Podcasts about futurum tech webcast

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, Interview Series, our conversation today centers on the integration of two worlds in manufacturing environments to achieve digitalization and Industry 4.0. In many manufacturing environments there is the physical world, or OT systems, composed of machines and industrial equipment. Then there is the digital world, or IT systems, composed of servers, networking, and other apps to run and process data. Thanks to advances in technology, we are seeing a convergence of these two worlds, but there are still a number of challenges that organizations must overcome. In this episode, I'm joined by Silvio Rasek, Head of Marketing, Factory Automation and Smart Data, Siemens, to discuss common challenges we are seeing with the IT/OT convergence and what Siemens is doing to help organizations overcome these roadblocks and find success. Our conversation centered on the following: Current trends that are impacting today's production environment The opportunities that come with connecting the shop floor to IT systems Top barriers to implementing smart factories and complete IT/OT convergence How organizations can overcome these barriers An overview of the Siemens Mindsphere and Siemens Xcelerator open digital business platform that will support the IT/OT convergence This was a great conversation and one you don't want to miss. If you would like to learn more about Siemens Mindsphere or Siemens Xcelerator, you can get more information here.

On this special episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast – Interview Series I am joined by Hans Kroes, Global VP and Head of the Industry Business unit for Professional Services at SAP and Ross Dawson, Keynote Speaker, Strategy Advisor, Bestselling Author, and Entrepreneur. This is the first episode in a new series — done in partnership with SAP — where I will be speaking with advisors and executives across several different industries on the state of their industry and what we can expect in the future In our conversation we discussed the following: How the professional Services Industry has changed in recent years A deep dive into how knowledge-based services are changing the industry A look into how virtual firms and the shift to hybrid work are disrupting the industry The monetization trends that are driving changes Ways professional services firms can nurture talent more effectively An exploration of the impact platforms will have on the industry The professional services industry, like many other industries, had to rapidly accelerate digital transformation last year. My conversation with Hans explores how these changes are playing out across different areas in the industry and how technology can help. It's definitely one you don't want to miss. If you'd like to learn more about the industry, be sure to check out our research brief Driving Everything as a Service in Professional Services.

In this episode of The 5G Factor, a Futurum Tech Webcast series focused on news and happenings in the 5G and IoT ecosystem, I'm joined by my colleague and fellow analyst, Ron Westfall. Our conversation today covered: Elon Musk's Starlink turning on 5G, protesting (this time) DISH Network's proposal to use the 12 GHz radio spectrum for a 5G cellular network. AT&T, DISH Network, and CableLabs are among the top U.S. companies and organizations that have stepped forward to handle the O-RAN Alliance's activities in North America this year. Why that is and what that means. The news of NEC acquiring Aspire Technology was big, and we explored the significance there as we move toward a global adoption of Open RAN 5G. T-Mobile and Oceus have formed a strategic alliance to delivery key offerings to the U.S. Government, starting with the DoD. Why that alliance makes sense, and what they're focused on.

On this episode of the Futurum Tech Podcast – Interview Series, Ron Westfall and Steven Dickens are joined by distinguished guests Andy Hartland, Senior Consultant at Mainline Information Systems and Andrew Gracey, Product Manager for Developer Experience as SUSE. Our discussion focused on the major trends and drivers as well as the main challenges in optimizing container management capabilities across swiftly evolving developer and IT Operations environments. Aligned with our discussion, we drilled down in our latest white paper, SUSE's Innovation Engine Roars: SUSE Rancher Now on IBM zSystems and LinuxONE — done in partnership with SUSE — to explore why many organizations such as Mainline Information Systems rely on IBM's zSystems and LinuxONE infrastructure to fulfill their container and Kubernetes requirements. How open-source adoption and IT operations that rely on technologies like Kubernetes running on IBM zSystems and LinuxONE based platforms can use SUSE Rancher to drive transformation without sacrificing the power of rapidly emerging new operational cloud-native paradigms. Our conversation with Andy and Andrew highlighted the following top considerations: What were Mainline's main objectives for adopting SUSE Rancher Why customers want SUSE Rancher on their mainframes Mainline's experience in adopting SUSE Rancher How customers are gaining value from SUSE Rancher implementations Why organizations should consider adopting SUSE Rancher over do-it-yourself Kubernetes implementations It was a great and stimulating conversation and one you don't want to miss. Interested in learning more about SUSE Rancher on IBM zSystems and LinuxONE? Want to learn more about the SUSE Rancher portfolio and why it's well-suited to fulfilling the pivot to containerized microservices and reimagining cloud native infrastructures? Check out our latest report — SUSE's Innovation Engine Roars: SUSE Rancher Now on IBM zSystems and LinuxONE — done in collaboration with SUSE.

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Podcast – Interview Series, I am joined by Ashok Kurian, Director of Data and Analytics at Texas Children's Hospital, and Matt Hausmann, Director of Marketing for HPE Ezmeral, for a conversation focusing on innovation and technology advancement in the healthcare industry. In our conversation we discussed the following: Opportunities and challenges that healthcare organizations face with AI, ML, and data analytics How Texas Children's Hospital is leveraging data to improve the patient experience and expand pediatric research Unique ways that HPE and Texas Children's Hospital are working together It was a great conversation and one you don't want to miss. To learn more about HPE check out their website here, and to learn more about the Texas Children's Hospital check their website here.

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, principal analyst Shelly Kramer sat down with Pegasystems' CTO Don Schuerman for a conversation about what's new, and what's next in transformative tech and a glimpse into what's ahead at Pega's PegaWorld iNspire 2022 event.   You can register for PegaWorld iNspire 2022 here – it's free, accessible on demand if you don't catch it live, and well worth your time to check out.  

In this episode of The 5G Factor, a Futurum Tech Webcast focused on all things 5G, analysts Shelly Kramer and Ron Westfall take a look at what's happening across the 5G ecosystem. Today's show focused on partnerships and 5G focused initiatives between AT&T and Northrop Grumman, Intel and Lockheed, Mavenir and Aspire, Cisco and Verizon, along with a look at Qualcomm's efforts in providing security requirements and best practices for the O-RAN Alliance, and news of the $600M award by the DoD to vendors including AT&T, Ericsson, Nokia, Federated Wireless, and others earmarked for 5G testbed R&D.

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, Interview Series, Futurum principal analyst Shelly Kramer sits down with SAP's Amanda Mountain, Global Vice President of SAP Digital Commerce for a conversation on Earth Day 2022 about all things sustainability. Sustainability is, without question, the new business imperative, and in this webcast we shared some interesting research about customer thoughts on sustainability, advice on how organizations can plan their sustainability inititiaves, and technology solutions designed to help speed progress on the sustainability front along.

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, Interview Series, Futurum principal analyst Shelly Kramer sits down with Frank Wu, an Automation Strategist for Red Hat's Global Financial Services division, for a conversation about all things automation as it relates to the financial services industry. Their conversation touched on the role automation is playing in the FSI industry, the challenges FSIs face, including a dearth of highly skilled tech talent, the maturity curve for FSIs as it relates to adopting automation, the challenges around existing investments and legacy operating systems and how to navigate those challenges, and what FSI leaders should consider when evaluating automation platforms and potential vendor partners.  

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, Interview Series, Futurum principal analyst Shelly Kramer is joined David Maidment, Senior Director, Secure Devices Ecosystem at Arm for a conversation about IoT security and why and how it's so quickly become a priority for organizations. They also explore the role PSA Certified is playing on that front and how organizations can benefit from its expert IoT security framework and certification, as well as why 2022 is predicted to be a significant turning point for IoT security.

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, Interview Series, Futurum principal analyst Shelly Kramer is joined by Alexandr Sadovoy, Solution Architect for MindSphere products, Siemens, to discuss the challenges facing manufacturing organizations today, and what Siemens is doing, specifically as it relates to Siemens Industry Software, to help them achieve their goals. 

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, Interview Series, I'm joined by Tara DeZao, Product Marketing Director, AdTech and MarTech at Pegasystems for timely conversation about the shift away from third party data and what that means for marketers. Over the last few years, there has been a lot of concern around the amount of data that is used to track us. Every action we take online is tracked, which can be disconcerting when you think about it. But we are on the precipice of a new era. Data deprecation, or the process of limiting what data advertisers and marketers have access to, is slowly picking up steam. And while this is great for consumers, it's adding in a layer of complexity for brands who still need to deliver personalized customer experiences. We at a crossroads. The organizations that serve up quick, efficient, personalized, and intuitive experiences can because of their access to data. Those are the kind of experiences we crave as consumers. So as organizations shift from third party data, what do marketers need to know to still be able to provide those experiences? Tara and I explored the topic in great detail.  Here are some of the highlights from our conversation: An overview of the data privacy laws and regulations that have passed in the last half decade that have gotten us to where we are currently. A look at how control over personal data is going back to the consumer. How the data privacy changes have disrupted the digital marketing environment. How brands are using data to create personalized customer experiences how consumers are reacting to these experiences. An overview of how tech companies like Google and Apple are driving data depreciation and what marketers need to know about the changes. How Pega can help marketers navigate this transformation. We closed the conversation talking about how Pega can help marketers navigate this transformation at whatever speed is best for their organization and where we think brands and marketers should be focused for the future.

In this recent episode of The 5G Factor, part of the Futurum Tech Webcast series, analysts Ron Westfall and Shelly Kramer examined the recent FCC Auction 110, also dubbed the Andromeda auction. The auction yielded some $22 billion in bids, with AT&T and Verizon walking away with the lion's share of the spectrum licenses, with spends of around $9 billion and $7.3 billion respectively. 

For this vignette of a recent episode of The 5G Factor, part of the Futurum Tech Webcast, analysts Ron Westfall and Shelly Kramer assess T-Mobile's fulfillment of its mission to source 100% of its total electricity usage with renewable energy (RE100) by the end of 2021. T-Mobile attained this milestone by coordinating a renewable energy strategy that encompassed eight virtual power agreements, 19 retail agreements, one Green Direct program, and unbundled Renewable Energy Certificates that support projects nationwide.

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast's series, The 5G Factor, Futurum analysts Shelly Kramer and Ron Westfall talk T-Mobile/Verizon and the Super Bowl, Ericsson's role in unlocking 5G core and what this means for CSPs, Swedish-based Kollmorgen's partnership with Ericsson and the results of their testing robots and comparing wifi against 5G in industrial/manufacturing settings, Cisco entering the private 5G market, and Vodafone UK tapping Oracle to spearhead network policy. 

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, broadcast originally on LinkedIn Live, Futurum lead analyst Shelly Kramer talks with Amplience's VP of Product Marketing Adam Sturrock about how the headless commerce experience platform is driving digital transformation in a massive way for brands and retailers. Their conversation touched on the challenges today's brands and retailers face, key industry trends driving a need for agility and rapid transformation, and what's ahead in 2022.

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, host and principal analyst Shelly Kramer sits down with Chris Carlstead and Kelley Lear from Thomson Reuters to talk about how automating procurement is a game-changer in myriad ways.

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, Interview Series, Futurum's Shelly Kramer is joined by HRIZONS President and CEO for a discussion about HR Tech and the role it plays in providing solutions to the challenges being faced by a tech-enabled workforce, and the adjustments they are having to make to survive and prosper in a working world defined by the realities of a hybrid workplace.

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast series, The 5G Factor, lead analyst Shelly Kramer recaps T-Mobile's Neville Ray's recent AMA with the Reddit community, on all things 5G, including network updates, some 5G deployment use cases and other interesting updates.

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, Interview Series, host Shelly Kramer is joined by Avalara's Maria Tringali for a conversation about the nuances of sales tax compliance and how an end-to-end software solution can not only help mitigate risk related to compliance issues, but also make life infinitely easier for businesses of all sizes.

For this vignette of a recent episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, part of the 5G Factor series, analysts Ron Westfall and Shelly Kramer break down the key takeaways from the GSMA produced The Mobile Economy North America - 2021 report released in conjunction with MWC Los Angeles 2021 show, including the major North American trends through 2025, evolving mobile operator content strategies, and expanding private network drivers.

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, Interview Series, Futurum lead analyst Shelly Kramer is joined by Sodales' Kirsty Thompson for a conversation about enterprise health, safety, and environment management software. With workplace-related injuries costing businesses upwards of $1 billion per week, not counting the very real hits to productivity and morale for employees for whom well-being is a key concern, there's no time like the present for business leaders to transition business operations from relying on poorly managed, siloed employee health and safety programs to best-in-class solutions.

