Futurum Tech Webcast

In this week's episode of The 5G Factor, I'm joined by my colleague and fellow analyst, Ron Westfall, for a look at the 5G ecosystem and the goings on that recently caught our attention.

Our coverage includes some of the latest 5G news, including:

Ericsson, Qualcomm, and Thales collab. Ericsson, Qualcomm, and Thales are collaborating to take 5G to space — which is pretty exciting. The companies are looking at using satellite driven non-terrestrial networks, or NTN, using low Earth orbit satellites (LEO), to enable this communication capability on a worldwide basis. This will be a game-changer delivering connectivity only for under-served area and hard to reach areas, and providing a solid assist in worldwide military operations, workers stationed in the middle of the sea, remote deserts, dense forests, and other places that are incredibly difficult to reach.

Each of the three companies are making unique contributions to make this happen. Ericsson is testing the vRAN stack, Thales is ensuring the 5G payload will work for satellite comms, and Qualcomm is is working to ensure the 5G handset form factor will support all these capabilities.

T-Mobile outruns the competition. T-Mobile aces speed tests – again, and largely performs better than its major competitors when it comes to speed (upload and download), and overall network tests. And not only is T-Mobile winning when it comes to speed tests, it's also coming out on top as it relates to overall mobile experience, voice experience, and games experience. These kinds of results are as significant for consumers as they make decisions about devices and mobile service providers as it is for enterprises who seek enhanced collaboration experience for their WFH teams and field personnel and beyond.

Elon Musk might not be winning friends at the FCC. Analysts are discussing the fact that Elon Musk, who likes to whine when things don't go his way, might be losing support from both Democrats and Republicans with the Twitter games he's playing. Last week we covered Elon Musk's (lame) move against 5G, claiming that 12 GHz spectrum will be harmful to his SpaceX Starlink satellites. Analysts are opining that this might bode well for DISH as the primary user of the 12 GHz band, providing service to satellite customers. Watching this shift in sentiment is interesting.

China isn't wasting time on private 5G. Thwarted in other 5G-related undertakings, Chinese operators are wasting no time building out enterprise private 5G networks. In fact, they've deployed 6,518 private 5G networks so far this year, up from 1,655 just a year ago. Where are they putting those private 5G networks.

U.S. Regulators Greenlight Ericsson Vonage Deal. Ericsson gets final approval from U.S. for Vonage acquisition. This both diversifies and strengthens Ericsson's offerings base and is a good thing for customers as well.

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, Interview Series, our conversation today centers on the integration of two worlds in manufacturing environments to achieve digitalization and Industry 4.0.

In many manufacturing environments there is the physical world, or OT systems, composed of machines and industrial equipment. Then there is the digital world, or IT systems, composed of servers, networking, and other apps to run and process data. Thanks to advances in technology, we are seeing a convergence of these two worlds, but there are still a number of challenges that organizations must overcome. In this episode, I'm joined by Silvio Rasek, Head of Marketing, Factory Automation and Smart Data, Siemens, to discuss common challenges we are seeing with the IT/OT convergence and what Siemens is doing to help organizations overcome these roadblocks and find success.

Our conversation centered on the following:

• Current trends that are impacting today's production environment
• The opportunities that come with connecting the shop floor to IT systems
• Top barriers to implementing smart factories and complete IT/OT convergence
• How organizations can overcome these barriers
• An overview of the Siemens Mindsphere and Siemens Xcelerator open digital business platform that will support the IT/OT convergence

This was a great conversation and one you don't want to miss.

If you would like to learn more about Siemens Mindsphere or Siemens Xcelerator, you can get more information here.

Welcome to The Main Scoop — a new monthly webcast series done in partnership with Broadcom hosted by Greg Lotko, SVP and GM, Mainframe Software and Daniel Newman, Principal Analyst at Futurum Research. On this first episode they are joined by Christian Jacobi, Fellow, CTO System Architecture and Design zSystems at IBM to discuss the z16 release. Greg and Daniel also discuss The Main Scoop series and what listeners can expect from future episodes.

