domeet webmaster

Dan Littmann, Jeff Loucks

Compilation: Hong Shan

In this hyper-connected era, by 2023, the number of networked devices may reach 29.3 billion. If it is averaged to every person on the earth, there will definitely be more than three. Next-generation wireless technologies such as 5G and Wi-Fi6 are expected to become a key part of the network connecting machines and people. By providing significant performance improvements (such as faster speeds, increased data capacity, lower latency, greater device density, and precise position sensing), these new wireless technologies can already achieve novel solutions, including self-driving cars, precision automation and robotics, telemedicine and remote surgery, immersive retail and entertainment experiences, and workplaces in augmented reality environments cooperation.

Innovative solutions such as these are the important reasons why industry leaders regard next-generation wireless networks as their strategies, and they are accelerating the shift of business focus to 5G and Wi-Fi6, which is less than a year older than executives The previous forecast is much faster.

In the fourth quarter of 2020, Deloitte conducted a survey to understand how American companies are adopting advanced wireless technology and how they hope to benefit from the new technology. We discovered key insights about how and why global organizations plan to adopt advanced wireless technologies:

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated people’s attention to advanced wireless technology. The executives originally planned to spend three years shifting their attention from the previous wireless technology to 5G and Wi-Fi6, but the priority change was much faster than expected.

Advanced wireless technology is the foundation of innovation and transformation. Business executives believe that the next generation of wireless technology is critical to their business success and is transformative for their companies and industries.

The ecosystem is complex and constantly evolving. For suppliers, it is becoming more and more important to consolidate their market position.

When conducting research in early 2020, most business executives still regarded 4G/LTE and current (or earlier) Wi-Fi as the most critical wireless technology for their business; most people regarded 5G and Wi-Fi as the most critical wireless technology for their business. Fi6 is regarded as an emerging technology in the next few years. Attitudes changed rapidly: Nine months later, 5G and Wi-Fi6 have been regarded by them as the most critical wireless technologies in their business plans.

Enterprises will adopt Wi-Fi6 and 5G at the same time

The public opinion’s heavy attention to 5G seems to overshadow Wi-Fi6, but both will play an important role in the future of wireless. Unlike the previous generation of wireless, 5G and Wi-Fi6 networks will be able to interoperate seamlessly with each other, and are widely regarded as complementary technologies in the wireless ecosystem.

Among the business executives surveyed, 45% of companies have already deployed Wi-Fi6 and 5G in their businesses or conducted pilots/trials with them, and another 35% are actively preparing to use both methods at the same time . Almost everyone hopes that their organization will use 5G and Wi-Fi6 at the same time in the next two to three years. The projected investment also reflects that the two technologies will be adopted together: In the next three years, these organizations hope to evenly allocate their wireless spending to Wi-Fi6 (48%) and 5G (52%).

Advanced wireless technology is the foundation of innovation and transformationFoundation

The vast majority of executives expect advanced wireless technology to change their companies and industries in the short term. Since their industry peers will change almost as fast as their own organizations, many executives may feel the huge competitive pressure and need to realize benefits quickly.

Advanced networks are becoming an important part of the organizational innovation structure. The next generation of connectivity is not only the company’s latest and greatest improvement in wireless technology, but has also become an integral part of the company’s innovation and transformation—changing operations, developing new product models, and interacting with customers. Indeed, three-quarters of technology decision makers believe that their organizations can use advanced network technologies to create important competitive advantages, and four-fifths believe that advanced connectivity is essential to enhance customer interaction within three years.

The majority of respondents (56%) believe that their company’s current network infrastructure is an obstacle to innovation, and the driving force for innovation is driving them to adopt next-generation networks. In fact, the desire to use new technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data analysis, and edge computing is the main driving force for the adoption of advanced wireless technologies, while also increasing efficiency. It is worth mentioning that in our study at the beginning of 2020, improving efficiency is firmly in the top spot, while the use of new technologies ranks third, and the latter has now risen to the first place. Another innovative activity-creating new business models-has also been upgraded several times.

Enterprise executives believe that advanced wireless technology is indispensable for deploying innovative technologies in digital transformation. Others include big data analysis, cloud computing, edge computing, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things. These technologies are more closely intertwined and integrated into corporate innovation plans than ever before. With the popularity of advanced networks, how organizations adopt and design their advanced wireless solutions are no longer isolated from implementing other innovative technologies. Leaders should increasingly regard advanced networks as the organization’s end-to-end enterprise architecture. The key component.

How is the application of advanced wireless technology evolving?

Led by technical experts inside and outside the company, organizations are adopting advanced wireless technologies as a strategic technology plan. When it comes to influencing the organization’s decisions about advanced wireless technology, IT staff and technology vendors have the most control, followed by wireless operators and company executives.

The commitment to achieve advanced wireless plans (especially those involving 5G) involves a complex ecosystem of participants, including application and cloud providers, wireless operators, integrators, equipment manufacturers, and infrastructure providers Wait. Among the corporate executives surveyed, about one-third tend to buy a complete end-to-end advanced wireless solution, while the other two-thirds tend to buy best-in-class components or components and A mixture of complete solutions, which provide more functions and can be customized.

In order to form a complete solution, customers usually combine the capabilities and technologies of various participants. The reality today is that no single supplier can provide a full-stack, end-to-end solution on its own. Although some components may already have most of the necessary components and functions, they still need to be integrated with other components to create a complete solution.

It is expected that the architecture of 5G networks will become more virtualized, open and programmable, resulting in a proliferation of best-in-class components. Whether it is a telecommunications provider, a technology provider, or a system integrator, the role of the coordinator in assembling all the components may become more and more important.

