Rolls Britannia

OCTOBER 2016
+
PEARSON SEEKS TO
REVOLUTIONISE THE
EDUCATION INDUSTRY
HOW VIRTUAL REALITY

IS SET TO TRANSFORM
THE ENTERPRISE
DRIVERLESS VEHICLES:
ARE THEY SAFE AND SECURE
ENOUGH FOR THE ROAD?
Rolls
Britannia
Rolls-Royce, a jewel of the British manufacturing industry,
is adapting to the digital age with a savvy approach to
technology and a transformation in IT culture
editor’s letter
Keeping up
with the pace
I n recent years,
Information Age has
documented and
analysed how the
John Gibbs – provides the perfect
example. Rolls-Royce is one of the
world’s largest makers of aircraft
engines, and has led the industry
technology industry has transformed for the best part of a century. But
through numerous emerging the company’s vision for world-class
innovations. Cloud computing, for engineering can only now continue to
example, bulldozed its way through be maintained by keeping on top of a
the IT world, rewriting the rules whole series of innovations.
for infrastructure and applications, For example, Rolls-Royce is moving
and changing the landscape of the towards a completely digital design-
technology market. IT giants that and-test process for the aircraft
dominated the industry for years engines it builds, and has created a
suddenly found themselves playing digital twin for the physical engine
catch-up to nimbler start-ups that so it can merge health monitoring
presented cheaper – and, ultimately, data with other data on the aircraft
better – ways to store data and deliver to provide value-added services to
software. And the pace of innovation airlines. And that’s just the start of
continues to leave market leaders it – read all about a whole raft of
on their toes, forever looking over technologies that are now at the
their shoulders and ensuring they’re centre of Rolls-Royce’s business
making the right investments to strategy on page 14.
prevent their business models being This month also features an
torn apart by the next big technology. insightful interview with Albert
But the really fascinating thing Hitchcock, CIO at Pearson, which is
about technological disruption is not grasping digital technology to move
so much its effect on the technology from being a publishing company to
industry – that, after all, is pretty a 21st century digital platform body.
much a given – but rather how The organisation has huge ambitions
powerfully it influences other sectors. to completely revolutionise the
The cover star of this month’s issue education industry. Read up on how
of Information Age – Rolls-Royce CIO it’s doing that on page 18.
Ben Rossi, Editorial Director
October 16 information-age.com 3
contents
OCTOBER 2016 l information-age.com
14 Rolls Britannia
With roots going back to the early 20th century,
Rolls-Royce has persevered through numerous
developments in engineering and aviation
over the past 100 years, and today finds itself
facing another in the form of digital disruption.
Information Age talks to group CIO John Gibbs
‘I don’t have any issue getting

access to the board members
to talk about IT. Our business is
totally dependent on IT’
HADOOP
Reality check 22 New allies 26 Costly connections 30

A growing number of use cases are Hadoop, the platform for big data storage So what will be the impact of the Internet of
demonstrating how transformative virtual and processing, has a new set of allies in Things on the enterprise network? Proactive
reality could be for the enterprise the form of emerging technologies companies are already preparing
innovationage storageage networkage
4 information-age.com October 16
NEWS FLASH 6
Rounding up the top industry news and trends of the past month
INSIDER 10 EDITORIAL
Editorial Director Ben Rossi (020 7250 7961)
Reporter Nicholas Ismail (020 7250 7956)
Tech Leaders Summit brings together the IT industry in London
Group Sub-Editor Alan Dobie
Researcher Stephen Grainger
DEPLOYMENT WATCH 12 Senior Designer Alex Smith
A look at some of the latest deployments throughout the UK COMMERCIAL

Sales Manager Joe Aspis (020 7250 7950)
ON THE CASE 18 SUBSCRIPTIONS – INFORMATION AGE
Abigail Appiagyei (020 7250 7010)
How Pearson is creating a global digital learning platform
VITESSE EVENTS
Behind 34
Events Manager Jenna Read (020 7250 7050)
the wheel VITESSE MEDIA PLC

Executive Chairman Chris Ingram (020 7250 7010)
Driverless vehicles will be Chief Executive Officer Niki Baker (020 7250 7010)
Commercial Director Tim Griffiths (020 7250 7032)
common on the road in
Director of Digital and Social Media
the next ten years, but as Jonathan Sumner (020 7250 7039)
manufacturers move towards Online Sales Manager (SME titles)
autonomy, how safe and John Bromley (020 7250 7954)
secure is this technology for Sales Manager (What Investment)
the road user? Gordon Sockett (020 7250 7033)
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IN THE BOARDROOM 40
Verifone’s June Felix on where the point-of-sale industry is going
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Apple steals the limelight with its annual iPhone launch Contents may not be reproduced in whole or part
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COLUMN 50
Richard Lee on how businesses can cope in a ‘post-truth world’
newsflash
NEWS / TRENDS / EVENTS @informationage
^
winners losers
ZOOPLA AND NATURAL WADA YAHOO!
TRUSSLE HISTORY A Russian The internet
Zoopla, the MUSEUM hacking group company
property search Google has has leaked data confirmed that
engine, and Trussle, an partnered with the Natural of athletes from the World state-sponsored hackers
online mortgage broker, have History Museum in London Anti-Doping Agency’s stole the personal details of
teamed up to offer a digital to virtualise exhibits on (WADA’s) servers. The data up to 500 million accounts.
end-to-end property service. show and up to 300,000 was illegally accessed via a This data leak was the
Using data analytics and specimens documented in spear phishing attack using biggest release of personal
algorithms, the new service the museum. The virtual an International Olympic information since the
allows homebuyers to search reality experience will Committee-created account internet began. Details
for a property, find out in allow people to explore its for the Rio 2016 Games. released included names,
less than 60 seconds if they exhibits even if they are at The leak exposed the passwords, email addresses,
can borrow the amount home. Using Google Street medical records of a phone numbers and security
needed, receive a mortgage- View technology, people number of famous British questions. The hack actually
in-principle in under five will be able to visit g.co/ Olympic athletes including took place in 2014, although
minutes, and secure the naturalhistory and explore Chris Froome and Sir it was only confirmed by
mortgage within 24 hours. the museum. Bradley Wiggins. Yahoo! this September.
^
MICROSOFT OPENS FIRST UK Foundation Trust, the largest mental information, holding the data in the
CLOUD DATA CENTRES health trust in the UK. UK is desirable.
Organisations that use Microsoft’s Mike Stone, chief information Moving operations to cloud-based
Azure and Office 365 will be able officer at the Ministry of Defence, services is a popular trend because it
to store their sensitive data in the highlighted some of the benefits: provides easier access to, and recovery
UK after Microsoft opened its first ‘We can now work on documents of, information, and it is regarded as a
UK-based data centres last month. It is collaboratively and understand more safer alternative to dated, and more
the first time a global company has about the ways we are working – we expensive, private servers.
built cloud data centres in Britain. will be able to see how much time
Notable first customers of these teams are spending in meetings, on PORN SITE BRAZZERS SUFFERS
cloud services include the Ministry of email and on the phone.’ HUGE DATA LEAK
Defence, whose 230,000 employees When it comes down to protecting A data breach of porn site Brazzers
will use Office 365 and Azure, and the something like defence information has compromised 800,000 emails,
South London and Maudsley NHS with the MoD or sensitive customer usernames and plain-text passwords,
according to reports in September. importance of regularly changing out hand tremors from the surgeon.
The hackers gained access to the passwords, to maximise privacy Professor Robert MacLaren at the
accounts by accessing ‘porn forums’ (and security) protection. John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford
where account holders can comment performed the world first by
and discuss certain videos. The data A WORLD FIRST IN ROBOTIC conducting a robotic operation inside
leak has been blamed by Brazzers on EYE SURGERY an eye. The patient had a membrane
security flaws found in a piece of The world’s first robotic eye surgery growing on the surface of his retina
forum-building software called was carried out this September. AI will that was about one hundredth of a
vBulletin, which has previously extend the capabilities of humans millimetre thick and needed to be
been exposed by hackers of other and will allow us to focus on more removed from the retina without
website forums. worthwhile pursuits. damaging it.
In a previous hack – on a Grand Theft The Preceyes surgical robot allows This would not have been possible
Auto gaming forum – that exposed the the surgeon to use a joystick to guide with the human hand, and the success
vBulletin software, it was necessary a thin needle into the eye. Large of the operation means that such
to permanently close the forum and movements of the joystick result operations could be revolutionised by
move the account database to a more in tiny movements of the robot. integrating robotics. In this instance,
secure authentication system. The robot acts like a mechanical, AI has extended the capabilities of
Data breaches like this emphasise the methodical hand, and is able to filter human ability.
The month in numbers 1 in 5 businesses don’t do any
43%
security testing, according to a
report by Trustwave and Osterman
Intel’s recent Grand Theft Data Research, despite the fact that 95%
report found that 43% of data of respondents reported
breaches were caused either encountering at least one of the
1 in 5
accidentally or maliciously by common security issues associated
employees with security vulnerabilities
$1.6BN
Virtual reality retail software revenue The recent Cyber Security Breaches
will hit $1.6 billion by 2025, as VR, Survey commissioned by the UK
or v-commerce, begins to have an government’s Department for
65%
increasingly important role for Culture, Media & Sport found that
in-store commerce strategies 65% of major British companies
have experienced at least one
More than 12.6 million UK adults cyber security breach or
12.6M
lack the basic digital skills required attack in the past year
for modern-day business, while a
quarter of all developers in the UK A financial scam has taken place
are self-taught with no university once every 15 seconds in the
15 seconds
education first half of 2016, according to
Finance Fraud Action
VISIT US ONLINE
Information Age doesn’t just exist as a magazine – information-age.com is one of
the UK’s most visited websites for IT leaders, and it continues to grow at a rapid pace.
For all the latest news, analysis, features and thought leadership in the world
of business technology and innovation, visit information-age.com today.
deployment watch
South West
Water
WHERE? Devon
WHAT’S THE BUSINESS CASE?

