Futurum Tech Webcast

On this episode of Navigate, a special six-part podcast series with Pexip and Futurum Research, host Daniel Newman talks with Giles Chamberlain about how to approach privacy and security for your video conferencing solutions.

Video Conferencing Popularity Bringing Privacy and Security to the Forefront

In the last month, video conferencing has seen an explosion in popularity due to shelter-in-place orders. More people are on video than ever before, but this huge increase has also brought increased security concerns. Zoombombing and other video conferencing breaches have made headlines for weeks. Enterprises are realizing that it is not as easy as just clicking a link and joining a video. There has been a greater call to ensure privacy and security for all users.

Giles noted that when looking at a video conferencing solution, you need to consider privacy and security individually. Let's break it down.

Breaking Down Privacy and Security

Every video conference call creates data. If you're recording audio, video and chat sessions that is all data that is in the hands of the provider. But even if you're not recording, you're still creating metadata. That could be IP addresses, email addresses, or company information. Protecting this information is crucial. Laws and regulations like the GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA and others set the standard of how this information is protected.

When considering a solution, it's important to perform a risk assessment or research the standards that companies guarantee. It is the responsibility of the ITDM in the enterprise to ensure privacy by understanding the security protocols that are in place.

An enterprise should also have their own set of security protocols in place for video conferencing. Giles recommended that companies start with strict security and loosen restrictions as you operate. No employee will ever start with lax security and then voluntarily move to a more secure environment. Retrofitting is hard.

For example, end-to-end encryption should be standard from day one. Meeting ID numbers and passwords to enter meeting rooms should be standard. User experience might be sacrificed in the name of security, but it's table stakes.

Hosting Options

Privacy and security standards come down to where a video conferencing solution is hosted. The great advantage of the cloud service is somebody else does all the work for you. But you still have the legal obligation to know what data you're giving them, where it's going, and what's happening with it. You can't just abdicate the responsibility altogether. If a company decides that the risk of losing important data is too high then they can bring it all in-house and host in their own data center. This is where Pexip started. Self-hosted solutions were sold to providers to host on-prem.

The second option available is shared hosting. Companies that trust a cloud provider like Google, Azure, or AWS can move the compute capacity to the cloud while still having employees manage the service. The data is still under the control of the organization, but the hosting is elsewhere to take the strain off the company's data center.

The final option is managed hosting. Companies can turn the whole service over to someone else. Another company provides the compute power and ensures the data protection.

Some off-the-shelf video conferencing solutions only offer one hosting option. Pexip on the other hand offers all three, giving customers better options for what fits their needs. At the end of the day, enterprise leaders know what they need and what they need to protect.

For more information about Pexip, their products and offerings be sure to check out their website or listen to the full episode of Navigate below.

On this special edition of the Futurum Tech Podcast - Interview Series, host Daniel Newman welcomed Richard Davies, Vice President at DXC Technology and Managing Director of Leading Edge Forum and Caitlin McDonald, Digital Anthropologist at Leading Edge Forum. Richard and Caitlin discussed findings from a recent report from LEF and the accelerated digital transformation that's happening due to COVID-19.

Reconfiguring the Collaborative Workspace

Even before the pandemic we were seeing a massive shift in the way that people are working. Caitlin and Richard shared insights from The Leading Edge Forum's latest research "Reconfiguring the Collaborative Workspace," a study that was done over the last few years with insights from a variety of companies in a variety of industries.

It's clear that there is an increasing ubiquity and reliability of collaborative technologies like Slack, Zoom, and shared cloud etc. All of these things were coming together to enable businesses of any size and in any field to think about how they could change the way that people work whether that's flexible hours or a distributed team across the globe. The office has become less of a hub.

Now, 30 percent of the earth's population is under some sort of shelter-in-place order so this shift in how we work is massively accelerated. We are looking at a new collaborative workspace.

The Technology Matters

Beyond the way that people were working, where they worked, the kinds of work they were doing one key finding from the report is all about how important the right equipment is. If there's a barrier to communication because of the technology, you as a person perceive it as a barrier to your interpersonal communication which can be difficult to overcome in this new work environment.