In this episode of The 5G Factor, part of the Futurum Tech Webcast family of content, I'm joined by my colleague and fellow analyst, Ron Westfall for our weekly look at what's happening the world of 5G. Our conversation today explored the following: The Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill is good news for efforts to bridge the digital divide. Passage of the bipartisan Infrastructure Bill and the good news that brings for expanding broadband and 5G connectivity across the nation, closing the digital divide and allocating millions to a variety of different initiatives, as well as $100 million to each of the states. Data from the GSMA report: 2021 The Mobile Economy North America including the fact that in North America, $1 trillion of mobile technologies and services generated 4.4% of GDP in North America in 2020, which is a contribution equivalent to $1 trillion of economic value added. Wonder why we focus so much on 5G — these numbers are only going up! Ron broke down growth we can expect ahead, content strategies for CSPs and partnerships we're seeing, along with some info on private networks, which we've covered here frequently Qualcomm had an impressive Investor Day 2021 event this last week and we wrapped the show talking about some of Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon's vision, the diversification strategies the company has and is embracing, and how that's paying off and will continue to do so for the technology giant now and in the future.

In today's episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, Cybersecurity Shorts Series, I'm joined by Dell Technologies' John Boyle and Rick Martinez. John is a cybersecurity and supply chain defense product manager and Rick is a senior distinguished engineer and a senior director at Dell. Our conversation today revolved around the current state of the cybersecurity industry, supply chain attacks, fed policy and orders, why zero trust is a thing these days, and more. Some highlights of the discussion with Rick and John included: Recent breaches and trends. Discussion around the major cybersecurity breaches that have recently happened, including: Colonial pipeline JBS Foods New Cooperative hack and response and trends around those attacks, as well as how/whether COVID and other things have contributed to the frequency of attacks. Speaking of supply chain. Supply chain attacks are expected to quadruple in 2021 – and why a posture of ‘strong security protection' is no longer enough. President Biden's executive order. This order, signed at the end of July to protect America's critical infrastructure and what that involves. Zero Trust. We're hearing a lot about zero trust being the right security posture for the future. Rick elaborates a bit on that and provided some examples. What industries are most at risk? Our conversation moved to thoughts on what industries are most at risk and how organizations who don't have a security posture in place are struggling. What can businesses do to protect themselves and some key technologies that can be adopted that will make a difference. Overview of Dell security offerings both above and below the OS worth considering.

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, The 5G Factor series, analysts Shelly Kramer and Ron Westfall cover 5G industry news, announcements coming out of this week's MWC event, along with news about how 5G is being used in stadiums to power better fan experiences. They also cover recently announced partnerships, including those between Samsung and Ciena, Nothing and Qualcomm, IBM and Cisco/Palo Alto Networks and Rakuten/Intel and Juniper, then wrap with a short overview of the sessions Shelly moderated at this week's AT&T's Business Summit event.

In an attempt to distance itself from negative publicity while putting in place a new corporate structure better suited for the future, Facebook has rebranded and restructured itself into a new parent company, Meta, and a suite of individuals brands. In this edition of the Futurum Tech Webcast, analysts Fred McClimans, Olivier Blanchard, Ron Westfall and Steven Dickens take a look at what this means for the future of Meta's Metaverse.

In this short episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, I sit down with Jim Elliott, Corporate SVP of Memory Sales for Samsung to discuss what customer collaboration stories we might hear at Samsung Tech Day 2021 on November 15, 2021. The conversation covered: How Samsung and its partners are pushing performance barriers across memory, CPUs, and the overall semiconductor industry. How much pressure the IT community has been under due in large part to the digital transformations experienced during the pandemic. There is lots to come during Samsung Tech Day 2021 and it's sure to be a great event. If you are interested in attending, register here.

In this short episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, I talk with Jim Elliott, Corporate SVP of Memory Sales for Samsung about the technology showcases that attendees can expect to experience at Samsung Tech Day 2021 on November 15, 2021. The conversation highlighted: The 10 technology showcases covering disaggregated storage, memory workloads, networking interfaces, and CXLs just to name a few. How Samsung plans to partner with customers to address the industry challenges that they are seeing with new innovations There is lots to come during Samsung Tech Day 2021 and it's sure to be a great event. If you are interested in attending, register here.

In this short episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, I talk with Jim Elliott, Corporate SVP of Memory Sales for Samsung about the colleges and universities who will be participating in Samsung Tech Day 2021 on November 15, 2021 and some of the subject matter they will be covering. The conversation highlighted: The schools who are participating in Tech Day including MIT, UCLA, Carnegie Mellon and UC Santa Cruz MIT's session on flash and storage accelerators UC Santa Cruz's session on leading edge genomics research UCLA's session on utilizing in-storage SSV's Carnegie Mellon's session on programmable logic and the future of data centers  There is lots to come during Samsung Tech Day 2021 and it's sure to be a great event. If you are interested in attending, register here.

In this short episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, I sit down with Jim Elliott, Corporate SVP of Memory Sales for Samsung to explore some key sessions to look forward to during Samsung Tech Day 2021 on November 15, 2021 and what attendees can expect to walk away with. The conversation highlighted: The opening keynote by Memory Business President Jung-Bae Lee Presentations from leaders of Samsung's solutions groups A keynote session from EVP of Sales and Marketing Jinman Han about what is powering this memory revolution There is lots to come during Samsung Tech Day 2021 and it's sure to be a great event. If you are interested in attending, register here.

In this Futurum Tech Webcast, Futurum Lead Analyst Shelly Kramer sits down with Dirk Häußermann of ATOSS for a conversation on the difference workforce management solutions can make for organizations looking to improve the employee experience.

In this excerpt from our Futurum Tech Webcast, Cybersecurity Shorts Series, Futurum analysts Shelly Kramer and Fred McClimans explore the Twitch hack and why a massive hack of this nature is a nightmare for infosec community — and should be a wakeup call as it relates to the primacy of network security.

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, Cybersecurity Shorts series, analysts Shelly Kramer and Fred McClimans cover the goings on in the world of cybersecurity. This week's conversation includes the Facebook outage and (unrelated) claims of scraped data from 1.5 billion Facebook users available in a hacker forum, as well as a deep dive into the deets on the Twitch hack. They also covered the Syniverse hack that provided access to millions of text messages and customer information for a period of many years (and the impact on Syniverse's teleco customers), the Atos win of an R&D project with ESA, along with a new bill proposed by Senator Elizabeth Warren given victims of ransomware attacks 48 hours to report payments to their hackers. 

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, Interview Series, my guest John Bruno, the VP of Strategy for PROS, and I are having a conversation about the ever-changing state of B2B commerce. Today's business customers are expecting more and more from companies in terms of not just product quality, but also customer experience. And a large part of customer experience is providing compelling offers in a way that is fast, consistent, easy, and transparent, and offering relevant prices to make the ordering process an efficient, hassle free one. That's a lot to ask at the end of a global pandemic. The good news is that smart technology solutions exist that can help. Our discussion centered on the following: Trends in the industry, including our research in the 2020 B2B Digital Buyer's Journey, indicating that some 80% of B2B buyers have eliminated traditional buying cycles and 63% said their business and tech requirements would never go back to pre-pandemic levels. The shift in customer expectations over the course of the last eighteen months and how this has impacted what we're seeing in the digital buyer's journey. Challenges organizations face with their omnichannel ecommerce strategies. The nuances that organizations must navigate with their pricing strategies. The critical role that pricing plays in successful ecommerce strategy. How prices can prices be delivered so that buyers can have the best experience possible transacting via eCommerce The shift by PROS to SaaS offerings as part of their platform and how PROS Smart Price Optimization and PROS Smart Configure Price Quote are being used by savvy customers. John shared some customer success stories as part of our conversation, illustrating the PROS platform in action and the specific ROI customers using pricing optimization technology are realizing. Background research: https://futurumresearch.com/research-notes/pros-launches-new-saas-editions-of-pricing-platform/ Futurum PROS report: https://futurumresearch.com/research-reports/how-ai-price-optimization-can-play-a-significant-role-in-both-business-growth-and-customer-experience/

For this vignette of a recent episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, part of the 5G Factor series, analysts Ron Westfall and Shelly Kramer examine Amdocs supplying the business support systems, including 5G monetization capabilities, for what Orange is touting as Europe's first 5G SA end-to-end experimental cloud network being built out in France. Their discussion covered: Why Orange promoting its 5G SA network development as an experimental cloud network is a shrewd marketing move that aligns with pragmatic expectations for 5G SA rollouts. The expanding role of AI in assuring and accelerating the automation of business processes and operations in software-centric, cloud native environments. With Orange targeting the support of hundreds of users by the end of 2021, it will become incumbent for the operator to produce lessons learned and viable use cases at the beginning of 2022. How Amdocs gains a sizable marketing boost from its inclusion in Orange's multi-vendor implementation of the operator's experimental hybrid cloud 5G SA network. Ron and Shelly view Orange's progress in rolling out its experimental 5G network as key to boosting its overall open 5G objectives, including Open RAN assimilation, and helping Europe keep pace with 5G SA deployments in North America, China, and Northeast Asia.   

For this vignette of a recent episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, part of the 5G Factor series, analysts Ron Westfall and Shelly Kramer explore Nokia's digital twin technology and its potential to significantly boost European communications service providers (CSPs) a significant revenue boost. Their discussion covered: Why digital twin technology is gaining broader market acceptance and is directly applicable to 5G network design and builds. The role of Nokia's digital twin solution for augmenting 5G network development in areas such as beamforming optimization and the selection of optimum bean sets in 3D recreated environments. The market impact of Nokia's assertion that for a European CSP, using a digital twin, Nokia's solution provides for 44% higher revenue than traditional methods. Ron and Shelly see Nokia's digital twin technology has holding great promise for European CSPs as well as CSPs in other regions and can advance not only the technical demands of 5G network development, such as optimized beamforming, but also financial objectives (i.e., bean counting).    

For this vignette of a recent episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, part of the 5G Factor series, analysts Ron Westfall and Shelly Kramer examine a report from Vodafone and WPI Economics advocating on the UK government to accelerate the deployment of 5G and IoT technology to help meet zero emission goals by 2050. Their discussion covered: The shrewd timing of Vodafone lobbying the UK government to advance nationwide sustainability goals after working with Ericsson to improve 5G network efficiency capabilities across the London portion of its network. How digital 5G and IoT technology can accelerate the attainment of UK net zero emission objectives (i.e., 4% reduction per annum) by targeting three verticals in particular: Manufacturing, Transportation, and Agriculture. Why Vodafone's proactive stance in working with the UK government to advance nationwide sustainability goals has society-wide benefits and not only telecommunications. Ron and Shelly view Vodafone's approach to working with the UK government in offering practical 5G and IoT solutions across three key industry verticals to achieve nationwide zero emission goals is laudatory and merits emulation by other mobile ecosystem players.     

In this vignette from a recent episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, part of The 5G Factor series, analysts Shelly Kramer and Ron Westfall discuss The National Science Foundation's (NSF) establishment of SpectrumX, a new center for wireless spectrum research in the U.S. The NSF has earmarked $25 million over the course of the next 5 years for research. They're focused on developing new ways of sharing and managing radio airwaves, which of course is a finite resource. This is crucial research because, as Ron pointed out, 5G technology supports Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS), which allows for operators to share both LTE and 5G within the same frequency band. This is an area covered very closely by Ron and Shelly, and in this short conversation, they shared insights on the exciting benefits they see coming from SpectrumX. These include: Increased collaboration with stakeholders, researchers, industry partners, and government agencies Ensuring the U.S. is positioning itself to lead the future of wireless technologies and systems How this research will support future network iterations including 6G. All of the above have huge implications for the future of 5G. Ron and Shelly believe the research and collaboration possibilities with SpectrumX will open new doors and drive the field forward.  

For this vignette of a recent episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, Part of the 5G Factor series, analysts Ron Westfall and Shelly Kramer examine the implications of the collaboration between Ericsson and Qualcomm in completing what they tout as the first over-the-air 5G New Radio call on CBRS (Citizen Broadband Radio Service) spectrum in a recent trial.   Their conversation covered: Why the 5G NR call on CBRS can help drive Industry 4.0 and 5G private network use cases. The suitability and relevance of CBRS shared spectrum for private networks. Where 5G private networks can deliver improvements over LTE private networks and boost ecosystem adoption of private networks. Ron and Shelly see the Ericsson and Qualcomm collaboration as boosting the adoption of 5G private networks, especially as 5G networks transition to standalone (SA) implementations that enable operators to take full advantage of 5G NR on CBRS capabilities.