South West Water, which provides
water and wastewater services in
Devon, Cornwall and parts of Dorset
and Somerset, collects huge volumes
of data on water quality, network
performance, customer service and
maintenance. It found it increasingly
challenging to consolidate and
Rentalcars.com
analyse these sources of information
in a cost-effective manner. South Manchester City
West Water has ambitious plans
WHERE? Manchester to change the way data is used, Football Club
making it a key strategic asset
WHAT’S THE BUSINESS CASE? within the organisation. WHERE? Manchester
Rentalcars.com is the world’s largest
online car rental service, arranging WHAT ARE THEY DOING ABOUT IT? WHAT’S THE BUSINESS CASE?
over 7.5 million rentals a year in over Implementing Microsoft’s cloud Manchester City wanted to enhance
49,000 locations worldwide. As its computing platform, Azure, to the match-day experience for fans
business grew, so did the number drive the advancement of business and help change the way they access
of advisers required to support its intelligence capabilities and and consume football data.
contact centre. It could take four operational improvements across
days of intensive manpower to the organisation. WHAT ARE THEY DOING ABOUT IT?
schedule work for just 130 people, On 17 September, the football
and making changes was a clumsy, WHO’S HELPING club unveiled ‘#CityPulse Wall’,
cumbersome process. South West Water will work with the Premier League’s first fan-
Hitachi Consulting over the next friendly, interactive digital wall
WHAT ARE THEY DOING ABOUT IT? three years to bring it the power of featuring a touchscreen interface
Deployed a more flexible, automated near real-time analytics and make and video display, located in City
solution that puts the six-strong company processes more agile. Square – the social hub of the
resource planning team at Etihad Stadium. Fans can access
Rentalcars.com in control of data-driven insights, real-time
scheduling and gives the contact statistics and profiles for every
centre managers complete player across Manchester City’s
visibility of their operations. At first team, women’s team and elite
the same time, agents can access development squad.
their shifts in advance using their
mobile devices or computers WHO’S HELPING
wherever they may be. The club worked with SAP, its official
‘cloud software provider’, to develop
WHO’S HELPING the digital wall. SAP is also helping
The workforce management bring player, team and match-day
technology came from software data alive online via ‘widgets’ on
company Teleopti. Manchester City’s new website.
insider
Leading innovation
Tech Leaders Leaders brought together hundreds of UK IT pros to share learnings
and discuss the challenges and opportunities that lie in the many emerging
technologies that are disrupting businesses and industries
S eptember saw
Information Age host
Tech Leaders Summit,
the UK’s largest
identify and achieve individual and
collective business goals with regard
to challenges and innovation.
‘I think it’s a really great event,’ said
technology drive is Andy Beale, HM
Government’s chief technology
officer, and he was the first keynote
speaker to kick proceedings off in the
conference for IT leaderhip, in Christine Ashton, SVP technology main ballroom.
London. Summits like these are transformation at Thomson Reuters, He discussed transforming
important in enabling open who was a panellist on the morning government IT to establish better
discussions about disruptive technology leadership panel. ‘There’s public services and to provide civil
technologies, the benefits, the great opportunity for people from servants with more efficient and
challenges and the possibilities different industries and from secure technologies based on their
amongst a range of IT professionals different sizes of organisation to needs.
spanning numerous industries. really interact with one another and ‘It is not just about how much we
Tech Leaders Summit combined all learn from each other, and that’s spend, it’s about the role technology
four of Information Age’s leadership evident just from the sessions I’ve has to play in continuing to transform
events – data, security, cloud and seen so far.’ the way government works,’ he told
mobile – under one roof. Now is the The event itself had a large and delegates. We need technology in
most exciting time for all these areas: diverse turnout, and the topics government to make sure that we can
the benefits of data are breaking were collaboratively discussed and support the transformation of services
new ground; cyber security (its challenged throughout 40 and businesses for the good of
improvements and failures) is presentations and open panels over citizens, businesses and UK prosperity
constantly in the public eye; cloud is the course of the day. as a whole.’
now viewed as the de facto platform Sarah Wilkinson, chief digital, data
for infrastructure and applications; Public service transformation and technology officer for the Home
and the mobile era continues to Both keynote speakers discussed Office, was the keynote speaker for
redefine the workplace. similar topics surrounding public the afternoon session. She discussed
Information Age spoke to a number service transformation. Tech has the challenges associated with leading
of professionals throughout the event, enabled the two speakers from the the transformation of government
and the overwhelming feeling was civil service to disrupt, and at the technology, its progress and the
one of openness and a desire to share same time improve, public services. possibilities that lie ahead, in an
information from various spaces to Leading the government’s especially well-received address.
insider
‘We’re replacing the airwave-to- are clear, and storing and handling optimised when you harness the
airwave service which provides radio large amounts of data is now collective human intelligence across
connectivity for emergency services commonplace, it doesn’t mean that all an organisation,’ he said. ‘This
across the country,’ she said. ‘We’re organisations are necessarily making accelerates organisations towards
trying to replace it with a system that the best of their data as a competitive their goal of being more agile and
leverages 4G commercial networks resource. more data driven to uncover and take
and drives a significant efficiency.’ Understanding data and using it to advantage of
This was one of many proposed new further business goals is the real new possibilities.’
systems enabled by technology that challenge. Thomas Lee-Warren, Data’s reign is made possible by
Wilkinson introduced in her speech. director of Royal Mail’s Data Group, the growing number of devices
Attempts to modernise government suggests that some organisations and sensors connected through
technology have seen a string of spend 95% of their time sieving the Internet of Things. However,
expensive and failed transformation through increasing amounts of data improving business goals is not
efforts. But with disruptive and only 5% of their time to further the only advantage to be gained
technologies pioneering the way innovation and achieve business goals. from understanding data, as
forward, the challenges of the past, In the first data leadership Andrea Powell, chief information
Wilkinson suggested, are not as presentation of the day, Qlik officer at CABI, discussed in her
daunting a prospect. evangelist John Sands highlighted the presentation entitled ‘Can data help to
benefits feed the world?’
Understanding data for business understanding that data Understanding and utilising data has
While the benefits of using big data brings. ‘Business intelligence is only significant applications outside
insider
business, and CABI has found a managing the future. Cloud platforms,
way to use the increased access according to Simon Alcott, principal
to data to ‘create, process and solution architect at Red Hat, offer the
deliver evidence-based solutions opportunity to unify management and
that will address the challenges’ of operations, help adhere to compliance
global sustainability. regulations, and improve visibility
and access to vast networks.
In the public eye Cloud has the ability to transform
Security is the topic that comes under organisations from traditional
the most public scrutiny animals to digital ones that improve
and, as such, discussions were aplenty the quality of services for their users
at Tech Leaders Summit. and consumers. This was the main
It is the technology issue that is most point from Met Office CIO Charles
frequently featured in news stories Ewen’s presentation.
globally. How to implement effective
security protocols in the face of ‘We need technology Time to go mobile
increasing cyber threats was the most in government to make Mobility in all its forms presents an
debated leadership subject of the day. opportunity for IT leaders to disrupt
A lively panel discussion in the main
sure that we can support industries and explore new avenues.
ballroom prompted Adam Rates, the transformation Gabriella Poczo, chief technology
head of strategy and architecture of services and officer at WorldRemit, revealed in her
at Allianz Insurance, to point out, presentation how mobile could enable
‘The challenge for businesses is
businesses for the the ‘unbanked’ world. Mobile money is
balancing the pragmatism of what good of citizens, a technologically driven solution that
you invest in, whether that’s cyber businesses and UK makes the movement of money safe
security or data security, with actually and cheap. ‘It’s about empowering and
running a business. You’ve got to find
prosperity as a whole’ enriching people’s lives through
the right balance.’ technology in parts of the world that
Daniel Selman, cyber industry and >> Andy Beale, chief technology officer, are not as fortunate as we are,’ she
HM Government
information security policy deputy said. ‘Mobile-money will play a role in
head at the Ministry of Defence, the revolution of those developing
hosted a presentation on the subject, One of the main points from the countries.’ This is an example of how
articulating the very real threat posed presentation to combat these security innovation in technology can disrupt
by cyber attacks. He also set out the vulnerabilities was cyber threat traditional industry infrastructure –
background to the Defence Cyber intelligence sharing. Selman stressed in this case, banking.
Protection Partnership – a that collaboration is key and discussed Tech Leaders Summit 2016 provided
government and industry partnership how improving the sharing of a 360° high-level view of the
seeking to improve the level of information across industry and technologies and trends that are most
protection from the cyber threat in government, and defining the impacting organisations, and driving
the defence supply chain. proportionate cyber security innovation in 2016 and beyond.
These attacks have risen by 81% from standards, will raise the level of Technology leaders are the key
a year ago and cost large organisations understanding of the cyber threat in drivers of business innovation, and
between £1.5 million and £3.1 million a the supply chain. forums like this are critical in
year, and small organisations between With one eye focused on security, bringing them together to share
£75,000 and £311,000. the other should be firmly on knowedlege and discuss challenges.
on the cover
Rolls Britannia
One of Britain’s prized manufacturers is adapting to the digital age
with a savvy approach to technology and a transformation in IT
R olls-Royce is a jewel
of the British
manufacturing
industry – a FTSE 100
Strength in diversity
Gibbs’s approach has centred on
leadership, professional development,
culture and ‘leaning out’ Rolls-Royce’s
company and one of the world’s IT processes.
largest makers of aircraft engines. He has also ensured that diversity is
With roots going back to the early firmly on the company’s agenda.
20th century, Rolls-Royce has His first move as group CIO was to
persevered through numerous put in place a new, diverse leadership
developments in engineering and team. Rolls-Royce’s global IT leadership
aviation over the past 100 years, and team – made up of 14 people – is now
today finds itself facing another in 50% female.
the form of digital disruption. ‘It’s truly diverse,’ Gibbs says. ‘And the
Of the 60,000 people who work diversity in the team not only reflects
at Rolls-Royce, 617 work in the gender and race, but also diversity of
IT department. The structure age and background.
of IT is reflected in the structure ‘I’ve brought leaders into the function
of the business, and since 2009 to bring business knowledge, and that
Rolls-Royce has had a single, kind of mix gives you a pretty good
central IT organisation. insight into what the business is after
‘As an IT function, we define IT and what you’ve got to deliver.’
strategy, create an IT architecture ten years, working his way through Rolls-Royce’s IT diversity by no
and agree a set of projects, which we a number of senior IT positions, means ends there, however. While its
then execute flawlessly,’ says John such as chief technology officer, leadership team has an impressive
Gibbs, the company’s group CIO. IT transformation programme gender balance, the rest of the IT
‘We put them into service, protect director and IT operations and department reflects the industry
the environment, manage risks and infrastructure director. average – around 20% female.
ensure we’re delivering all of that On being appointed group CIO in The company’s ambition is to build
with value for money. February, he signalled a ‘revolution’ and sustain an inclusive culture and
‘That’s what every IT function does. in Rolls-Royce’s approach to IT – diverse workforce. That starts with
What differentiates a good function focusing on transforming how IT encouraging more young women to
from a bad function is how you go employees go about doing their consider a career in IT.
about doing that.’ job, rather than the projects they With that in mind, Gibbs is
Gibbs has worked at Rolls-Royce for work on. determined to do a number of things
on the cover
management; integrated design,

