2020 has created more than just a brave new global world. It is a global opportunity that is driving organizations of all sizes to temporarily welcome the generation not only to survive, but also to thrive. And Andrew Dugan, Chief Technology Officer of Lumen Technologies, sees evidence at the company’s own visitor base, where “these organizations were a top success across Covid they were the ones ready for their virtual transformation. “And that’s not an unusual story this year. A 2018 McKinsey survey showed that long before the pandemic, 92% of business leaders believed that “their business style would no longer be economically viable through digitization. “This astonishing statistic shows companies’ desire to start implementing new technologies, not only for next year, but also for the fourth business revolution ahead.
This podcast episode was produced through Insights, mit Technology Review’s traditional content arm, but not through the editors of MIT Technology Review.
Lumen plans to play a key role in this preparation and execution: “We see the fourth commercial revolution transforming every day lifeArray . . . and is motivated by the availability and ubiquity of these wise devices. “With the immediate evolution of smaller chips and devices, gaining analytics and acting on knowledge becomes a key priority for each and every business, but organizations want to be prepared for this developing knowledge attack.
As Dugan says, “One of the most important things we see with the fourth trade revolution is that corporations are benefiting from the knowledge you have to have. “And to do that, corporations want to do business in a new way. Specifically, “One is to replace the way they employ hiring techniques. You want a new skill set, you want knowledge scientists, your global will be more guided through the software. You’re going to have to take advantage of the new technologies. ” This mandate means that organizations will also have to prepare their generation systems, and this is where Lumen is helping to “develop organizational skills and provide them with infrastructure, be it network tools, outer edge computing, and knowledge analysis,” Dugan says. The purpose is to use software to download information, which will be commercial.
When it comes to next-generation applications and devices, edge computing: the ability to process knowledge in real time at the edge of a network (think of a handheld device) without sending it back to the cloud for processing. – will have to be in the cinput. Dugan explains: “When a robot stumbles on something and sends that sensor knowledge to the application, which would possibly be on site, it can also be a peripheral computing location, the speed at which this knowledge can be collected. to the application, analyzed and a reaction generated directly affects the speed at which this device can operate. This knowledge will have to be analyzed and exploited in real time to be useful to the organization. Think about it, Dugan continued, “when it comes to something like a power grid, something similar. You need to be able to trip over anything and react to it in near real time. Edge Compute is the feature that enables organizations to enter the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and it’s the new truth. “We bring that level of advertising to life and we do it for our clients,” says Dugan. “And it’s exciting to see something like this come true. “
Business Lab is hosted through Laurel Ruma, Director of Insights, the traditional publications department of mit Technology Review. The screen is a production of MIT Technology Review, with production support from Collective Next.
This podcast episode produced in association with Lumen Technologies.
“Emerging Technologies and the Lumen Platform,” through Andrew Dugan, Automation. com, September 14, 2020
“The Fourth Industrial Revolution: What It Means, How to Respond,” through Klaus Schwab, World Economic Forum, January 14, 2016
“Why Digital Strategies Fail”, through Jacques Bughin, Tanguy Catlin, Martin Hirt and Paul Willmott, McKinsey Quarterly, January 25, 2018
Laurel Ruma: From MIT Technology Review, my call is Laurel Ruma, and this is Business Lab, the industry display that is helping business leaders perceive new technologies coming out of the lab and marketed. Our theme today is the structure of a connected platform for the fourth business revolution, which is undoubtedly a concept that remains subtle in practice, but is there, while data, synthetic intelligence, network functionality and devices combine to better serve humans. words for you: next-generation apps.
My guest is Andrew Dugan, Chief Technology Officer of Lumen, who has more than 30 years of experience in the telecommunications industry and, as expected for his time as an engineer, more than 20 patents have been filed. Andrew, welcome to Business Lab.
Andrew Dugan: Thank you Laurel, I am very pleased to be here.
Laurel: Then, starting a new business in the face of a pandemic would probably not be the ultimate ideal situation, but a wonderful opportunity to live up to it. How was covid-19 Lumen pandemic prepared for customers’ wishes, perhaps unexpected?