In this Futurum Tech Webcast, Futurum Lead Analyst Shelly Kramer sits down with Gunter Appel and Jan Klockgeter of aconso for a conversation on digitizing HR documents and the difference this can make for enterprise organizations.  

For this vignette of a recent episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, Part of the 5G Factor series, analysts Ron Westfall and Shelly Kramer examine the partnership between Vodafone and Ericsson in the deployment of new energy-efficient 5G radios across the London, UK vicinity. Their conversation covered: Vodadone is using Ericsson's antenna-integrated radio solution (AIR 3227) that have produced a daily network energy consumption decrease by an average of 43% daily in relation to previous generations of radio solutions. Vodafone's plan to deploy 1500 of the Ericsson AIR 3227 units in Q2 2022 as integral to achieving organization-wide energy and sustainability objectives. How competition among the major RAN suppliers is yielding ever lighter compact radio products. The society-wide sustainability implications of Vodafone's 5G network energy efficiency breakthroughs. Ron and Shelly view the Vodafone and Ericsson collaboration as key in advancing energy efficiency metrics in better understanding the success of 5G network deployments and how 5G technology can play a pivotal role in meeting society-wide sustainability goals.  

For this vignette of a recent episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, Part of the 5G Factor series, analysts Ron Westfall and Shelly Kramer share their perspective on the Nokia's decision to pause its work in the O-RAN Alliance due to concerns related to working with China-based companies that are on the U.S. Department's restrictive Entity list. Their conversation addressed: Why the O-RAN Alliance is influential across the entire 5G mobile ecosystem and Nokia's decision is important. The factors behind Nokia's decision including the shutdown of ZTE in Q2 2018 for running afoul of U.S. trade and economic policies. How Nokia's decision amounts to what qualifies only as a kerfuffle since the O-RAN Alliance is one of many major organizations supporting standard-based Open RAN development and that resolving Nokia's concerns are at hand. Ron and Shelly see Nokia's decision to pause its contributions in the O-RAN Alliance as sound and that the prospect or idea of massive fallout in advancing the cause of Open RAN and Open 5G are over hyped and misplaced.   

For this vignette of a recent episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, Part of the 5G Factor series, analysts Shelly Kramer and Ron Westfall provide their perspectives on Ericsson's decision to divest its product research and development activities in Nanjing, China by November 2021.   Their conversation covered: Ericsson now has four R&D centers after the Nanjing R&D center divestment resulting in the apparent transfer of over 600 employees to TietoEVRY, a Finnish software provider with offices in China. How the move coincides with Ericsson's market share loss to China-based rivals like Huawei and ZTE in China's domestic 5G market. Why the decision of Ericsson's leadership to remain committed to the China mobile market is a strategically sound one as China is the global leader in 5G deployments today and is a key testbed for emerging 5G applications and capabilities. Why geopolitical tensions and China's recent economic and trade decisions may diminish China's own mobile ecosystem and standing over the long term. Shelly and Ron agree that doing business in China is becoming increasingly tricky today as developments such as new Edtech market regulations and Jack Ma's reduced presence are indicators that deal-making across the China tech market, including the 5G and mobile sections. will become more challenging.

In this episode of Futurum Tech Webcast series The 5G Factor, Futurum analysts Shelly Kramer and Ron Westfall cover interesting news in the 5G market. This week's conversation included discussions around: The announcement by Amdocs that it has been selected by Orange to provide business support systems for Europe's first 5G standalone experimental cloud network in France. This AI and data driven, software-enabled, cloud native network is a two year project and signs of exciting things ahead. Nokia's focus on making 5G networks more efficient, with an eye on 6G Nokia and digital twins, and Nokia's novel approach on that front. AT&T's partnership with the U.S. Military on 5G-focused R&D experiments with the Naval Postgraduate School, the Department of the Navy's applied research university. The National Science Foundation's establishment of SpectrumX, a center for wireless spectrum research in the U.S., focused on how to develop new ways of sharing and managing radio air waves to maximize this limited resource. Vodafone's sustainability report released this last week by Vodafone and WPI Economics, showing that 5G and I0T can help reduce C02 emissions in the UK, along with insights on the role digital technology could play in helping the government reach its sustainability goals of slashing emissions by 78% by 2035, and achieving net-zero by 2050.

For this vignette of a recent episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, Part of the 5G Factor series, analysts Shelly Kramer and Ron Westfall and examine the key trends in the 5G market assessing the market impact of the AT&T and GM alliance aimed at delivering 5G connectivity to GM cars in three years. Their discussion covered: The market significance of the GM and AT&T partnership that is bringing 5G cellular connectivity to select Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC vehicles by 2024 as well as supporting GM models from 2019 and newer that are equipped today with 4G LTE to migrate over to the 5G network. Why the alliance heralds the democratization of connected car technology and applications, including the NVIDIA Hyundai partnership's aim to bring 5G connectivity and advanced safety features. How 5G capabilities can make infotainment capabilities more flexible and safer. Understanding that the OnStar service connects about 60 million vehicles across US roadways today and how it can advance ecosystem-wide assimilation of 5G technology and features. How the Qualcomm acquisition of Veoneer further validates the connected car business case. Why Tesla's vision of automobiles as computer on wheels is coming closer to fruition. Shelly and Ron see the connected car segment gaining broader ecosystem support as the deployment of 5G networks accelerate and the expansion of major alliances assure broader adoption and interworking.

For this vignette of a recent episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, Part of the 5G Factor series, analysts Ron Westfall and Shelly Kramer examine why the Mavenir acquisition of Telestax improves the Mavenir Engage proposition and alters the competitive dynamics of the Communications Platform as a service (CPaaS) market.   Their discussion covered: How Mavenir's 5G and mobile networking expertise can swiftly differentiate the CPaaS capabilities of the Mavenir Engage platform as many of the established CPaaS providers, such as Vonage and Twilio, as well as tech titan like Cisco, Microsoft, and AWS targeting the space, don't have such in-house capabilities today Why 5G and API enablement are instrumental to unlocking enterprise value across verticals such as IoT, smart cities, and connected car, as well as providing turnkey applications and boosting use case networking for logistics, fleet management, AI/ML chatbots, voice biometrics verification, immersive commerce/entertainment, and additional use cases. How the deal strengthens Mavenir's portfolio to address emerging WFH, BYOD, and CPaaS security requirements across enterprise and managed service environments. Ron and Shelly see Mavenir making additional inroads in the CPaaS realm as operators increasingly prioritize 5G monetization and CPaaS technology evolves to assimilate a wider range of mobile/5G capabilities that fulfill digital workforce demands.  

For this vignette of a recent episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, Part of the 5G Factor series, analysts Shelly Kramer and Ron Westfall and examine the key trends in the 5G market focusing on recent developments in the Open RAN market segment including the rise of the “Rip and Replace” program in the U.S. Their discussion covered: Why the $1.9 billion U.S. “Rip and Replace” program administered by the FCC is gaining momentum among independent and regional carriers as provisions include the complete, and not partial, replacement of Huawei and ZTE equipment and operators have one year to complete the rip and replace process. How the rip and replace programs are generating both Open RAN and traditional RAN implementation. Mavenir's win with Triangle Communications for FWA applications shows Open RAN can play a role and Nokia's win with Union Wireless indicates traditional RAN as well as services will be instrumental. We expect the majority of rip and replace will use traditional RAN, particularly during early stages. Ericsson is working with 100+ independent telcos including @40% engaged in the rip and replace program and the expectation that number will rise to at least 50%. Why the Rip and Replace program may need to modify and extend its one year deadline. Ron and Shelly are anticipating more rip and replace headlines over the course of the rest of this year and well into 2022, putting Open RAN but also mobile transition technology into the forefront of 5G ecosystem marketing and news.

For this vignette of a recent episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, Part of the 5G Factor series, analysts Ron Westfall and Shelly Kramer discussed expansion of the Boingo Wireless AWS partnership with Boingo Wireless integrating AWS edge and cloud services with the company's own converged network offering and its impact on select industry verticals.   Their discussion covered: How the Boingo Wireless AWS partnership is using DAS (distributed antenna systems), WiFi, and private networks to improve the overall wireless experience. The partnership's focus on key verticals such as airports, stadiums, manufacturing, and healthcare/medical facilities as well as large enterprises with advanced wireless networking needs and how it can accelerate adoption of cloud-based wireless services. Why the expanded partnership can play a pivotal role in delivering the touchless experience to wireless network users. Ron and Shelly find the expanded Boingo Wireless AWS alliance delivers the capabilities required to augment the overall wireless user experience, including touchless interactions, and demonstrates how ecosystem collaboration can bring out the improved outcomes through the interworking of 5G and WiFi technologies and that 5G and WiFi are not conflicting technologies in many key use case scenarios.   

For this vignette of a recent episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, Part of the 5G Factor series, analysts Shelly Kramer and Ron Westfall deliberate on why the AT&T partnership with the University of Tennessee is important to advancing mmWave technology development.   Their discussion covered: AT&T is installing a 5G test bed using mmWave spectrum at the University of Tennessee as Knoxville, complementing ongoing partnerships with Texas A&M, University of Missouri, and University of Connecticut, that demonstrate mmWave capabilities for emerging applications. How the partnership aligns with ongoing mmWave portfolio development work by key mobile players such as Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia, Rakuten, and Samsung.  The partnership's role in enabling college personnel and students to experiment and validate mmWave capabilities across applications like ML. AR/VR, biometric data, distributed workforce, and rural environments. How mmWave is integral to existing operator use cases and 5G monetization objectives such as 5G fixed wireless access, smart home bundles, and smart facilities. Shelly and Ron view mmWave technology as ready for prime time 5G services, due to innovations like beamforming, and that the technology will play an integral role in the deployment of 5G capabilities across dense urban, FWA rural outreach, smart facilities, and AR/VR environments.

In this new episode of The 5G Factor, our newest Futurum Tech Webcast series focused on all things 5G, analysts Shelly Kramer and Ron Westfall look at key trends in the 5G ecosystem. This includes a look at recent developments in the Open RAN market, and the recently announced partnership between GM and AT&T bringing 5G to select models in the GM fleet, Qualcomm's pursuit of Veoneer, and the Hyundai/NVIDIA partnership and what this all means for the Automotive industry. They also covered AT&T's recently announced partnership with the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, centered on mmWave spectrum test beds, along with the Mavenir acquisition of Telestax and what that means for the Communication Services as-a-Platform market. They wound up show with a look at Boingo Wireless's deepened partnership with AWS, integrating AWS's edge and cloud services with Boingo's converged network offering and how these private network deployments will benefit airports, stadiums, and other facilities.

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, Interview Series, I'm joined by Chad Andrews, the Global Leader for Telecom, Media and Entertainment at the IBM Institute for Business Value. Our conversation today focuses on the changes 5G and edge computing will bring to our digital economy, and we also take a look at IBM Institute for Business Value's recent study The End of Communications Services as We Know Them? That is a bold survey headline, but for those of us in the industry, we know the impact that 5G and edge computing will have on the digital economy moving forward will be disruptive to say the least. And I know that sentiment was echoed in IBM's findings in the survey.  The End of Communications Services as We Know Them? digs deeper into a trend we've all been seeing – which is that communication service providers will miss out on the value that 5G and edge computing can provide unless they adapt today. The IBM study surveyed 500 global telecommunications executives in 21 countries — so it's a decent sample set that gives some insight into where the industry is headed. Chad and I discussed some of the findings of the report. These include: For CSPs to find true value in 5G and edge computing, they must adopt cloud native digital services, applications, and solutions. Along with cloud native platforms and applications, CSPs will need to make strategic operational decisions in order to compete long-term against cloud native companies. Platforms that are already established at scale will super the hypergrowth of the decade. We also discussed some of the reasons the IBM Institute for Business Value is predicting the global digital economy will grow two to three times this decade, as well as the implications this will have on businesses across different sectors. The graphic below is from The End of Communications Services as We Know Them?