Caitlin shared that employees don't complain about wanting the new hot technology. They complain about coworkers not being able to hear them or not being able to understand them. You can't expect effective collaboration if the tools that are in place hinder it. Companies need to invest in technology solutions that facilitate collaboration.

Rethinking How We Interact

Working from home also requires us to rethink our interactions with coworkers and clients. We are missing spontaneous interactions and team building moments. Richard shared that leaders especially have to think a little more about how to keep people engaged and connected. How do you build the community? How do you deliver what you're trying to say? You have to consider what you're trying to create and the desired outcome. If it's team building, perhaps a quick informal check in call would work. If it's something more important, then an interactive presentation might do the trick, But there's more to think about than just the information that's being delivered.

The Changing Physical Environment

We talk a lot about the virtual environment, but realistically when you're working in a virtual environment you also are still sitting somewhere physically. In the current situation, it's not just that people are working from home, you have to consider that their kids are there or roommates are there. Multiple people in one household trying to work and collaborate with their own companies and schools. Companies need to consider this when thinking about the virtual environment too.

As individuals, we need to get in the right mental headspace. We need to create the right working zone in our minds to get things done. There is no "one size fits all" response that will work. We each have to figure out what works.

Biggest Surprises and Takeaways

There were many surprises and big takeaways from the study but a few stood out. Caitlin shared that she was surprised how adaptable people are to different situations, but that there are still barriers to success if you don't handle collaborative workspace in the right way. Right now many companies are thinking about how to get the workforce on board to deal with new ways of work and to adjust to this environment, but yet have a balance in their lives? Richard proposed that companies and leaders need to create a shared sense of purpose. Get employees invested by helping them understand the value proposition and the role they play.

At the same time, communication is hugely important. Slow everything down and make slear points so people have the opportunity to absorb, understand, and then respond.

Caitlin's final takeaway is mostly aimed at leaders. As you're thinking about your teams and a virtual only way of interacting, it is important to create those micro-moments of trust that normally you depend on happening by accident physically in the office. This cannot be overlooked or forgotten if you want your team to be successful.

If you'd like to learn more about the study or other pieces of research that the Leading Edge Forum is working on, visit their website. Also be sure to listen to the full episode below and hit subscribe while you're at it so you never miss an insightful episode of The Futurum Tech Podcast.

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, I'm joined by my colleague Olivier Blanchard and our focus today is on a discussion around contact tracing apps — and what these apps mean for privacy in the era of COVID-19. With the development and deployment of contract tracing apps, are privacy and security concerns taking a back seat when it comes to combating the COVID-19 pandemic?

Olivier has written a lot on the topic of privacy and security concerns the world over in recent months. He has also covered the Google Apple partnership in a recent analyst insight article: Google, Apple COVID-19 Contact-Tracing Partnership: The Good and the Bad, in case you'd like the latest on what Google and Apple are partnering to do in terms of a contract tracing offering, which is due to launch mid-May

Our conversation touched on what's going on elsewhere in the world as it relates to the use of contact-tracing apps to combat the spread of COVID-19, including updates in global markets ranging from South Korea, Singapore, China, and Taiwan, to Australian and Germany, and even what's happening in some individual states in the United States as it relates to contract tracing apps.

We also talked about what's happening in the private sector with the development and deployment of apps designed to provide contract tracing capabilities to enterprises and what's likely ahead there. This might present an interesting challenge for employees who aren't comfortable opting in to contact tracing apps, but whose options might well be to either have a job and participate in contact tracing apps, or, well, to not have that job.

This was an interesting discussion about contract tracing apps, who are sure to be in our not-too-distant future in some way or another, and what they mean for privacy in the era of COVID-19.

On this episode of the Futurum Tech Podcast - Interview Series host Daniel Newman welcomes Chadd Kenney, Vice President and Chief Technologist at Clumio to discuss cloud and data storage, Backup as a Service, and the latest happenings in the company.

Making Backup as a Service Simple

Cloud solutions are mission-critical for the enterprise these days, but nobody really likes to manage these complex systems. Most enterprises have data spread across public and private clouds and SaaS solutions. Ensuring that all data — everywhere — is backed up properly can be a headache.

