We talk IoT – the Smart Industry Podcast

74% of all data breaches can be traced back to so-called privileged users – system administrators, service accounts, domain admins and the like – according to a report published by Forbes. Thycotic, an American cyber security company based in Washington, D.C., specializes in Digital Identity and Access Management and more specifically in Privileged Access Management (PAM) solutions. Stefan Schweizer is Thycotic's regional VP for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and a noted cybersecurity expert. He joins us to talk about the special risk posed by privileged users in IoT environments.

The latest buzzword in IoT is “conversational AI”, and it seems to be everywhere nowadays. Talking machines are weather forecasters, travel agents, financial advisors. Known collectively as “bots”, they're taking over customer service in a big way. Today, we're joined by Michael Baldauf, Ambassador Financial Services EMEA at Pegasystems, a leading provider of software solutions for sales, marketing and services, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to talk with us about the spread of bots.

Digitization and networking are penetrating ever deeper into classical production environments. But the boundaries between OT and IT, between operational technology and good old-fashioned information technology, are becoming blurred, and that creates new challenges in defending against cyberattacks. Sebastian Ganshow is Director of Cybersecurity Solutions at NTT Ltd., a member of the Japanese conglomerate that started out in 1870 as the operator of Japan's first telegraph system and is today one of the five top global technology and business solutions providers in the world. Gartner recently positioned NTT Ltd. as a Leader in their Magic Quadrant for Global Network Services.

Electric vehicles or EVs are cool, but there are still twists in the road to market maturity. From accessibility and standardization issues to a lack of convenient and secure payment methods at charging stations, these could still throw a spoke in the wheel of electromobility. We are joined by Thomas Wagner of in-tech, a pioneer smart charging company based in Leipzig, and Thomas Foj, Director Vertical Market EMEA at Avnet Silica, to talk about the future of EV Charging.

IoT continues to shape our lives in a world that is transforming – often in some pretty confusing and unexpected ways. So it's comforting to know that somebody, at least, knows which direction we're heading and what steps to take. One of them is Pete Bernard of Microsoft. His official title is “Senior Director, Silicon and Telecom, Azure Edge Devices, Platform & Services”. Also in this episode, Kenta Yasukawa, founder of Soracom, a Japanese technology innovator, talks about the future of IoT connectivity.

Rob Tiffany, Head of IoT Strategy at Ericsson, the Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company, joins us to share his experience on the IoT connectivity landscape and the future of connectivity for IoT. Also: Candid Wuest, VP of Cyber Protection Research at Acronis, a Swiss software company and a global leader in backup and disaster recovery on new threat trends and comprehensive protection methods.

Plume was founded in 2014 with the premise that a device is only as intelligent as the network it's connected to. CMO Todd Grantham on self-optimizing WiFi solutions and the future of connectivity. Also: Didier Lesteven, COO of Wallix, a French provider of state-of-the-art data protection and access management solutions, whose motto is “cybersecurity simplified”.

Gerd Leonhard is Europe's foremost futurist, as well as a bestselling author (“Technology vs. Humanity”) and a regular columnist for our parent magazine, Smart Industry – the IoT Business Magazine. In this month's podcast, Gerd talks with his longtime friend, Tim Cole, editoir-in-chief of Smart Industry, about ways for companies to future-proof their business, as well as his blueprint for “The Good Future”.

Eddy Solutions, an award-winning North American manufacturer of smart water metering products, recently teamed up with MachineQ, a Comcast Company that specializes in long-range, low-power IoT solutions at scale that fill various business needs. For this's podcast we welcome two guests: Shyka Ghanbarian, Vice President of Sales and Business Development, Eddy Solutions, and Bryan Witkowski, Executive Director, Head of Strategic Planning, MachineQ.

FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays) are semiconductor chips that can be reconfigured again and again to fit new needs. We talked with Chetan Khona, Director Industrial, Vision, Healthcare & Sciences at Xilinx, the company that literally invented the FPGA, about what they mean for IoT. Also featured: Raz Roditti of Razor Labs, an Israeli startup, on how to turn clunky heavy industrial machinery into state-of-the-art smart machines.

What does it feel like to be the victim of a highly sophisticated cyberattack? Thomas Pilz, CEO of Pilz Industries, a global leader in industrial automation, talks about his experience and what others can learn from it in this no-holds-barred interview. He is followed by Roy Dagan, co-founder and CEO of SecuriThings, a company based in Tel Aviv that claims to offer the first IoTOps solution designed to help organizations maximize their devices' operational efficiency and security.

In our latest podcast, Vincent Korstanje, CEO of Kigen, an Israeli startup specializing in strong identity management, discusses one of the most fundamental issues in IoT – trust! Also joining us is Michael Jansen, founder and CEO of Cityzenith, who says he is on a personal mission to transform life in cities around the globe.

IoT promises to connect everything with everything else but setting up all the connections can be tricky, demanding lots of coding and other kinds of expert knowledge. In this podcast, Pedro Pine of Domatica, a Portugese IoT solution provider, tells listeners about his company’s flagship product, the IoT Cube which delivers IoT with absolutely no coding required! He is joined by Martin Milter Bay, who is in charge of Cyber Security at Avnet Silica for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, who will tell us how Avnet can offer highly secure provisioning of electronic components in the supply chain and distribution.