In this newest episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, analysts Ron Westfall and Shelly Kramer discuss Rakuten's moves in the 5G market and how the company is essentially throwing down the gauntlet for the rest of the CSP ecosystem. In this conversation, we cover the benefits of the early mover advantage for CSPs, along with the implications for the Open RAN segment and the overall 5G market developments of the last week. Some of the things we touched in this 5G-focused webcast included: Why Rakuten's acquisition of $1B acquisition of Altiostar is a 5G game changer. Rakuten is raising the competitive stakes across the entire 5G ecosystem. With this $1 billion acquisition of an Open RAN specialist, Rakuten is providing a template for how Communications Service Providers (CSPs) can gain a strategic competitive edge in the cloud-based 5G ecosystem – own more of the software assets key to long-term 5G build and innovation. Some highlights from the research out of IBM's Institute for Business Value (presented in a recent episode of our show) on the serious advantages that exist for fast-moving CSPs in the current market. Find the research report from IBM Institute for Business Value here: The end of communications services as we know them, focused on how 5G and edge will help define who wins in the booming digital economy The strategic impact on the overall Open RAN market segment of Altiostar agreeing to merge with Rakuten to lock-in its long-term competitiveness. As an independent Open RAN supplier, Altiostar was more vulnerable to any delays in CSP deployment of Open RAN technology as well as increasing pressure from incumbent RAN players, such as Ericsson, Nokia, and Samsung, increasing their targeting of the Open RAN space. How the Rakuten acquisition of Altiostar epitomizes the approach many CSPs should adopt, which is the strategic acquisition of telco-specific and cloud-specific software assets. The market significance of Rakuten and 1&1 AG partnering to build Germany's fourth mobile network based on a fully virtualized mobile network using Open RAN technology. Why the formation of the Rakuten Symphony unit, combining Rakuten Communications Platform (RCP), Open RAN software, and Rakuten's international telco solutions, can accelerate ecosystem adoption of Open RAN and Open 5G technology.

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, Interview Series, Futurum's Shelly Kramer talks with Dell Technologies' Matt Baker who leads the development and implementation of business and technology strategies for the Infrastructure Solutions Group, about the challenges organizations have with the massive amounts of data they create, collect, and need. They also take a dive into Dell Technologies' recent research study, The Data Paradox, which is focused on managing data overload in the on-demand economy, and a look at how companies can mitigate the barriers to digital transformation data overload the inability to extract insights from and leverage data presents.

For this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, I am joined by my colleague, fellow analyst, and founding partner, Daniel Newman, for a conversation about the tech announcements from this past week.   In this episode, we covered:   Daniel went deep on the recent antitrust landscape, in particular the focus on Apple and Google app stores. An overview of Zoom's acquisition of Five9 and how it will impact the collaboration space. What we can learn from SUSE earnings report. A quick dive into Intel's latest earnings report as well as IBM Systems Q2 earnings A recap of the Temenos earnings report and a look into the rise of in person events as we emerge from the pandemic.   Disclaimer: This show is for information and entertainment purposes only. While we will discuss publicly traded companies on this show, the contents of this show should not be taken as investment advice.

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, I'm joined by my colleagues Daniel Newman and Fred McClimans to discuss the reports of Intel Corp being in talks to buy semiconductor manufacturer Global Foundries for about $30 billion. There's no doubt the silicon industry is in the midst of a crisis — limited fab capabilities and supply chain disruptions (due to trade conflicts and the ongoing pandemic) have impacted chip companies, their customers, and end consumers the world over. Would an acquisition of this nature rock the chip industry or make it better? In this conversation we covered a lot of ground, including: Intel's commitment announced just a short while ago, to expand its advanced chip manufacturing capacity by spending as much as $20 billion investing in U.S. factories GlobalFoundries ownership, and whether that's a benefit or a bonus as it competes for the $52 billion budget recent approved by the U.S. Senate to try and fix the semiconductor supply chain. The NVIDIA/Arm deal and whether this is a defensive move by intel, along with thoughts on AMD What regulators might think about this, and how it's not just the U.S. regulators that would play a role here. How likely it is that GlobalFoundries would get a piece of the $52 billion recently approved by the U.S. senate, earmarked to help fix the semiconductor supply chain. What stands out about the proposed deal, and where the problems are We close the show with Fred and Daniel's predictions on what chances they see of this actually happening and you'll have to watch or listen to the episode for those deets. All in, this will definitely be interesting to watch play out.

For this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, I am joined by my colleague, fellow analyst ,and founding partner, Shelly Kramer, for a conversation about recent developments in the 5G market including key Mobile World Congress 2021 developments. In this episode, we covered: The expansion of the alliance between Ericsson and Google Cloud and why it improves Ericsson's 5G proposition and overall partnership momentum in the 5G space. Predictions from the IBM Institute for Business Value on how 5G and edge computing will help redefine the coming years, and some key data points from their recent study, “The end of communications services as we know them?” focused on 5G and edge and what's ahead for CSPs. How strategic partnerships are playing a key role for telcos and their ability to both embrace rapid transformation and monetize their investments in 5G. Qualcomm and Capgemini prudently used the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2021 event to promote their partnership aimed at supporting and powering 5G private network builds. The alliance is emphasizing Capgemini's systems integrator (SI) portfolio and expertise playing a key role in using Qualcomm's 5G Private network system to enable customer business transformation as well as leveraging 5G ecosystem resources to benefit the duo's private network mission. Netcracker, NEC, and AWS are demonstrating why the 5G Core (5GC) is ready for a larger role in supporting and scaling monetized 5G services. Already NEC is deploying its 5G (and 4G) Mobile Core Solution on AWS across multiple operator production networks in Japan. This is key, as NEC is now prepared to assist operators in their quest to monetize 5G services, primarily through innovative B2X offerings.

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, analysts Shelly Kramer and Steven Dickens discuss the recent announcements out of BMC Software, targeting security, an Open Mainframe, and facilitating developer agility. I'll note before touching on our conversation that the IT Infrastructure Management Software Market is growing at a rapid rate in 2021 and that growth is very much expected to continue. The key players in that space are:  CA Technologies, Oracle, IBM, EMC, Microsoft, BMC Software, Dell, LabTech, Symantec, Apple, HPE and SAP. Precision Reports has a new study out on this topic and you can get a sample of the report here. Seeing this focus by BMC is exactly what we would expect. In this short conversation, Steven and I discussed the rise of malicious threats in the market as a whole and how attacks like SolarWinds, the JBS meat production facility and, most recently, the REvil group's attack on a managed IT software provider, Kaseya are forcing a focus on protecting from malicious insider threats, especially as it relates to the mainframe. With Steven's vast experience in the mainframe industry, his insights here, and his take on the path BMC is taking, are invaluable.

In this video vignette from a recent episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, I'm joined by my colleague here at Futurum Steven Dickens for a conversation around IBM's hybrid cloud ambitions, which are clearly the driver behind IBM's latest announced acquisition, this time of BoxBoat, and the company's preparation for a post-Kyndryl spinoff. BoxBoat, while small, is known as an enterprise Kubernetes certified service provider and premier DevOps consultancy. The company has customers in finance, government, ecommerce, online publishing, and higher ed. Once the acquisition is complete, it is expected the business will be slotted into IBM's Global Business Services' Hybrid Cloud business. During the course of our conversation, we discussed IBM's focus on significantly expanding the company's multi-cloud transformation, management expertise, and hybrid cloud capabilities, as well as the critical (and profitable) role that services plays in all things digital transformation these days. Obviously, no project centered on cloud modernization can succeed without a containerization strategy and a cloud architecture that allows them to operate across both public and private clouds. Steven shared insights on IBM's pivot to hybrid cloud, the repackaging of IBM software into Cloud Paks, IBM Cloud Satellite, and of course the spinoff of Kyndryl. Of particular interest and focus was the expansion of IBM's Global Business Services, how this acquisition complements the company's hybrid cloud strategy — and IBM's services business — especially in a post-Kyndryl spinoff world.

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, my colleague Steven Dickens and I took a dive into the goings on at IBM this past week. Obviously, the big news coming out of IBM with an  announcement late in the day on Friday last, was the news of IBM president and former Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst stepping down. This came as a surprise to many, as Jim was largely viewed throughout the industry as a likely successor to IBM CEO Arvind Krishna within a few years. The IBM board, and Krishna, however, had other plans and Krishna is clearly not at all close to done with what he aims to accomplish at IBM. In a Barrons' interview this week, Whitehurst shared that he's not done building things and that he wants another chance to be a CEO again. He realized, when IBM's board of directors chose Krishna as chair as well as CEO earlier this year, that wasn't going to happen at IBM. Whitehurst is a talented leader and there is sure to be no shortage of companies interested in scooping him up. This will be fantastic to watch play out. My colleague, Steven Dickens, shared thoughts based on feedback he's gotten from former colleagues at IBM, who were also fairly surprised by this news. We discussed the potential impact of this change on the Red Hat employees and community, who are a pretty tight group, and of course very supportive of Whitehurst. IBM shares are down 5% since the company announced Whitehurst's departure, and it's clear that the longtime Red Hat CEO is incredibly valued by the investor community – and the tech community. Massive Transformation Underway at IBM We moved on from the Whitehurst conversation and tackled some of the many other changes happening inside IBM. The company is clearly undertaking some massive transformation, focused on regaining market relevance and of course growing revenues. And massive transformation most often requires some significant changes. We also discussed some of the many changes afoot at IBM that Steven has some insider experience with, including the company's transformation of the marketing function under new CMO Carla Piñeyro Sublett and the nuances of some of those changes, along with an overview of the somewhat radical transformation IBM's IT team is undergoing under Kathryn Guarini, the company's new CIO.

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, Cybersecurity Shorts series, I'm joined by my colleague and fellow analyst Fred McClimans, for a conversation about the goings on in the world of cybersecurity. Our conversation covered: Storage drive maker Western Digital tells owners of its WD My Book Live and My Book Live Duo to disconnect from the internet immediately. What's the responsibility of a brand who stops support equipment still in use in the instance of a hack? What are the ramifications for users and what kind of loss are we talking about? Antivirus software maker John McAfee, a pioneer in many ways and a rebel in many others, took his life while awaiting extradition in a Spanish prison. Our conversation touched on some of McAfee's accomplishments and how he ended up in jail. The DOE has requested some $201 million earmarked for cybersecurity in its 2022 budget request. This joins requests by the Biden administration for $9.8 billion for federal civilian cybersecurity and $10.4 billion requested by the Pentagon. Senators draft bill that would require the reporting of cyber breaches specific to vendors of the Federal government within 24 hours. And we wrapped up our show talking about some new malware to be on the lookout for and a ransomware note: VMware bug in the Carbon Black App Control (AppC) management server, and another high-risk bug in VMware Tools, VMware Remote Console for Windows, and VMware App Volumes products. LV ransomware appears to have the same code structure as REvil, which could indicate the the code was either sold or shared by another threat actor group.

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, my colleague Olivier Blanchard and I engage in a drill-down conversation around the five new antitrust bills congress brought forward last week aimed at Big Tech, and what the likely ramifications are for reach. Our discussion examined: The Ending Platform Monopolies Act which proposes that Congress can have the ability to break up a company “when the covered platform's ownership or control of that line of business gives rise to an irreconcilable conflict of interest.” This would apply to Facebook, Google, Apple, and Amazon just to name a few. The Platform Anti-Monopoly Act which is aimed at companies with over $600bn in annual revenue and 500,000 Monthly Active Users (MAU) and would prevent these companies from prioritizing their own products in the market. The Augmenting Compatibility and Competition by Enabling Service Switching Act of 2021 (also known as The ACCESS Act of 2021) which would target data sharing practices. The Merger Filing Fee modernization Act of 2021 which would add more support and resources to the FTC and the antitrust division of the DOJ. The Platform Competition and Opportunity Act which would increase the difficulty for Big Tech companies to acquire other companies. For a deeper understanding of each proposed bill check out Olivier Blanchard's breakdown here: The Problem With Congress's 5 New Antitrust Bills Aimed At Reining In U.S. Big Tech   Disclaimer: This show is for information and entertainment purposes only. While we will discuss publicly traded companies on this show, the contents of this show should not be taken as investment advice.