When we think of backups we probably think of the simple solutions for a single user like an automatic iCloud backup where you don't have to think about it. That's not the case for the enterprise. It's not friendly. It's not a modern architecture. It's tapes and storage arrays. It's on-prem. Adding in more SaaS applications only makes the data dispersion more and more complicated.

Companies need a quick easy way to have consistent data protection. The old storage solutions need to be more agile which is what Clumio set out to do. Their Backup as a Service offering has a low barrier to entry meaning companies can start backing up almost immediately

Building For Cloud, In Cloud

Old storage models are the antithesis of agile IT. Companies have legacy storage solutions and giant data centers with racks and racks of servers that took weeks and months to get up and running. Clumio makes it easier for the end consumer by allowing them to really leverage the agility and scalability of the cloud.

In order to get true leverage from the public cloud, you actually have to build it on a lot of the

native componentry because it's built for agility, scalability and it enables you to build platforms that take the efficiencies of the cloud into the platform.

Clumio is integrating this agility early on in the platform so when it moves operations, enterprises have a consistent way of applying data protection — no matter where the data is.

Clumio's Key Differentiators

You used to be able to copy data from one rack to another rack, or from one site to another site, and it didn't matter. There was no additional cost, it was all one big capital purchase. But if you try to do that now, you get hit with hidden charges and fees that make it difficult to operate.

Clumio's architecture allows data to be backed up in the cloud that it was created in. They've increased parallelism, decreased overall aggregate costs, enabled user experiences that were much more scalable without having to do any thinking whatsoever which is especially helpful as data gets more dispersed across SaaS and even PaaS solutions.

Clumio's Exciting Future

Clumio started with backing up private cloud with virtualization. They also do VMware cloud running in AWS and a few months ago added the ability to do elastic block storage which is in AWS as well. This covers most of public and private cloud storage.

To continue the momentum, Clumio is building its first SaaS service with Office 365 enabling customers to be able to provide consistency across all these use cases. Now customers can have uniform policies that can be applied across your private cloud, your public cloud assets, and even SaaS based solutions with Office 365. The best thing is zero customers will have to do a software upgrade to add this new innovation to their platform.

If you'd like to learn more about Clumio, its offerings, or the exciting new announcements check out the website and make sure you listen to the full episode below. While you're at it, be sure to hit subscribe so you never miss a great conversation on the Futurum Tech Podcast.

On this special edition of the Futurum Tech Podcast Interview Series, host Daniel Newman welcomed Faisal Siddiqi, Chief Technologist, Innovation and Ecosystems at DXC Technology and Chris Swan, CTO of Global Delivery at DXC Technology. In this episode, the two talked to Daniel about the current state of upskilling and technology in the workforce especially in the wake of COVID-19.

COVID-19 Pushing Digital Transformation Forward

Almost overnight, companies around the world have been forced to change how they work, bringing in a lot of new technologies to help the business run efficiently. We are seeing a rapid digital transformation. What used to take years is taking weeks and months now because companies have no choice. But this is also leading to another revolution in the workplace.

At the World Economic Forum this year, it was predicted that we are on the cusp or a reskilling revolution. An estimated 1 billion people will need to be reskilled by 2030 for emerging technologies.

The shifts are already starting to happen in the workplace. From a service provider perspective, we are moving away from sending work to low-cost labor to sending it to software engineering while at the same time shifting from software engineering to machine learning and AI where we are training systems instead of programming systems.

The demand for machine assisted technology is on the rise. It's augmenting how we work and we need people to understand how this technology works in order to make it work in the enterprise. This technology is not replacing humans, it's requiring a new skillset.

Building the Foundation Today to Upskill Tomorrow

In most businesses, employees are required to have certain certifications or degrees to be able to work on certain technologies. Some businesses might require a certification to work with their cloud partner while others might require a certification to work on any cloud system in general.

But emerging technologies are starting to require a certain type of individual rather than a certification. It doesn't matter if their education comes from a certification or degree program or if they're self-taught from an open source community.

In the future, we will likely need both employees in the workplace. The employees who have degrees in the tech fields, but also the employees that seek new education. The ones who are constantly learning how to solve new problems.

