.

From automated network operations, cloud infrastructure and managed network solutions to intelligent optimisation, agile application management and data driven operations, Ericsson will undoubtedly remain a key facilitator of digital transformation for decades to come.

“When we talk about 5G, we’re talking about the virtualisation of core networks,” Andersson states, summarising his outlook on the technology’s growing capabilities.

“Slicing had allowed workloads to be distributed in different places, while software definition has allowed us to repurpose the same infrastructure for different things.”

“Whether this is a public safety network, a network for industry use cases or one for mobile broadband, we are now able to run these on a common infrastructure.”

He concludes: “Taking these transformative framework capabilities and coupling them with artificial intelligence, cloud capabilities and new software-led developments, we will see networks becoming increasingly elevated for all.”

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K P M G

STARTUP Springboard KPMG is providing a platform at MWC’s startup event, 4FYN, for smaller enterprises to draw the attention of potential investors Writer: Tom Wadlow

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WC is not just about the world’s tech giants showcasing their latest inventions.

A short, but traffic-laden trip up the road from Fira Gran Via is Fira Montjuïc, home to 4YFN (Four Years From Now) and a hive of energetic startup companies looking to become the next unicorns.

In and amongst the bustle we found Patrick Imbach, Head of KPMG Tech Growth, the auditing giant’s innovative startups practice.

“The bottom line is startups are relevant players nowadays,” he tells us, “and from my personal perspective

it is much more exciting to be working with them as they get stuff done, are agile and exist to solve problems. The corporate environment is less agile and can be a bit painful at times.”

KPMG, itself very much in the corporate realm, has been Imbach’s professional home for 15 years.

BEST BRITISH TECH STARTUP 2019 – THE FINAL FIVE Eventual competition winner Hummingbird Technologies is an artificial intelligence business, using imagery and data analytics from UAV, satellite and plane technology, together with machine learning and computer vision techniques, to provide farmers with high resolution crop maps.

Based in London, ZigZag Global is a software solution to help ecommerce retailers manage returns domestically and globally.

Grid Edge is an artificial intelligence startup company that provides AI software services to commercial building operators to empower them to intelligently optimise their building’s energy profile, and become active and empowered participants in the energy system.

Manchester-based Optalysys is developing optical AI systems designed to accelerate the most demanding deep learning and pattern recognition tasks at groundbreaking speeds, but at a fraction of the energy consumption of traditional computing hardware.

Oxford Space Systems (OSS) is an award-winning space technology business that’s pioneering the development of a new generation of deployable antennas and structures for the global satellite industry.

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“At the beginning startups didn’t really feature on our radar,” he continues. “More recently we have seen the very topical, timely things that these companies are doing – the Ubers and Facebooks of the world have shown us how fast startup technologies and ideas can spread.”

For an idea to become a worldwide reality, it takes a great deal of entrepreneurial spirit, dedication, sometimes luck and access to an audience of industry peers and potential investors.

Part of KPMG Tech Growth’s remit is to provide a platform for such innovation.

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“Our role is to identify interesting concepts and ideas and make sure others get to know about them,” says Imbach, trying to cut through the intermittent feedback of an erratic nearby speaker.

“On the more boring side of things, there are technical ways we can assist, such as in the UK with various tax credits which can help put cash back into entrepreneurs’ pockets.

“We can also help with raising venture capital. Startups often need quick entry to market and KPMG has a strong network of investors that can be tapped into to help these businesses finance the first steps before they generate their own revenue.”

EME Imbach’s main responsibility at 4YFN is KPMG’s Best British Tech Startup 2019 award.

Now in its fifth year, the competition saw KPMG whittle down more than 180 applications to find five innovative businesses from regions across the UK to pitch their business to a panel of industry experts.

“This competition is a great chance for startups to showcase themselves to the massive audience here at MWC and 4YFN,” explains Imbach, the background noise returning to normal.

“The diversity of the five finalists in this competition speaks to the UK’s vibrant tech startup ecosystem and the disruption that they are bringing to a host of traditional sectors.

“Sometimes it is difficult to differentiate from the crowd, and because smaller, younger companies cannot always draw on a long track record like many established companies, awards like this really help add to credibility and entice investors.”

Eventual investors may well take the form of multinational giants, who themselves are paying increasing attention to events unfolding at 4YFN. And it is on this note that our quickfire conversation wraps up, Imbach concluding: “This is my fifth MWC and in the past there used to be a clear divide between corporates and startups, but over time we are seeing more corporates paying greater attention to this event.

“Big companies like Google, Daimler and British Airways have stages here.

They are realising that startups are increasingly relevant to them, that they are a source of innovation and agility and can do things that their own structures may not enable.”

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P R O D U C T

S H O W C A S E

The weird and wonderful of MWC BMW Natural Interaction Available in the BMW iNEXT from 2021, the German automaker used MWC as a chance to present its Natural Interaction technology, combining advanced voice command capabilities with expanded gesture control and gaze recognition.

As part of the demo, we started off in an elevator before being picked up by an autonomous iNEXT on the streets of Singapore, using voice and pointing gestures to control the vehicle, ending with a screening of Mission Impossible Fallout’s trailer en route to the cinema.

Connected honeybees Leveraging LTE-M technologies, NimbeLink’s asset tracking solution was put on display within GSMA’s Innovation City, monitoring the location, motion, temperature and humidity of a live beehive. Not something you’d necessarily expect to see amongst robotics and connected devices, this solution is transforming the bee farming industry by bolstering yields and reducing the threat of hive theft.

“Agricultural applications are one of the leading and most impactful examples of how these technologies are not just positively affecting the business climate, but life itself,” said NimbleLink CEO, Scott Schwalbe.

Ericsson’s 5G-controlled truck Partnering with Telia and Einride, Ericsson displayed the power of 5G at its MWC booth as users got the chance to remotely drive a truck stationed 2,000 kilometres away in Gothenburg, Sweden. The partnership, which also incudes DB Schenker, aims to safely introduce driverless vehicles as part of a new autonomous transport system that could cut carbon emissions by 90 percent.

5G, with its high-data speeds and ultra-low latency, is thought to be the perfect connectivity lever to power this transformation.

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Robot coffee machine Again situated in the heart of the Innovation City, Dal.Komm Coffee and Korean Telecom showcased the latest version of their AI robot café. The world’s first 5G-connected robot café, named the b;eat2E, could be found using its robotic arm to autonomously provide a selection of 47 different drinks.

