The next generation of Radio-Frequency Identification ( RFID) technology

Asset management is one of the key applications, Users want to control their assets, keep track of where they are, and reduce shrink of assets and the inventory they're associated with. RFID may have finally found its niche where supply chain operations are concerned. Rather than simply tracking inventory, it can be put to higher uses, like serving as the enabling technology for sophisticated data collection initiatives

Companies looking to track supply chain assets had just two options when it came to RFID tags.

The first option was the passive RFID tag, with passive RFID tags users need an infrastructure of readers and software to gather the information encoded in the tags. That's because passive tags lack an internal power source and cannot transmit a signal. In order to collect the tags' data, users must scan them with a handheld reader within a 10-foot range or pass them through a fixed-read zone like a tollbooth portal.

Option two was the active RFID tag, which contain their own power supply, are capable of transmitting signals that can be read from as far as 50 to 100 feet away. Those signals can be detected by stationary readers with overlapping coverage areas, then triangulated to pin down the tag's location.

Now, a third option is emerging, that combines some of the best features of active and passive tags. Known as Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), the technology was originally developed for smartphones, so the signal can be read by consumer devices that run on the iOS and Android operating systems.

The standard was first deployed for "location-aware services," such as retail applications in which tags affixed to store shelves beam discount offers to the smartphones of passing shoppers. But BLE tags have since been ruggedized to meet industrial standards for shock, temperature, vibration, and battery life. And since they communicate on the common wireless standard used in consumer mobile devices, they require far less infrastructure investment than other tracking technologies do.

Interest in RFID and BLE is particularly strong among retail industry distribution operations that are struggling to fill e-commerce orders within ever-tighter time windows.

For these types of facilities, asset tracking is mainly a matter of ensuring that workers can lay their hands on the warehouse tools and equipment they need in their daily operations—items that can be easily misplaced when running at full steam. A shortage of even the most basic totes, carts, or pallets can throw a wrench in the works of a fast-paced e-commerce fulfillment operation. With its low tag costs, passive RFID offers users a way to improve the tracking of those basic assets.

In contrast, active RFID is a better match for a facility that's looking to track moving assets both inside the facility and out in the yard. This is great for classic warehouse applications where real-time location is a step up from the level of visibility you have with warehouse management systems, which only know the last location you scanned.

In response to the growing interest in RFID-enabled asset tracking, some vendors are shifting their focus from ways of making tags cheaper to ways of making tags smarter. That is, they're manufacturing tags that are capable of determining much more about each asset than just its location. As part of that effort, RFID suppliers have begun outfitting their tags with sensors, software, microprocessors, and batteries.

Typically deployed on large assets like lift trucks, intermodal containers, trailers, chassis, and rental cars, these tags can bypass handheld readers, beaming data directly back to a central network via Wi-Fi, cellular network, or satellite signal. In line with the growing popularity of the Internet of Things, this method tracks asset data through a tag-to-system model instead of the standard tag-to-reader approach.

Among other data, these long-range tags can collect information on odometer mileage, fleet usage, dwell time, and transit time for moving assets such as forklifts and chassis. By graphing the results and comparing the statistics with industry benchmarks, users can analyze the data with an eye toward eliminating extraneous vehicles, scheduling needed maintenance, and identifying savings opportunities.

Why Artificial Intelligence is here to Stay

Becoming a cloud-centric technology company is a given nowadays for companies that consider themselves future-ready. The question is hence, not whether a company is operating in the cloud, but what level of sophistication they have reached in their cloud endeavors. This is because the cloud is being enriched by incorporating other emerging technologies, especially machine learning. There is no doubt that contemporary cloud networks will be more intelligent than ever. And companies must harness the power of the intelligent cloud to realize value.

Machine intelligence or artificial intelligence (AI) is one emerging technology in the enterprise space. Research-centric organizations are exploring ways and means to monetize it and add incremental value to businesses. The machines’ self-learning capabilities open up new avenues for customer engagement, sales lead generation, operational efficiency and so on. A potent combination is seen in the confluence of machine learning with cloud computing, both deriving from each other to help organizations develop a competitive edge across functions. Some AI applications that help us in day to day corporate operations include the following areas:

 Business Intelligence: Machine learning is a useful input for BI, and bringing machine learning closer to enterprise data warehouse will help data-backed decision-making. These AI-driven insights will add value across functions such as CRM, ERP, SCM, MRP, HR, sales, and finance. Companies are foregoing traditional enterprise platforms and embracing these.

Internet of Things (IoT): The IoT revolution is taking a new turn towards data-driven cloud platforms, where machine learning capabilities help make sense of the massive amounts of data. For example, machine learning will find extensive application in Industrial IoT, wherein predictive maintenance is an important use case. The idea is to use Multiple Machine Learning algorithms in parallel to create the best intelligence capabilities for smart industries. Microsoft Azure IoT Suite and IBM Watson IoT are the two dominant solutions in this field.

Personal Assistants: With advanced machine learning capabilities, voice-based personal assistants are set to become more powerful than ever. These are equipped with the intelligence to learn quickly and effectively from past interactions, tracking usage trends and thereby offering a customized experience to the user. Some of the popular examples of AI-based personal assistants are Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri, Google Assistant, and Microsoft Cortana.

Cognitive computing: This field involves adding sensory capabilities to intelligent systems i.e. the ability to see, listen, talk, and take decisions and so on. The basis for this is a number of hi-tech arenas such as natural language processing, face detection, visual recognition, text to speech, speech to text, video analytics, language translation, sentiment analysis etc. The basis for all these capabilities is machine learning (ML). Developers build cognitive APIs to create these man-to-machine interactions. Current market examples include Amazon AI, IBM Watson, Google Cloud and Microsoft Cognitive API.