simulation and verification; lean
engineering; and enabling IT
capabilities such as high-performance
computing and fast technical
engineering PCs.
This IT vision is allowing the
company to move towards a
completely digital design-and-test
process for the aircraft engines it
builds. Simulating the fan-blade-off
test, for example, has provided more
insight, helped the environment and
reduced engine development time and
costs, as well as the number of physical
engines required to be tested.
Rolls-Royce’s digital aspirations
spread far and wide. The creation of a
digital twin for the physical engine is
allowing the company to move from
engine health monitoring – which it
has done for many years – to the
around the next level down of IT Its technology department has merger of that data and other data on
leadership at Rolls-Royce, as well as successfully helped two of its the aircraft to provide value-added
graduate recruitment. For example, secretaries into the early stages of an services to airlines.
the company is partnering with IT career in its project office, and its Another example of how digital is
Tomorrow’s Tech Leaders Today, a reputation for developing female transforming Rolls-Royce is in its
technology careers fair attended talent has attracted senior women marine business, where it’s looking
exclusively by female university from across the company. at ship intelligence and autonomous
students and early graduates. ‘We ensure that all roles are equally shipping – the ability to remove many
Meanwhile, the company’s ‘daughters’ available to women, and that we are of the crew from the ship and optimise
days’ and ‘work experience days’ allow flexible in how and when these roles the ship’s performance.
young women to gain work experience are performed,’ says Gibbs. ‘We also And Rolls-Royce’s defence business is
in IT, including participating in focus on increasing awareness and utilising digital innovation to ensure it
activities across the full IT life cycle understanding across our male can deploy the right assets to the right
and different functional teams. population so that any unconscious places that are needed to support the
Initiatives like these are backed by biases are removed and to ensure that military operations.
Rolls-Royce’s STEM ambassadors, of we live up to the Rolls-Royce ethical ‘We’re expanding beyond just keeping
which it has more than 600 in the UK, and diversity standards such as the engine and product operational,’
who reach out to schools to encourage equality in pay.’ says Gibbs. ‘It’s much more about
selection of science, technology, value-added services.’
engineering and mathematics subjects. Moving to digital Part of the functional strategy is the
Rolls-Royce also actively supports job Rolls-Royce’s technical vision for sourcing model. Rolls-Royce has a
sharing, career breaks, meeting times engineering is to develop world-class mixed sourcing model across the
that work for parents and carers, and products and services for its customers. whole IT life cycle. It decides what the
the use of technology to optimise Inside that, the IT function is focusing important things are to the business
travel and remote working. on product data and document that should be retained in-house and
on the cover
outsources the things that are more technologies will be realised in the Rolls-Royce, he says, to drive
commodity or less strategic in years to come. In terms of short-term improvements in its efficiency and
nature. For example, its enterprise achievements during Gibbs’s eight- effectiveness, as well as adding value to
architecture team is insourced, month reign as group CIO, he points customers and shareholders.
whereas its development and support to the improved relationship with IT ‘I don’t have any issue getting access
teams are mainly outsourced. users at Rolls-Royce. to the board members to talk about IT,’
In terms of cloud, Rolls-Royce His team has pushed numerous he says. ‘Our business is totally
decided to have a strategy of adopting activities with regard to engaging with dependent on IT, both operationally
it more slowly than the faster movers IT users at the company, including and in terms of transforming itself,
because it wanted to make sure global employee networks and ‘meet and we’re at the heart of everything
the data was secure. Now that it’s IT’ events to get feedback and discuss they are trying to do.
comfortable that the security is to personal and business IT issues. ‘IT is a major enabler for engaging
the level required to protect the data, On the technology side, the focus has with our customers, delivering
Gibbs says, it has a cloud-first strategy. been on getting the fundamentals in additional value to them through the
It’s working with Microsoft, for place – from smartphones that can unique insights we can bring. We are
example, to host some of its systems access business applications to the seen not only as technology leaders
on the Azure platform. And it recently refresh of the basic infrastructure but also as business leaders, helping to
went live with a major Workday such as PCs and networks, including shape the future business models.
implementation that places all Rolls- increasing capacity to handle the ‘And if you look outside of Rolls-
Royce HR in the cloud. future demands on IT and data. Royce, the IT industry has never been
‘We’re also doing the more exciting, more exciting in terms of the pace
Only connect leading-edge technologies – for of technological change or the
Another major trend impacting example, in the use of augmented permeation across business and
Rolls-Royce’s business and strategy is reality that we’re using on our shop society. It’s great to work in IT.’
Industry 4.0 – using connected systems floor and with our field services,’
to make better decisions in its factories says Gibbs. ‘There are also the
– and deploying the right standards. transformational programmes
This brings together a number of that will make the user experience
technologies, such as the Internet of really positive. ‘I don’t have any
Things, digital workflow, intelligent
manufacturing, digital product
‘We’ve launched a programme for
major upgrades to our SAP enterprise
issue getting
verification and smart factories, as resource planning, product life cycle access to the
well as virtual design and simulation. management and manufacturing
‘We’ve got multiple projects execution systems applications. These board members to
implementing all the different aspects will significantly simplify our internal
and elements of Industry 4.0,’ says processes and reduce the time and cost talk about IT. Our
Gibbs. ‘For example, we’re using
adaptive manufacturing and 3D
associated with doing business.’
Gibbs points to the understanding of
business is totally
printing to demonstrate the the power of IT at board level as one dependent on IT’
technology’s viability. We’re upgrading of the real strengths at Rolls-Royce –
our manufacturing systems around claiming his team have a ‘huge amount
the world to bring in higher levels of of air time’ to discuss what they’re >> John Gibbs, group CIO, Rolls-Royce
automation and quality.’ doing and how they’re doing it.
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connectivity, it makes
sense that the education
company to a 21st century digital
platform body.
The vision, Hitchcock tells Information
Age, is to create a similar experience
sector should embrace digital online to that enjoyed by learners in
transformation – perhaps more so their everyday lives.
than other industries. ‘So when you look at the use of social
Education is the foundation for media and Facebook, when you look
individuals moving into a variety of at the use of Amazon for the retail
industries, in a range of professions. environment, when you look at the use
Students, and the institutions providing of Netflix for the media environment,
them with education, should embrace we want to create a platform that has a
the digital revolution that is currently number of those attributes associated
transforming professional spheres. with it.’
Not only will it prepare students Of course, education is an inherently
for the realities of the workplace, but ‘It’s forced us to rethink more complex and nuanced sector,
also the millennial generation – and how we consider and one that is driven far more by
Generation Z behind them – will expect the human engagement that goes on
this move to an online, digital platform
technology architecture, between a teacher and a student.
at school level. customer experience, Pearson’s ambition is to create a global
Unlike children from previous design, user experience, digital platform for education. The
generations, the millennial generation advantages of embracing and utilising
has grown up with laptops, smart-
creation, and all of that increased connectivity, as adopted by
phones, tablets and social media at their in a very integrated way, many businesses, will provide better
disposal. Integrating these technologies which we never did in experiences for students that ultimately
into learning is a natural progression. help deliver better learning outcomes.
Publishing company Pearson has
the past’ It’s an exciting change for the business,
recognised the advantages of moving Hitchcock remarks, which centres
online, and is leading the way in
>> Albert Hitchcock, CIO, Pearson mainly around technology, and how
digitally transforming education – for technology can enable that new
all ages and across diverse areas. business model.
Over the past two and a half years, ‘Technology is underpinning a lot of
Albert Hitchcock, CIO at Pearson, has our strategy here, in terms of how we
pioneered the initiative to move the transform the learning experience into
business from being a publishing a sort of digitally led experience that is
on the case
highly personalised and focuses on editorial capability, and a single content business and also helps to serve the
delivering fantastic educational distribution capability. client experience.
outcomes that are very tailored to The aim is to provide a very rich ‘Rather than separate stovepipes,
individuals, and in terms of improving and personalised media experience enterprise and products, we’re
their lives,’ says Hitchcock. that’s delivered using analytics, and bringing this all together into a single
through understanding learner platform,’ explains Hitchcock. This
Technology in education behaviour – an experience that is quest to revolutionise the education
The transformed learning system will fundamentally mobile, or multiservice, industry through a flexible, API-
use a cloud-based hosting model – a in nature, in any country where driven, cloud-based platform is a
move away from Pearson’s traditional learners can be served. reflection of the digital transformation
built-in-house applications. Pearson is using a lot of SaaS-based facing all industries, and the proof, as
Utilising the cloud has become services from third parties, such they say, is in the product.
commonplace for organisations that as implementing Salesforce.com
recognise the flexibility and increased ‘as we speak’, says Hitchcock. ‘We’re Revelling in it
efficiency it offers. implementing Oracle ERP in the REVEL is a product that is selling today
‘We’re moving to a microservices- cloud. These SaaS-based offerings will in the US primarily. It is described by
based architecture so we can use APIs in operate our in-house platform for Pearson on its website as a digital
a very open and flexible framework,’ learning.’ environment designed for the way
says Hitchcock. ‘We’re implementing a So essentially the desire is to create, today’s students read, think and learn.
whole set of what I call core global using a variety of SaaS and cloud-based ‘It effectively replaces the textbook,
platform capabilities.’ services combined with analytics but has built-in video, rich media
The idea is ‘simple’: to create a digital and machine-learning capabilities, and assessment – it’s like a digital
platform with a single e-commerce a single digital architecture that both curriculum that a student goes through,’
capability, a single authoring and covers the internal running of the comments Hitchcock.
on the case
This new method of learning plays and continue the course at home.
Learning gains at Coastal Bend Learning gains at Palm Beach State
on the expectations of the millennial College, Texas, with Pearson support Inevitably, however,
College, instigating
Florida, with such
Pearson support
generation, who expect an online, a dramatic digitised change from a
interactive and immersive experience. 97% long-standing print-based system, like 95%
Currently, the education sector has 89% education, produces challenges 85%that
83%
remained largely static compared must be overcome. 73%
with the interconnected nature of 72%
66%
other industries. Pearson has found Cultural challenges
an opportunity. The biggest challenges are cultural
The creation of a digital textbook like in nature, Hitchcock says, ‘in terms
this is not simply a signifier of digital of how we move our editorial and
transformation. It is not based on an authoring team to fully embrace a
attitude of just because we can build digital-first approach’.
Success rate Retention rate Success rate Retention rate
something it means we should. The whole process of streamlining
Instead, by moving the educational Autumn 2014 (without REVEL) Pearson’s content value
Spring chain
2015 – from
(without REVEL)
experience online, products like Summer 2015 (with REVEL) content creationAutumn
to monetisation –
2015 (with REVEL)
REVEL have the potential to requires a change of attitude in moving
significantly boost students’ from an existing model that supports
understanding, retention
Learning gains at Coastal Bendand Learning gains at Palm Beach State print-based editorial to a mobile-first
College, Texas, withacross
preparedness Pearson
ansupport
expanding College, Florida, with Pearson support approach. This is not an uncommon
range of discipline areas — for less problem that businesses faces when
97% textbook. 95%
than the cost of a traditional undergoing digital transformation.
89% 85%
Hitchcock
83% says, when discussing Digital transformation, as well
REVEL,
72% ‘We’ve had excellent feedback 73% as a change in attitude, requires
on the quality of that experience. The
66% collaboration. The structure of a
intention is that we built that into business has to change. In order for the
the platform going forward’. necessary technology to be successfully
He goes on to say that the product integrated, different departments need
improves pass rates, the experience for to work together. To create an agile
learners in general and the quality of development methodology, bringing
tuitionrate
Success in general.
Retention rate Success rate Retention rate together different teams to work in an
This is not just a marketing stunt, as integrated way is vital.
Autumn 2014 (without REVEL) Spring 2015 (without REVEL)
Hitchcock tells Information Age that last In this light, the role of traditional IT
yearSummer
Pearson2015
had(with REVEL)
140,000 paid REVEL Autumn 2015 (with REVEL) also requires change, centring on how
registrations, and this year it will hit the traditional IT function works with
500,000, almost four times growth. products like REVEL – and ultimately other aspects of the business. Bringing
‘It’s one of our fastest-growing digital the entire education platform that different parts of an organisation
products right now, and it’s a signpost Pearson is implementing – enable together allows technology to work
for the future – of where we’re going.’ people to use them on their own cohesively right from the back office all
Accessibility is a major factor, and devices. They can log in from their PC the way through to the customer and
on the case
the customer experience. terms of how we safeguard student opportunity to serve developing
‘It’s forced us to rethink how we information, and are fairly all countries, too. The combination of a
consider technology architecture, encompassing as it relates to data strong learning design and the digital
customer experience, design, user privacy,’ Hitchcock explains. capabilities will allow Pearson – and
experience, creation, and all of that in a Any revolution comes with a varying other similar businesses – ‘to serve
very integrated way, which we never set of challenges and risks. If these can a very wide and diverse population,
did in the past,’ comments Hitchcock. be overcome then often the results are but do it in a way that has a massive
transformative, whether looking at a impact on learning outcomes’,
Preparing for cyber country post-revolution or a business Hitchcock concludes.
Digital transformation doesn’t just post-digital revolution. A global digital education platform
present structural and behavioural has the capability to completely
challenges, but also carries significant The future of education revolutionise the education process,
security implications. By moving Creating a digital medium is the natural and it will also allow education to be
‘online’, the cyber threat is progression for an education industry delivered to markets that perhaps
exponentially increased. that has remained fairly static today are unserved.
Hitchcock recognised this challenge, compared with the other industries
and one of his first acts at Pearson around it. Of course, a degree of online
involved bringing in a chief information interaction has been implemented, but
security officer to create ‘a world-class the industry is still largely paper-based. ‘We believe through
security function internally, which we Digital presents an opportunity to
didn’t really have in the past’. personalise and improve the learning this use of analytics
Effective cyber security is essential,
and over the past 18 months Pearson
experience of the end consumer by
utilising the technologies available.
and personalisation,
has implemented its own security ‘We believe through this use of and the ability to
operations centre, Hitchcock tells analytics and personalisation, and the
Information Age. ability to adapt content on the fly, adapt content on the
‘We’ve invested heavily there. We’ve we can actually shorten the learning
put in place significant investments process and improve learning outcomes fly, we can actually
in the whole security framework,
which has resulted in us putting
and the ability to go through the
assessment process,’ says Hitchcock.
shorten the learning
protection in place around our content He adds that the move to this digital process and improve
delivery network, around our data platform needs to be done in
centres, and how we manage network- conjunction with the educators and learning outcomes
based security.’ educational institutions, because it’s
Another factor that needs to be very much tied into how they apply and the ability
managed carefully is data privacy,
especially given the different regulatory
teaching and learning. ‘It’s not
something that can stand alone as a
to go through the
environments of the various countries digital medium; we have to work with assessment process’
in which Pearson operates. our institutional partners.’
‘We follow all the local jurisdictions in Going digital presents a real
innovationage
Reality check
Virtual reality is dominating hype in gaming and entertainment circles this
year. But a growing number of impressive use cases in enterprise settings are
demonstrating just how transformative this technology could be
V irtual reality (VR) may