Able to communicate directly with customers, taking voice orders, recommending drinks, answering questions and even waving at onlookers, the robot barista is yet another example of how 5G is being used to challenge and change our daily lives.

EME Ooredoo’s flying taxi 5G is typically associated with unrivalled mobile connectivity and enabling enterprise transformation. However, Qatar-based Ooredoo further highlighted the technology’s true potential with its 5G-enabled aerial taxi taking centre stage at MWC, complete with a virtual reality simulated experience that flew over Doha.

One of the world’s leading ICT providers, the presence of the world’s first 5G-enabled self-driving connected aerial taxi was a symbol of this, leveraging the incredible speed and low latency of 5G.

Sophia Sophia, a creation of Hong Kong’s Hanson Robotics and official citizen of Saudi Arabia, starred at MWC. The humanoid robot answered questions from punters on complex issues such as artificial intelligence and the internet of things, constantly enhancing her knowledge base and teaching herself new subjects.

Our tour guide, GSMA’s Andrew Parker, explained how Hanson created Sophia as a humanoid interface of AI, able to demonstrate in simple terms the machine learning power of AI. She also commands a lively social media presence, her twitter account having almost 100,000 followers.

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N O K I A

Administering the

INTELLIGENT

I guess I’m addicted to the next thing, the seemingly impossible.”

Not only working as the Director of Enterprise Marketing at global telecommunications company Nokia but also residing in Silicon Valley, Houman Modarres’s passion for technology was as prevalent as expected when we met at MWC. “Myself?” he said, taking a seat in a backroom at the company’s 1,500

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From healthcare to mining to manufacturing, Nokia is going above and beyond to facilitate the ongoing shift in applied enterprise automation, expanding enterprise efficiency Writer: Jonathan Dyble

square metre booth. “I’m involved in helping enterprises, allowing them to become better connected across different industry segments.

“Industry is going through a big change. Sensors, machines, devices – these things are all providing substantiated capabilities, providing greater insight that can then be turned into actions for the benefit of businesses, more quickly and efficiently than ever before.

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EME ABOUT MODARRES Currently the Director of Enterprise Marketing at Nokia, on the leading edge of shifts in networking technology, Modarres previously oversaw the Carrier VoIP/Softswitch business line at 3Com Corporation, served in product management roles at Newbridge Networks, and held broadband and wireless systems engineering and network planning positions at Nortel.

Modarres holds an MBA from the University of California Berkeley and a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University.

“We’ve successfully connected people; now how do we connect machines? Nokia’s making a concerted effort to answer this.”

Having cemented the role of integrator and enabler when it comes to enterprise transformation, Nokia has continued to expand its remit, now covering a wide, diverse array of different categories.

Leveraging the effective dynamic between its own expertise and those

of its clients, the telecommunications company readily calls upon interindustry commonalities, striking an effective balance that complements its ever-growing service portfolio, geared towards serving public and private sector clients as well as consumers.

“It’s like people, right? Once you get to know someone you often realise that you have a lot more in common than you first thought,” Modarres explains.

“There are constituent technologies, and at the end of the day we’re merely advisors to our customers. They know more about their business than we possibly could, and we know more about the technologies than they could care to.

“However, what works for us is that technologies remain consistent – it’s the applications that vary, and while contexts may differ, there’s often more similarities than differences.”

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Progress in practice

A natural progression of topics, the conversation quickly begs the question – what are these applications?

“I could ramble on about this forever, but I’ll try not to,” Modarres muses, leaning forwards in his chair.

“We’ve been doing a whole host of things with dedicated wireless networking and 5G and by doing so we’ve been involved in a lot of exciting developments.

“In the context of healthcare, for example, we’re facilitating the emergence of teleradiology devices that practitioners can carry anywhere, providing them with complete and confidential patient information.

This has huge implications for global medicine whereby doctors are provided with access to services in even the most remote corners of the world.”

NOKIA’S ENTERPRISE SERVICES INCLUDE, BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO: • 5G Acceleration Services • Cloud Transformation Consulting • Multivendor Maintenance • Managed Operations Analytics • Worldwide IoT Network Grid (WING) • IoT Readiness Services • Predictive Optimisation • Energy Solutions • Device Software Customisation These solutions are housed under the firm’s four core competencies of 5G, Cloud, IoT and Software.

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Opening the January issue of EME Outlook magazine and turning to our Guinness Six Nations 2019 preview, he continues: “This reminds me of our work with SciSports.”

A company working with football clubs across Europe, the firm has fitted approximately a dozen stadiums with 4K cameras that are able to consistently monitor and stream the motions of every player, the referee and the ball during every match.

Connected to a rural cloud network provided by Nokia, this is then run on an analytics platform, transforming the use of data for clubs across the continent.

“I have to admit as a fan of the sport I’m torn,” Modarres adds. “There are questions about whether this dampens the theatre and drama of soccer, but equally the technology is revolutionary for the game.

“Taking this, managers can vastly improve their methods, tailoring training sessions and more, while owners can equally call upon this to rate their players when new contract negotiations come up.”

The glitz and glamour of technology in sport aside, the enterprise marketing expert moves on to talk about its uses in mining, another industry that is currently the subject of a digitised overhaul.

“In the context of countries that are rich in natural resources, autonomous vehicles and robotics are a really interesting development,” he continues. “If something goes wrong for a robot, someone’s parent still gets to go home. No longer is there a reason to risk people’s lives.”

A cultural shift

It’s been estimated that the global industrial automation market will reach

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EME AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES – CONCEPT OR REALITY? “Most believe that autonomous vehicles are a reality if not a necessity.

We’ve seen early indicators of technology that helps in areas of transportation in the logistics industries, for example, where autonomous vehicles will have massive application,” says Modarres.

“Driver-assisted and eventually driverless technologies are definitely something that’s around the corner. For now, we have to make sure the supporting networks are incredibly robust, and the technologies are tried and tested extensively before they come to market.

“They need to be faster and more responsive than the driver to be effective.”

a total value of $321.9 billion by 2024, growing at roughly 6.6 percent each year for the next half decade.

A high-potential space that’s clearly on the rise, autonomous technologies offer a wide range of applications to prospective industries.

Modarres reveals: “At Nokia we’re going one step deeper, looking at how we might work with automotive manufacturers to build factories of the future by leveraging 5G. “Not only are manufacturers implementing wireless connectivity to the benefit of end-users, but also in changing the way they construct their vehicles. Looking at complex processes, it can take weeks, sometimes months to alter line configurations.