Andrew: Well, covid was hard. In fact, this has had a terrible effect on the world, however, one of the positive facets is that I was pleasantly surprised by the reaction of our team and the reaction of our consumers. And covid has given us a wonderful opportunity to show how scalable our infrastructure and facilities are by being able to deliver emergency bandwidth to our consumers in record time, strangely fast. Covid has also noticed a measurable increase in our consumers’ understanding of the importance of virtual capabilities, such as organizations that have been a success across Covid were the ones ready for their virtual transformation.
We have observed the desires for conversion of our covid consumers. At first, we conducted research and found that the first considerations were similar to the chain of origin. “Will I be able to get the things I want to keep running my business?be able to keep my workers safe?” And we’ve noticed a shift towards more virtual considerations. “My new way of running is safe?Do I want to put the right kind of security measures in position?Do I have the right kind of network for my remote workers, or maybe I do?that my clients can use my facilities? Many corporations look to the long term and wonder, “How do we create a new revenue source bureaucracy in this greedy world?”And that’s why they’re looking for generation to help them. that the facilities we have in Lumen can help them fulfill that desire. So it was a tricky time, but it was also technologically exciting.
Laurel: That’s right, isn’t it? We interviewed the ISD at Boston Children’s Hospital and said that at the beginning of Covid’s telehealth visits, visits were higher than 20 to 2,000 consistent with the day. Obviously, there has been a slight decrease as patients return to the office face-to-face. face-to-face visits, however, this is obviously a massive disruption in the way things were done. What opportunities do you think can be accelerated at this time of wonderful global turmoil . . .
Andrew: As I mentioned, I think corporations have identified the strength of virtual functions in today’s world. And I believe that covid has helped drive many corporations in this virtual transformation. The long-term cultural adjustments that I think are going to occur here usually take generations to occur. And when you’re forced to place yourself in an environment like Covid’s, it can help speed up some of the adjustments. Whether it is run from home more, the way fitness care is delivered through more virtual and online services, the way other people market and sell their services. Who would have any idea that the number of home or car sales sold through virtual tours would be a general way of doing things? Also, the way other people interact. From my own non-public experience, I have had more social interaction through online game nights. I even did an online wine tasting with my circle of family members and it was quite fun. So I think we will see a relentless evolution of products and services, new revenue streams for companies as they embrace the odds of what generation can bring them.
Laurel: Do you have any examples of what you hear from your customers?Just a little of these, “Oh, we didn’t know we could do X, but now we can and maybe it will work. “Just the informal conversations you have.
Andrew: Well, I think a lot of our clients were temporarily surprised that they were able to remodel a remote paint environment. As a result, they were able to move most of their paint house with little or no disruption to their business. In fact, we discovered it in our company. So I think it’s one thing that’s been unexpected for our customers, it’s the utility of online learning. I’m not sure many other people had previously hoped that we could get to this point of online learning or online physical care. So I think a lot of other people unexpectedly discovered how temporarily and how in one position the generation was for them.
Laurel: Yes, in order to do that, whether schooling or telehealth, you have to build a complex and fast outer edge network in maximum places, right?And expand to others. So when you think about these complexities, how can corporations manage their plans with maximum productivity, not only for the outer edge, but also for the expansion of the knowledge infrastructure needed for all those services?
Andrew: One of the most important things that we are seeing with the Fourth Industrial Revolution is that corporations are benefiting from the available knowledge. Much more knowledge is being generated through things like IoT and smart devices, and the way that companies I think they are taking advantage of that is that they are going to have to do several things. One is to replace the way they employ recruitment techniques. You want a new skill set, you want knowledge scientists, your global will be more software driven. You are going to have to take advantage of new technologies. Edge computing is one of those that is emerging and fitting more and more. And they will have to be informed about how to integrate that into their programs and processes. And they will have to analyze how knowledge can make it more efficient, what kinds of new sources of profit they can create. Therefore, they will be demanding situations that they possibly would not have faced before. They might not have had to be informed to use the device’s artificial intelligence and information tools. But I think they will be more critical as the Fourth Industrial Revolution unfolds for companies to be successful.