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, Futurum's Shelly Kramer and Shelly Steven webcast cover announcements of note coming out of HPE's HPE Discover event held this past week. Their conversation included analysis and insights about: HPE's announcement of the company's vertical optimization of its GreenLake cloud services, which are primarily focused on Financial Services, Healthcare, and Telecommunications. Key focal points of their conversation centered around the value of scalable solutions that can easily support business growth, and a shift to pay per subscriber and pay per use models, as well as the increasing importance of hybrid cloud solutions in the marketplace. The selection by Salomon Group, a French sports equipment manufacturer, of HPE GreenLake as a solution to not only modernize its IT infrastructure and drive business agility and resilience, but also as a step toward helping the company attain its impressive corporate sustainability goals in carbon emissions reductions. We also discussed the rise of environmental, social and corporate governance and how we see this as a competitive business advantage, for vendors who provide solutions to organizations who embrace ESG, moving forward. HPE's launch of Project Aurora, its new zero-trust offering as a part of the GreenLake hybrid cloud platform, which we can expect to see later in 2021. Project Aurora will focus on helping enterprises address security from edge to cloud. HPE's acquisition of Determined AI, which we see as a solid move by HPE to enhance its own HPC and AI capabilities, and speed ML training capabilities. The need to be able to quickly and easily train ML models to provide faster and more accurate insights is going to continue to increase and an incredibly rapid pace. Strategic acquisitions of this kind on the part of HPE add incremental value to its portfolio of offerings and, to our way of thinking, make perfect sense. Note that all of the content from HPE Discover is available on demand, and these were but a few of the announcements that we wanted to highlight. You'll find access to the full event here. Last but not least, if you've not yet subscribed to the Futurum YouTube and Futurum Tech Podcast in those channels, take a moment and do that. You won't be disappointed.

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, Cybersecurity Shorts series, my colleague Fred McClimans and I cover major happenings in the world of cybersecurity over the course of the past week. Our discussion centered on: The Colonial Pipeline cyberattack and the targeting by threat actor DarkSide of the IT system housing Colonial's corporate and business data. This is a prime example of how targeting the weakest link can take down the whole system. DarkSide's Ransomware-as-a-Service offering and why that's so attractive for the hacker community. The surprise shut down of DarkSide's servers, which caused the group to lose access to its blog, payment processing capability, and denial of service (DoS) operations. The Biden Administration signing of a new executive order aimed at strengthening the Federal government's cybersecurity defenses. The FBI's court-ordered effort to disrupt exploitation from Microsoft Exchange Servers.

The News: The Biden administration signed an executive order on Wednesday, May 12, 2020 aimed at hardening the Federal government's cybersecurity cybersecurity defenses following the Colonial Pipeline hack. More at CNBC. Biden Administration Signs Executive Order Aimed at Hardening Fed Cybersecurity Defenses Analyst Take: The executive order signed by President Biden directs the Commerce Department to create new standards for software vendors supplying the federal government. While this executive order immediately followed the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack and the fallout from that, no doubt the recent SolarWinds attack, along with the Microsoft Exchange server attacks play a role in the government stepping in. The Executive Order addresses the fact that the incremental improvements that have heretofore been made along the way are not effective at providing the security the Federal government needs and that “bold changes and significant investments” are needed to defend the many institutions that are a necessary part of American life. It finally seems clear that cybersecurity is and must be a top priority for the Federal government and, more importantly, that the Feds intend to lead by example as it relates to standards and requirements. Under the executive order, the standard for software vendors supplying to the federal government will essentially be a rating system that mandates multi-factor user verification to new technology, and also requires added encryption. Chris Krebs, former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) remarked on this in a podcast on CBS this last week saying that this action by Biden is a “dramatic game change” and showed a commitment by the administration of prioritizing cybersecurity concerns. He also mentioned that establishing these kinds of standards will have a “cascading effect” for products sold to others, not only impacting government entities. Now is a great time to be in the business of selling solutions that provide enhanced security, like IBM's Confidential Computing and AWS's Nitro Enclave, both of which we've written about before here. This order establishes a Cybersecurity Safety Review Board that is modeled after the National Transportation Safety Board and which includes members from both private and public sectors. Equally as important, it also clearly shows the administration's intent to move the federal government to cloud systems that are more secure. My colleague Fred McClimans and I covered this Executive Order in our Cybersecurity Shorts series of the Futurum Tech Webcast this last week. You'll find our discussion on that topic here: You can find the full text of the Executive Order on Improving the Nation's Cybersecurity here.

The News: Enterprise Password manager Passwordstate, an Australian-based enterprise password management app offered by Click Studios alerted customers late last week of a breach that the company said occurred between April 20 and 22nd.  Read the advisory from Click Studios here. Enterprise Password Manager Passwordstate Hacked in Supply Chain Attack Analyst Take:  The compromise of Click Studios' enterprise password manager Passwordstate involved an automatically delivered in-place upgrade delivered to customers between April 20 and April 22. Hackers inserted a malicious file alongside regular Passwordstate updates, which made its way, largely by way of automatic, in-place updates, onto Passwordstate users's computers. When customers performed the updates over the course of a two-day period, a potentially malicious fie was downloaded, which then set off a process that extracted a bunch of information. This included all data stored in Passwordstate (think URLs, usernames and passwords), and also included information about the computer system itself. Supply Chain Dangers and Why Your Password Management App is Targeted How does a password management app get breached? It's not as rare as you might think, and Passwordstate isn't the first password manage to be breached. While password managers can be an important tool for requiring that different passwords are employed by users, they also a represent danger because they can be a single point of failure, especially for enterprise users. What's the possible damage? Passwordstate's parent, Click Studios, claims a Fortune 500 customer base of 370,000 security and IT pros, and a smaller customer base of 29,000. Since IT pros manage credentials across the organization for devices and services, it's impossible to know at this point what the damage is, even though the breach is claimed to have occurred only during a little more than a 24-hour period. This is an example of risk at the supply chain level. You can have all the best security practices and procedures at the enterprise level, but have a vendor that you rely on for something like password management services and just like that, you're in trouble. And this is exactly why threat actors target various players in the supply chain. My colleague Fred McClimans and I covered the Passwordstate breach as part of our Cybersecurity Shorts edition of the Futurum Tech Webcast this last week.

The News: Peloton's leaky API, which exposed private user data, was in the news alongside some other not-so-great news for the fitness brand this last week. The leaky API was first reported by Tech Crunch's Zach Whittaker, and you can read his story here. Analyst Take: It has most definitely not been a great few weeks for Peloton. With the recall of all Peloton Tread and Tread+ treadmills after the death of a child and some 70+ injuries after the brand first tried to shake off the concerns of the CPSC, and then later admitting it was wrong, Peloton was already in the spotlight. Adding to the Tread disaster is the that the Peloton API is leaking private customer data and it made a bad period for the brand reputation overall. Regarding concerns about the Peloton API, this is an important user data privacy issue. Peloton has a community of some 3 million plus members. When setting themselves up in the Peloton system, members can choose to keep their profiles private or make them public, so that their friends can see their stats, workouts, etc. User profiles also include things like height, weight, age, gender, you know …. personal details. Many users, myself included, prefer to have a private profile. That means you still enter in that information, but you keep your settings private, not public. Easy, right? Except when it doesn't work. The Peloton API vulnerability was disclosed by Jim Masters, a researcher at Pen Test Partners, a security consulting company and the bug allowed anyone to pull users' private information directly from Peloton's servers, even if a profile is set to private. Pen Test reported that the Peloton APIs required no authentication and that the information was simply available for anyone who went looking. This information included things I. mentioned earlier: User IDs, Instructor IDs, Group Membership, Workout Stats, Gender and Age, Height, Weight, and city where the user is located. Pen Test Partners published an article last week stating that they reported the issue to Peloton in January and provided a 90-day deadline to fix the bug. Pretty common operating procedure. Masters got a confirmation from the company that the notice was received. Two weeks later, Pen Test noticed that Peloton executed what they observed was a partial fix and said nothing about it. This partial fix meant fixing the API so that the data was no longer available to anyone, but instead only to anyone with a Peloton account. What? Pen Test Partners tried hard to connect with Peloton about this and were soundly ignored. It was only when Zach Whittaker, writing about the leak for Tech Crunch asked about it that the company decided it was probably a good idea to do something. Jim Masters published a blog post on this issue that he updated on May 5th following a conversation with Peloton's new CISO who advised the vulnerabilities were mostly fixed within seven days. My colleague Fred McClimans and I covered the leaky Peloton API as part of our Cybersecurity Shorts series of the Futurum Tech Webcast. There's more to the conversation, so check it out.

The News:  A joint advisory was published on Friday, May 7, 2021 by the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the UK's National Cyber Security Centre, the FBI, and the NSA focused on Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and their tactics, techniques and procedures used to target victims. These reports focus on threats posted by APT29, how its methods have evolved, and provides best practices to defend against the threat actor. Read the Joint Advisory here. The US/UK Governments Issue Cybersecurity Advisory on Russian Threat Actor Activity Analyst Take: This past Friday was a big day for cybersecurity advisories related to Russian Foreign Service (SVR) threat actors. The threat group APT29 has been attributed to Russia's SVR and have operated since about 2008, largely targeting government networks in Europe and NATO member countries, research institutes, and think tanks. APT29 is also known by the names Dark Halo, StellarParticle, NOBELLIUM, UNC2452, YTTRIUM, The Dukes, Cozy Bear, and Cozy Duke. In the recently issued joint advisory, the US and UK governments outlined tactics and techniques that the Russians are using in their hacking efforts and outlined how they are targeting their victims. In an earlier alert issued the week prior, SVR operations were outlined, along with trends and some recommended best practices for network defenders. These reports also provide more details on the SolarWinds attack spearheaded by those same Russian SVR threat actors. The SolarWinds attack saw malicious updates from compromised SolarWinds systems breaching hundreds of organizations – and we don't yet know the full scope of the damage. Last year we also saw that same SVR group targeting vaccine R&D operations, which involved malware tracked as WellMesshttps://us-cert.cisa.gov/ncas/analysis-reports/ar20-198c and WellMail. What caught my eye here and what is highlighted in the report is that threat actors embrace best practices for digital transformation. They are agile and adaptable. Once they are detected, they pivot. For instance, once the WellMess/WellMail breach was detected, APT29 pivoted. And this pivot was a really pretty brilliant. The threat actors began using Sliver, which is a security testing tool developed by Bishop Fox, an offensive security assessment firm. Sliver is a legitimate tool used for adversary simulation. This new report focuses on helping threat hunters detect Sliver, but here's the rub: just because it's detected doesn't necessarily mean it's malicious. Have a headache yet? I do. My colleague Fred McClimans and I covered this jointly issued report in our Cybersecurity Shorts series on the Futurum Tech Webcast this past week. Threat Actors Make It Their Job to Know When Servers Are Vulnerable The newly published warning report said that threat actors are actively scanning the internet for vulnerable servers, including vulnerabilities affecting VMware's vCenter Server product and Microsoft Exchange servers, which have already been exploited by many. There are five vulnerabilities the government warns that need immediate attention in addition to the newest Microsoft Exchange Server updates just made available in mid-April. These five are: CVE-2018-13379 Fortinet FortiGate VPN  CVE-2019-9670 Synacor Zimbra Collaboration Suite (advisory here) CVE-2019-11510 Pulse Secure Pulse Connect Secure VPN CVE-2019-19781 Citrix Application Delivery Controller and Gateway  CVE-2020-4006 VMware Workspace ONE Access A final note that organizations have been slow to apply the available fixes, leaving organizations massively at risk. Access the full Joint NCSC-CISA-FBI-NSA Cybersecurity Advisory on Russian CyberSecurity here: Advisory: Further TTPs Associated with SVR Cyber Actors The government also released Fact Sheet: Russian SVR Activities Related to SolarWinds Compromise that they recommend all security personnel familiarize themselves with.

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, we focus exclusively on cybersecurity, in a series we're calling Cybersecurity Shorts. Today, I'm joined by fellow analyst Fred McClimans for a conversation on six cybersecurity topics in quick succession. This episode covers: News of hackers linked to China using a flaw in Ivanti's Pulse Connect Secure VPN to target defense industry researchers in the US. Efforts by a bipartisan group of lawmakers who are pushing for legislation funding cybersecurity training and developing programs to attract and retain cybersecurity talent in the federal government along with other efforts by lawmakers to combat cybersecurity threats. A warning from the UK's security experts about threat actors' use of LinkedIn to target government officials and others. A new study from HP on nation-state cyber incidents going back over a decade and how that's not predicted to get any better any time soon. If ever. News of a leak of 3.2 billion passwords containing 1.5 million records with government emails, and what that means from a cyber risk standpoint. AI-powered cybersecurity platform Vectra AI raises $130 million — evidence of the new world of artificial intelligence and machine learning in threat detection.