“But what if this could be done to order at scale? It’s becoming quite possible, and many have the vision of making factories without wires, using new low-latency edge cloud and 5G technologies.”

Undoubtedly, however, despite the extensive benefits that autonomous technologies will increasingly provide throughout 2019 and beyond, accelerating industrial efficiencies, there are numerous challenges to overcome.

“For a long time, my dad would never take money from an ATM machine, and for even longer he would not put a cheque into a machine.

He wanted to hand it to a person,” Modarres continues.

“That wasn’t a problem with technology. It was a problem with my dad.”

Calling on his own experience from this example, Modarres concludes: “It’s the classic kid on a tricycle complex – until you can experience something and react to it, people won’t trust it. It will be adopted in segments and monitored very closely, most likely in major industrial complexes such as mines or manufacturing plants.

“I don’t think it’s the technology as much as our comfort with certain technologies that needs to change.”

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A T & T

Inspiring Innovation From startups to its own employees, AT&T is effectively channelling an abundance of new ideas from multiple avenues.

Here’s how

Vishy Gopalakrishnan

Writer: Jonathan Dyble

$

170.8 billion in annual revenue, 273,000 employees, 150,000 network subscribers.

The world’s largest telecommunications company, it’s hard to comprehend the stature of AT&T – a headache that even its own staff have to deal with.

“It’s such an overwhelmingly large corporation, it’s easy to see how it can be intimidating,” Vishy Gopalakrishnan states.

First becoming acquainted with AT&T in 2008, a brief hiatus at SAP separating two stints at the business, Gopalakrishnan has worked across multiple segments, from product marketing to corporate strategy and now as the Vice President of

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Ecosystem and Innovation.

“What does this role actually entail? It sounds about as corporate as you can imagine,” he continues.

“Effectively, the question myself and my team are looking at is how a company like AT&T subjectively evaluates both internal and external innovation to incorporate new principles, products and services.

“That’s ultimately our genesis, it’s what we’re here to do.”

More specifically, the company has broken this down into three innovation highways, with the Ecosystem and Innovation team acting as the eyes and ears of the business on this front, implementing fresh, unorthodox, unconventional ideas.

“We meet with a roughly 500 startups every year, spanning all segments from networking to security to advertising technologies and everything in between,” Gopalakrishnan reveals. “Alongside this we have the Foundry, a series of innovation centres, four in the US, one in Tel Aviv, Israel and another in Mexico City.

“Often, we’ll be presented with a concept that shows a lot of promise but might just be words on a slide.

The Foundry then comes in with its team of engineers, running prototypes to essentially de-risk and prove or disprove these ideas, putting the technologies through their paces.”

Not only does the Foundry aid

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startups, but equally it is one of the company’s most esteemed tools when working with businesses to overcome problems. To this end, AT&T ensures that it remains on top of cutting-edge academic research, consuming this and transferring the knowledge into algorithms that can be used to the benefit of enterprises.

“The third element of Ecosystem and Innovation,” Gopalakrishnan continues, “is an internal initiative named TIP, or the innovation platform, that’s effectively a kick-starter for employee innovation.

“Any employee can submit his or her idea to a completely democratic, grassroots portal that is then transparently ranked by rating, much like TripAdvisor.”

At the end of each quarter, the top four highest rated ideas are then presented to the company’s internal angel investor team that is made up of senior executives, providing the best ideas with funding, while the Foundry helps to prototype these ideas and eventually even bring them to market.

“We’re agnostic about where innovation comes from,” adds Gopalakrishnan. “It’s an art and a science, and I like to say that the book is not written but we’re always adding new chapters.”

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very high-value medication,” Gopalakrishnan explains. “Maybe it’s part of a clinical trial, so they want to make sure that I’m taking it regimentally, that it’s kept at the right temperatures, etc.

“Softbox were already making packaging that has been able to keep medication at a particular temperature, but they wanted to expand the capabilities of their product. This in mind, we helped them build in sensors that would monitor when its packaging was opened, when medication was removed, whether it was kept at the right temperature, and even provide Identification and application an idea of the location.”

Leveraging this broad, three-pronged Integrating connectivity scope, AT&T is able to call upon a technologies, the pair then went diverse range of innovative successes across all sectors, one specific example further, exploring a proof of concept study to use drones to transport these being the firm’s recent work with medicinal parcels, enabling scarce, temperature control packaging lifechanging health resources to travel systems specialist Softbox. to remote locations, including areas hit An award winning, transformative business in the cold chain sphere, AT&T by natural disasters.

Active in the smart healthcare worked closely with the UK-based sphere in other ways, AT&T further organisation in the latter stages of 2019, helping implement its expertise collaborated with US orthotics and prosthetics manufacturing firm Hanger more extensively in the healthcare late last year. market.

Implementing a gyroscope, “Let’s say a pharmaceutical magnetometer and accelerometer company is sending me some

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AT&T is collaborating with orthotics and prosthetics manufacturing firm Hanger

into Hanger’s modules, the Houstonbased Foundry was effectively able to help reduce the severe discomfort suffered by patients during the first few weeks when using below the knee prosthetics.

“What these do is measure how much you walk, the type of walking such as going up and down stairs, and your direction and tilt,” reveals Gopalakrishnan.

“With this we went from zero visibility into what’s going on with the prosthetic, to real-time visibility with what’s happening with the patient, allowing adjustments to be made and advice to be offered, tremendously improving the quality of care.”

Realising the time and wrapping up the conversation, we shook hands and headed back out to the main floor of AT&T’s booth, as Gopalakrishnan left us with some final thoughts.

He concludes: “To succeed in this business you have to remain unconstrained. Every company is a technology company… every industry has the potential to be disrupted… and a critical part of this is engaging with startups.

“Our focus is not on the paperwork but on the collaboration.”

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Talking 5G From the internet of things and mobile connectivity to cybersecurity and enterprise application, 5G is transforming industry fundamentals across a multitude of channels

Gee Rittenhouse Senior Vice President, Security Business Group, Cisco “It actually allows us to do quite a bit from a security perspective.

“5G enables the service providers to serve customers in a way they haven’t done so before.

Now we can do network slicing and segmentation and add security services, so 5G allows these providers to treat the enterprise in a very different way. That means all of the security we had in play in the enterprise sphere gets repeated, which is a good thing and our customers really like this, whether they get it through us directly or our service partners.

“That trust layer I was talking about can now also go all the way down to the device – we can have trusted infrastructure as well as trusted users.”