One way for suppliers to improve competition is to help customers deal with network challenges. With advanced wireless technology to achieve a highly connected world, more potential network entry points need to be protected, and security is one of the top concerns of customers. The next generation of wireless technology is expected to provide better security. Wi-Fi6 improves data protection by ensuring that all certified devices support the latest generation of security (WPA3), providing stronger encryption and key management. In addition, 5G slices support a unique security policy for each slice-as long as slices are properly configured and managed, security will be improved.

Another major concern for customers is backward compatibility with existing systems and equipment. Suppliers have the opportunity to show how their components work well with other components and provide integrated services.

Cloud and Edge Computing in the Spotlight

Seven out of ten corporate executives surveyed revealed that they hope to deploy and manage their wireless network applications and services mainly on public or private clouds in the next two to three years. What is striking is that those who want to mainly use private clouds trust traditional cloud technology companies more, believing that they are better at managing data in private clouds (56%).

In addition, companies are keenly aware that their networks must not only connect devices, but also connect to the cloud, collect data from machines and sensors, and mesh it with the company’s cloud-based operational data.

Another area of ​​concern is that the proportion of adopters who hope to deploy and manage their wireless network applications and services at the edge in the near future (16%) exceeds the proportion in the previous survey (9%). It shows that people’s awareness of the importance and practicality of edge computing continues to increase. Considering the use of 5G, the time for device or sensor data to reach the cellular tower may only be 2 to 3 milliseconds, but the time for it to reach the remote data center for processing may still take hundreds of milliseconds, which is suitable for applications that require low latency one question. Moving data processing, storage, and AI-driven analysis to the edge closer to the edge of data collection can enable applications that require fast response times. For example, a drone that visually inspects railways or bridges to find possible problems, A telemedicine system that captures and analyzes videos to monitor the health of patients in real time, or an automatic traffic management system.

Notes for decision makers

Although the application of advanced connectivity is still in its infancy, leaders have realized the potential benefits. Companies firmly believe that next-generation wireless network technologies have the ability to provide competitive advantages, unleash the power of other emerging technologies, and rapidly change their organizations and industries. Strategic decisions made today may affect their future status. Organizations may wish to consider the following factors:

▨ Keep the ultimate goal in mind. Companies should consider the usage scenarios they want to achieve and determine which wireless technology will be the best choice in different situations. The most successful companies are likely to be companies with technologies that deploy multiple technologies and make various networks interoperable as needed.

▨ Data strategy. When large amounts of data flow from connected machines and sensors, organizations need strategies on how to store, protect, and analyze the data. According to the requirements of various usage scenarios, some data may need to be stored and analyzed in the cloud, while other data needs to be processed at the intelligent edge.

▨ Innovative infrastructure. Given that leaders see next-generation wireless technology as an important enabler of other key technologies (such as AI, IoT, and Edge), wireless technology is likely to become an inherent element of every innovation plan. Enterprises should view next-generation wireless technology as a core part of their innovative infrastructure and strategy, rather than as incidental or low-priority deployments.

▨ Integration and network management. Enterprises need to interact with complex ecosystems and numerous suppliers. Because they tend to obtain best-in-class components, organizations should decide whether to solve the integration complexity themselves or to find partners.

As advanced wireless networks become more and more common in the next few years, this market may unleash huge business opportunities.

Intelligence

#On a leader’s self-cultivation#

Every leader must have these soft skills

▨ Leaders must be good at communication. This always ranks first in the leader’s soft skills list.

▨ Leaders must be growth-oriented. This includes the willingness to always learn new business operations andBe flexible when looking for solutions. Without a growth mindset, traditional leadership solutions will fail.

▨ Leaders must be good at motivation.

▨ The leader must be a person who is good at building relationships. It is not to be confused with communication skills. This skill includes: empathy; conflict management; active listening; high emotional intelligence.

▨ Leaders must be confident and calm. When an emergency occurs, a good leader must also be decisive.

▨ The leader must be an explorer. Willing to apply new knowledge in innovative ways.

▨ Leaders must be positive. A positive attitude is a key tool for maintaining team morale.

▨ Leaders must be honest. Transparency is a huge challenge that leaders have always faced.

#Why big companies regard AIoT as a future strategy#

Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things: The Convergence of Future Technologies

As we all know, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things (AIoT) will lay the foundation for the automated world. With the ability of IoT devices to capture large amounts of data from the environment, and the ability of artificial intelligence models to extract valuable information from the Internet of Things, they can jointly implement better solutions. Together, these two technologies will change global business scenarios. For example, by 2025, the automotive IoT market will reach 541.73 billion U.S. dollars, and the IoT market in healthcare will reach 135 billion U.S. dollars.

The benefits of applying AIoT are:

▨ Allow data analysis to be optimized and serve as feedback for future operations.

▨ Because AI is embedded in the device, it can increase the autonomy of the device and become smarter.

▨ Improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the process.

▨ Provide more business insights.

▨ Enhance the security of the equipment.

▨ Automate the process.

There are also the following application scenarios, which can help us understand the impact of AIoT on business:

▨ Companies implementing AIoT will have an advantage in the competition because they can obtain more detailed insights, which is unprecedented.

▨ The recruitment process will become more structured and faster. If traditional methods are used, the recruitment process can be very time-consuming. Through the participation of AIoT, background investigations, searching for specific skills, and analyzing the behavior of personnel have become easier.

▨Most industrial tasks will become automated, safer, and more accurate.

▨ These technologies enable companies to process data in the IoT device itself, thereby improving data security and saving time.

▨ Can track consumer behavior patterns and easily analyze the purchasing power of target consumers.