seem like a very recent
phenomenon, but the
concept of tricking the
gaming, combined with a drive
towards exploring real value
delivering commercial applications.’
Developments in VR have certainly
human senses into a man-made sped up dramatically in recent years.
reality can be tracked back hundreds Facebook’s $2 billion acquisition
of years. of Oculus remains one of the
Technology developments in the technology’s most significant
1800s included 360-degree immersive moments, while a growing number
panoramic paintings that could of products have hit the market,
transport users to major historical including HTC Vive headsets and an
events, and stereoscopic pictures that array of compatible games.
delivered a sense of depth to the Furthermore, almost every new
viewer by displaying a separate smartphone can now be used in
image for each eye. ‘The potential is huge conjunction with a VR headset,
The desire to do this began in ranging from the build-it-yourself
entertainment and has largely and is likely to grow Google Cardboard to Samsung’s
remained the key driver up until more exponentially. The list Oculus powered headset. PlayStation’s
recently. Over the past few decades, of fields that could benefit own VR headset will hit shelves this
huge leaps forward in technology month, and may well prove to be the
have meant that each of the five when everyone has easy real game changer.
human senses can be stimulated in and reliable access The most successful VR games to
a more convincing way – from hi to a VR platform is date appear to be those that have
fidelity audio, and visual recording been created specifically for a
and creation, through to the ability to almost endless, and VR platform. However, the big
stimulate smell and touch. increasingly exciting’ franchises are also starting to
‘We are now entering a golden experiment with VR features, such as
age of VR,’ says André Hordagoda, this year’s Tomb Raider instalment,
>> Dale Green, marketing director,
co-founder of GoInStore, which Digital Realty which has been handily timed to
offers online customers a first- coincide with PlayStation’s October
person, in-store shopping headset release.
experience. ‘The past few years And as the availability of devices
alone have seen breathtaking increases, the consumption of
improvements in fully immersive entertainment of all kinds will be
innovationage
opened up to the vast potential of the applications – but there is definitely

VR experience. an emergence of start-ups addressing
NBC made the Rio Olympics the first and exploring the true potential of
major sporting event to feature VR this field.
coverage, albeit only via the Samsung In the retail space, for example,
Galaxy VR headset. In February, innovations in VR have allowed
British electronic band Years & Years consumers to experience products,
became the first to perform a live or configurations of products, that
streamed VR gig, and some film are not physically in a store.
studios are already providing VR However, the lack of hardware
content to support big releases. availability on the consumer side
has so far limited the effect of
Across the board such technologies, as well as the
But it isn’t just gaming and commercial potential for retailers.
entertainment that is set to be ‘The hardware is not The key driver for retailers is to
revolutionised by VR. generate more revenue at a lower
In April, an operation to remove a
widely available on the cost. The trick for innovators is to
malignant tumour was live-streamed consumer side. This find ways in which VR can do this.
in VR by Barts Health NHS Trust in means I still have to Hardware costs are typically fixed,
London, with armchair viewers and, but businesses must also factor in
more importantly, medical students
travel to the store to ongoing software development,
able to view the operation in 360 experience the VR. maintenance and training costs for VR
degrees on any compatible device. This will change in time, deployment in the commercial world.
The surgeon who carried out the ‘The hardware is not widely
operation has set up a company
though, and as soon as available on the consumer side,’ says
through which he hopes to use VR we have a critical mass of Hordagoda. ‘This means I still have to
in order to train students around people with home VR travel to the store to experience the
the world, especially those in VR. This will change in time, though,
developing countries who may not
tech, the investment in and as soon as we have a critical mass
have the resources and facilities of this space will grow at an of people with home VR tech, the
NHS hospitals. exponential rate’ investment in this space with grow
‘The potential is huge and is likely at an exponential rate.’
to grow exponentially,’ says Dale Attensi, a Nordics-based firm,
Green, marketing director at Digital
>> André Hordagoda, co-founder, GoInStore has been using a variety of head-
Realty. ‘The list of fields that could mounted displays to develop training
benefit when everyone has easy and virtual revolution. We are seeing the simulations for several industries.
reliable access to a VR platform is beginnings of this now, but it is likely ‘This includes a diagnosis tool for
almost endless, and increasingly to be several years before the true medical professionals with virtual
exciting. extent of VR influence becomes clear.’ patients requiring treatment or
‘Everything – from how you talk to It’s still early days – and businesses the administration of drugs,’ says
your friends on Facebook to viewing are still trying to understand the Jonathan Wagstaff, UK&IE country
a property – will be changed by the potential of VR for enterprise manager at analyst firm Context.
innovationage
Commercial value professionals who approached me

The main challenge of VR is always afterwards to admit that they had no
around return on investment – having idea of the wide range of potential
technology that is simply ‘cool’ does business applications of VR.’ ‘At a recent talk
not drive adoption in the enterprise
space.
There is also a shortage of skilled
VR software developers. A worldwide
at IFA 2016, I was
Having a technology that delivers survey from Crytek’s VR First initiative surprised by
a real commercial value, which showed that higher education
outweighs the cost of delivery, is the institutions had an average of 1.5 the number
key to all enterprise deployments – head-mounted displays (HMDs) each. of industry
and VR is no different. ‘There’s a high level of training
‘We’re at the point where the involved, and convincing staff that professionals
technology is convincing enough to the technology is there to help them
throw a user into a convincing virtual in their job is another important
who approached
experience, at a more manageable cost,’ element,’ says Hordagoda. ‘Some me afterwards to
says Hordagoda. ‘When you have major employees are more receptive than
players like Samsung giving their VR others to change, but this is definitely admit that they
headsets away with their mobile
phones, we’re at the beginning of a
a key focus for our success.’
As processing power increases and
had no idea of
tipping point.’ businesses find more innovative ways the wide range of
Awareness is another major barrier. to convince and stimulate the mind, VR
In a recent EU-wide study by Context, will increasingly play an influential potential business
only 9% of the general public thought part in people’s lives. applications of VR’
VR could help them with workplace From medical and industrial
challenges. applications to the continuation
As awareness grows, so too will of entertainment in pushing the
>> Jonathan Wagstaff, UK&IE country
manager, Context
deployment of B2B VR tech. Software boundaries, the impact will be
such as Big Screen Beta on the Rift/ seen across numerous sectors and
Vive – which allows up to four business scenarios.
people to sit in a virtual space with ‘Enterprise stands to benefit hugely,’
visibility of each other’s screens comments Hordagoda. ‘The focus for
– demonstrates the opportunities GoInStore will of course be to continue
available to businesses. pushing the “immersiveness” of our
‘This is the closest attempt yet to a technology, removing barriers such as
virtual office – something that will distance and time to give a true virtual
become increasingly of interest to in-store experience to customers
businesses struggling for office space anywhere in the world.
or restricted by high rental prices,’ says ‘Our technology can deliver sight and
Wagstaff. ‘I expect to see more AV sound at the moment, but who knows
vendors moving into the VR space. how long before we are able to tackle
‘At a recent talk at IFA 2016, I was touch, smell and even taste. The mind
surprised by the number of industry boggles with possibilities.’
innovationage
HADOOP
26 information-age.com May 16
storageage
Defending the throne