Håkan Andersson Head of Technology Strategy, Ericsson “When we talk about 5G, we’re talking about the virtualisation of core networks.

“Slicing has allowed workloads to be distributed in different places, while software definition has allowed us to repurpose the same infrastructure for different things.

“Whether this is a public safety network, a network for industry use cases or one for mobile broadband, we are now able to run these on a common infrastructure.”

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Matt Bereda Vice President of Global Marketing, Lenovo “5G is definitely a technology that has the potential to be a game-changer, but the industry will need time to get this right.

“It’s not going to be in every country right away – it will be a continual expansion – but we’ll definitely see a massive explosion in this space over the next 12-24 months.

The potential is definitely there.”

Houman Modarres Director of Enterprise Marketing, Nokia “Not only are manufacturers implementing wireless connectivity to the benefit of end-users, but also in changing the way they construct their vehicles. Looking at complex processes, it can take weeks, sometimes months to alter line configurations.

“But what if this could be done to order at scale? It’s becoming quite possible, and many have the vision of making factories without wires, using new low-latency edge cloud and 5G technologies.”

Vishy Gopalakrishnan Vice President of Ecosystem and Innovation, AT&T “For us, 5G has the potential to change both industry and consumer fundamentals. Being extremely low latency and high bandwidth, coupled with the power of edge computing that allows you to divide and distribute workloads, 5G provides end users with substantially greater performance.

“This combination has a variety of applications across industry, such as completely automated factories of the future. These become possible, owed to these technologies.”

Phil Skipper Head of Business Development (IoT), Vodafone Business “For me, IoT is about connecting remote devices to drive two outcomes. One is to drive efficiency in the business process and the second is to generate new revenue streams, what we call the business case of cost avoidance and the business case of revenue generation.

“The interesting thing is what 5G then does. It takes this from a data centric service to a control centric service, which potentially presents a third business case, meaning the definition may evolve from two business cases to three as we move towards more 5G.”

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IoT: The World’s Great Enabler We met with Phil Skipper, Head of Business Development (IoT) at Vodafone Business, to discuss the seemingly limitless bounds of connectivity Writer: Tom Wadlow

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hat is IoT? A simple question at first glance, but one which carries an everchanging answer depending on who you speak to and when.

For us it was Phil Skipper, Head of Business Development (IoT) at Vodafone Business, who answered this in our final meeting before we hotfooted on a metro to Barcelona Airport.

“For me, IoT is about connecting remote devices to drive two outcomes,” he says, sat across from us in a Vodafone-clad meeting room at the back of another enormous booth.

“One is to drive efficiency in the business process and the second is to generate new revenue streams, what we call the business case of cost avoidance and the business case of revenue generation.”

Skipper quickly refers to smart meters and internet in cars as examples of these two outcomes before the common denominator of MWC, 5G, enters the conversation.

“The interesting thing is what 5G then does,” he continues. “It takes this from a data centric service to a control centric service, which potentially presents a third business case, meaning the definition may evolve from two business cases to three in time.”

Vodafone, and Skipper, have witnessed first-hand the fluidity and

evolution of IoT’s meaning over many years.

The latter’s personal experience outside of the telco industry has served him in good stead, a manufacturing background with the likes of Siemens helping appreciate customer needs from an outcome-based perspective.

“IoT very much started off as a technology sale, typically to a multinational with equal capabilities to companies like Vodafone,” Skipper recalls. “It was a peer-to-peer conversation.

“As the market has matured, we are seeing other companies come in who are more outcome based than technical, meaning they increasingly buy more of the value chain. This goes all the way down to, say, a small solar company that wants an IoT-connected security system that is housed in a box on a wall and connects to a mobile phone.”

There has also been a massive expansion in the breadth of IoT’s reach, with virtually all industries from agriculture to education impacted in some way by this heightened level of connectivity.

“The third element of evolution is what I touched on regarding peer-topeer conversations,” Skipper adds.

“Rather than Vodafone connecting BMW to every single BMW car, we are connecting to much more of an ecosystem model where the end-toend process is split into a number of subprocesses. These subprocesses have several different specialists within them that make up the ecosystem, which you then have to trust. IoT is essentially becoming democratised.”

ABOUT SKIPPER Phil Skipper has decades of technology experience, his career spanning numerous organisations from Mars through to Siemens before joining Vodafone in 2013.

Siemens is where he spent much of his career, working in many business development roles from 1998 until he moved to his current employer.

Skipper is a graduate from the University of Sussex in electronic engineering.

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Skipper joined Vodafone in 2013 with the goal of helping create an IoT leader, something that has undeniably been achieved.

The company covers around 400 networks across approximately 180 countries, a combination of its own networks, those of partners and roaming agreements with other parties. This scope has allowed Vodafone Business to see many of the aforementioned trends before other enterprises, meaning it can lead the market rather than follow it.

Rallying call

MWC is the perfect forum for the firm to demonstrate this position.

Skipper describes the show as a “great way of getting a good, concise, concentrated look at the market in one go”, and Vodafone’s energetic, dynamic booth illustrates the best of

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what IoT has to offer.

“I have to mention the rally car,” he says. “Isidre Esteve is a disabled racing driver who has just participated in the Dakar Rally, a phenomenally tough race, and we’ve put a lot of tech inside the car and on him so he can be monitored while driving.”

Esteve, now 46, has no muscular control below his chest after sustaining a serious back injury while racing in 2007. A smart cushion beneath his seat and smart features on his race suit analyse his performance on the road, making it safer (and possible) for him to compete against the world’s best drivers.

The cushion is particularly clever, consisting of round supportive air cells with constantly changing pressure, controlled via an app. This creates a massage effect to prevent ulcers.

The helmet and suit also gather

GAME-CHANGING PARTNERSHIPS MWC saw Vodafone Business announce two significant IoT partnerships with US firm AT&T and British company Arm. AT&T and automotive IoT: This collaboration aims to bring consistent connected car solutions and experiences for customers across the companies’ combined footprints in North America, Europe and Africa. Areas of safety, security and entertainment will be concentrated on, while the partnership will also explore the future of autonomous driving.

Simplifying IoT with Arm: “Our partnership with Arm is looking at and understanding what is holding back IoT,” explains Skipper. “A lot of it is to do with the cost of the module so what we’re doing with Arm is taking the traditional SIM away, turning it into what we call a soft SIM that exists in the silicone design of a microprocessor.

