Have we taken computing, bit storage and bit transport for granted?

Estimated Read Time: 2 min

If you over heard the terms IoT (internet of Things), AI (Artificial intelligence), VR (Virtual Reality), AR (Augmented Reality), AV (Autonomous Vehicles) and many others alike, during the past couple of years, especially in the beautiful city of Barcelona - if you happened to be at MWC (Mobile World Congress) 2019, then you’re not the only one. Celicitaciones! (On a different note, I also thought to myself that the abbreviations are also becoming shorter – 2 letters instead of 3 /4 letters).

All of a sudden, the terms we used to hear and discuss often – like IP (Internet Protocol), Ethernet, MPLS (Multi-Protocol Label Switching) - in the Telecom industry have been replaced by a set of more sexy terms like IoT, AI, VR, AR, AV, etc. These new techs have also broken the boundaries of traditional Telco industry and many cross disciplines – like medical, education, transportation, trading, finance, etc.- have been interconnected like never before.

But, one thing that most of the new technologies seems to be taken for granted is the presence of readily available underlying infrastructure, mainly consist of computing, bit storage and bit transport. These are the three fundamental tasks we have been doing in the entire history of ICT (Information and Communications Technology). No doubt that these three areas have also been improved and matured over the years and today we have super computers capable of super-fast computing, DCs (Data Centers) with massive capacities and networks with Terabit bandwidths.

However, as IoT, AI, VR, AR, AV, etc, are commoditizing and commercializing in a rapid pace than we thought, can we simply take the infrastructure for granted? The size and shape of different vectors like scale, capacity, responsiveness, etc. on the infrastructure to support the requirements of overlay services/applications might suddenly create catastrophes, if we do not prepare ourselves today. It’s a good sign that we now see, at least in small scale, some discussions happen across these areas. Don’t be surprised the next time you go to an optical conference, and you hear someone talking about VR/AR.

What is required is a more collaborated discussion and research to view and address the total requirement as a whole, making sure to include all the stakeholders. These stakeholders surely will not come entirely from telecom domain, but from different other domains we never have thought of.

Author: Anuradha Udunuwara, ARC Tube | @AnuradhaU

Note: The 1^st version of this blog was originally appeared in Anuradha Udunuwara’s personal blog.
http://audunuwara.blogspot.com/2017/03/have-we-taken-computing-bit-storage-and.html

Digital, Digitization, Digitalization and Digital Transformation

Estimated Read Time: 4 min

Among over-heard words in the society, “digital” and its associates play a leading role, especially since last decade. The associates include, but not limited to digitization, digitalization and digital transformation. However, many seems to be just using the words, sometimes incorrectly conveying a wrong meaning. In a different angle, that also shows the lack of awareness among individuals, organization, societies and nations about the real meaning and usage of these terms. Let’s look at closely what they really mean.

Digital

The word digital actually comes from a 15^th century Latin word digitālis = digitus (“finger, toe”) + -alis (“-al”). It could be a coincidence that most of today’s digital services are consumed on touch screens, like smart phones, and that we actually use our fingers to do that. The conventional meaning of digital is something to do with digits in binary – 1s and 0s. Technically, binary can be used to represent a digital signal, data and many other things.

The general public identifies or experiences digital in many different ways; analog vs. digital television, printed magazines vs. digital magazines on a screen, recorded music on vinyl vs. digital music on CD/DVD/Blue Ray, analog meters vs. digital meters, analog watches vs. digital watches, analog cameras vs. digital cameras, and the list goes on.

However, in modern day context, digital has much broader meaning. It has shifted from representing and associating with technology, to become something to represent a novel experience resulted from a combination of new thinking, new technologies, new and improved processes. As a result many things have become digital today – digital economies, digital societies, digital health, digital education, digital entertainment, and even digital governments. Digital enables new ecosystems, makes new business models possible and opens up new ways to interact and engage with humans and devices, delivering the right experience.

You can check Knowledge Spark - Understanding "Digital" Correctly by ARC Tube for more info. 

Another word associated with digital is data. It’s also said that the data is the new oil. This shows the importance of data and we often use the tem digital data to identify the data associated with digital.

If we want to move to “Digital” form where we are today, be as an individual, organization, business, economy, society or a nation, we need to look at it in 3 steps – Digitization, Digitalization and Digital Transformation. It is very important that we understand these steps clearly.

Digitization

Digitization starts with converting the existing data in different formats to a digital format or digital data - a format that a computer can understand and process. For an example, scanning and storing conventional documents in a digital format with proper identification could be the digitization applied in an organization. But, digitization can actually expand to many levels, delivering more meaningful information that may be used to drive better outcomes for stakeholders.

Digitalization

Once the data is digitized, the next step is the digitalization. Digitalization is the process that we need to adopt, to make use of the digitized data. For an example, an organization can use a computer to search for digitized document instead of finding it in a file inside a conventional record room.  Instead of the process of storing and finding hard document, the new process is to use  soft documents.

Digital Transformation

Digital transformation is the total effect of following digitization and practicing digitalization processes across an organization, business, economy, society or nation. However, people usually starts with Digital Optimization (DO), before getting into Digital Transformation (DT).

As the 1^st step of DT journey, DO continues to do the same things, but in a different way. This may include increasing efficiency or maybe even reducing the cost by digitization and automating a processes. DO is of low risk.

DT however takes a completely different approach to what you do and how you do it. This may potentially even include disrupting your own business.

This diagram summarizes digitization, digitalization and digital transformation;

You can check Knowledge Spark - Digitization, Digitalization and Digital Transformation by ARC Tube for more info. 

Author: Anuradha Udunuwara, ARC Tube | @AnuradhaU