The conversation covered the following:

• A dive into the z16 release focusing on AI, cyber security, and hybrid cloud
• Insight on the role of the mainframe in a hybrid cloud deployment
• What Broadcom is seeing when it comes to the cloud and how they are prepared to support their customers

It was a great conversation and one you don't want to miss. Be sure to subscribe to never miss an episode of The Main Scoop series.

On this special episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast – Interview Series I am joined Aparna Seksaria, Global Practice Lead R&D Solutions, Life Sciences. This is the second episode in a series — done in partnership with SAP — where I will be speaking with advisors and executives across several different industries on the state of their industry and what we can expect in the future.

In our conversation we discussed the following:

• The areas of opportunities for the life sciences industry
• A deep dive into how the life sciences organizations can use industry cloud solutions augmented with additional technologies to foster growth
• A look into how life sciences organizations have tackled the value chain challenges brought about by the pandemic
• An exploration into ways organizations can produce products faster and more sustainably while reducing costs

The life sciences industry, like many other industries, had to rapidly accelerate transformation processes throughout the pandemic and many organizations are still dealing with these changes. My conversation Aparna explores how these changes are playing out and the role technology is playing. It's definitely one you don't want to miss.

If you'd like to learn more about the industry, be sure to check out our research brief The Evolution of Life Sciences Organizations: How Embracing Innovation Technology Solutions is Critical to Success.

On this special episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast – Interview Series I am joined by Hans Kroes, Global VP and Head of the Industry Business unit for Professional Services at SAP and Ross Dawson, Keynote Speaker, Strategy Advisor, Bestselling Author, and Entrepreneur. This is the first episode in a new series — done in partnership with SAP — where I will be speaking with advisors and executives across several different industries on the state of their industry and what we can expect in the future

In our conversation we discussed the following:

• How the professional Services Industry has changed in recent years
• A deep dive into how knowledge-based services are changing the industry
• A look into how virtual firms and the shift to hybrid work are disrupting the industry
• The monetization trends that are driving changes
• Ways professional services firms can nurture talent more effectively
• An exploration of the impact platforms will have on the industry

The professional services industry, like many other industries, had to rapidly accelerate digital transformation last year. My conversation with Hans explores how these changes are playing out across different areas in the industry and how technology can help. It's definitely one you don't want to miss.

If you'd like to learn more about the industry, be sure to check out our research brief Driving Everything as a Service in Professional Services.

In this episode of The 5G Factor, a Futurum Tech Webcast series focused on news and happenings in the 5G and IoT ecosystem, I'm joined by my colleague and fellow analyst, Ron Westfall.

Our conversation today covered:

• Elon Musk's Starlink turning on 5G, protesting (this time) DISH Network's proposal to use the 12 GHz radio spectrum for a 5G cellular network.
• AT&T, DISH Network, and CableLabs are among the top U.S. companies and organizations that have stepped forward to handle the O-RAN Alliance's activities in North America this year. Why that is and what that means.
• The news of NEC acquiring Aspire Technology was big, and we explored the significance there as we move toward a global adoption of Open RAN 5G.
• T-Mobile and Oceus have formed a strategic alliance to delivery key offerings to the U.S. Government, starting with the DoD. Why that alliance makes sense, and what they're focused on.

On this episode of the Futurum Tech Podcast – Interview Series, Ron Westfall and Steven Dickens are joined by distinguished guests Andy Hartland, Senior Consultant at Mainline Information Systems and Andrew Gracey, Product Manager for Developer Experience as SUSE.

Our discussion focused on the major trends and drivers as well as the main challenges in optimizing container management capabilities across swiftly evolving developer and IT Operations environments. Aligned with our discussion, we drilled down in our latest white paper, SUSE's Innovation Engine Roars: SUSE Rancher Now on IBM zSystems and LinuxONE — done in partnership with SUSE — to explore why many organizations such as Mainline Information Systems rely on IBM's zSystems and LinuxONE infrastructure to fulfill their container and Kubernetes requirements. How open-source adoption and IT operations that rely on technologies like Kubernetes running on IBM zSystems and LinuxONE based platforms can use SUSE Rancher to drive transformation without sacrificing the power of rapidly emerging new operational cloud-native paradigms.