“The SIM will already be in the device, and we will provide something called bootstraps which are connected to our network and allow you to switch to other providers. By taking the physical SIM out we are making a significant reduction in the cost of making a connected device. We have essentially made Narrow Band-IoT (NB-IoT) and Long Term Evolution for Machines (LTE-M) networks more accessible, and we expect this to scale as a result and become a go-to partner with Arm.”

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real-time data and connect to analytics hosted in the cloud, allowing Vodafone and Esteve’s team to monitor the driver’s heart rate, body temperature and hydration levels. This is particularly important in a race like Dakar where conditions are especially difficult and require maximum alertness.

“This project demonstrates what we can do in the healthcare space, which is one of the big IoT markets,” Skipper adds. “With chronic diseases escalating in countries around the world, IoT offers the opportunity to bridge the gap between clinical and domicile care, and that is a really interesting area too.

“For example, you can provide video services for customers that start to provide a patient with the same level of care in their home as you might expect in a hospital, which has huge societal as well as budgetary benefits.”

Another area of IoT showcased at

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For Skipper, it is almost inevitable that IoT will immerse itself into everyday life and become the new normal, and in many ways this is already occurring.

“It will go as far as when you stop realising it is happening,” he tells us.

“It is sort of intrusive at the moment in that there’s got to be a device for this and for that, but over time it will just be the way things are done. By definition, the default position will be connected, and we will treat these services the same way we do with Esteve, now 46, has no muscular control below his chest after sustaining a serious back injury while racing in 2007 smartphones, almost for granted.

“While lots of people get “IoT will stop being seen as a set Vodafone’s booth includes consumer excited about the glossy things like of applications but rather simply part applications covering automation and autonomous driving, if you look of the infrastructure we are all used security, while products on display in to. It will become the normal way of the agriculture sphere include vineyard below the surface there’s a range of applications that affect us all as we delivery.” monitoring solutions.

In becoming normalised, Skipper “What we’ve tried to do is handpick move into smart cities and a connected world.” refers to a balance that will need to some interesting examples and be struck between enablement and contrast this with some of the more Boundless? ethics, citing studies conducted in the technical services in terms of analytics, But how far will this connected world UK on the very subject. so you’ll find a real mix of outcome Albeit a consideration companies and technology to cover all customers and IoT expand? And how far should it expand? like Vodafone Business will have to coming into the stand,” continues monitor closely, the Head of Business Skipper.

Development is confident that such a balance can and will be struck over time, and that IoT will continue to be a strong performer for the company.

Concluding just in time for our airport departure, he says: “I am optimistic about the way the world will turn out – it is already a massively overdamped system, so it goes at its own speed. I believe these applications will create tremendous value for everyone in the ecosystem. Yes, some governance is needed, but IoT will continue to expand.

“In terms of Vodafone, IoT has had a big impact on us as an organisation.

It is a strong-performing business and will continue to be so. What you can achieve with IoT is almost beyond limit.”

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COUNTING ON

CLOUD Two SAP marketing directors tell us about the expanding breadth of the cloud and how this is being driven by the need to deliver on customer experience

Emily Mui, Senior Director, Cloud Platform Product Marketing

Ashruti Singh, Director, Marketing, SAP Cloud Platform

Writer: Tom Wadlow

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y 2022, some 28 percent of spend in key IT segments will shift to the cloud.

In monetary terms, IDC calculates that public cloud services spend in 2018 hit $180 billion, a massive year on year increase of 23.7 percent.

A demonstrably skyrocketing market, cloud was high on the agenda of many MWC conversations, and who better than SAP to probe on the latest trends and behaviours. Once more having weaved our way through a

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packed booth, we sat down to speak with two of the company’s marketing directors.

“We have definitely seen an uptick in the need for and understanding of how our Cloud Platform can complement individual SaaS solutions,” states Emily Mui, Senior Director, Cloud Platform Product Marketing.

“When you talk about customer experience, it’s no longer about just having individual SaaS solutions, individual cloud solutions or even

individual on-premise solutions. It is about having the power of a platform underlying this. This is one of the major ways we pitch our cloud services.”

Mui also explains how SAP’s Cloud Platform enables IT and business users to work closely and therefore extend functionality.

“If you’re invested in a new ERP system, ecommerce solution and other applications, how can you make it all work together and build new functionality like integration and

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analytics at scale and speed?” she asks.

“It is difficult to do so with just the component parts.”

Integration of applications, Mui recalls, was the major use of cloud when she started working in this realm of technology around three to four years ago, but for her this is just the beginning, a means to an end.

The next step is what you do with the data and information that is made more accessible by this integration.

“We’re seeing more customers being innovative with the cloud platform across many different industries, from non-profits and pharmaceuticals to universities like MIT, who have used SAP to extend their HR functionalities,” says Mui. “Some customers are using it for predictive analysis, some for machine learning, for example.”

“Another important thing to add is that we have customers who use our cloud for agile development,” adds Mui’s colleague Ashruti Singh, Director, Marketing, SAP Cloud Platform. “What they want to do is change things in flight and develop quickly.”

Singh goes on to cite numerous examples of this in action, including a case study with US firm Murphy Oil which SAP showcased at MWC. In a bid to digitise the oil & gas workforce, Murphy Oil implemented Upstream Production Operations by Accenture and SAP in just five months.

This involved various integrations of machine learning and AI and also the development of a backend user interface combining up to 15 different applications.

Citing another example, Singh continues: “In the UK, one of our customers is Northern Gas Networks, whose main reason for using SAP’s Cloud Platform is to help respond quickly to customers and improve customer experience.”

Another product used by Northern Gas Networks, Singh tells us, is SAP’s Digital Boardroom, offering a realtime, digital-enterprise insight into

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integrated line-of-business data from SAP and third-party applications.

“I come from an analytics background and over the years I have definitely noticed a growing interest in reporting, consolidating data into dashboards,” says Mui. “Now we have all the technology to make this happen and to handle and analyse all of this data.

“The objective has been the same all along – it is about getting the most insight from the various transactions and how you understand your customers. What do they want to buy?

How do they want to buy it? We can now do all this a lot more effectively.”

And it is this customer-centric focus that is dictating the strategies of SAP more and more, Mui ending our conversation on this note, saying that the company’s major priority when it comes to cloud is to offer an unrivalled experience.

She concludes: “As a company SAP is placing a big focus on this. There are a lot of technologies available to enterprises so experience is going to be huge – we have high expectations in the way we use our smartphones and computers, and these expectations are now being applied to business applications. The user experience will be more important than ever.”