Hadoop, the next-generation data platform, is pitched as the king of big
data storage and processing. As with normal rulers there are potential
usurpers to the throne, but Hadoop has defended it valiantly and now
has a new set of allies in the form of emerging technologies
C ollecting, understanding
and utilising big data
is a fundamental
requirement for
the processing and storage of extremely
large data sets in a distributed
computing environment. It is part
of the Apache project managed by the
Mike Gualtieri explains: ‘Hadoop lets
you store files that are bigger than
what can be stored on one particular
node or server. So you can store very,
businesses wishing to remain Apache Software Foundation. very large files. It also lets you store
competitive. Those organisations This is an accurate and fair description, many, many files.’ It allows a business
that master big data will be kings and but it is hardly a love sonnet. Businesses to store data that was previously too
queens of their respective industry, that operate Hadoop will perhaps lean expensive to keep.
by improving operational efficiency towards a more romantic view of the MapReduce is the second function
and customer experience. software that has made their business of Hadoop, and processes the data or
Often businesses spend 95% of their into a more efficient beast. provides a framework to process
time looking for the relevant data and ‘Hadoop is a unique the data. It is here where
only 5% of the time using it. This is architecture designed to Hadoop excels. Moving
Often
neither efficient nor productive, and enable organisations data over a network
businesses spend
95%
could quite conceivably lead to an to gain new analytic can be painfully
organisation’s fall, or at the very insights and slow. MapReduce,
least stagnation. operational operating within
Hadoop for a long time was seen as efficiencies,’ says Hadoop, provides
the most effective solution software Carole Murphy, of their time looking for the the solution to this
for tackling big data. Its function: to product director for relevant data and only 5% painstaking process
store and process big data in an easy, data security at HPE of the time using it by moving the
simple and fast manner. But is it the Security. ‘The resulting processing software
case any more? As more and more flexibility, performance to the data – it operates
businesses become reliant on big data and scalability are from the inside.
to thrive and survive, software like unprecedented.’ In terms of how Hadoop
Hadoop will become an increasingly The platform has significant business works technically, Apache Software
valued commodity. benefits in storing and processing big Foundation describes it as a framework
data through, as Murphy reveals, ‘the that is designed to scale up from single
Efficiency drive use of multiple standard, low-cost, servers to thousands of machines, each
In its most unflattering form, Hadoop is high-speed, parallel processing nodes offering local computation and storage.
defined on searchcloudcomputing.com operating on very large sets of data’. Rather than relying on hardware to
as an open source, Java-based Storing data is the first function deliver high availability, the library
programming framework that supports Hadoop offers, as Forrester analyst itself is designed to detect and handle
storageage
failures at the application layer, thereby flaw: data security ‘was not a key design
delivering a highly available service on criterion’, he says.
top of a cluster of computers, each of As business operations become
which may be prone to failures. increasingly connected, with a
Again, this is not the most romantic reliance on big data, protecting data
or coherent – for those with a non- becomes more difficult and more
scientific background – description. important. Unfortunately, Hadoop
What is important, some would suggest, was not designed with security as its
is not how it works, but what benefits it primary function.
creates for businesses seeking to tap ‘By its nature,’ says Murphy, ‘Hadoop
into big data. poses many unique challenges to
properly securing this environment,
Gaining the advantage not least of which include automatic
So, how important is tapping into and complex replication of data across
the proverbial big data gold mine for ‘Hadoop is a unique multiple nodes once entered into the
businesses? ‘Imperative, if you will,’ HDFS data store.’
Jules Damji, spark community
architecture designed
evangelist at Databricks, tells to enable organisations Sitting target
Information Age. to gain new analytic The platform is vulnerable to cyber
‘Data is everywhere, and it’s growing attacks and data leaks – it is too
in velocity, volume and variety, in
insights and operational expansive and open to be fully
all sectors of business and in all efficiencies’ protected. It is, therefore, a desirable
industry verticals. Big data is the target for hackers because of the range
new competitive advantage, just as >> Carole Murphy, product director, and quantity of data it holds. This is a
automation in manufacturing enables data security, HPE Security problem for businesses that will face
production at scale or just as IT much harsher sanctions in a world
innovation enables productivity product recommendation, or create dominated by stricter regulations,
at scale.’ whole new business models such like the impending EU General Data
Effectively utilising big data is as a replacement for taxi cabs via a Protection Regulation (GDPR).
fundamental in improving operational smartphone app – leveraging GPS and Murphy explains that a data-centric
insights and efficiencies, and in payment systems – all of which need a security approach to the problem
understanding customer usage and common, distributed next-generation is a possible solution. This entails
behavioural patterns. Describing it data platform’. ‘de-identifying the data as close to
as the Holy Grail for business is not It provides, Ali goes on, the same its source as possible, replacing the
an understatement. capabilities that supercomputing does sensitive data elements with usable, yet
Hadoop offers businesses the ability but for a fraction of the cost. Apache de-identified, equivalents that retain
to use this big data, with endless Hadoop’s immense storage and their format, behaviour and meaning’.
possibilities, as Naser Ali, marketing processing power supports the big ‘This is also called “end-to-end data
director, EMEA at MapR, tells data movement by providing a flexible protection” and provides an enterprise-
Information Age. It provides the performance scalability for businesses wide solution for data protection
opportunity to ‘write new applications looking to make the digital leap. that extends beyond the Hadoop
for fraud detection, customer churn or However, Hadoop was built with one environment,’ explains Murphy.
storageage
So, the adoption of Hadoop does meet the growing data demands of
present security concerns relating to businesses and their customers.
the massive amount of stored data that The potential opportunities Hadoop
resides in its system. But there are presents for IT are expanding, in line
security solutions in the form of IT with emerging technologies. With the
infrastructure protection and, as emergence of the cloud and the host of
mentioned, end-to-end data protection. applications it creates for new and
If these security systems can be increased revenues, for example,
effectively implemented then Hadoop Hadoop offers the ability to manage
has a crucial role to play in the future these cloud-based benefits as a
storage and processing capabilities of converged offering, remarks Ali.
big data for businesses. Or does it? As more businesses move online to the
cloud, this service becomes even more
Pretenders to the throne paramount. Hadoop moving forward
Despite the imperious status of Hadoop ‘Big data is the new has vast potential to engage, maintain
and the clear benefits of using it to and improve emerging technologies
effectively store and process big data,
competitive advantage, and their data, such as data lakes,
alternative platforms have arisen in just as automation in self-service data and the continuous
recent years that threaten to dethrone manufacturing enables data being streamed through the
the king. Damji suggests that Apache Internet of Things. Hadoop is being
Spark ‘offers faster data processing
production at scale or used, and will continue to be used, to
capabilities’ and is ‘an easier and faster just as IT innovation store and process the vast amount of
alternative to Hadoop’s MapReduce’. enables productivity data that has become so critical to
In terms of storage too, says Damji, business decisions and operations.
there are other software systems just
at scale’ Monitoring the security of Hadoop’s
as capable, such as cloud storage, platform is fundamental, and the
key-value stores or traditional RDBMS >> Jules Damji, spark community evangelist, question does remain: is there a way
systems and warehouses. Databricks to utilise emerging technologies
Equally, Hadoop seems to falter in with Hadoop in a secure manner with
terms of functionality, suggests Patrick ‘Graph databases are better at regard to data and the customers that
McFadin, chief evangelist for Apache handling relationships between objects this data represents?
Cassandra at DataStax. It is not a and datasets, and making that data Damji suggests, however, that
suitable technology for data transaction, understandable,’ says McFadin. ‘Hadoop other alternatives are ‘unaffordably
he says, adding – unsurprisingly – that is great for batch-style analytics, but expensive, slow and likely to fail’. He
Apache Cassandra and other NoSQL that’s not the only way that big data adds, ‘Traditional systems cannot scale,
offerings are better suited to the task can be used.’ cannot handle newer types of semi-
than Hadoop or more traditional structured data, cannot work well over
relational databases. He also suggests What does the future hold? complex hybrid environments, do not
that Cassandra and Spark can provide Hadoop, however, is by no means a have developer mindshare and were
near real-time analytics when spent commodity. Technologies and designed for a different era.’
transactions are taking place, whereas ecosystem platforms like Hadoop and On this basis, Hadoop really is the
Hadoop cannot. the cloud are constantly evolving to king, and businesses are wise to this.
networkage
networkage
Costly connections
Before many businesses have even got to grips with mobile, the more proactive
companies are preparing for the connected age. So what will be the impact of the
Internet of Things on the enterprise network?
I n the past ten years,

there has been a
complete shift in the
way companies manage,
The issue is that enterprises haven’t
yet digested the mobile age – for most,
they are still working on it.
Mobile was the catalyst for users to
they doing? These teams will need to
work together more closely than ever
before – they have to exchange data
and be prepared to act quickly and in
secure and invest in their networks. regain control over their computing unison to respond to security threats.
The increase in the number of mobile requirements. Suddenly, employees The opportunity for cyber-based
devices that could connect to the could use their own mobile devices for criminal activity has never been
internet drove significant demand business purposes. greater. It will become increasingly
for Wi-Fi in the workplace. The era of BYOD was born, and the difficult for IT operations staff to
This led to an increase in the number business benefits from greater agility control connected devices.
of Wi-Fi devices at the network edge and productivity were so great that As employees connect their devices
and, as a consequence, more network they trumped security concerns. The to the network remotely, these devices
traffic across the core. castle walls were breached – there was will also be connected to a plethora of
As it becomes the default method no perimeter, and device management other networks and devices.
for connecting client devices – became a whole lot more difficult. ‘They can’t control the security
in place of physical connections of these devices,’ says Mann. ‘And
– greater investment in the network Unknown threats they don’t know which devices are
has been needed in both wireless and ‘Add cloud services and the Internet of legitimate. The churn of connections
physical network ends, to make sure Things (IoT) into the mix and you have will stretch their monitoring
that Wi-Fi could take the load and not so much evolution but revolution,’ capabilities to breaking point. In all
perform as required. says Graham Mann, UK MD and CMO this turmoil, attackers will be better
This shift also means that companies at Encode Group. ‘That said, IoT for me able to hide their nefarious activities.’
have needed to reassess their security is simply an extension of mobile. The A recent European research study,
posture as individual users have now point is that we don’t know what the conducted by Bomgar, found that 74%
become the network perimeter security threats are now. We’re in of IT leaders are concerned about
themselves. uncharted waters that even the breaches originating from connected
‘Businesses have also had to analysts aren’t clear about.’ devices over the next year.
introduce new security measures Enterprise networks are now It is clear that UK businesses will
like VPN so that users can connect more fluid than ever, and they’re need to start future-proofing their
securely to the network, when not no longer within the control of the security posture as IoT adoption
actually on-site, as well as managed operations people. continues to progress both in
and secured digital identities,’ says IT operations and security teams corporate and mainstream life.
Colin Williams, chief technologist now require tools that provide ‘The potential for unwanted users
for networking, security and unified visibility: what devices are on the or cybercriminals to infiltrate large
communications at Computacenter. network, where are they and what are institutions will become more
networkage
frequent, if not acted upon,’ says every little inconvenience. securing a smart air conditioner,
Stuart Facey, VP EMEA at Bomgar. For example, La Poste, the French which is entirely different to securing
‘The tenacity, speed of attack and postal system, now provides an all- an employee’s smartphone.
severity of potential threats will be inclusive service that can be triggered Trying to manage individual
determined by access vulnerabilities with the push of a button – including endpoints with diverse network
in the institution’s network.’ pickup, packaging and shipping. needs on a ‘device by device’ basis
The connected age adds to the Pushing buttons can also restock is not scalable.
proliferation of more network- cupboards. With Amazon Dash, ‘A more business outcome,
connected devices. Since consumers can simply push a policy-based approach will be
connected devices can button in their kitchen needed embracing automation and
both consume and and products will intelligent orchestration,’ says Brown.
74%
generate sensor automatically be ‘Enterprises are going to be required
or other data, it ordered, paid for to start thinking about all the data
becomes critical and delivered. from their network, examining the
that an IT However, entire system rather than just
organisation has
of IT leaders are concerned businesses must localised occurrences.’
full visibility of about breaches originating remember that Until recently, the cost of connecting
the network and from connected devices the end users of IoT devices to a wide-area network has
the applications over the next year these services been a major barrier to widespread IoT
flowing over it. have no regard for deployment. However, the evolving
‘True visibility allows enterprise networks, IoT network and device ecosystem
for informed business and little understanding is rapidly changing to remove this
decisions to be made from a of cyber security. barrier.
capacity and network security ‘It is imperative that security Moreover, 5G, the next generation of
standpoint,’ says Andy Brown, is elegantly embedded into the wireless technology, will provide an
technical leader in the advanced service, providing a simple and, most end-to-end ecosystem to enable a
technology group at Riverbed importantly, usable solution,’ says fully mobile and connected society.
Technology. ‘If there’s a massive Peter Martin, MD at RelianceACSN. ‘With speeds measured in multiple
increase in the number of smart ‘A zero-tolerance mentality for simple gigabits per second, latency in the
devices added to the network, this can security errors should exist which will single-digit milliseconds and the
severely impact the end users actually allow for safe, secure and available capacity to handle 1,000 times more
trying to get business done.’ service delivery.’ consumption than current network
The connected age presents technologies, 5G promises to deliver
Internet revolution enterprises with many potential on IoT opportunities like robotics,
The Internet of Things, while in its new network endpoints of various autonomous vehicles and the massive
infancy, has the opportunity to be one types that are not under the direct scale expected in a truly connected
of the most catalysing technological control of users or traditional IT world,’ says Peter Konings, director of
developments in history – the next management procedures. enterprise networks and managed
internet-era revolution. With this increase in endpoints, services at Verizon.
It will transform the way people live it becomes increasingly difficult to
and work by potentially eliminating secure the network using traditional IoT complexity
routines such as supermarket methods. For example, if IoT takes With enterprise networks becoming
shopping or visiting the post office. off as predicted, enterprises will be busier than ever before, supporting
And solutions will be developed for required to consider best practice for an abundance of new connected
networkage
technologies now represents a Airbnb, are all about maximising asset