New Kind of Training Program

With upskilling in mind, DXC Technology turned to a DevOps Dojo to train anybody. These problem-solving programs aren't focused on if employees know the material. It's about how they solve the problem. They can use whatever program they want to help them — Google, GitHub etc. It's an authentic, on-demand experience designed to help people understand the new material in whatever way works for them.

Great examples of this style training program are Katacoda and Microsoft Learn. These two are designed to help people not just learn the technology, but master it as well.

Open Source Upskilling

Open source communities are a great place to better oneself. The right community can offer the right kind of support no matter what level of education you have. It's open to everybody meaning it's a great way to seek collaborative input from a number of people and it's a game changer for so many businesses.

Open source is likely going to be the onramp to help people and companies move from legacy applications to the multi-cloud world. It's going to provide the support and training that employees need in order to be prepared for new technology.

The Future for DXC Technology

Chris shared that DXC is on the cusp of opening several modules from DevOps Dojo similar to the Katacoda training. Faisal shared that DXC has a few open source projects now available on the DXC GitHub like the newly released AI starter kit.

Beyond that, Faisal discussed the importance of taking the foundation of open source software technology development and applying it to the culture of the enterprise to become better collaborative citizens. It's clear that work is changing and building a better collaborative environment will prepare us for the future.

If you'd like to learn more about what DXC Technology is doing visit their website and be sure to listen to the full episode. Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode of the Futurum Tech Podcast.

On this special edition of the Futurum Tech Podcast - Interview Series host Daniel Newman welcomes Rafael Sweary, President and Co-founder of WalkMe to discuss COVID-19, successful business pivots in the wake of a crisis and what the future now looks like for the company.

How WalkMe Addressed COVID-19

WalkMe was built around digital transformation. The ultimate goal of the company is to help other companies adopt technology faster. The Digital Adoption Platform was designed as a guidance system to simplify the user experience. Digital transformation is the name of the game for WalkMe, so when COVID-19 first started and the shelter-in-place orders happened across the globe, the company was ready to react.

Initially there were some difficulties with getting all employees connected, but the company quickly adapted their own technology to solve the problems. Leadership also implemented a three-touch system meaning all employees needed to be touched three times a day by the company to make sure employees still felt connected. Touches could be anything — webinars, team meetings, calls from managers or coworkers, etc. This communication effort has made a difference.

Culture and Leadership Make a Difference

The transition success for many companies has ultimately come down to culture and leadership. WalkMe was built embracing technology. They had the technology in place to support people working from home. But they also made small changes like giving Zoom free to every employee to help not only the company stay connected but families stay connected too.

The Leaders at WalkMe embrace change — and it shows. WalkMe's Realize 2020 event was scheduled for March 19 in San Francisco, but it had to be cancelled. Instead of cancelling completely, the company pivoted and in four days held a very successful digital event. These small pivots have helped with business continuity and ultimately productivity of the employees.

Rafael made a good point that you can't predict the future. You can't plan for disasters like COVID-19. But you can flex the leadership muscle. You can train employees to be better prepared for pivots. You can ensure the tools are in place to support the pivots.

Helping Employees See Value in Technology

Like I mentioned previously, WalkMe is a digital adoption platform. The ultimate goal is to help employees of any company adopt technology faster. The last mile of digital transformation comes down to human effort. If employees don't see value in technology the transformation won't work. No matter how much you train or teach an employee to use a new CRM platform, if he doesn't see value, he won't use it. Sticking with that same analogy, Rafael explained that you have to take the time to show that a CRM will enable him to sell more, to make more profit, that it's in his best interest. This is ultimately what WalkMe strives to do.

If you'd like to learn more about WalkMe's products and solutions, check out their website and be sure to listen to the full episode. Don't forget to hit subscribe so you never miss an episode of the Futurum Tech Podcast.

In this special edition of the Futurum Tech Podcast - Interview Series, host Daniel Newman welcomes Jason Mann, Vice President of IoT at SAS. Daniel and Jason discussed SAS's response to COVID-19 and the impact IoT and AIoThave had on businesses all over the world.