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SAP CLOUD PLATFORM SAP describes its cloud platform as an ‘open business platform designed to help you innovate, integrate and extend applications with agility flexibility and choice’.

The platform enables companies to build new applications, extend applications by adding functionality, integrate applications, adopt multichannel collaboration and leverage predictive analytics.

Blockchain, machine learning, collaboration, data management, mobile services, IoT and document management are among the other stated capabilities.

SuccessFactors, Concur, and SAP S/4HANA are all API packages offered by SAP.

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L A L I G A

Football Transfigured Treated to the hospitality of LaLiga at the RCD Espanyol de Barcelona stadium, we discover how the likes of AI and VR are expanding experiences

involved during this transformative period in the sport’s illustrious history.

EME Outlook (EMEO): What attracted you to joining LaLiga?

Joris Evers (JE): First and foremost, irtual reality, artificial the opportunity to help make Spanish intelligence, machine learning, football become even more popular big data, cloud. Novel around the globe was too good to turn subject areas that resonated down. throughout Barcelona in the week LaLiga is very ambitious and is Joris Evers beginning February 25th, but not investing significantly in growing its technologies that many would generally brand and attracting more fans to the associate with sport. league in addition to helping grow the LaLiga, however, the men’s top showcasing some of the organisation’s popularity of football generally. The professional division of the Spanish flagship developments. organisation has scaled from about 50 football league system is changing Seeing first-hand how the use of AI people based only in Spain five years this view, pioneering the use of is both making the game fairer and ago to more than 600 people around transformative tech in order to more exciting, how machine learning is the world today. improve the beautiful game for all. revolutionising the experience of match It is exciting to contribute to this Inviting us to the RCD Espanyol scheduling and how big data analytics kind of growth. Outside of that, de Barcelona stadium, a short taxi and cloud computing are collectively my career prior to LaLiga had been ride west from MWC’s home in Fira, being used to bolster coaching, referring focused on technology, specifically in Joris Evers, the organisation’s Chief and fan experiences, there was a lot on Silicon Valley-based companies. Joining Communications Officer, greeted show to be excited about.

LaLiga offered me the opportunity to us with refreshments, a warm smile Speaking with Evers himself, it was immerse myself in a combination of and a firm handshake, his colleagues easy to see why he was keen to be the world of football and technology.

Writer: Jonathan Dyble

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TECHNOLOGY IN LALIGA

MEDIACOACH

Developed in partnership with Mediapro, LaLiga is using cuttingedge innovation to provide Spanish clubs with valuable insightdriven tools, aimed at improving the performance of players.

Offering overriding performance to coaching staff, teams are able to analyse in-depth the characteristics of any game.

VIRTUAL REALITY EXPERIENCE

Again working with the Mediapro’s R&D teams, the organisation is using a 360-degree VR experience, allowing fans to get up close and personal to the action, witnessing player arrivals, changing room interactions and the matches themselves.

REPLAY360

This technology allows the recreation of 3D replays of any given move, providing viewers around the world with unique, tailored perspectives of major in-game events from any angle. Using 38 cameras installed throughout six stadiums, LaLiga plans to roll this out to more clubs next season in the aim of improving fan experience.

VIDEO ASSISTANT REFEREE (VAR)

Leveraging audio-visual technologies, LaLiga equally demonstrated how it is using VAR to help referees avoid clear and obvious errors regarding goals, penalties, direct red cards and identity confusion. During the first 190 matches of the 2018/19 LaLiga season, VAR systems were used to review 2,280 incidents, modifying referring decisions on 59 different occasions.

AUDIENCE ATTENDANCE AND BROADCAST SUNLIGHT PLANNING

Using artificial intelligence, LaLiga has developed a new tool in the aim of optimising both TV viewership and stadium attendances, building algorithms to calculate match schedules.

This application also analyses the expected natural light conditions during each match, revealing how the sun will affect television images and the experiences of fans and players using 3D reconstructions of stadiums.

EME EMEO: What’s your favourite thing about the digital transformation of football?

JE: LaLiga this year celebrates its 90th anniversary. Many years ago, football was purely analogue. Today technology plays a key part in many aspects of the sport, including the development of players, stadiums, the fan experience and broadcasting.

There are incredible advances everywhere, but perhaps most visible is the ability to create an audio-visual spectacle that gets transmitted around the world from various locations in Spain every weekend, technologies applied to 380 matches each year in LaLiga.

EMEO: Can you make any key predictions about the progression of tech in football throughout 2019?

JE: With time, I expect technology will make sporting experiences much more personal. This wouldn’t just be for viewers, but also for players, evident in both our VR experience efforts and the growing use of data analytics that we’re providing to clubs across the country.

EMEO: In your opinion, how far should technology in sport go?

Could it potentially dampen any excitement and/or drama?

JE: What I like about LaLiga is the organisation’s willingness to experiment and try new things.

It’s often said that if you don’t try, you will never know. Coming back to the imminent growth in personalisation, it may well be that some viewers and fans opt to receive a more classic experience, while others go all in, allowing them to experience football in new ways.

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Countering COMPLEXITY Gee Rittenhouse talks security trends and Cisco’s response to an ever-changing, ever-challenging landscape Writer: Tom Wadlow

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rom folding phones and flying taxis to VR driving experiences and 5G beehives, you could be forgiven for thinking that cybersecurity is the ugly duckling amongst MWC’s technological glitz and glamour.

Walking through Cisco’s enormous, smart double decker booth on our way to see Gee Rittenhouse, it is easy to see the buzz generated by its huge IoT and connected car displays and many other demos.

Having navigated the crowds and

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located our meeting room (these booths are equally as vast in private, off limits space), we sat down to talk about a less visible but indispensable element of the innovation on show.

“We scan roughly 400 billion emails and process 185 billion DNS queries a day, which is about five percent of the whole internet,” Rittenhouse tells us, a statistic met by a split-second pause while we try to compute the sheer scale of this operation.

Rittenhouse is Senior Vice President for Cisco’s Security Business Group.

A tech enthusiast his whole life, the conversation quickly turns to how he successfully merged academic disciplines and navigated his way down the security path.

“I was one of those kids who almost blew themselves up by experimenting,” he recalls. “Early in my life I always wondered how things worked, so I went down the physics avenue to start with.

“The subject forces you to simplify whereas engineering is all about managing complexity, so if you have both and are able to take the complexity and simplify, I think you should have a good idea of what’s going on.”