Laurel: And it is one of the things in which, if the old adage is true, that if each and every company is one generation corporate, then today’s technological demands are very complex, quickly, especially in the face of covid, but in general. as the devices become smaller and faster and the calculation of the edges becomes more real
Andrew: Yes, I think it is true that each and every corporation is a generation corporation. I have a circle of family members who own a hair salon business and you wouldn’t think of it as a generation corporation, but how you interact with their clients, it must have a virtual presence. You want virtual machines that are possibly less data-driven, but become more data-driven over time. So I think you are right, that almost all corporations become generation corporations to some extent.
Laurel: especially with AI and ML [machine learning]. You upload all that with Edge Compute, AI, larger devices, faster devices [and you have something new]. Therefore, the World Economic Forum states that the fourth trade revolution is only an acceleration, but an exponential advance in technological advances. Does Lumen profile or profile the fourth commercial revolution?
Andrew: We see that the fourth business revolution is really transforming everyday life, not only people’s private lives, but organizations, as we said, are generation corporations that fit corporations, and this is really motivated by the skill and ubiquity of those wise gadgets. Smart devices generate knowledge, and companies and businesses, their ability to succeed is actually driven by their ability to acquire, analyze, and act on knowledge of those smart devices, their products and services, their effects as a company, and differentiate the difference from the competition. And for us at Lumen, it’s about how to enable those corporations to use this knowledge and help them expand their organizational capabilities and provide them with infrastructure, be it network tools, outer edge computing, knowledge analytics, to help them implement data that uses software for their business.
Laurel: So, when thinking about this, acquiring, analyzing, acting on knowledge, what are some of the demanding situations that corporations face with knowledge and processing?
Andrew: One of the most demanding situations in this transformation, and since it focuses on this knowledge, it actually comes down to this skill set. If your business is based on knowledge, you want to have other people who can perceive that knowledge and get a price from it. And this is the science of knowledge, and more and more companies will want knowledge scientists, those skills to be able to acquire, analyze and perceive how to act on that knowledge. It will have the software, so I think there will be a growing need for those software capabilities. In fact, these are demanding situations that they will face. They will also face demanding technological situations. How do you deal with the new architectures that will be required, be it cutting edge computing or other AI device learning technologies, to be able to process all that knowledge and extract that price tag? Array And then how do your procedures work? Often times, your procedures today are not based on knowledge. These procedures can be too time consuming. The data gives them a genuine opportunity to improve efficiency, improve speed, give them more ability to make decisions in real time while automating the search for this knowledge. So having skills for things like automation of robot procedures across the organization to take advantage of that, I think will be vital as well. So, improving the skills of your employees, how they take the merit of generation and how is their procedure, will be demanding situations that they will face.
Laurel: That’s a wonderful point. It’s not just one thing, is it?Actually, you want to improve the total formula across the scope. And the focus on some corporations is possibly hiring. And then, in some other corporations there may be those programs and responses and deployment because they have already built the infrastructure. As we know, knowledge has come to light and the corporations that have done wonders in this era are the ones that have already started or are in The Virtual Transformation Procedure. So what exactly are some of those features you can see from forward-looking corporations or corporations that have begun their virtual transformation or are in the process of transformation?What types of technologies and reflections do you use and deploy??
Andrew: Yes, I think it varies by induscheck. We communicate with many large corporations. The other people who build smart factories, for example, and who they deal with, how do they make more use of robotics? How do they build this infrastructure? How do you manage this infrastructure? How do they make it more secure? We’re seeing other corporations looking to collect data on how their facilities are being used, what their consumers want to do with them, gather that knowledge, and figure out how to use artificial intelligence and device learning so that older people are waiting for that. . what your consumers will do. wish. So actually it varies across induscheck, but it’s the software toolkits that are there to help you solve your business clutter through knowledge, but also the infrastructure that you will want to be able to run things like factories. wise with robots. that are connected via wireless technologies. Bring knowledge back through sensors to your applications, which might not be located on site. How do you run and use those applications? How do you combine everything and paint it perfectly? These are some of the things we see.
Laurel: And it’s a very complex challenge without a doubt. So, speaking of robots, there is this discussion about automating the paintings that robots can do instead of people, especially “tedious tasks,” which allow humans to do a more artistic job What kind of opportunities do you see with robotics and automation?