Analytics to Fight COVID-19

It's almost cliche to say that we are living in an unprecedented time, but it's still the case. SAS, like all companies, had to quickly reprioritize and pivot within the last month. The first priority obviously was the health and safety of employees and families. SAS quickly moved to equip employees with what they needed to work from home. The second priority for SAS was community-based. On the company homepage, you can find dashboards available for free that help track the spread and trends of the virus.

They also created specific resources that are focused more on the healthcare sector. SAS is working with several hospitals to help with the SIR epidemic models which help with the projections of the advancement of disease within populations. The output for these models is critical in order to project staffing and equipment needs.

The final priority is helping partners and customers with business continuity. What can SAS do to help other companies continue their business as close to usual as possible. Jason shared a great example of this effort has been seen in supply chains and food chains. SAS is working with companies to help maintain a level of consistency of delivery from the farm to the grocery store. SAS has moved quickly to use their analytic software to make decisions or help other customers and companies make decisions. They're able to take information and create an action item. The companies that do this successfully during this time will inevitably come out stronger in the end.

Breaking Down the AIoT

In the last few years SAS has spent a lot of time and money focusing on the Artificial Intelligence of Things or AIoT. Jason described it as a convergence of AI around IoT principles, many of which have been around but are seeing renewed value in the expansion of compute. It's an expansion of the power of analytics and a convergence of data that customers can use to make decisions in real time to solve issues faster.

Companies and Industries Benefiting from AIoT

Industries like healthcare, manufacturing and transportation are already seeing the benefits of AIoT. Jason shared a particular example of a rail company that has been able to track not just the locomotive performance and maintenance initiatives but also the operator performance and how all of those things interact and impact each other. The company is also able to use data and evaluate in real time the safety of the track, overall station performance, and potential maintenance issues. Using AIoT the company has expanded their compute capability and has improved performance and the bottom line.

AI provides the opportunity to streamline, to determine correlations, to get more intelligent as neural networks or deep learning is able to identify patterns, trends, and then create automation and activities. It's about removing the human from the equation to make decisions faster.

SAS has also partnered with Honeywell to pair this AIoT technology with drone video surveillance to help farmers track vegetation. Farmers can take this data and then make decisions about their crops optimizing fertilizing, watering, or eradicating efforts.

AIoT and Future Technologies

There are a lot of potential use cases for AIoT and other technologies. We could easily take the surveillance and data technology and use it to determine if social distancing is happening in some areas.

Jason also discussed the potential around virtual and digital twins and virtual reality. Companies are realizing that we don't necessarily need to be in person or in a physical location to conduct business. So as more digital or virtual twins are created for existing technologies, how will the AIoT help them operate more efficiently?

More than 220 US public companies are seeing their supply chain impacted by a virtual version of product, process, or system. When you can manufacture a product in a digital or virtual environment you're keeping costs low. We are seeing this with automobiles. We're seeing it with windmills. We're seeing it being done in a lot of heavy industrial manufacturing as well as consumer products and health care. We're seeing all kinds of applications. This is really powerful and this is IoT data. This is AI and this is analytics at their finest.

It's likely that moving forward, many businesses will have continuity plans that include digital twins or virtual environments in case something catastrophic like this ever happens again. This will clearly be our new normal.

If you'd like to learn more about SAS, AIoT, or the future of this technology be sure to check out their website and listen to the full episode. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode.

3D printing technology has the potential to impact almost every industry in the world — whether it's creating replacement parts for machines to quickly developing prototypes from scratch. Today, the impact 3D printing is having on the global fight against the coronavirus COVID-19 is significant. In this episode of our show, my colleague and fellow analyst Sarah Wallace and I take a look at the role 3D printing is playing — from rapidly creating protective face shields, respirator masks, nasal swabs and ventilator parts for use by front line workers and hospitals — to the challenges the industry faces, to spotlighting companies doing innovative things with 3D printing — and what's ahead.

What makes 3D printing such a great solution?