Hence Rittenhouse took a formal

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ABOUT RITTENHOUSE technical path too – a PhD in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT before going to Bell Labs where he spent 20 years and ended up as President.

“A little over five years ago I moved to Cisco to help with their cloud efforts, and of course security is a big issue when dealing with the cloud, so this is what led me into this space,” he adds.

Cyberattacks frequently make headlines. Last year’s hack on the UK’s National Health Service and accusations of Russian attacks contributing to President Trump’s election as US President are two highprofile examples, while the overall number of attacks are rising.

“There are two dimensions to this problem,” says Rittenhouse.

“Enterprise itself is becoming more complex. It used to be a case where I would sit there with my data centre with the enterprise behind it – most of my applications were from my laptop to my data centre and I would only go out to the internet to surf the web. The perimeters were clearly defined.

“Now we have the cloud and all the applications we need. There are branches and mobile users as well, creating a dynamic system with data and applications on one side and users on the other. This adds a lot of complexity and complexity equals vulnerability from a security perspective.”

Gee Rittenhouse is Senior Vice President for Cisco’s Security Business Group, responsible for next-gen firewall, cloud, advanced threat, network and end point security products.

A graduate from the University of California in Physics and holder of a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he spent much of his career at Bell Labs, during which time he chaired global non-profit research group Green Touch, a body dedicated to increasing energy efficiency of communications networks.

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To put Rittenhouse’s observations into context, Gartner predicts the 2019 public cloud services market to reach $206 billion, a massive 17.3 percent increase on last year. By 2022, more than $1.3 trillion of IT spend will be directly or indirectly affected by the shift to cloud.

In short, this is opening up a huge space for hackers to target.

“In the same sense, the sophistication of attacks has increased remarkably in the same timescale,” continues Rittenhouse. “Now we see nation state, weapons grade software in the system whereas before this

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was done by more improvised hacked pieces of code.

“This combines to make a twodimensional effect that is pulling in different directions – the quality of the attack and the attack surface are both increasing and this has, frankly, caused Cisco to reconsider its approach to security and the products we offer.”

From emails and cloud to firewalls and proxies, Cisco covers every dimension of a network enterprise and offers the broadest portfolio of products in the industry.

Add to this deep level of threat detection a set of sophisticated

machine learning tools and algorithms, and the company is able to identify and stamp out many potential hacks before they spread.

“If I see something strange on your endpoint, within minutes I can see if it’s a new file we’ve not seen before, detonate it if malicious and make sure all equivalent files are detonated when picked up,” Rittenhouse adds. “That is the loop.”

However, the added complexity of cloud is where Cisco has had to adapt, and it has done so by approaching the issue from a trust perspective and establishing new boundaries.

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Rittenhouse points to identity as an example. “You are known, you are in the system and have the rights to these applications,” he says, “and I can prove it is you and your device, so the boundary of trust is there with your network and what you are doing.

“As soon as you break one of these trust barriers, we can put you in a different category and downgrade accessibility until that trust is reestablished. It is a continuous cycle and has helped simplify things for customers.”

But what about autonomous devices that communicate with networks through the internet of things?

The GSMA, chief organiser of MWC, released research last year predicting that the global IoT market will generate $1.1 trillion in revenue by 2025. This equates to more than 25 billion cellular and non-cellular IoT connections, a monumental rise considering there were 6.3 billion connections just two years previously.

Rittenhouse quickly acknowledges the impact this is having on Cisco, again prompting the company to adapt and evolve its security solutions.

“This not only expands the attack surface, but also the scope as you can also be on the end of physical damage,” he says. “We have spent a lot of time on this covering the full spectrum, for instance with very small appliances that can connect via IoT, like a lightbulb, to elevators in shopping malls.

“We look at the posture of these devices and segment them automatically – this is because we have the visibility to detect irregular activity so can see if a printer is talking to networks it shouldn’t be talking to.

Likewise, in a manufacturing plant, we can see what bigger machines are doing.”

While on the topic of IoT, it was inevitable that 5G would enter the conversation (we had done well to avoid it for 15 minutes).

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The undoubted headline act of Mobile World Congress, 5G took centre stage with trials and demos of all manner of use cases, including live broadcasting and even remote control of industrial trucks stationed 2,000 kilometres away in Gothenburg.

With undoubted potential to support advanced IoT deployments, Rittenhouse also explains how 5G can assist Cisco in the security realm.

“It actually allows us to do quite a bit from a security perspective,” he enthuses.

“5G enables the service providers to serve customers in a way they haven’t done so before. Now we can do network slicing and segmentation and add security services, so 5G allows these providers to treat the enterprise in a very different way.

Security is available and accessible to smaller customers, it is simply a case of how you wish to consume it. Do you do it yourself or outsource it, that is the biggest question at the moment” “That means all of the security we had in play in the enterprise sphere gets repeated, which is a good thing and our customers really like this, whether they get it through us directly or our service partners.

“That trust layer I was talking about can now also go all the way down to the device – we can have trusted infrastructure as well as trusted users.”

EME Cisco’s customers range from SMBs all the way up to multinational, billion-dollar organisations, an extremely diverse client base covering a tremendous array of security challenges.

For smaller companies, the impact of an attack can be permanently damaging.

Cisco’s own research (2018 Security Capabilities Benchmark Study) finds that 54 percent of all cyberattacks result in financial damages of more than $500,000 through the likes of lost revenue, customers, opportunities, and out-of-pocket costs.

Take into account that 53 percent of midmarket companies have experienced a breach, and the threat is both real and vast.

But, does this mean smaller enterprises should approach the issue differently? Our conversation with Rittenhouse concludes with an important consideration.

“I wouldn’t segment it out as small against large, as uniformly across all of them you can ask what your threat risk is versus your ability to respond.

“Smaller companies don’t have a large IT setup, large companies do, but large companies are a bigger target.

What we’ve done is use automation and simplification as a huge focus.

For smaller companies, we’ve added security layers to our SMB platforms so you can get it automated in with no fuss. Our partners can also come in and offer services.

“Security is available and accessible to smaller customers, it is simply a case of how you wish to consume it. Do you do it yourself or outsource it, that is the biggest question at the moment.”

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L E N O V O

Transforming Perspectives For Lenovo, innovation is not inventing for invention’s sake.

It’s about intelligent transformation in new, fresh, practical directions Writer: Jonathan Dyble I love technology, and there’s a lot of elements to that statement.

“It’s constantly changing our world, right? The experiences you had maybe 10 or even five years ago are totally different from what they are today.”