significant addition to the IT utilisation, which requires data,
management burden. computing power and a service model.
According to a recent survey by ‘All businesses ultimately become
Ipswitch, 66% of IT professionals commoditised,’ says Haydn Jones,
feel that IT complexity is making it account MD for media at Fujitsu UK
increasingly difficult to do their job, and Ireland. ‘Technology allows a
especially when it comes to assuring deeper structural commoditisation
zero downtime. whereby the assets previously within
The lack of common IT management the business model – people or
tools across IT teams isn’t helping, machines – are available on demand,
making a holistic view of today’s without taking them onto your
increasingly complex technology balance sheet.’
stacks difficult to achieve. Connected devices consume and
‘44% of IT teams report using three generate information that requires
or more tools,’ says Michael Hack, SVP ‘The churn of backup, recovery and management.
EMEA operations at Ipswitch, ‘with connections will stretch To accomplish this, IoT requires a
many using between ten and 20 tools. their monitoring new, holistic approach to the data
This means that time is wasted residing in endpoints, data centres
switching between tools to gain an capabilities to breaking and the cloud.
accurate view of application and point. In all this turmoil, Best practices for this are currently
infrastructure performance.’ attackers will be better few and far between, and unresolved
Many organisations are jumping questions remain about how to
on the IoT bandwagon but don’t able to hide their handle data processing, backup and
yet realise they are now big data nefarious activities’ intelligence.
companies that have to process and Collaboration between vendors will
manage these massive data sets over help, while standards for IoT are also
time, including handling personal
>> Graham Mann, UK MD and CMO, being discussed. IoT also raises a host
Encode Group
information and passwords embedded of privacy, security and liability issues
in that data. that have to be considered.
Unless the people implementing IoT Jaspreet Singh, CEO at Druva. If devices can be hacked and
can get their arms around big data, At the same time, it’s routine for misused, the likelihood is that this
privacy and security concerns will sensor and other IoT-generated data will take place. Hackers already use
thwart mass adoption. to be moved to the cloud. devices like internet-connected digital
Alongside this, there is the issue of ‘Since there’s little agreement on video recorders within closed circuit
where data gets processed. Traditional which approach is best for processing, TV to host botnets.
IT implementations collect data from IoT employs a mix of edge and cloud ‘IoT solutions will require bullet-
endpoints and send it to the home computing, with data management and proof functionality to protect
server or data centre for processing. protection strategies required for both.’ sensitive commercial information and
This approach is ineffective for When it comes to preparing for IoT, safeguard users’ personal data,’ says
handling those massive data sets. organisations should invest in Singh. ‘However, many IoT devices
‘More processing will be moved connectivity. Companies that have don’t have this security in place today,
out to the edge so that data can be pioneered new business models in the and don’t have upgrade paths in place
maintained and processed locally,’ says connected world, such as Uber and for the future either.’
securityage
Behind the wheel

Driverless vehicles will be common on the road in the next
ten years, but as manufacturers move towards autonomy,
how safe and secure is this technology for the road user?
T he notion of driverless
cars is not a foreign or
futuristic thought. In
practice, autonomous
The road to automation
Whether this is the beginning of the
futuristic society so often portrayed in
sci-fi films like I Robot remains open to
a Solar Roadways development in
relation to this: ‘The roads themselves
will need to become smart. Solar
Roadways is developing a modular
vehicles have been experimented debate. However, the reality is that system of solar panels that can be
with for many years, with a range of fully autonomous vehicles will, in the walked and driven upon. Each panel
successes and failures. next decade, become a presence on has an embedded microprocessor,
Google’s self-driving cars have roads throughout the world. which makes it intelligent and able to
been in the public sphere for some Governments around the world are communicate with other panels, a
time now, but this year the race already planning for this eventuality, central control station and vehicles.’
for the first road-legal driverless as Prasad Satyavolu, head of This scenario is still far off, yet the
car has accelerated at a rapid innovation, manufacturing and fact that regulatory changes are being
speed. By 2021, the market for logistics at Cognizant, explains: ‘In implemented and infrastructural
driverless cars is expected to reach the US, there has been a $4 billion changes are being discussed suggests
€122.6 billion. investment in self-driving regulations that the driverless movement is about
Announcements from Ford and to ensure consistency across states, to enter a new phase. The question
Uber (in partnership with Volvo) while the UK government has initiated surrounding driverless car technology,
have really shaken up the automotive driverless car trials in Bristol, then, shouldn’t be when it will be
industry. In August, Ford announced Coventry, Milton Keynes and available, but rather how safe and
plans to roll out autonomous vehicles Greenwich, with plans to extend these secure it is for public use.
by 2021. Just a week later, Uber tests to motorways as early as 2017.’
announced its plan to trial-run its It seems that the rapid progression Safe and secure?
driverless ride-share service in of driverless car technologies has ‘Rather than waiting for the first attack
Pittsburgh, USA, and not in 2021 accelerated government plans for to take place, we have to find and stop
but now. establishing industry regulation these vulnerabilities now, before the
Uber’s fleet of self-driving taxis surrounding privacy and physical technology is integrated extensively
greeted citizens of the US city safety. into our cars,’ says David Emm,
on the morning of Tuesday 13th In addition to this, infrastructure principal security researcher at
September. Initially, these taxis have changes must be considered to Kaspersky Lab.
engineers riding with passengers in accommodate driverless cars on the The more reliant connected vehicles
case of emergency, but these ‘drivers’ road. This would take the form of become on a host of connected devices,
will soon be phased out. smart roads. the greater the risk posed from
This marks a significant step Dheeraj Kohli, vice president external cyber threats. These threats
forward in the move towards fully and global head of travel and are concern two areas: physical safety
autonomous, road-legal vehicles. transportation at Unisys, discusses and invasion of privacy.
securityage
‘Given the rise in wireless way forward for driverless cars: ‘After and transmission systems.
communications between cars and careful consideration, we now believe In response, Volkswagen started a
manufacturers,’ says Paul Dignan, it can be used as a primary control new cyber security firm to prevent
global technical account manager at sensor without requiring the camera car hacking. Indeed, the driverless car
F5 Networks, ‘the amount of data to confirm visual image recognition.’ industry is not static in its pursuit of
travelling throughout the supply This year witnessed the first reported effective safety measures. Safety must
chain is set to rocket. Therefore, if fatality caused by driverless driving. A be the top priority of the driverless
hackers are able to infiltrate any of Tesla driver was killed while using the car giants.
these potential access points, they autopilot software, because of a failing
would have access to all of this data, in the car’s sensor system technology. Security focus
which could include personal and It could not recognise a truck against Last year, says Paul McEvatt, senior
financial details.’ the backdrop of a bright blue sky. cyber threat intelligence manager, UK
This is an inherent problem for If these signals, or the signals from and Ireland at Fujitsu, in the US the
driverless cars that will only increase other driverless features like the ‘SPY Car Act was launched to ensure
as more devices become on-board radar, could be optimal safety, security and privacy in
connected through the intercepted, then the connected cars’.
Internet of Things – implications could be Similarly, Dignan reveals to
Gartner estimates severe, even fatal. Information Age that ‘some
this to be over 20 By 2021, Jonathan Hewett, manufacturers, such as Tesla and
billion by 2020. the market for driverless chief marketing more recently General Motors,
Increased cars is expected to reach officer at Octo have implemented “bug bounty”
connectivity will Telematics, tells programmes, which can offer financial
aid the transition
to a driverless
world, but it will
€122BN Information Age
that hackers have
little desire to
rewards for hackers who reveal flaws
and bugs in company software code,
although these schemes have not
make it easier for target vehicles yet extended to flaw finding in the
hackers to invade because there is no infrastructure of the actual vehicles’.
private servers, extract financial reward. This, Dignan suggests, represents
sensitive information and He may be right, but there either a move in the right direction
even cause accidents. is this acknowledgment in the or a sign that car manufacturers are
The scope for security vulnerabilities industry that vehicles can be hacked struggling to keep up.
could range from exploiting the but won’t. This is worrying. Car and IoT manufacturers need to
telematics box – which records, stores ‘Connected vehicles are, in effect, take a more proactive, collaborative
and relays driver information – to smart Internet of Things devices that and security-first approach when
the driverless car’s on-board radar can be targeted by hackers’, says Alon designing future autonomous vehicles.
detection system. Kantor, VP of business development at Ultimately, the evidence suggests
The on-board radar is a significant Check Point. that, at the moment, driverless
part of what governs the autonomous This was demonstrated in 2015, vehicles are vulnerable to attack and
aspect of driverless vehicles. Elon when two hackers – in a controlled are neither safe nor secure. However,
Musk, CEO of Tesla, recently wrote in experiment – hijacked a Jeep Cherokee this isn’t the only factor hindering the
a blog post that these systems were the mid-drive, targeting the braking future of the connected car industry.
LEEDS LONDON
29 NOVEMBER 2016 25 JANUARY 2017
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securityage
Public perception widely available, the benefits of time The point is that Singapore has this
Car manufacturers must make and trust in the system will need capability to monitor the data from
absolutely clear what the situation is: to mature in order to deliver smart devices integrated within
can they protect driverless cars from the benefits. It may be that the transport and wireless infrastructure
external cyber threats or can’t they? mainstreaming of semi-autonomous throughout the city state.
Until then, an intrinsic level of public driving aids helps to grow acceptance Should public perception of
distrust will surround driverless of the technologies,’ says Grant. driverless technology change and
technology. become sought after, then it may fall
The public is already sceptical of A society driven by taxis at the first hurdle, according to Green,
driverless vehicles, and their safety and Consumer habits indicate that the as less connected countries, like the
security capabilities. There is a very future of the driverless car industry UK, face serious issues with Wi-Fi and
real human fear of not being in control may transition towards a ride-share patchy connectivity.
that drives this – it is instinctive, data service, similar to Uber’s business
is not comforting. model. A future scenario where car
The technology also represents ‘a ownership is limited, or eradicated,
fundamental shift in the role of the car, is not an unfathomable notion
which has for decades represented when environmental strains and
freedom and excitement for people,’ extreme regulatory complexity
says Andrew Grant, vice president are considered.
automotive at MaritzCX. Singapore has pioneered this
Statistically, autonomous vehicles initiative, and the smart nation
are safer. Using Tesla’s cars as an launched the first self-driving taxi
example, its systems are averaging service, beating Uber, earlier this year.
over 200 million miles per fatality, NuTonomy, an autonomous vehicle
compared with the US average of 89 software start-up, released these cars
million miles per fatality. with the aim of having a fully self-
The stats don’t lie, but the problem is driving taxi fleet in Singapore by 2018.
that it is a robot causing the fatality in Doug Parker, nuTonomy’s chief
driverless scenarios. This raises all operating officer, said driverless taxis ‘Rather than waiting for
kinds of ethical questions. could ultimately reduce the number of the first attack to take
A general attitude shift – like in cars on Singapore’s roads from 900,000
place, we have to find
businesses undergoing a digital to 300,000.
transformation – is required before the The strong connective nature of and stop these
public totally accepts driverless vehicles. Singapore means that a driverless vulnerabilities now,
Over 50% of the new car owning initiative is more likely to succeed,
before the technology is
public say they are very concerned with minimal accidents. Dale Green,
by the safety and security of marketing director at Digital Realty, integrated extensively
autonomous vehicles. says it will be interesting to see how into our cars’
It is very much a scenario, to coin the city’s connectivity foundations
the phrase, of time revealing all. ‘As cope with the vast amounts of data that >> David Emm, principal security researcher,
autonomous vehicles become more the self-driving taxis will generate. Kaspersky Lab
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in the boardroom
Enabling payment
Verifone is a company that offers products and services that enable payment.
June Felix, president of Verifone Europe, discusses where the point-of-sale
industry is going and her role in its transformation
A s Verifone’s president
of Europe and a
member of Verifone’s
management committee,
The industry is going through this
massive transformation, and a lot of
people will focus on how exciting
digital is, but I think one of the most
We started with using a physical box.
When you go into a shop, a theatre or
a train station, you can pay with your
chip-and-pin card or swipe at the
what are your responsibilities? important things, which Verifone has, counter. We started out in the physical
I’m responsible for strategy and is a great physical presence in the world in terms of card acceptance
product services and profit and loss territories we serve. Being present, machines, for debit and credit cards,
(P&L) for Europe and Russia. I oversee with the virtual world, is critically and we now have 27 million of them in
2,200 people across Europe in every important. 150 countries. That’s where our
single function, whether it’s sales, It’s still an industry dominated by foundation was when we started 30
marketing, development, systems, two players, Verifone and Ingenico. years ago.
data centres, operational support or But it’s morphing rapidly from, as an We have extended beyond just
customer services. example, Nokia to the smartphone. It’s accepting cards, whether it’s a loyalty
I’m responsible for the running of moving into much more powerful or chip-and-pin, to accepting all sorts
that, and of course the business. We’ve endpoints that are connected to cloud- of alternative payments, like Apple
been able to grow the business based services. Pay, Google Wallet, Samsung Pay and
year-on-year over the past two years That’s what it’s morphing into, and many other forms. We’ve introduced
that I’ve been here. we’re actually very well positioned for biometrics in some countries as well.
that, and already doing that across all In fact, we’ve just signed a
How has the point-of-sale industry of Europe. 53% of our revenue in partnership agreement with Danske
changed? Europe is what we call service-based. Bank to ensure MobilePay can be used
in the boardroom
in payment terminals in most of the Alto, and figuring out how to bring
Nordic region, making contactless that to scale.
payments easier for shops and The other thing that I bring as a
customers alike. MobilePay has been a personal philosophy is partnerships
terrific success in the region, and – working with the big and small
Danes have accepted the mobile clients to figure out effective
payment app so widely that it has partnerships that help us go to
become the common standard for market quickly with innovation.
almost all mobile phone users. Unlike in the past, when I’ve actually
been responsible for patents, I feel like
Can you tell us more about that? I’m in an opportunity where we have
Yes, Danske Bank created this product many different innovations already in
that started out as a person-to-person play, and what I’m doing is putting
payment platform – a payment them together, more like a chef as
capability using a mobile phone – and opposed to creating a new ingredient.
we found a way to use that same
‘It’s still an industry
payment app at the point of sale. dominated by two What security and privacy challenges
So when you’re in the store, to tap players, Verifone and have you faced?
and pay, it’s incredibly hard to do but Well, the challenges we face are that it
we broke the code on that about
Ingenico. But it’s is an increasingly complex market,
January of this year. That’s a great morphing rapidly from, but that is why people are turning to
example of how we’re taking the as an example, Nokia to us – in terms of us solving their
payments on a virtual card in a security issues, because that’s the
phone, or virtual bank account in a
the smartphone. It’s foundation on which all this
phone, and enabling that at the point moving into much more technology is built. We have a lot of
of sale. powerful endpoints security requirements in every single
From this month, consumers can use country that are very specialised, in
the MobilePay app at Verifone
that are connected to terms of both the hardware and the
payment terminals that have been cloud-based services’ systems we provide.
prepared for contactless mobile What we’re all seeing is that, because
payments. Verifone is the largest >> June Felix, president, Verifone Europe of security requirements getting more
enabler of cashless payments in the onerous, fewer and fewer
Nordic countries, with some 400,000 organisations want to produce our
payment terminals installed and a to the table are some of the benefits service.
market share of 60%. The new I’ve had from my past experience at As an example, P2PE (point-to-point
partnership supports the continuing IBM, in terms of both innovation and encryption) is a new, stricter
growth of MobilePay in Denmark, bringing solutions. requirement that we were able to help
Norway and Finland. I would say my biggest contribution merchants with, and clients like B&Q
is helping the team take all of in Europe have worked with us to use
Since joining Verifone, what the brilliant work that’s been P2P encryption capabilities so that
innovative strategies have you germinating in each area, whether they could be Payment Card Industry
instigated, and what’s in the pipeline? it’s in the Nordics, which is highly Data Security Standard (PCI DSS)
Among the good things I’m bringing digitally sophisticated, or in Palo compliant. Essentially, what we’re
in the boardroom
seeing is retail clients turning to us to when you’re at the checkout.

