Eagle-Lanner tech blog

 

Driven by IIoT/IoT platforms, edge computing, and cloud storage, we are at a point where the factory floors around the globe are being shaken up by the new paradigm shift that re-defines a “machine” and its entire operations—Machine-as-a-Service (or Equipment-as-a-Service). These interdependent technologies have brought unprecedented interconnectivity to the machines as well as every stakeholder in the production chain.

Despite the very limited deployment cases, the merging of home and office already started years ago. Overnight, it is no longer an alternative but an imperative due to the unprecedented COVID-19 global pandemic. The disturbances brought by coronavirus have not only severely hit home to the human population but affected the global economy, all communities, our way of life – even our working habits. Over the past weeks, we’ve seen the tech giants Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter, Google and others adopting the WFH model. Apparently, IT experts worldwide are facing the same challenge – how to enable remote workforce immediately.

As the conventional corporate IT network relies on the WAN architecture, the IT administrators often find themselves with a never-ending headache – network configuration. The hardware-based WAN, composed of routers, servers, and other network devices across physical locations, in its nature lacks the flexibility for deploying immediate changes and updates to edge devices. Adding subsidiaries or moving the site to new locations? That’s multiple times of manual configuration and management work! In the face of fast-changing management decisions and network security crisis such as spear-phishing, CIOs and CTOs nowadays should be aware, that without the flexibility, not only would handling the regular requests and addressing the enterprise’s growing connectivity be complex and costly, but the business continuity could be crippled.

Living in the era of 5G, we cannot be luckier to have witnessed the next-generation mobile network (NGMN) being rolled out and incorporating major technological advancements across various industries. The icing on the cake, however, is the simultaneous entrance of Wi-Fi 6. A study conducted by Cisco predicted, that Wi-Fi alone, by 2020, will make up 51% of global IP traffic, more than the total of wired access (29%), and mobile networks (20%).

With the advent of 5G technology, we have already seen tides of virtualization and disaggregation pushed to their peak by digitalization. Telecom vendors are forced to review their portfolios and existing solutions in order to catch up with the trends. Here comes the imminent task for the vendors – How to obtain the first-mover advantage and stand out of the competitions?

Over the past decades or two, many organizations have invested in technologies that ensure their employees secure and reliable access to the corporate systems to carry out their work, regardless of their physical locations, mobile devices of personal choices, and varying quality of Internet connectivity. Although several versions of such digital transformation have been rolled out, not until public health emergencies such as the novel COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic hit the world did the need for a flexible workforce become crucial and widespread.  As we are experiencing, the unprecedented dynamic COVID-19 pandemic has impacted our communities on a global scale, placing numerous underprepared businesses in a difficult spot while risking the wellness of their employees.

Among all the “Next Big Things” in the technology industry, 5G is beyond question going to take the digital transformation to new levels. In fact, as a catalyzer of many industries and applications, this wireless network technology has already boosted the explosion of new-connected IoT (Internet of Things) devices, while unstoppingly evolving into larger segments of possible spectrum.

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