The most recent quarterly results saw Lenovo claim the number one spot in the International Data Corporation’s PC Rankings, named the top manufacturer with sales accounting for 24 percent of the global market.

Walking into Lenovo’s MWC booth, a visual representation of this status immediately became apparent.

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Surrounded by curious crowds and the company’s extensive portfolio of branded devices front, back and centre, we navigated our way to a table where self-confessed technophile Matt Bereda, Vice President of Global Consumer Marketing, was poised to tell us about the breadth of exciting new products on display.

“I love being part of what’s new and what’s going to be the latest and greatest in the industry, and Lenovo is definitely one of the best out there from an innovation perspective,” he states.

The new normal

Showcasing its new Yoga PC line, the AI-powered Lenovo Smart Assist and more, Lenovo’s tagline ‘Different is Better’ rang true at the conference.

“Our vision is very much dictated by intelligent transformation,” explains Bereda. “Right now, we’re seeing individual devices

becoming completely transformed through the rising incorporation of smart technologies.

“How can I use machine learning to optimise battery storage? How do we integrate voice control in new, effective and efficient ways? Is it possible to block out background noise during videocalls? These are the sorts of questions that we’re looking to answer in order to create a much more fluid, natural, dynamic environment for the consumer.”

A company clearly pioneering IoT development, Bereda highlights that the business’s current position is largely owed to Lenovo’s flexibility, readily working with major industry influencers in order to give itself the widest possible scope and remit.

“Lenovo is a very collaborative organisation,” he affirms. “We look at what works best for us, and rarely is it productive to say we’re a walled garden that’s Matt Bereda going to be locked down.

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booth floor the applications of VR in the classroom that are unlocking new experiences in education.

“Let’s take ancient Egypt, for example. Instead of students seeing the information in a book or on slides, can immerse the learner, allowing them to walk up instead of just seeing a flat image.”

Moreover, the company has similarly been focusing on developing enterprise applications using augmented reality, helping to benefit a range of professions such as engineers during training exercises.

“In my opinion, it’s really already an engagement gamechanger,” Bereda adds.

EME the firm’s major emphases, developing transportable infrastructure that are capable of supporting classrooms of around 30 students, allowing entire schools to gain access with reduced investment.

“We’re seeing the emergence of government grants really starting to support classrooms in this way, but equally we see it as our role to provide a VR solution that all students can easily and efficiently benefit from,” Bereda adds.

Nominated for Best Mobile Innovation for Education by event organisers GSMA off the back of its Virtual Reality Classroom efforts, Bereda is optimistic that the coming

“We’re partnering with more traditional companies like Microsoft and Intel, and some emerging players like Amazon, Disney and Google, for example, all while engaging with the consumers themselves earlier and earlier to pinpoint what works and what doesn’t.”

Empowering engagement

This approach is no more evident than in the company’s growing presence in the mixed reality sphere.

Its flagship Mirage Solo standalone virtual reality headset incorporates Google’s Daydream VR platform, the pair having created a device that has completely transformed the functionality of these technologies for end users.

Further, Lenovo’s work with The Wild Immersion is a key showcase to this end, helping transport students into the Amazon Jungle.

“MR is a category that we feel has a lot of future potential,” Bereda states.

“We’re actually demonstrating on our

Broadening horizons

As part of this, enabling greater accessibility to these technologies is a growing focus of Lenovo, aiming to not only bring new capabilities to market but equally ensure that they’re made available to children of all ages and backgrounds.

“It’s an unfortunate reality that many youngsters may not get much of a chance to travel in their lifetimes,” Bereda reveals. “That’s why we see this technology as being truly influential. It can help to broaden horizons and provide a greater global outlook to many children.”

Hence, portable solutions are one of

year will continue to show similar promise within this sphere.

“How my kids engage with technology is totally different from how I interacted with it as a youngster,” he muses, reminiscing about overhead projects and smart whiteboards. “Their perspective on technology is completely different from mine, they’ve grown up with it and it’s something they can relate to much more, and this makes it perfect for education.”

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M W C

F A V O U R I T E S

What’s your favourite thing about MWC? We asked our experts what were their favourite experiences were from this year’s Mobile World Congress 2019

Senior Director, SAP Cloud Platform Product Marketing

Houman Modarres Director of Enterprise Marketing, Nokia “Unexpectedly running into old colleagues, catching up with friends and experiencing new introductions make MWC what it is. It’s such a wonderful place to be exposed to amazing people and ideas, and I always find myself leaving with a whole handful of things that I never even knew existed.”

Vishy Gopalakrishnan Vice President of Ecosystem and Innovation, AT&T “It’s the sheer immersion factor. You can read, you can consume content, but there’s nothing quite like walking though the main floors and seeing the sheer breadth of innovation that goes on globally.

“The scope of this event has widened as mobile technologies are now touching everything.”

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Emily Mui

“I love being in Barcelona, and I think it is great city to host this event. There are other MWC events in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Shanghai, but this is where it’s at, in my opinion.”

Matt Bereda Vice President of Global Marketing, Lenovo “A part of me would say the tapas in Barcelona, it’s really outstanding. But in all seriousness, Mobile World Congress is a great mix between the commercial, front-end space and the back-end, networking side of things.

“You get a very large spectrum, and it’s great being able to see all the pieces of the product puzzle fit together.”

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Gee Rittenhouse Senior Vice President, Security Business Group, Cisco “Seeing customers and seeing partners. This community is small, although you wouldn’t believe it with 100,000-plus people here under one roof. But it’s true, so reengaging with old friends makes for a great time.

“I went to MWC in Cannes, France, where they used to just have boats. The event’s profile is rising rapidly.”

Patrick Imbach Head of KPMG Tech Growth “This year I want to see the foldable phones. The concept is good and I’ve heard good things about their functionality, but I need some convincing on whether the weight and size are right. This is the biggest and most striking mobile innovation we have seen over the past two or three years. It is also exciting to see this next level of innovation driven by a company other than Apple.

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Phil Skipper Head of Business Development (IoT), Vodafone Business “For me it is an opportunity to get a bit of a sense check.

I can come to one place, speak to loads of people I know and test the water for many concepts that we are developing, not only with customers but also in contrast to what our competitors are doing. It is a great way of getting a good, concise, concentrated look at the market in one go.”

“On the startup side, I am excited to see what more corporates are doing to work with smaller companies. I want to see how they can learn from these agile enterprises, and how in turn the bigger businesses can support them.”

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