Managed.IT - issue 51

MANAGED.IT 5 BULLETIN bulletin Top 10 emerging technologies Technology industry trade association CompTIA has created a new member community to promote the adoption of new and emerging technologies by industry influencers, business leaders and IT channel companies. In its first official action, the Emerging Technology Community has identified 10 technologies that its members believe will present the greatest opportunities and have the biggest impact on business operations in the years to come. These are: 1 Internet of Things 2 Automation 3 Artificial Intelligence 4 Augmented Reality/ Virtual Reality 5 5G Wireless 6 3D Printing 7 Drones 8 Biometrics 9 Blockchain 10 Quantum Computing www.comptia.org/ communities/emerging- technology LiFi world first for Kyle Academy Scottish secondary school pupils have become the first in the world to benefit from LiFi technology, which uses light to establish high-speed wireless internet connections. The project at Kyle Academy in Ayr, Scotland is being conducted by pureLiFi, the University of Edinburgh and Scottish Futures Trust, with the help of a £16,000 grant from the Scottish Government’s Digital Schools initiative. LiFi technology is a secure, high-speed, bi- directional, networked wireless communication technology that uses light waves rather than radio waves to transmit data. When installed alongside Wi-Fi, the additional bandwidth it provides reduces network congestion, enabling students to stream videos and download resources. The pureLiFi system at Kyle Academy is made up of eight ceiling-mounted LiFi-enabled LED light bulbs, which connect to LiFi-XC Stations plugged into student laptops. https://purelifi.com/ technology/ Falling revenues could boost IT investment More than nine out of 10 UK business chiefs (93%) expect revenue to fall next year, according to research by MHR Analytics, a specialist provider of business intelligence and analytics solutions. Brexit was the largest factor, cited by 57% of the 200 decision- makers in large and medium-sized businesses surveyed, followed by reduced customer spending (22%) and GDPR (10%). More than half of businesses (59%) plan to address any fall in revenue by boosting IT spend. Just under half expect to increase investment in marketing (48%) and sales (46%). mhranalytics.com CIOs face balancing act New privacy regulations and the need to make more use of enterprise data are driving investment in data management initiatives, reveals a new report from ASG Technologies. According to The Future of Enterprise Data: Democratized and Optimized , compliance is the largest driver of data management initiatives for half of the 200 CIOs surveyed for the report. One third (35%) say they plan to increase their investment in data governance next year in response to new privacy regulations such as GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act. The report highlights the extent to which CIOs are having to balance the requirement for compliance with the need to provide greater access to data so that more employees can make business decisions based on data-driven insights. Almost three-quarters (70%) of CIOs report that they have deployed a self-service data catalogue or business intelligence tool to enable employees to access and leverage business data. In addition, 50% of CIOs feel that better self-service data management tools could cut user requests for data in half, reducing the burden on IT teams. Currently, IT teams are the biggest users of enterprise data within businesses (81%), followed by finance teams (64%), marketing teams (63%) and business development teams (57%). Two-thirds of CIOs report that only half of their organisation’s assets are available digitally, compared to 30% with three quarters of data available digitally. AI enlisted to protect honey bees The World Bee Project and Oracle are setting up an international network of smart hives that make use of artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing to provide unprecedented insight into bee behaviour and environmental conditions. Data and analysis will be shared with research and conservation projects around the world to help conserve declining honey bee populations. The programme is launching with a pilot project in Reading, carried out in partnership with The University of Reading’s School of Agriculture, Policy and Development. Smart hives incorporating a variety of sensors will monitor everything from temperature, humidity and honey yield levels to the movement of bees’ wings and feet. Data collected will be fed into the Oracle Cloud, where it will be analysed using AI and data visualisation technologies. It is hoped that closer monitoring of hives and environmental conditions will enable bee-keepers to take action to protect colonies, for example by removing a predator like the invasive Asian Hornet or by stopping a colony from swarming at the wrong time of year. England’s honey bee population declined by 54% between 1985 and 2005 due to loss of flower habitats, intensive farming methods, climate change and use of pesticides. http://worldbeeproject.org www.managedITmag.co.uk The Future of Enterprise Data: DemocratizedandOptimized THE2018ASGCIOREPORT