What makes 3D printing such a great solution? In a word: It's fast. With 3D printing, in the space of a short period of time (think hours not days or weeks) it's possible to design, prototype and produce an idea. And that? That incredibly rapid turnaround time is something that manufacturers can't (yet) do. Right now, supply chain issues and overwhelming demand are what is driving the need for 3D printing solutions. As a result, 3D printing is, and can continue to, have a big impact on the supply chain by filling short-term supply gaps that every industry is facing as we navigate the COVID-19 outbreak.

Here's but one example of how 3D printing can provide important solutions to the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and our supply chain problems —

Manufacturers of nasal swabs have been struggling to keep up with demand. These swabs are used for coronavirus tests and are very different from standard swabs, as they need to be long and skinny, made of synthetic fiber, and can't have a wooden shaft. While hospitals and communities want and desperately need to ramp up testing, this weak link in the supply chain is a big factor. That's where 3D printing can help. In a recent interview with CNN, HP's Raymond Pastor, acting president of 3D printing and digital manufacturing for HP indicated the company has the capacity to print 1 million swabs a week in the U.S. alone.

What are the limitations of 3D printing?

Sarah walked us through some challenges as it relates to 3D printing. For starters, not all 3D printed equipment is the same, and some is easier to produce than others. Equally as important, some 3D-printed equipment might be better than others, while some might not quite afford the level of protection that's needed. Some things require FDA approval to produce, and of course there's always the risk factor for companies producing these things that is inevitably important to consider.

Sarah also mentioned there's a skills gap that plays a role in the limitations and challenges of 3D printing, as well as some other things worth considering.

What companies in the 3D Printing Space Are Doing Some Really Innovative Things?

Our conversation in the webcast turned to the companies in the 3D printing space that are doing some really innovative things. Sarah is currently immersed in developing a 3D market insight report, so it wasn't hard to come up with examples of companies doing innovative things with 3D printing. This includes:

Siemens' Additive Manufacturing (AM) Network is an online order-to-delivery collaboration platform for the industrial additive manufacturing community and connects users, designers, and 3D print service providers to enable faster and simpler production of spare parts for machines like ventilators. Siemens is also making 3D printers available to the global medical community to speed design and production during the COVID-19 pandemic. Doctors, hospitals, and organizations in need of medical devices and designers and service providers can register for free access to the Siemens AM Network.

HP has developed a 3D printed hands-free door opener, a mask adjustor clasp that helps make masks more comfortable during long time wear, face shields, hospital grade FFP3 face masks that are reported to be available soon, and 3D printed parts for field ventilators are in development. HP and the company's partners are making validated design files for many parts that don't require complex assembly available for free. If you're a 3D designer or innovator (or know one) who wants to join the battle against COVID-19, you can contribute new applications and ideas to the collaborative effort directly from HP's website dedicated to 3D printing in support of COVID-19 containment efforts.

Dassault Systèms is using scientific simulation of the human sneeze to support the development of personal protective equipment (PPE) projects in the 3DEXPERIENCE Lab OPEN COVID-19 online community, as part of collaborative efforts to quickly answer unmet urgent needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The simulations are used to demonstrate what happens when a person sneezes, to better understand the effectiveness of different PPE being developed and deployed, and to aid in improving their design. Dassault's simulator applications are already used in the aerospace and automotive industries to generate a dynamic simulation of fluid and air flow, and their simulation apps are likewise being used to help understand the flow physics of sneezes.

What are some 3D Printing Solutions Being Used in the Fight Against COVID-19?

Some of the big brands immersed in the 3D printing space — like Siemens, and HP, and Dassault we have heard of and might not be surprised by — but they are not alone. There are other companies in the 3D printing space that are also really stepping up.

Tangible Creative, MakerBot, Shapeways and other 3D printing companies in the NYC area have joined together to create the Covid Makers Response Coalition to help provide 3D printed supplies to area hospitals in need of gear. This group is printing 2,000 face shields a day for hospitals in the NYC area.

Voodoo Manufacturing, a NY-based 3D printing startup, has repurposed its 5,000 square-foot facility to mass produce emergency personal protective equipment for the healthcare workers and hospitals. It plans to print at least 2,500 face shields weekly. Hospitals and healthcare workers can place batch orders for protective face shields at CombatingCovid.com.

Carbon, a 3D printing firm is working with the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) to create nasal swabs.