Andrew: Oh, I see a lot. It’s a way for corporations to become more efficient, produce a higher quality product, and have a safer environment. Going back to this example of a smart plant, are we talking to consumers who are trying to understand how they are benefiting from advances in robots and how they build infrastructure?One of the things we’ve noticed is that consumers want assistance implementing and managing those programs. They want assistance with the connectivity of those robots to the network. They want to make sure that infrastructure is what they can process in real time. This is so vital in those robot programs and locating someone who can help them design those end-to-end responses from their business, where the plant is on the outer edge of the centralized cloud, it’s anything we’re well positioned to help them with and it’s been a more recurring verbal exchange as those corporations look to figure out how to leverage the automation provided through robots.
Laurel: Yes, speaking of that competitive advantage, where do you see it, smart factories and those peripheral devices?Is there an unforeseen place where I start to see this benefit?
Andrew: Yes. There it is. There are things that I think are less obvious. One of our consumers is a retail food chain, and you wouldn’t think that those technologies and applications, knowledge procedures would be as vital as they are. When you go to a place to eat, you must stop by the drive-thru and buy something. And you see that the line surrounds the building. There are some places to eat where you look at this and you say, “Oh, this line is going to take me too long, but there are other places to eat where you look at,” you say: building, but I know for myself I delight in that I can cross that line in minutes. It is not by a twist of fate that those eating places operate in an effective line like this, it is not necessarily through harsh paintings with employees, although they do. This is because the applications they use have created a more efficient operation, be it automating food preparation indoors, the way they collect orders from visitors, the way they process orders. orders, the procedure through which they function as a company. Matrix This affects all parts of the company. Even the ones you don’t think are highly knowledgeable, app dependent, like a retail eating establishment. The past fortunes of your business increasingly depend on the things that are made imaginable through the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Laurel: It’s really attractive because when you think about this example, there are so many benefits, right?And it’s not even about the chain of origin and the power of the retail chain, in a given geographic area. When you think about that kind of real – Real-time reaction rate, yes, we have this example in a retail food chain, but why is it so important?Why is real-time processing the key detail of the fourth business revolution?
Andrew: I think there are several reasons for this. The first is that the useful life of knowledge in many cases has a very short useful life. And whether it’s this robotics example or other examples like smart grids, it has sensors. These sensors collect information. Applications that are written to react to those sensors are written to respond in real time. Either to return to the example of robotics. When a robot stumbles upon something and sends this knowledge from the sensor to the application, which would possibly be on site, possibly would be a peripheral computing location, the speed at which this knowledge can be collected, transported to the application, analyzed and reacted generated, directly affects the speed at which this device can operate. Therefore, the ability to manage this knowledge process, this knowledge in real time, is essential for this type of program. When you have something similar to an electrical network, something similar. You need to be able to trip over anything and react to it in near real time. Other examples of security, where you have video processing that handles the movement of anything on campus. The ability to see, stumble, stumble and react to anything on camera is imperative for safety. So we see many programs that their dependence on rapid knowledge processing becomes very vital to them.
Another explanation of why for genuine time is that the amount of knowledge generated is simply enormous and that knowledge is becoming and you don’t necessarily have to buy it for a long time. And as that knowledge enters, you must be able to process it as temporarily as possible, extract as much price as you can, and then get rid of that knowledge, so that you don’t need to be left behind in this remedy and the ability to handle it in real time is also important.
Laurel: Yes. Focusing on that sense, detecting and reacting, of course, also has a lot to do with security. So the attack surface of what corporations are contemplating lately is increasing, isn’t it?So are each and every device, each and every network connection, each and every one and every point. How is security addressed and why is it a priority for corporations?
Andrew: Yes, I think it’s an attractive problem. Years ago, a company built a personal network and largely protected it with perimeter-based security. You make sure that the knowledge or other people who access this network are the others. people and the knowledge you desire. And you can protect a lot of them by using a perimeter style like that. As programs become widespread, as they become available on the public Internet, this perimeter-based security isn’t all you can count. You have to think about safety at each and every level. And the layers I think you want to worry about today are your network.