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, Interview Series, I was joined by my colleague here at Futurum Research, Ron Westfall, and Jason Keane, Head of Digital BSS Product and Solution Line at Ericsson for a conversation around moving BSS journeys to the cloud, and what to consider from the platform prospective with insights from our recently released research report The BSS-to-cloud journey: Powering innovation across the digital value chain Ericsson on Moving BSS Cloud Journeys Forward – The Platform Perspective This is the second of two events connected with that recent research into BSS-to-cloud journeys. Ron and I were joined a few weeks ago by Ericsson's Head of Product Domain BSS Customer & Partner Engagement, Rick Mallon and BSS Senior Solutions Marketing Manager, Miriam Deasy for a conversation about cloud transformation and digital engagement — you can watch (or listen) to that conversation here: The BSS-to-Cloud Journey: Powering Innovation Across the Digital Value Chain. Our discussion was far-reaching and included the following: Why BSS journeys to cloud are underway, what's in it for customers, and the complexity of the cloud journey. Jason shared insights on the increased pace of demand, faster time to market, as well as the closer alignment between the commercial and technical reality of legacy systems that aren't agile enough to do what's needed today. We then moved into customer benefits as well as the complexities of cloud journeys and how to think about most effectively starting down that path. The diversity of cloud approaches across the Ericsson customer base and the nuances of how Ericsson caters to this massive amount of variation and how that impacts software development as well as deployment of BSS-to-cloud journey initiatives. Cloud and cloud native, Ci/CD pipelines, and what level of readiness needs to be in place on the customer side for cloud native software, as well as what's involved in supporting customers' success. Myth-busting the hype surrounding cloud and what impact, if any, that has on cloud transitions and digital transformations to live up to their promises. The advantages to a multi-vendor strategy using different cloud providers versus using all services of just one provider, and how to think about that as organizations are strategizing their BSS-to-Cloud journey, including key considerations like avoiding vendor lock-in. Some day-to-day challenges customers experience and how integrating BSS with OSS and packet core are essential and how to think about measuring success as it relates to the BSS-to-cloud journey and what ‘completion' really looks like. It was a terrific conversation and if you're exploring migrating your BSS to the cloud, one you won't want to miss.

In this new episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, Interview Series, I'm joined once again by Don Schuerman, the CTO of Pegasystems. As a preview of Pega's upcoming Pegaworld iNspire 2021 event, which is being held this coming Tuesday, May 4th from 9am to 11:30am EDT, I wanted to corral Don and talk a little bit about what's going on in the industry, what's new and exciting at Pega, and what kinds of problems they are solving for their customers. For starters, Don and I talked about low code and its proliferation within the industry as a whole. As someone who's covered both the automation industry and Pega for a number of years, I first heard about low code functionality from the team at Pega — they were definitely forging an early path there. Today, it's obvious that low code is not only catching on, but that's a key driver facilitating the rapid digital transformation that organizations are working toward today Don and I had a great conversation, covering: What's causing the dramatic shift for everyone to become a low code user or provider. Some business use cases of low code, including real world client examples. We explored Pega's offering in the low code space and the impact the booming interest in low code is having on Pega's business. What customers saying about the use of low code and how whether they are full on embracing it, dipping their toes in the water, or thinking about next steps, they are seeing great results. Why certain industries are more apt to be drawn to low code. Why low code is attractive to enterprises today, as something that tech savvy employees understand and enjoy getting the opportunity to immerse themselves in, as well as for those who are interested in providing reskilling and upskilling opportunities for the workforce Bottom line, if you're thinking about the benefits of low code and how integrating process automation can change everything about your organization's digital transformation journey, I encourage you to make time to register and attend the Pegaworld iNspire 2021 event next Tuesday from 9:00am to 11:30am EDT. You can learn more about the event and register for free here. And hopefully I'll see you there. Lastly, if you're interested in digital experience and providing best-in-class experiences tailored around the customer journey for your customers, check out my recent interview with Pega's Jeff Nicholson, VP of CRM Product Marketing. If customer service is your focus, I think you'll enjoy this conversation. You'll find it here: Pega's Take on Digital Experience: What's Ahead in a World Powered by Autonomous Customer Service

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, Interview Series, I had a fascinating conversation with Jeff Nicholson, the VP of CRM Product Marketing for Pegasystems about digital experience and what's ahead in a world powered by autonomous customer service. Our discussion centered on the future of customer service, especially as it relates to digital experience, the ever-changing world of customer expectations, and how autonomous customer service is a game-changer. Pega's Take on Digital Experience: What's Ahead in a World Powered by Autonomous Customer Service In our conversation about digital experience and a look at what's ahead in a world powered by autonomous customer service, Jeff and I touched on: What is today's digital experience and what that looks like — for both customers and for the brand side. How the landscape of customer experience has changed, not only in the last handful of years, but also how that's been impacted by the impact of a global pandemic. The change in customer expectations and how brands are shifting to address those expectations. The role technology plays in the customer journey (and meeting customers where they are, when they need it). What kind of technology is needed to most efficiently, most effectively, allow brands to do that. How COVID-19 has changed customer demand, buying preferences, and customer loyalty and what brands are doing to step up and adapt to those changes. And we explored autonomous customer service and where this technology fits in the customer engagement timeline? As always, my conversation with Jeff was a fascinating one. He also shared some customer use cases that you'll find valuable, so I encourage you to dive into this one. If you're focused on improving the customer journey and customer experience within your organization, if you'd like to learn more about autonomous customer service and how you can employ it to deliver better, more efficient customer service and empower your team to both do more and enjoy their jobs more, I encourage you to make time to register and attend Pega's upcoming Pegaworld iNspire event on May 4th from 9:00 to 11:30am EDT. The event is a virtual one and I can promise it will likely be the best, most interesting virtual event you attend this year. Register for free here and I'll see you there!

In this edition of the Futurum Tech Webcast, my colleague Ron Westfall and I take a deep dive into the collaborative world of virtual reality and 3D simulations offered by NVIDIA's Omniverse. First announced as a beta version last fall, NVIDIA's Omniverse Enterprise is set to hit general availability this summer and has the ability to reshape the future of manufacturing and design, and perhaps much more. It's not unusual for technology companies to offer tools to help their customers get the most value of their products or services. But these tools are generally limited to configuration and optimization. NVIDIA's Omniverse suffers from none of those limitations and while it may help manufacturing and design teams better utilize NVIDIA's chip technologies the real value of the Omniverse is in helping manufacturers collaborative design, update, and improve their manufacturing operations. In this webcast we discuss: How the NVIDIA Omniverse looks a lot like the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The role of Pixar's open-source Universal Scene Description (USD) software in the Omniverse. How the Internet of Things (IoT) and a concept known as a Digital Twin are making helping organizations create real-time virtual versions of the real-world, physical operations. How the Omniverse can help organizations improve factory and manufacturing efficiency and safety. The benefit of running simulations in the Omniverse and leveraging machine learning and predictive analytics to improve asset maintenance and availability. The five different components that make up the Omniverse Platform (the Nucleus, Connect, Kit, Simulation, and RTX Renderer). How the Omniverse allows real-time updates and collaborative changes to be distributed throughout an organization's supply chain and distribution ecosystems. As we wrap up our conversation, Ron highlights some of the core RTX technology that makes the Omniverse possible and discusses how NVIDIA is working with partners like Microsoft and how competitors like AMD might need to respond. And finally, we ponder the ultimate question, when will tools like the Omniverse allow us to not just model manufacturing but extend to the entire operations of an entire business, from the first supplier to the last customer. More Insights from Futurum Research: NVIDIA's Omniverse Enterprise Platform Has The Potential To Reshape The Future Of Manufacturing And Collaboration NVIDIA's AI-On-5G Ecosystem Kicks Off At NVIDIA GTC 2021, Designed To Turbo Boost 5G Vertical Use Cases NVIDIA GTC 21 Brings Key Innovation to Enterprise AI NVIDIA's Future is Bright as its Many Bets are Paying off: Q4 Earnings Update NVIDIA's DRIVE Platform to Power Hyundai's Newly Launched Connected Car OS Across Entire Fleet

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, Interview Series, we're taking the conversation to LinkedIn Live, and focusing on the BSS-to-Cloud journey that so many communication service providers (CSPs) are currently exploring. I was joined by my colleague here at Futurum, fellow analyst Ron Westfall, and also joined by Miriam Deasy and Rick Mallon from Ericsson. In our conversation, we focused on the findings of a research report that our team at Futurum partnered with Ericsson to develop: BSS-to-Cloud Journey: Powering Innovation Across the Digital Value Chain. For CSPs, embracing customer-centric business operations and digital engagement allow them to monetize on improved customer experiences and support business models for current or future innovations. But sometimes all of that is much easier said than done and knowing where to start can be challenging — thus the impetus for our research. From a strategic perspective, CSP decision-makers must recognize the most important considerations that are driving the BSS-to-cloud journey, and that's what we set out to both map out in the research report, as well as to have a discussion around on this episode of our Futurum Tech Webcast Interview Series show. Miriam and Rick introduced themselves and shared a little about their roles at Ericsson, and we then jumped in. Here are some of the things our discussion covered: What the Ericsson team is seeing, from their vantage point in Ericsson Digital BSS across their customer base in terms of challenges customers face. What different approaches they are seeing on the customer side (and what can be learned from this). How Ericsson manages to cater to this massive amount of variation across their customer base and prospects, as well as in product development. What advice and insights can be offered to customers as they progress through their cloud journeys. The reality of continuous improvement/continuous development (CI/CD) play, and the role it plays for overall success. The top goals and objectives customers have identified, either to achieve or fix, as they progress in their cloud journeys. The top challenges customers shared that they face in their BSS-to-cloud journeys and what can be learned from that. We wrapped up our discussion with a look at what the Ericsson team feels is working well for their customers, as well as a conversation around how CSPs can increase the likelihood of successful outcomes, and we closed our show with thoughts on what CSPs can do and/or focus on as they progress on their BSS cloud journeys.

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, I was joined once again by my partner, Daniel Newman, for the next installment on our series on Confidential Computing and how vendors are looking to deploy trusted-based computing models, specifically in areas such as Trusted Execution Environments, Enclaves, and homomorphic encryption, as well as a discussion on what's ahead. These conversations are a precursor to a research brief we are in the midst of completing and will hopefully serve to whet your appetite for a deeper dive very soon. Confidential Computing: How Vendors are Looking to Deploy Trust-Based Computing Models To recap our conversation of last week, Daniel and I touched on the instances of cybersecurity breaches in the news, the average cost of a data breach, the impact on careers that a data breach inevitably causes, as well as current legislation that's been introduced in the U.S. around requirements for reporting of data breaches in a specific and timely manner. Today, our conversation centered around: Revisiting Operational Trust vs. Technical Trust Operational Trust is the kind of trust within an organization that we're accustomed to and revolves around the thought that better and regular training, stricter rules, compliance, certifications, etc. are what will keep an organization safe. While that may be in part true, Technical Trust, which is the focus on removing people from the security equation altogether through deployment of technological solutions rather than those other things is where we need to be heading. What is the Goal of Confidential Computing and the Complexities Around the States of Data We discussed the goal of Confidential Computing, which is at its most basic the goal of reducing the ability for a systems administrator of a platform to access data and code inside Trusted Execution Environments sufficiently so that this path is not an economically or logically viable attack during execution. Data exists in one of three states: At rest on a storage device, in transit between two locations across a network, and when it's in use as its being processed by applications. Confidential Computing is the protection of data in use by performing computation in a hardware-based Trusted Execution Environment and covers software attacks, protocol attacks, cryptographic attacks, and base physical attacks. The Confidential Computing Consortium The Confidential Computing Consortium is a group founded by the Linux Foundation and comprised of some of the biggest names in technology who have partnered to focus on security data in use using hardware-based TEEs and accelerating the adoption of Confidential Computing through open collaboration. The Role Hardware Plays in Security (and Confidential Computing) When security is your end game, rooting security in silicon and working outward should be the foundation of your strategy. This was a quick but wide-ranging conversation. Daniel and I spoke more about the specifics on Trusted Execution Environments, and what is in scope as it relates to Fully Homomorphic Encryption, a class of encryption methods first envisioned in the 70s and now a fundamental part of Confidential Computing. Whether you're a senior leader focused on making security a fundamental part of business strategy (and we hope that you are), or a CISO charged with keeping your organization safe, this is a conversation you won't want to miss. Be sure to be on the lookout for our soon-to-be-published research brief on the topic of Confidential Computing — we think you'll find great value in it.

