Denis Opudo
The South African tech world is predicted to be a promising in 2018. The arrival of some startups and the favorable business environment is seen as some of the main reasons why people are optimistic about the market come 2018. Mega clouds’ got the reference because they will increase multiple cloud vendors. Companies and individuals will start expecting to shift workloads, data and other assets between those vendors, avoiding lock-ins and ‘cloud silos’ that are upcoming as the moving away from the client-server notion.
In South Africa, this will be reflected by the arrival of Azure hyperscale datacentres, an indication of the country’s growing demand for cloud’s efficiency and innovation delivery. But the impact will be realized beyond South African borders, reaching out to the rest of the SADC region. Doug Woolley, GM of Dell EMC South Africa, is excited about opportunities in sub-Saharan Africa. With this growth of cloud will lead to a notable rise of the intelligent edge. Therefore, it means that the decision making roles will be transferred to devices located away from the base of the cloud system.The sensor on a security system or environmental monitor will not have to wait for feedback from the central hub to act. This will quickly lead to the reduction of response times for all types of situations. IQ of Things the way its referred to, this revolution is already evident in cars where sensors feed information to local systems inside the vehicles.
Such systems will start hosting certain levels of artificial intelligence, a force that continues to give the world another look. In 2018, Dell EMC predicts this trend expanding into ‘thinking tasks’ at businesses. Using data, Artificial Intelligence will help companies significantly reduce time spent scoping, debating, scenario planning and testing every innovation. AI will also play a growing role in recruiting the right people and skills, which the report refers to as ‘bias checking.’ This is the use of AI to get around human shortcomings. Not dissimilar to ‘blind’ auditions where musicians perform behind a screen, AI will be utilized to help inform hiring and promotion decisions without the unnoted animosity of humans.
Some companies are already using such practices. In 2018, they will be seen as the pioneers. Those include companies that will be using Augmented and Virtual Reality for remote interviews of candidates and engagements with customers. As digital entertainment such as e-sports grows in popularity, that tech-savvy audience will also drive the adoption of AR and VR in 2018.