Our conversation with Andy and Andrew highlighted the following top considerations:

• What were Mainline's main objectives for adopting SUSE Rancher
• Why customers want SUSE Rancher on their mainframes
• Mainline's experience in adopting SUSE Rancher
• How customers are gaining value from SUSE Rancher implementations
• Why organizations should consider adopting SUSE Rancher over do-it-yourself Kubernetes implementations

It was a great and stimulating conversation and one you don't want to miss. Interested in learning more about SUSE Rancher on IBM zSystems and LinuxONE? Want to learn more about the SUSE Rancher portfolio and why it's well-suited to fulfilling the pivot to containerized microservices and reimagining cloud native infrastructures? Check out our latest report — SUSE's Innovation Engine Roars: SUSE Rancher Now on IBM zSystems and LinuxONE — done in collaboration with SUSE.

In this episode of The 5G Factor, our webcast series here at Futurum Research where we discuss all things related to 5G and the IoT ecosystems, I'm joined by Christian Block Senior VP and GM of RF Front End (RFFE) for Qualcomm.

We kicked off our conversation by hearing a little about Christian's back ground, his work in RF Front End, and what led him to Qualcomm Technologies.

Our conversation covered:

• Why RF Front End (RFFE) technology is essential to 5G ecosystem product development and innovation.
• A dive into Qualcomm Technologies RFFE solutions and the role they are playing in enabling handset capabilities.
• A look at where is Qualcomm Technologies' RFFE position now, and how Christian see's Qualcomm's differentiation in the market.
• Christian's thoughts on how he expects that differentiation to change moving forward.
• The market prospects for Qualcomm Technolgoies RFFE proposition (i.e. the serviceable available market) and what that looks like.
• Advancements in 5G for the automotive sector and the role Christian sees Qualcomm's Qualcomm's RFFE portfolio playing there.
• The IoT sector and the opportunities ahead for Qualcomm's RFFE portfolio there.
• The 3rd gen expansion of the Wi-Fi Front-End Module (FEM) and how this portfolio differentiates Qualcomm Technologies' RFFE solutions.
• And the importance of Qualcomm performing filter technology for these FEMs.

We closed our conversation talking about the future and how Christian sees Qualcomm defining success over the next year and beyond. And finally, Christian shared one final thought about the RFFE market and what he believes it's important to be thinking about — but you'll have to watch or listen to the interview (or read the transcript below) to find out what that advice is.

This was a fantastic conversation and a deep dive into all things RFFE, the importance of RFFE's role in 5G ecosystem product development and innovation and how Qualcomm Technologies is innovating in this space.

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Podcast – Interview Series, I am joined by Ashok Kurian, Director of Data and Analytics at Texas Children's Hospital, and Matt Hausmann, Director of Marketing for HPE Ezmeral, for a conversation focusing on innovation and technology advancement in the healthcare industry.

In our conversation we discussed the following:

• Opportunities and challenges that healthcare organizations face with AI, ML, and data analytics
• How Texas Children's Hospital is leveraging data to improve the patient experience and expand pediatric research
• Unique ways that HPE and Texas Children's Hospital are working together

It was a great conversation and one you don't want to miss. To learn more about HPE check out their website here, and to learn more about the Texas Children's Hospital check their website here.

On this special episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast – Interview Series, I am joined by Gerri Gold, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for HPE Financial Services In order to be successful in today's economy, organizations have a lot to juggle. One area that is often under-explored by the business leaders is the return on technology assets. This requires a holistic view of the entire tech stack and to know when, where, how to invest, and how to optimize. In this episode, Gerri and I explore how tech asset management can make a difference for organizations and their transformations.

In our conversation we discussed the following:

• A dive into what is top of mind for executives today
• Insight from Gerri on how global events and our current business climate are impact technology choices
• How moving to as-a-Service can help organizations
• A look into why businesses should look at assets and asset value across their tech landscape.

It was a great conversation and one you don't want to miss. To learn more about HPE Financial services and their initiatives, check out their website here.