solve that problem. So there’s a customer-facing side,
What future strategies are you

while the server side has an iPad that
can be lifted off and moved around
‘The other thing
implementing?
Linking payments to services will be
the store. It can be used like a tablet,
offering full portability to walk round
that I bring
a critical part. We’re also extending
those services into a user domain, an
the store and take payments from the
aisles.
as a personal
integrated point-of-sales system,
which is called Verifone Carbon. This
You can sit with clients and have a
much more personal interactive
philosophy is
is expanding our footprint and our
importance with retailers. Today,
experience. Verifone Carbon is built in
collaboration with Google and Intel, so
partnerships –
what we provide is a point-of-sale
device but there’s still an electronic
it has super-fast processing
capabilities and next-generation
working with the
cash register and there are all sorts of
other components.
cherry tree technology, and it’s built
to give retailers access to an app
big and small
If you go to Starbucks, there are all
sorts of machines there. What we’ve
warehouse. It can procure many
different types of services quickly.
clients to figure
created is a sleek and smart – some
call it sexy – really coolly designed
So it helps the merchant have
everything in one, and it also helps
out effective
integrated system that allows you to
have both the capability to take cash
enterprises because the cloud-based
capabilities we’ve provided allow big
partnerships
and a point-of-sale-based ECR
(electronic cash register) system.
acquirers or banks to procure services,
and offer them to their merchants as a
that help us go to
It allows you to take inventory,
and is portable with Bluetooth
service offering, for merchants to
subscribe to as they wish.
market quickly
technology so it can be linked to
the mobile phone as you walk into
It’s built on an open technology, which
makes it very easy for developers to
with innovation’
the store, showing you offers on create apps. This is a key focus area for
your phone that you can redeem Verifone going forward.
May 16 information-age.com 43
analyst eye
4 megatrends impacting
the data centre
Organisations should turn socioeconomic and environmental challenges
to their advantage, writes Gartner research director Henrique Cecci
F or more than 30 years

we have looked at how
the top trends in IT will
impact the data centre.
This trend is accelerating, with the
average CIO expecting revenue from
digital platforms to grow from 16% to
37% cent in the next five years.
Recently, Gartner has covered emerging Developing a digital platform capable
trends including artificial intelligence of responding to future digital demand
(AI), algorithmic business and the as part of a solid data centre strategy
Internet of Things. is paramount. CIOs should consider
While the transformational multiple data centre options, such as
potential of these IT trends is tempting on-premise, cloud, colocation, hosting
to technology leaders, slower-moving and edge computing, to deliver
– yet monumental – forces are also compute resources to the business
at play. in the best way possible.
Global megatrends that are reshaping Moreover, CIOs should focus on the
economies and societies will also have business need for each service or
a profound impact on data centres. ‘CIOs are putting application running workloads, and
Gartner predicts that by 2021 more digital platforms in even develop bimodal IT Mode 2
than 90% of large data centres capabilities.
place to respond to
will revise their strategies due to
major global socioeconomic and future market and 2. Demographic and social change
environmental trends. consumer demands’ Data from the United Nations
CIOs and IT leaders must commit time and many other governmental
and financial resources to devise a >> Henrique Cecci, research director, organisations provides strong
modern data centre strategy that Gartner evidence that the world is facing
harnesses these trends and supports unprecedented demographic and
future growth. Here are the top four. few years. The 2016 Gartner CIO social change. This is affecting how
Agenda Survey shows that we are the world’s population is developing
1. Digitalisation now deep in the era of digitalisation. as well as the demand on resources.
We’ve conducted numerous surveys CIOs are putting digital platforms in Most developed countries are facing
and published hundreds of research place to respond to future market declining fertility rates. The current
notes about digitalisation over the past and consumer demands. European Union average is just 1.59 –
analyst eye
far removed from post-Second World

War highs. According to the US
National Bureau of Economic Research,
lower rates of fertility are associated
with diminished economic growth.
This combined with ageing populations
and new skill requirements points to a
looming talent crisis.
Eventually, the era of digital business
will evolve to one of autonomous
business. In the meantime, CIOs need
to develop the talent to build a strong
digital core, based on a modern data
centre strategy, while also implementing
a long-term plan to acquire the
necessary knowledge and skills for an
autonomous and AI-driven world.
option for every data centre. As the global demand for
3. Urbanisation Applications with specific computational resources continues
Megacities are on the rise. While the requirements may use micro, edge to grow rapidly, data centres will
global population continues to increase or small data centres located inside demand more energy and water to
slowly, the global urban population is megacities. keep temperature and humidity at the
growing much faster. By 2030, there In countries where governments do necessary levels.
will be 41 megacities, each with a not control energy prices, we find data Climate and landscape change is also
population of over 10 million, compared centres located in more remote regions, changing risk profiles. This includes not
with just three megacities in the 1970s. where operational costs are lower. only flooding, fire and extreme weather
These dense urban centres will exert a We expect this trend to continue. conditions, but also the risk of water
‘gravitational pull’, attracting data and energy shortages.
centres to move closer. 4. Climate change and resource scarcity Climate change is also likely to
Nevertheless, this trend will not Climate change, combined with increase operational costs and lead to
influence all data centres in the population growth and economic new regulatory requirements. CIOs
same way. Prime locations typically development, will continue to place should consider climate risks from the
command higher costs, so while increased stress on essential natural outset in order to foster an integrated
proximity to a megacity may seem resources, including water, food, raw and strategic approach to green IT
attractive, it’s not always the best materials and energy. and sustainability.
September 16 information-age.com 45
analyst eye
Smart gear
Production of connected cars is set to grow rapidly in the
next five years, introducing a new era of smart mobility
C onnected car
production is growing
rapidly in both mature
and emerging automobile
markets, according to Gartner.
The analyst firm has forecast
that the production of new
automobiles equipped with data
connectivity – either through a
built-in communications module or
by a tether to a mobile device – will
reach 12.4 million in 2016 and increase
to 61 million in 2020.
Gartner defines the connected car
as an automobile that is capable of
bidirectional wireless communication
with an external network for the
purpose of delivering digital content
and services, transmitting telemetry
data from the vehicle, enabling remote
monitoring and control, or managing
in-vehicle systems.
‘The connected vehicle is the
foundation for fundamental
opportunities and disruptions in the
automotive industry and many other
vertical industries,’ says James Hines,
research director at Gartner.
‘Connected vehicles will continue
to generate new product and service
innovations, create new companies,
analyst eye
Connected car production by connectivity mode, worldwide (thousands)