SmileDirectClub is one of the largest 3D printing manufacturers in the US (who knew?) and is partnering with medial supply companies and healthcare orgs to produce supplies like face shields and respirator valves.

Protolabs, a Minnesota-based digital manufacturer, has prioritized medical orders on its manufacturing floor which includes ventilator parts and is also producing components for COVID-19 test kits

Formlabs, a Somerville, Mass-based developer and manufacturer of 3D printers and software is using 250 printers in its Ohio factor to manufacture 100,000 nasal swabs for COVID-19 testing every day.

Ford Motor Company and GE are partnering to expand production of ventilators and other critical equipment in the U.S. and currently using Ford's factories to produce plastic face shields and components for PPE, with a goal of assembling more than 100,000 face shields a week.

Volkswagon has formed a task force to adapt its manufacturing facilities much the way Ford and others have, and also plan on leveraging its more than 125 industrial 3D printers.

The allure of 3D printing is clear

As you'll see by our conversation here, the allure of 3D printing to combat coronavirus COVID-19 is clear. 3D printing solutions are affordable. They interject much needed rapid response capabilities into the manufacturing process and also augment gaps in the supply chain. The beauty and the strength of 3D printing lies in both the affordability of 3D printers and the network or the community of 3D printing enthusiasts. Just how big is that community of 3D printing enthusiasts?

According to a report published in August of 2019 by the Federation of American Scientists, there were some 600,000 purchases of 3D printers priced under $5,000 sold in the US alone in 2018, and some 140,000 industrial grade 3D printers sold worldwide. That means there are a lot of 3D printers out there. Even more impressive, to us anyway, is the knowledge base and expertise, and the strength of the community that's being created — both by gigantic companies in the 3D sector, as well as by smaller companies all over the world — is quickly becoming clear.

What role will 3D printing play as businesses begin to rethink and rework their business models post-pandemic? We predict that it will be a big one! Keep an eye out for Sarah's Market Insights Report on 3D Printing, which will be published in early May.

On this special episode of the Futurum Tech Podcast — Interview Series, host Daniel Newman welcomes Bill Boswell, Vice President of Marketing at the Siemens Digital Industries Software, to discuss digital transformation in the age of COVID-19 and what companies across all industries are facing.

It's Not Time to Slow Down

We are in an unprecedented time right now. Companies have the opportunity to pause and look at what they're doing across the board. How they're operating, what technologies are being used, how employees function. This is not the time to slow down. This is the time to embrace digital transformation. Some companies understand that and are innovating and collaborating faster than ever before. Today's products are smarter and more personalized. More data is being collected than ever before. And many companies are blurring the lines between the digital and physical worlds.

Siemens helps customers use technologies to find opportunities in their industries. Customers are using automation in their supply chain. They are making decisions with technologies like digital twins. They are using software applications that run in the cloud to manage business more efficiently.

Siemens is not just a software development company. They also have factories and manufacturing plants across the globe which gives them a unique opportunity to use the technology that their customers use. Bill pointed out that Siemens has the opportunity to be working right alongside customers, understanding their pain points, knowing what they need in order to speed up the technology of innovation.

Digital Twins Improve Production

One of the great things that Siemens offers to customers is a comprehensive digital twin. There are a lot of definitions of 'digit twin' out there, but the way Siemens looks at it depends on your use case and industry. There's a digital twin of the product that is the design of the product. Everything from your customer requirements to the physical simulation, design, electrical, and mechanical. Then there's the digital twin of production, which covers manufacturing, planning, and simulating the workstations of the entire factory as you move through the process.

The next digital twin covers performance that allows you to see how it is operating, and then you can close the loop back into your digital twin of the design or your digital twin in the production to make the whole product or the whole production better.

Industrial IoT Isn't Your Mama's IoT

Most of the time when we think about IoT, we think about the smart speaker in our house or maybe the wearable on our wrist. But industrial IoT covers so much more than that. It could be a smart machine. It could be a smart manufacturing line, smart robots. It could be smart trains. It could be wind turbines. It can be energy grids. It can be entire infrastructures for cities.