Today, beer destined for pubs and restaurants is usually shipped in stainless-steel and hence reusable kegs, but this requires a complex system of logistics for both delivery and return. Konvoy, an Australian startup, is in the process of further transforming keg management and making it both more efficient and profitable thanks to IoT, says CEO Adam Trippe-Smith. He is joined by Serguei Beloussov, founder and CEO of Acronis. Based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, Acronis is ranked by analysts as a leader in backup software, disaster recovery, and secure data access.

Most people consider slavery to be a thing of the dark and distant past. Then why is StopTheTraffik, a non-profit based in London, using state-of-the-art IoT technology to track human trafficking today? “Because it’s a billion-dollar a year business”, says CEO Dame Ruth Dearnly. In addition, we talk with Rudi Potgieter of VOX, a South-African startup that has created an IoT-enabled assistance network for the elderly called Vox ICE which he describes as the “electronic eyes and ears of caregivers”.

Sigfox claims to be the largest global IoT network provider. Joining us is Ludovic de Moan, co-founder and CEO of Sigfox, to talk about the value of data. Also: John Gikopoulos, Global Head of AI and Automation at Infosys, to discuss how IoT and AI and Robot Process Automation or RPA are starting a new industrial revolution.

The world of IoT is changing rapidly, and the right supplier can be tricky, says Lou Lutostanski, Vice President, Internet of Things at Avnet, a leading global distributor of electronic components and services – and incidentally the sponsor of this podcast. Also: Marc Dupaquier, co-founder and managing director of Cartesiam, a French startup, on bringing blazing-fast reaction time by bringing data collection, processing, and reporting as close to the end user as possible through edge computing.

The hype surrounding 5G has been building for years, and business leaders making bold claims about what they’ll do with 5G capabilities. Adel Al Saleh, CEO of the German global IT services and consulting company T-Systems and a member of the board of its parent company, Deutsche Telekom, discusses how 5G networks will create a smarter, more connected world with better mobile service, safer streets and enhanced entertainment. Not to mention huge profits for the carriers, of course. Also: Prof. Dieter Kempf, President the Federation of German Industries (BDI), on why Germans count differently than the rest of the world – they’re already into the fourth Industrial Revolution!

Marcel Weiss Stian Overdahl The ‘last 50 feet’ are be the true bottleneck for e-commerce growth, says Marcel Weiss, an experienced journalist and author of a major article on the subject in the current issue of Smart Industry. In our latest podcast, he talks about how startups and online retailers are striving to close that last gap. Also: Our author Stian Overdahl on how customs and border protection experts are looking to IoT and AI to make borders more secure and border patrolling more efficient.

Bentsi Ben-Atar is Chief Marketing Officer of Sepio, a super-secret Israeli company that specializes in protecting us against malicious hardware: rogue devices with mysterious names like “Packet Squirrel” or “Plunder Bug”. They are physically plugged into networks where they listen and siphon off critical business info. In addition: Alan Earls on ubiquitous IoT and how we can ever hope to keep up with the exponential growth of billions of connected devices all over the world.

Hardware and sensors are driving progress in IoT today. To discuss the latest trends, we invited Dr. Gunther Kegel of Pepperl+Fuchs, a worldwide specialist in both factory and process automation, and Frank Hansen, Vice President Technical Resources and Marketing at Avnet Silica, the European semiconductor specialist division of Avnet, Inc.. They will discuss how vendors and application developers should respond and what the impact of artificial intelligence will be.

China is betting big on IoT with huge investments in cutting-edge technologies. Our author Greg Langley answers a few very important questions, like: Does this mean it will come to dominate the industry? And should the West be worried? Also: Avnet Silica's "Mister Microsoft" talks about Azure Cloud and the IoT Connect platform.

"We're creating an ecosystem for developers where we empower people to create products, source the components, launch them on hackster and, if the signal says people love what you do and we want more of it, we then tell them, Now you can work with Avnet to make it happen." In the latest edition of We Talk IoT, the Smart Industry podcast, editor Tim Cole sits down with Adam Benzion, founder and CEO of Hackster.io, which bills itself as the world’s largest and fastest growing open-source hardware community.

AI is now making it possible not just to monitor the real-time condition of earth and it's environmental systems, but it's also making it possible to manage and dramatically reduce the impacts of human activity on the environment. In the latest installment of We Talk IoT - the monthly podcast brought to you by Avnet Silica, author Gordon Feller discusses his upcoming title story, "How AI Can Save the World", in Smart Industry, the IoT Business Magazine.

How does AI transform business? Will banks conquer tech, or will tech conquer banks?

We Talk IoT, the Smart Industry podcast, keeps you up to date on the most important developments in the world of IoT, IIoT, Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Computing. Listen to leading industry experts, business professionals and experienced journalists as they discuss some of today’s hottest tech topics and how they can help boost your bottom line.