2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Embedded 2,174 4,914 11,097 21,394 33,928 42,949 ‘The connected
Tethered 4,681 7,519 9,971 12,374 14,995 17,994 vehicle is the
Total 6,855 12,433 21,068 33,768 48,923 60,943
foundation for
enable new value propositions and
business models, and introduce the
image detection and geolocation, from
2016 to 2020.
fundamental
new era of smart mobility, in which
the focus of the automotive industry
‘As cars become more automated,
they are being equipped with
opportunities
shifts from individual car ownership an increasing array of sensing and disruptions
to a more service-centric view of technologies, including cameras and
personal mobility.’ radar systems,’ says Hines. ‘Many in the automotive
Connected car technology will create automobiles will use image detection
opportunities for automakers to as the primary means of identifying industry and
generate post-sale profits through and classifying objects in the vicinity
sales of additional services and feature of the vehicle, so they can provide many other
upgrades, as well as enhance brand more sophisticated responses and even
loyalty through a more personalised have autonomous control.’ vertical industries’
customer experience. To become more automated, and also
It will also enable innovations in cleaner, automobiles will require 5%
adjacent businesses, such as insurance, more embedded processing functions,
car rentals, car- and ride-sharing year-on-year, from 2016 to 2020, and sensor data processing and pattern
services, and electric vehicle charging. Gartner has said. recognition.
Gartner predicts that future Automated driving functions, such Improving fuel efficiency and
connected car applications will drive as adaptive cruise control, collision reducing emissions necessitate
a 150% increase in demand for avoidance and lane departure warning sophisticated engine and transmission
contextual information, such as systems, necessitate real-time camera control systems.
September 16 information-age.com 47
product corner
PRODUCT OF THE MONTH
Apple iPhone 7
>> THE STORY
The iPhone is very much the brainchild of the late
Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple. On 9 January 2007, Jobs
announced the iPhone at the Macworld convention and said
that it would be released later that year. On 29 June 2007, the
first iPhone was released. Since then, the iPhone really has
dominated the mobile industry. This is set to continue with
the release of Apple’s iPhone 7, which was launched last
month and was available from 16 September. The new
iPhone has undergone some significant changes, with the
exclusion of the headphone jack and some impressive new
features made possible as a result. Samsung’s ‘phablets’ were
making a dent on Apple’s dominance, but the recall of its
Galaxy Note 7 because of a problem with the battery will
have surely hindered its charge on the technology giant
for the time being. Indeed, because of this, South Korean
analysts have suggested that Apple may sell up to 100
million iPhone 7s by the end of the year.
>> THE FEATURES

The major feature revealed at the launch was the exclusion
of the headphone socket. A lightning adaptor will be
required for existing headphones, which fits into the
charging socket on the mobile. Apple’s aim is for customers
to use the alternative, wireless AirPod headphones, which
can be bought separately from the iPhone 7. AirPods deliver
an industry-leading five hours of listening time on one
charge, and a 24-hour charging pack is available. These
headphones can be paired much faster with the phone than
with Bluetooth devices, and have infrared sensors to detect
when the headphones are in the user’s ears – stopping music
when they are taken out. The new home button can detect
how firmly it is being pressed and provide vibration-based
feedback, but no longer moves into the phone. It is water
resistant up to depths of 1 metre for 30 minutes at a time.
The larger iPhone 7 Plus model has a two-lens camera, a
wide angle and telephoto lens, allowing it to offer a choice
of focal lengths with zoom quality improved. The iPhone 7
ranges from £599 to £799, depending on the amount of
storage, and the iPhone 7 Plus ranges from £719 to £919.
product corner
Packed Pixels
>> THE STORY
Additional monitors can boost
productivity among employees, so
many companies give employees
additional monitors for their desks to
tap into this potential. Packed Pixels
offers a mobile or remote work option.
It is the first-ever portable Retina
monitor that provides a lightweight
alternative for multi-screen working
on the move. It can be used for trading
stocks while sipping a coffee or
finishing that complex sales report on
the train. Packed Pixels can be used to
Apple Watch improve the screen experience in

every location. Dell Latitude
Series 2 >> THE FEATURES
Packed Pixels is the first multi-monitor
11 5000
>> THE STORY
An IDC forecast report suggested the
system to fit onto either side of any
laptop – in portrait or landscape mode.
2-in-1 laptop
smartwatch market is expected to be You can even mount two screens at >> THE STORY
worth $17.8 billion by 2020. Apple once. It requires no additional power Security should be a top priority for
currently dominates the smartwatch and can plug directly into any industry professionals, and there is no
market, and last month it announced DisplayPort / Thunderbolt (1 or 2) reason this should end at work. It is just
the release of the Apple Watch Series enabled laptop. The additional screen as important to protect the information
2. The new smartwatch is a noticeable weighs just 330g, making it ideal for on a personal laptop, both in personal
improvement on its predecessor, travel. The quality of picture is supreme and professional (if you BYOD) spheres.
with improved features, and can alert and delivers 2048 x 1536 high resolution. The Latitude 11 5000 2-in-1 is one of the
the user in real time of any news or Each screen is 9.7” – the same size as an most secure 2-in-1 laptops for business,
business updates – perfect if you are iPad – and the RRP is £149. making it ideal for working on the go.
in the middle of a business dinner or
roundtable discussion. >> THE FEATURES
It has the flexibility of being both a
>> THE FEATURES laptop and a tablet, and the changing
The Apple Watch Series 2 has built-in process is simple. It has government-
GPS, meaning the iPhone does not have grade security, with the option of
to be on your person at all times when select configurations for additional
going about daily routines. The watch security features coming soon. Current
is waterproof up to 50 metres, using security features include an integrated
sound vibrations to flush out water fingerprint and smartcard reader
from its speaker grille. The watch has and it has self-encrypting drives that
an S2 processor that is 50% faster than provide hardware-based encryption
the previous model. Users of the new independent of the operating system
watch will see a dramatic improvement (Windows 10 Pro 64-bit English). It is
in making calls and app loading speed. quite small, so portable, with a weight
It comes in three models ranging from of just 1.56 lbs (0.71 kg) and is available to
$369 to $1,249. buy at £649.
column
IA’s resident thought leader Richard Lee

cracks the whip on the latest IT issues
Coping in a
post-truth world
F or several decades now,
business, government
and non-profit leaders
have been pursuing the
War, if you rather) to appreciate just
how much of a ‘post-truth world’ we
have now entered.
In such a world, not only are stated
insights in support of decision-making
at every level.
You must ensure that strong
and independent data governance
common goal of fact (evidence)-based facts meaningless, i.e. lacking in and data ethics bodies are in place
decision-making. What started out as veracity, but the pursuit of the truth and their guidance is employed by all
the notion of ‘decision support’ in the has become derided by many. The arc practitioners and consumers of these
early 1980s soon moved to the emerging of this effect has reached the point deliverables, and that regardless of the
field of ‘decision science’ in the 90s and where the majority of the electorate outcome, the facts stand on their own
beyond. Decision science is where data, are now demanding that they be lied merits (subject to peer review and A/B
analytics, algorithms and decision to by its figureheads so as to constantly testing, etc). Only by creating (if not
theory coalesce into a formalised reinforce its own particular ideology in already established) a bedrock data
discipline for decision-making. spite of the reality around it. foundation for decision-making – built
Its use can be found across many on transparency, veracity, lineage,
geographies, within all sectors, in Threat to democracy proven rigours and pristine quality –
small and large organisations. The This is a clear threat to every democracy can a platform for the ‘truth’ be
‘data-driven cultures’ created in around the world, where an informed achieved and maintained.
these organisations are much more electorate is required to provide checks It is critical that as the post-truth
pervasive than those who simply and balances to government overreach, paradigm plays itself out, this
embrace the marketing term ‘data and hold them to account with respect foundation for the truth be maintained
science’, which seems to be focused to delivering the services and and protected at all costs. The old adage
exclusively on ‘self-aggrandisement protections that society demands. that ‘the first casualty of war is the
and data wrangling’. For someone who has just arrived truth’ applies to everything in the
In recent times, however, as decision on Earth and is observing this effect decision-making supply chain, and
science has become much more mature firsthand, they might ask: are there those who support it and rely on it must
and widely adopted, we find that it any real differences between so-called be ever-vigilant in order to protect
has run headlong into the buzz saw democracies and authoritarian regimes? its transparency.
of politics where data, facts, evidence These effects are no less profound in Each of us will be challenged to
and ultimately the truth are bent, the commercial and non-profit sectors, maintain our individual and collective
twisted and broken to fit the needs of where we constantly see dubious data, sanity as this post-truth era plays itself
ideologies, platforms and agendas with questionable facts and outright lies out. We may sound more barking mad
respect to achieving outcomes that are proffered by executives, spokespeople at times than those who embrace the
‘counter-factual’. and PR hacks. lies and deception, but this will pass as
One only needs to examine the three First and foremost, wherever your well. One day, when the ‘light of truth’
most recent elections and referendums role lies in the data, information and returns, we will be rewarded for being
in the UK, as well as the current US analytics supply chain, you cannot its stewards, but until then we must
election campaign and the current abandon your mission to deliver the ‘keep buggering on’ (KBO, as Winston
Brexit negotiations (or the EU Phony highest-quality information and used to say).
manchester.tech-invest.co.uk
1 NOVEMBER 2016 | RISE, MANCHESTER
TECH INVEST
IS BACK
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OCTOBER 2016

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Connected car production by connectivity mode, worldwide (thousands)

PRODUCT OF THE MONTH

>> THE FEATURES

Apple Watch improve the screen experience in

IA’s resident thought leader Richard Lee

1 NOVEMBER 2016 | RISE, MANCHESTER

PLACE your business

Sign up at manchester.tech-invest.co.uk or email

Technology’s largest diversity initiative – celebrating the

The Women in IT Awards is the world’s largest

Now in its third year, the awards programme

For bookings, contact Jenna Read on 020 7250 7050 or jenna.read@vitessemedia.co.uk.

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