On this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, Interview Series, I was joined by Dell Technologies' Rick Martinez and John Boyle for a conversation about navigating the hardware security journey. Rick is Senior Distinguished Engineer, Sr. Director at Dell Technologies and John is part of Dell Technologies' Cyber Security and Supply Chain Defense Product Management team. Enterprise-wide security requires a shield, or a security posture, that follows and protects devices throughout all aspects of the hardware journey, encompassing the external supply chain, internal implementation, and ongoing end-user operations and device management. Four Keys to Navigating the Hardware Security Journey Our team at Futurum partnered with Dell Technologies to develop the white paper: Four Keys to Navigating the Hardware Security Journey and this conversation covered some of the key insights in the report. This was a long-term research initiative that began in 2019 and concluded in mid-2020. We wanted to better understand the level and types of threats encountered by companies today, and the measures, practices, and policies those organizations employ to address these threats throughout the entire security journey. Our research included an in-depth study of over 1,000 technology and security pros directly involved in the planning, implementation, management, or operations of security, risk, and compliance activities related to device-level security. The demographics of our survey group included:US Federal Government – 29% State of Local Govt & Education – 30% Defense Industrial Base – 17% Critical Infrastructure Sectors – 22% Commercial Industries, 2% Our conversation in this roundtable discussion centered on the four key insights derived from this research • Understanding you are the target —security threats can come from all directions, both internal and external, malicious or accidental, found in your end-user devices and throughout your partner ecosystem and supply chain. And they can be in software and in hardware. • Security is built from the ground up —and needs to be a foundational part of business operations. Security breaches must be detected to be observed, and organizations with a security framework in place may be better able to identify and stop attacks. • Every security journey needs guardrails and frameworks — 75% of enterprises that utilize a security framework say they have experienced a security breach in the past. Conversely, enterprises that do not utilize a security framework say they have not been breached — ever. • Security paradise is found by the dashboard lights — really! We believe that it's hard to identify what you can't see. When it comes to the enterprise security journey, dashboards are mission critical. What's ahead in the industry as it relates to hardware security and what are security teams focused on? We shared insights around that in our conversation. Rick and John and I wrapped up our conversation sharing thoughts on what executives can do to prepare their businesses for the current threat landscape as well as future changes. They also shared some use case examples of what Dell is doing for customers and how that is working. And we hope you'll download the research report: Four Keys to Navigating the Hardware Security Journey for tons more information and insights to help you plot a strategy for your own enterprise security journey.

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, host Shelly Kramer joined by fellow analyst Fred McClimans for a conversation about some cybersecurity news you may have missed during the week when unexpected weather across the south, horrifying power grid problems and beyond have captured the attention of the nation. The conversation started with a quick overview of Clubhouse, the current darling of social apps. In a nutshell, Clubhouse, an invitation only social audio app, is powered by Agora, a Chinese-based software company. Other companies using Agora's software include Bilibi, a $53Bn Chinese video-sharing app with 170M plus users and considered the nearest thing China has to YouTube, New Oriental Education, a $33B Chinese ed tech firm and Yalla, a $5.6 billion Chinese-owned app called the Clubhouse of the Middle East. Note the theme: Chinese connections to Agora. So, Agora. And Chinese connections, and cybersecurity — that's what the conversation comes back to including the following: Agora's reported SDK vulnerability that could have allowed an attacker to spy on private video and audio calls. The flaw in Agora's SDK that is used by dating apps like eHarmony, Plenty of Fish, MeetMe, and Skout. It was also found in healthcare apps like Talkspace, Practo, and Dr. First's Backline. McAfee disclosed the flaw in April of 202 and it took Agora seven months to release a new SDK to remediate the threat. The cybersecurity conversation then shifted to the SolarWinds hack and the update figures released by the White House. As of today, it believes (so far), that 9 federal agencies and 100 private sector companies have been impacted. The conversation also explore the news that although the hack remains considered of Russian origin, it's likely that the hackers launched their attack from inside the US. The cybersecurity conversation wrapped with some good news post SolarWinds hack from Microsoft. On Thursday, Microsoft announced in a blog post on its Security Response Center published that its internal investigation has concluded into the activity of the threat actor and that there was no evidence of access to production services or customer data. The investigation also found there were no indications that their systems at Microsoft were used to attack others.    

Microsoft announced the launch of Microsoft Viva, an employee experience platform designed to help people connect, focus, learn, and thrive at work. In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, I was joined by my partner and fellow analyst Daniel Newman to talk all things Microsoft Viva. For starters, a solution like Microsoft Viva is important on a number of fronts — we've collectively adapted to hybrid work, business leaders are cognizant of and trying to avoid burnout, and are focused on helping people feel more connected and supported by the organization, and they are also recognizing the importance of learning management and creating a culture of continuous learning within organizations (and making learning easy). The Microsoft Viva Experience platform is comprised of a number of components that are conveniently centered around connection, insights, learning, and topics. Our conversation included a brief snapshot of each, including: Viva Connections The Viva Connections part of the Microsoft Viva Employee Experience Platform is the “gateway to modern employee experience” that is personalized and appears in the apps and devices employees use every day (like Teams). Viva Connections gives people a curated, company-branded experience that pulls together news, conversations, and other resources. It designed to be quick and easy to use, and users can publish content from SharePoint, Yammer, or Microsoft steam, to a single feed and post the external news and content organizations want employees to see (and use). Of special interest to me, was the ability to use the Viva Connections platform to reach specific departments, regions, or roles within the company, by audience targeting or bring attention to important items in the feed by way of “boosting” so that items appear on top of the news feed until read or they have accomplished a certain number of impressions. Microsoft Viva Topics Microsoft Viva Topics uses AI to help empower people within the organization with knowledge and expertise in various apps to connect, manage, protect, and share that knowledge across systems and teams. Note that Viva Topics is available today for Microsoft commercial customers. Viva Topics is intended to help manage the sea of information that employees encounter and must deal with on a daily basis. Microsoft data indicates that employees on average spend more than an hour a day looking for or recreating info that already exists within the organization, more than triple what they spent five years ago. To be fair, there's more information now, but still, that's a lot of wasted time and incredibly frustrating. Onboarding, skill development, and knowledge drain are key issues business leaders face and Viva Topics is intended to address that. It appears as though this has grown out of the Project Cortex Preview program, launched about two years ago, a program in which Microsoft customers participated to help shape the product. Companies like Arla Foods, Unilever, Siemens Healthcare, and Mott MacDonald have been using Viva Topics in their organizations and have participated along the way in fine-tuning this product. Microsoft Viva Learning Microsoft Viva Learning is yet another component of Microsoft Viva platform, and is an app for Microsoft Teams that is in private preview at this time. In June of 2020, Microsoft announced a goal of helping 25 million people around the world gain the digital skills they need to be successful. Now the goal is to extend beyond supporting jobseekers to helping support people's success once they are hired. Daniel and I know from firsthand experience as well as our own research that successful digital transformation journeys (and successful organizations) rely on an organizations' commitment to create a culture of continuous learning. That's exactly what Microsoft Viva Learning is designed to do.   Viva Learning features a central hub where people can discover, share, assign, and learn from best-in-class content libraries, including LinkedIn Learning, Microsoft Learn, third party content providers, and an organization's own custom content, all geared to make learning on a daily basis a standard thing. Teams and groups can set up their own learning tabs, and learning is not only personalized, but learning content is also centralized and easily accessed. In developing Viva Learning, Microsoft, partnered with Skillsoft, Coursera, Pluralsight, and edX to integrate world-class content into Viva Learning. It's also exciting to see that some of the biggest learning management system providers SAP SuccessFactors, Cornerstone, OnDemand, Saba have announced their intent to integrate with Viva Learning. Microsoft Viva Insights Last but never least, we touched on Microsoft Viva Insights, the final part of Microsoft's Viva employee experience platform. This offering is focused on employee wellbeing, which enables productivity, innovation, and engagement at work. Why is this relevant? Burnout and stress are increasingly more commonplace today — and that's a problem, and learning and development can play an important role in reducing stress and burnout. LinkedIn Learning's 2019 Workplace Learning Report showed that 94% of employees surveyed said they would stay at a company longer if it invested in their learning and development. Boom. Equally relevant to this conversation, a December 2020 study found that 75% of US employees reported experiencing burnout, 70% reported higher stress, and more than half reported elevated levels of anxiety. All of these things inevitably lead to a lack of engagement, and non-engaged, unhappy employees generally don't stay. As part of the Microsoft Viva Insights platform, the Glint Microsoft Power BI dashboard plays a role. Glint is a “People Success Platform” that was acquired by LinkedIn in 2018 and which uses real-time data, “people data,” to help employees increase employee engagement and develop their people. Microsoft Viva Insights for Teams is designed around fostering a culture where people can thrive. Featuring a dashboard designed to gauge how employees are feeling, the hope is that leaders can use de-identified and aggregated collaboration data to see “how people are working” and get a sense of how engaged and connected they are overall. Personal wellbeing experiences, medication, mindfulness experiences, collaboration within the organization, engagement with others, all of these things are able to be monitored in a personal yet private manner, and hopefully help everyone — individuals, managers, and leaders — thrive. What we share here in these show notes and in our conversation in the webcast just scratches the surface on all things related to Microsoft Viva's employee experience platform. Not surprising seeing this coming from Microsoft, and it's a perfect addition to the M365 platform, easily accessible by all — from enterprises to small to midsize businesses. It will be interesting for our team to watch how this plays out.  

In this episode of  Futurum Tech Webcast, Interview Series, I was thrilled to host Josh Teitelman, VP of Customer Experience at Allstacks and John Steinmetz, CTO of Convo Communications for a conversation about building a high performing engineering team, and what the secret sauce is that makes that goal a reality. First a little bit about Convo Communications. Convo, is a deaf-owned company that is all about connecting humans. And it's safe to say that their understanding of human connection is quite a bit different than the norm. At Convo, they know that in a rapidly-advancing tech world, technology is often developed on the basis of spoken language. Convo offers a different perspective — and works with clients to ensure that universal communications that just feel right is the end deliverable. Allstacks is a leading predictive forecasting and risk management solution for software development. By leveraging AI and machine learning to integrate data across Product, PMO, Development, and QA teams, Allstacks can provide a comprehensive view of software initiatives throughout any organization. Aligning teams on outcomes that matter is what they're most passionate about. Our conversation today revolved around: John spoke about leading an engineering team in a pandemic, both from a personal standpoint as it relates to Convo, as well as the impact on their customers; Some of the biggest challenges that organizations faced as they pivoted to WFH initiatives in order to keep employees safe; Josh talked a little about how Allstacks' users responded to the pandemic and the challenges their team saw related to WFH initiatives; We discussed the importance of maintaining priority alignment and setting expectations within an engineering team, how difficult that can be, and some thoughts from the trenches on how to do that successfully; Tying engineering goals to overall business goals — and how to do that; As a final part of the conversation, both John and Josh shared some interesting customer use cases that really brought home for us the value of building high performing engineering teams, how to think about making that a reality within your organization, and how to think about the technology best suited to help you achieve those goals. In this conversation, it's clear that Allstacks has played a significant role in helping Convo Communications reach their goals — and if building a high performing engineering team is on your radar screen, I can promise that it's definitely a conversation worth checking out.

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, I was joined by my colleague here at Futurum, Olivier Blanchard, for a conversation about chips. We started with a conversation about chips that power mobile devices and took a dive into Olivier's research on why Honor and Qualcomm's complete mobile solution makes perfect sense. We discussed: Honor's move from Huawei; Honor's partnerships with key chipmakers including AMD, Intel, NVIDIA, Microsoft, Samsung, SK Hynix, Sony, and Qualcomm, and what that likely means; The role we expect Qualcomm will play moving forward in both the budget and mid-market tiers of mobile devices; With chips on our mind, we then segued over to a discussion of news out of Qualcomm's two-day Automotive Redefined: Technology Showcase 2021 and what we see happening with regard to Qualcomm's Automotive sector strategy. Olivier walked us through the highlights of Qualcomm's Automotive Redefined: Technology Showcase 2021 event and the many advancements we're seeing and will be seeing out of Qualcomm with regard to 4G LTE and 5G building global momentum for connected cars. That was but one tidbit, and this was a comprehensive conversation about the Automotive sector and the exciting things we're seeing across the board in this industry. If you're a car person, or if you're a technology person interested in the Automotive, this is one part of the conversation you won't want to miss. Lastly, we tackled the reality of a global chip shortage, what's causing that, and the impact that shortage is having on the automotive industry. In short, a global pandemic resulted in a surge of consumer desire for smartphones, gaming devices, TVs, and computers, causing chips to largely be gobbled up to serve the consumer sector. The automotive industry was pinched, and their supply chain issues as it related to chip production has become a very big problem. During the course of the last six to 9 months, the semiconductor industry has not been able to scale up as quickly as needed to meet the demand in the automotive sector. This is a nice end to an interesting conversation about the semiconductor industry and how chips play an outsized role, in everything from mobile devices to the Automotive industry — and a global chip shortage is a very big deal — especially for the automotive supply chain. For a nice read on that, by the way, check out this article from Financial Times: Global Chip Shortage Pus Car Supply Chain Under the Microscope.