The consumer IoT products have to be manufactured somewhere. Industrial IoT goes behind the scenes. What kind of sensors do you need during the manufacturing process. What kind of smart machines do you need? And then ultimately, what do you do with the data you're collecting.

Edge Computing or the Cloud?

These devices, whether it's consumer IoT or industrial IoT, create a lot of data and we have a lot of choices of where we are going to store and interact with that data. There are some analytics that you want to do as close to where the sensors are as possible, and that may be because you want to have reduced latency or no delay for health and safety kinds of things.

You may also want to do some edge computing because you can only transfer data around so fast. You need to be able to do the stream process close to where the device is to possibly optimize how much data is being sent to the cloud. Companies today are learning to put their compute resources in the right spot and it's usually a hybrid combination.

Companies, especially manufacturers are using the edge and computing closer to the device in order to make decisions almost instantly. They are able to realize the power of real-time analytics. But then going a step further, Bill noted that companies are able to take this data and analytics and connect it with their other systems like CRM or ERP systems that help the company operate.

IoT as a Service Working with the Cloud

Customers today face the dilemma of being an IoT company and building the sensors and services they need themselves or buying an off the shelf solution that might not fit all of their needs. Siemens realized there was a middle ground. Companies could buy IoT as a Service on top of their cloud to get the best of both worlds. Siemens isn't reinventing the wheel, they're enhancing it to fit what customers need.

If you'd like to learn more about Siemens, their offerings and partnerships check out their website and be sure to listen to the whole episode, too. While you're at it, hit the subscribe button so you never miss an episode.

On this special edition of The Futurum Tech Podcast - Interview Series host Daniel Newman welcomed Masum Mir, Vice President of Product for 5G Automation and Software for Cisco. Daniel and Masum discussed what Cisco has been doing to help the community during the COVID-19 pandemic, the transformation to software-defined infrastructure and what our new normal will look like after the pandemic is over.

How Cisco is Helping the Community

Cisco has made a big commitment to employees, partners, clients and the public during this pandemic. The company has pledged $225 million to the COVID-19 response in cash, products and services. The main priority is to provide a robust infrastructure that won't go down. It has to be up and running 24/7 for customers and partners and that requires 24/7 support services.

People are using Cisco's collaboration platforms and video communications tools for work, education, and staying connected. We are seeing an unprecedented demand on the video infrastructure so Cisco is doing all that it can to provide additional software capabilities to existing infrastructure to keep the video experience from fading.

Moving to Software Defined Infrastructure Prepared for 5G

Over the last few years, Cisco has transformed from hardware to a software-defined business. They have worked to simplify the infrastructure and moved to a software model where remote upgrades are possible. The situation brought about by COVID-19 has shown the critical nature of transformations. It's clear that the companies that have already transformed, like Cisco, are reaping a huge benefit.

This transformation to a software-defined infrastructure has also opened the doors for automation and scalable changes. As we move into the 5G era, Cisco expects to see more demand on the network. Masum said the network will be massive. Having automatable, scalable infrastructure will allow people and companies, whether it's 5 people or 5000, to have the same connection experience and at the end of the day, customer experience is what matters.

Cisco is also constantly working to simplify the network connection strategy and automation strategy for service providers. Masum shared that they've put a lot of emphasis on digitizing and automating processes. They're pushing traditional service providers to disrupt and change because the current network model is outdated. Service providers need to be able to deliver faster services while reducing overhead and capital expenses. Moving to a software-defined architecture that enables automation will help these companies meet the operation demands from customers around the world.

Is This 'New Normal' Permanent?

This crisis has pushed the world into a new normal. We work from home. We have to be able to respond from home. We have to be able to manage issues from home. What will all of this mean for the future? Masum surmised that this will change the way infrastructure is built. Companies will need to be proactive, not reactive. Infrastructure will need to be more nimble. It will need to be scalable, up or down, and allow for automation. Cisco has already embraced this school of thought and is ready to help partners transform.

If you'd like to learn more about what Cisco is doing during the COVID-19 pandemic or learn more about their 5G initiatives check out their website. Be sure to listen to the full episode for more insights and while you're at it, make sure to hit subscribe so you never miss an episode.