One, the operating formula, the security of the application and the security of your knowledge. From a network perspective, you want to ensure that you are running on an intrinsically safe network. One of the things we do at Lumen to contribute to this is that we have an organization that we call Black Lotus Labs. It is a study organization within the corporate body and its task is to analyze the knowledge that is had on the Internet. By analyzing Internet traffic patterns and detecting malicious actors, integrate this coverage into our corporate network and security products. By doing this, we can make the network intrinsically more secure at the operational formula point and at the application point. You want to make sure you constantly make arrangements. Let him perceive what exposures could possibly exist in this operating formula that runs his applications and the applications themselves. And be sure to keep filling in any gaps you find. And as knowledge becomes more and more acquired, as we extract more and more valuable data about our consumers and users using those knowledge analytics, the privacy and security of knowledge becomes even more important. Therefore, it is also vitally important to employ knowledge encryption where appropriate, ensure you have the correct controls and knowledge security. So yeah, we’ve replaced a lot from a perimeter style to one where you have to think about it at every layer and network layer in your application.
Laurel: And it makes sense because everything is incorporated a lot more and, as you said, knowledge in each layer requires that kind of response, so when I think about customers, it’s a broad category, and Lumen is clearly a little behind the scenes for his clients’ customers, however, it’s still very important. You should worry about how everyone uses network devices. And how to instill that interest in your organization where you look and are guilty of reports from many other people and many other applications And I guess it’s infrequently difficult to reconcile what a smart plant does with a food point of sale, but at the same time, it reliably provides them with that network connectivity securely , temporarily to allow them to do what they need. .
Andrew: Well, I think you got that right. Even though it’s our consumers who really enjoy what we’re testing to drive, we actually have a direct effect on that. is the delight of the network. We supply much of the underlying infrastructure and the performance of our network is directly the delight of those end consumers. The security of our network and the security of our infrastructure also directly to end consumers. Therefore, we try to instill in our employees, in our products and facilities, this popularity that we are there to create a suitable visitor for our consumers. and indirectly for their consumers and I think we are doing a smart task in that regard, I think everyone recognizes how essential the facilities we make and supply are and that our customers depend on us
Laurel: Absolutely, so one last question, as an engineer, we’ve addressed many other facets and we may communicate seamlessly for days about some parts of this conversation, especially security, however, what excites or interests you the most?What makes you simply satisfied with reading the news, getting started, doing the hard jobs that are helping corporations do those amazing things?
Andrew: Well, I’m excited about the generation as an engineer. We can greatly help our consumers in their businesses while improving society as a whole. I see this generation as a genuine tool that we can do so that our consumers have it to improve things. And it’s really fun for me to worry about developing the technologies that allow them to benefit from this fourth business revolution. Advances in cutting-edge computing and support for those programs that increasingly adapt to functionality is one of those that drives me on a daily basis. How do we build and manage the infrastructure that enables those programs to function with a high degree of functionality so that they can provide that feedback in real time to our consumers and in real time? So it’s pretty exciting that the edge calculation component of what we’re building is relatively new. Verbal exchange has been around in the industry for a few years, but now it is getting genuine and we are taking that exaggerated step towards the truth and doing it for our consumers. And it’s exciting to see something like this come true.
Laurel: That’s right. All to get away from the hype and get into reality. Andrew, thank you so much for joining me today in what was just a verbal exchange about the Business Lab.
Andrew: Thank you very much. Enjoyed.
Laurel: It’s Andrew Dugan, who is Lumen’s leading generation officer, with whom I spoke from Cambridge, Massachusetts, home of MIT and the MIT Technology Review, overlooking the Charles River. That’s it for this episode of Business Lab. su host, Laurel Ruma. I’m the director of Insights, the custom publishing department of MIT Technology Review. We were founded in 1899 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. And you can locate us in print, on the Internet and dozens of times. around the world every year. For more information about us and the program, please visit our website at generationreview. com.
This screen can be taken anywhere you get your podcasts. If you enjoyed this episode, we hope you will take a moment to rate and compare us. Business Lab is a production of MIT Technology Review. This episode produced through Collective Next. Thank you for listening.