In this episode of Converge Tech Talk (also shared as part of the Futurum Tech Webcast, Interview Series), I was thrilled to host Josh Teitelman, VP of Customer Experience at Allstacks and John Steinmetz, CTO of Convo Communications for a conversation about building a high performing engineering team, and what the secret sauce is that makes that goal a reality. First a little bit about Convo Communications. Convo, is a deaf-owned company that is all about connecting humans. And it’s safe to say that their understanding of human connection is quite a bit different than the norm. At Convo, they know that in a rapidly-advancing tech world, technology is often developed on the basis of spoken language. Convo offers a different perspective — and works with clients to ensure that universal communications that just feel right is the end deliverable. Allstacks is a leading predictive forecasting and risk management solution for software development. By leveraging AI and machine learning to integrate data across Product, PMO, Development, and QA teams, Allstacks can provide a comprehensive view of software initiatives throughout any organization. Aligning teams on outcomes that matter is what they’re most passionate about. Our conversation today revolved around: John spoke about leading an engineering team in a pandemic, both from a personal standpoint as it relates to Convo, as well as the impact on their customers; Some of the biggest challenges that organizations faced as they pivoted to WFH initiatives in order to keep employees safe; Josh talked a little about how Allstacks’ users responded to the pandemic and the challenges their team saw related to WFH initiatives; We discussed the importance of maintaining priority alignment and setting expectations within an engineering team, how difficult that can be, and some thoughts from the trenches on how to do that successfully; Tying engineering goals to overall business goals — and how to do that; As a final part of the conversation, both John and Josh shared some interesting customer use cases that really brought home for us the value of building high performing engineering teams, how to think about making that a reality within your organization, and how to think about the technology best suited to help you achieve those goals. In this conversation, it’s clear that Allstacks has played a significant role in helping Convo Communications reach their goals — and if building a high performing engineering team is on your radar screen, I can promise that it’s definitely a conversation worth checking out.

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, Interview Series, Futurum co-founder Shelly Kramer hosts a roundtable discussion on how automation is being used in exciting ways in the Oil & Gas industry. Her guests include Brad Onofrio, Sr. Director for Sales Ops for Calumet, Frank Wilson, Business Solutions Manager at Patterson-UTI Management Services and Jon Gilman, CEO and founder of Clear Software. They're conversation included: Brad Onofrio sharing some information about Calumet and describing some of the customers they serve as well as some of the challenges the industry faces. Frank Wilson gave an overview of Patterson-UTi Drilling, what the company does, who they serve, and some of the challenges they've faced in a year that was difficult before a global pandemic came around. Jon Gilman introduced us to his company, Clear Software, a bit about his career backstory, as well as what he and his team at Clear Software are doing in the Oil & Gas industry as they work with energy companies who are interested in intelligent automation. Frank shared his experiences on some of the areas at Patterson UTI where they have implemented automation technologies. He candidly shared their strategy, their challenges, and what he sees for the future of automation at Patterson UTI. Brad talked about what's happening at Calumet as it relates to automation throughout the organization, the challenges they've faced and the exciting opportunities they see ahead for automation and intelligent automation within the Oil & Gas industry. Jon closed our roundtable discussion with some examples of other use cases from Clear Software's energy customers, as well as even what customers in other industries are looking for as it relates to automation and intelligent automation, and what he sees ahead in the coming two to five years.  This is a great discussion and one conversation you don't want to miss.

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, I was joined by my colleague, Fred McClimans, to take a look at the Russian government hack of the multiple government agencies, likely some Fortune 500 companies including telecoms and global accounting firms — and counting. We explored the timeline as we know it today, how the hack happened and the role Texas-based SolarWinds software played in the hack, how it was discovered, and the role the Three As: acquisition, aggregation, and activation of data play in a cyberattack. For starters, it's safe to say the U.S. in general has been stunned by this attack, and with good reason. This is easily the biggest crises the NSA has encountered and the threat and risk of exposure for critical information, security, and infrastructure is high. Early assessments point to a state actor, Russia's S.V.R., a successor to the KGB, as the mastermind behind the cyberattack. The hackers, known by the nicknames APT29 or Cozy Bear are part of the SVR and are the same group that hacked the White House email servers and the U.S. State Department during the Obama administration. Our discussion included: The timeline of the attack, first discovered by FireEye, a global cybersecurity firm, about a week ago. After reviewing some 50,000 lines of source code, the FireEye team discovered the culprit — a backdoor vulnerability in a product made by SolarWinds, a software provider serving all five branches of the U.S. military, the Pentagon, the State Department, NASA, the National Security Agency, the Department of Justice and the White House. Also 10 leading U.S. telecoms companies and top five U.S. accounting firms are SolarWinds customers, along with many other of the Fortune 500. The Treasury Department and Commerce Departments were the first breaches discovered, and we now know those affected includes the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security, whose Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is in charge of — well, cybersecurity, and there are no doubt more targets that will be discovered as the investigation continues. FireEye said that its investigation had identified “a global campaign targeting” governments and the private sector that, beginning in the spring had slipped malware into a SolarWinds update. This malware gave hackers remote access to a network, making everything visible. SolarWinds estimates some 18,000 users, both private and government entities, unwittingly downloaded the Russian-tainted malware as part of a routine software update. The attack was “the day you prepare against” said Sarah Bloom Raskin, the deputy Treasury secretary under the Obama administration, and it's safe to say there are cybersecurity experts the world over who've been operating on little sleep since the hack was discovered. We talked in depth about the three As of a hack (this one or any cyberattack) as being very simple: it's all about data. Data Acquisition, Data Aggregation, and Data Activation. Getting it, organizing it, and then figuring out how best to use it to achieve your goals, nefarious or otherwise. The CISA issued an emergency directive this past Sunday to power down the SolarWinds software. While that is a logical, and important move, what it means is that a whole lot of very large organizations are likely “flying blind” without the use of software they've long relied on for access and visibility into their systems. This hack is a direct hit to the digital supply chain and is an example of what happens above the operating system. It no doubt will be a security event that will likely have far-reaching impact, and we're certain there are many interesting discoveries still ahead. We've done research on security and the role it plays in the enterprise and in governments for both Dell and Cisco in recent months. If you're interested in security and what business leaders are thinking about their organizations' security, we encourage you to download and read this research. You'll find it here: Four Keys to Navigating the Hardware Security Journey (done in partnership with Dell) Unified Communications and Collaboration: The Primacy of Security, Privacy, and Trust (done in partnership with Cisco) Unified Communications and Collaboration: The Essential Differentiators for 2020 and Beyond (done in partnership with Cisco)  

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, Interview Series, which we streamed on LinkedIn Live, I'm joined by Don Schuerman, the CTO of Pega for a conversation about the culture of digital transformation based on a recently published Futurum Research report commissioned by Pega. The Futurum report: Four Insights on the Culture of Digital Transformation Today, was the result of a survey of over 500 business leaders and general staff across North America, EMEA and APAC, with an industry split across automotive, communications, financial services, healthcare, media, and the public sector. The goal of this research was to do something different from all the other research on digital transformation out there. So much of DX conversation is around processes and technology, but we wanted to look at the people part of that equation. Instead of focusing exclusively on gleaning insights from the C-Suite and middle managers, we wanted to explore how what workers throughout the organization as a whole thought about their company's digital transformation efforts, how different roles contribute to driving digital transformation initiatives. Lastly, we tackled what we called the “real meat” of this study, and the fact that it will hopefully serve as a wake-up call to senior leaders about how to successfully think about the company's digital transformation journey. The key really is about culture and working to create a holistic culture of digital transformation where everyone is involved, and everyone plays a role. In addition, there are a few other things that business leaders can do to make this a reality — and you'll want to not miss that part of our conversation. Don also shared some insights on how Pega is working with customers to help overcome the challenges they face, and that's all about collaboration, transparency, and customer experience. Download the report today: Four Insights on the Culture of Digital Transformation Today

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast host Shelly Kramer is joined by fellow analysts Daniel Newman and Fred McClimans for a conversation around the technology drivers and considerations around the upcoming and highly anticipated COVID-19 vaccinations and the technology that's involved in making those vaccines a reality. The conversation revolved around the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine, which was submitted on Friday for emergency authorization, as well as the Moderna vaccine, which is on a similar track. The conversation revolved around four key areas where technology can play a significant role. These included: Supply chain considerations, getting the manufacturing just right, the monitoring and analytics needed and role technology plays in supply chain; Distribution of the vaccine, not just in the US but around the world, where different storage situations might be challenging; Delivery of the vaccine, the acutal dosing of the population, what type of data collection is required for that, what the privacy concerns are; and Tracking the progress of people who have been vaccinated, their progress, side effects, etc. and how involved monitoring will be and what technology will be required. What technology is involved? The IoT, the IIoT, sophisticated analytics, AI layered into analytics and using machine learning to sift through and anonymize data, blockchain and others. These are exciting times as we move close to a vaccine, and for a bunch of tech geeks, equally exciting to think about the digital transformation at work here and all the technology drivers involved in making a worldwide vaccine initiative a reality.

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, I'm joined by my colleagues here at Futurum Research, Olivier Blanchard and Ron Westfall for a conversation around the battle for DoD 5G and how, and why, that's flaring up, and a look at what's ahead. DoD Use Cases for 5G are Broad We discussed the fact that DoD use cases for 5G are broad, and it's not just about secure cellphone communications. These use cases include things like: AR/VR training for mission planning and operations Increasing efficiencies and strength of transshipments Smart warehousing Distributed command and control using 5G to assist in air, space, and cyberspace lethality The ability to allow Air Force radar systems to dynamically share spectrum with commercial 5G users DoD Contract Awards are Vast – and Growing Olivier noted that the DoD has already awarded some $600 million in contracts to a dozen companies, including AT&T, Nokia, and Ericsson, to develop a half a dozen 5G testbeds across the United States. AT&T is providing connectivity at three facilities and we discussed some additional projects currently underway, including one at Naval Base San Diego and one at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. Our conversation included the fight for 5G midband real estate, which falls under the category of “unlicensed spectrum,” and all that's involved there. We discussed the Beat China for 5G Act, which would require the FCC to auction the band by December 2021, around which there are competing amps. One is the “business as usual” camp, which supports having the FCC auction off the band per the Beat China for 5G Act and the other supports having the DoD retain control of the band but lease it to commercial operators in the “wholesale” model. Our discussion turned to the Request for Information on Defense Spectrum Sharing issued by the DoD on September 18th 2020 and the issues of spectrum sharing at play here. We also discussed Rivada, one of the companies proposing the leasing of the DoD tech infrastructure to a private corporation and a free market approach to next gen 5G networks. Rivada is a US-based communications tech business financially backed by Peter Thiel, Karl Rove, and other prominent Republicans, which is partly why the discussion around this topic is particularly relevant as one administration eventually transitions to another. It's important to note here, and our discussion revolved around this, that this exploration on the part of the DoD is about 5G Dynamic Spectrum Sharing capabilities, not a nationwide 5G network. Ron walked us through Open RAN technology, which introduces new U.S.-based competitors like Mavenir, Altiostar, and Parallel Wireless into the 5G competitive and ecosystem mix, and which are an alternative to Huawei, ZTE, Ericsson, and Nokia, all of whom have traditional RAN models. It was one of many discussions our team here at Futurum Research will have about 5G and what's ahead. We know that geopolitical concerns related to national security can (and will) quickly shift as 5G technology rapidly evolves — and we'll be there leading the discussion.

It's been a roller coaster of a week in the U.S., with an election on Tuesday that we figured would be a nail biter. A lot of things came into play — pollsters getting it wrong, social media insanity and propaganda were commonplace, and the importance of data and analytics for projections has never been more important. On this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, I'm joined by my colleagues and fellow analysts Olivier Blanchard and Ron Westfall as we take a look at what went down, what we saw from an analysts' point of view as well as a look at the impact of the election on the market this past week. We explored the following: Voting laws are complicated, and the reasons that we are, as expected, waiting for results even though that's frustrating. Election security and voter trust in the system What the Department of Defense did this time around to combat cyberattacks The role of the USPS in all the uncertainty around the election The impact of data on polling, messaging, targeting, and on vote count projections How AI models underperformed And what happened with the US stock market and why In summary, it's been an interesting week. Find us over at Futurum Research https://futurumresearch.com