Bots-as-a-Service: Move over mobile engagement, businesses are now turning to interactive bots to engage with customers. The conversational experience is delivered by a machine learning-driven API which allows them to learn from previous interactions and respond effectively. What’s more, today’s bots are available across a wide range of platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Slack. The next best thing is their being available as a service. Market offerings that exist today are API.ai, IBM Watson Botkit and Microsoft Azure bot.

The future of banking and cyber security

The Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA) has introduced a new product (CBA Loop) that targets young urban professionals who want to bank on the go while on their smartphone or computer. The account can be opened from an app, Android at the moment, and on the web.

Kenyan banks have been increasingly creating digital products geared at getting customers who do not want to visit bank branches and CBA are taking the same route. CBA is not new to digital finance products as they partnered with Safaricom to launch M-Pesa and thereafter launched the mobile digital loan product, M-shwari.

Somewhere else you do not needing your debit card to get cash is the way of the future. Or was it Bitcoin ATMs that were the way of the future? Hmm. We forgot. Either way, the future is totally here and it's totally cardless. " Instead of the old fashioned insert-a-card-into-the-machine routine, customers can use the Wells Fargo app to generate an eight-digit code. That code, plus a customer's PIN number, will allow the withdraw of cash.

Security certainly was a big aspect of the cardless feature and the two-step identification helps reduce the risk of fraud. Thanks to Wells Fargo the San Francisco-based company is giving its account holders a way to access their money at 13,000 Wells Fargo ATMs across the U.S. without the use of a physical ATM card. When can this be deployed in Africa? I really cant wait for the same.

Earlier in 2016 when Banks were continually taking steps to enhance security, Wells Fargo just took a big leap forward by announcing that they will start using a new biometric technology called eyeprint authentication from tech startup. The technology creates a digital map of a person's eye through a smartphone camera by analyzing unique details such as blood vessels. A user then logs in by holding the camera up to his or her eye, and the software matches their eye to the stored blueprint.

This comes when a hacking group known as "Turkish Crime Family" is threatening to wipe the devices of millions of iPhone users unless Apple pays them a hefty ransom. The hackers say that they have access to hundreds of millions of email addresses of people who use @icloud and @me domains, and they even allegedly uploaded a video on YouTube that shows them breaking into some users' accounts.

In Kenya we recently have faced such cyber crimes targeting government institutions and private firms but with the current technology threats, no firm is immune from the coming disruption and every company must have a strategy to harness the powerful advantages of the new fintech revolution.

Users are not save either, but to protect against these type of attacks, I always recommend that users always use strong passwords, not use those same passwords across sites, and turn on two-factor authentication. It's a good idea to make sure that your passwords are always unique and random, and that you have a different password for every site or app. It can be a pain to manage all those different passwords, but it's also extremely important to keep your online identity safe.

Quantum Computing

I like research and with the current state of technology in which everyday has its intrilling technological advancement, it takes more than general knowledge to unfold some hidens. Nowadays, artificial intelligence is in our homes and not just on the television, it might seem that computers can solve almost every problem. But in reality, progress in numerous areas of science and technology is limited because current computers are too inefficient. Even the most powerful supercomputers cannot accurately calculate the properties of novel materials, chemical structures or biological systems when there are too many interacting elements. Classical computing has dominated the world but soon enough we are expecting a  new and furious guy in town QUANTUM COMPUTING.
Quantum computing will not replace classical computing, but it will excel at tasks that are too complex for current computers, such as searching through huge databases or finding prime factors of large numbers. The latter is so hard that it forms the basis of encryption, which protects online activities.

 Quantum states can also be used for more-secure communication schemes. One application of quantum computers is to calculate the behaviour of other quantum systems. For example, quantum computing could be used to fully understand the chemistry of molecules, which requires knowledge of the quantum mechanics of their electrons, or to find the optimal configuration of a folded protein, for which there are vast numbers of arrangements.

 Classical computers can calculate the behaviour of quantum systems of about 50 qubits. When quantum computers with more than 50 usable qubits become available, they are set to establish ‘quantum supremacy’.

A new type of computing is needed, one that can take advantage of the very complexity that computers are trying to penetrate. Enter quantum computers, which were first mooted in the 1980s, when it was suggested that it might be possible to construct computers based on the laws of quantum physics instead of on classical physics.

Physicists, mathematicians, computer scientists and engineers at universities around the world are wrestling with the issue of how to construct and operate a quantum computer that is sufficiently large to beat classical computers at certain tasks. Commercial companies are getting involved, too. Just what a quantum computer will eventually look like, which quantum systems it will use, and which problems it will solve remain open questions. And these are fuelling exciting research.

Network optimization in order to assure an optimal user experience and firm operations.

Data traffic is extremely dynamic, reflecting the way people communicate in real life while they’re out with their friends, taking care of business, or on their way home. This lifestyle places extreme demands on the network and the technology supporting it. For an operator, wouldn't it be nice if things were more predictable? This new user behavior counts on network coverage, capacity, and performance…and users count on that.

To start with, end-user experience as well as network performance are to be measured and analyzed. The network configurations are optimized to improve End-user experience and maximize asset utilization.

Network Planning should include traffic forecasting and capacity planning to balance network investments and network performance. These services can also help the Operator to develop network strategies and action plans that will achieve business goals and provide input to subsequent design and integration of the network. The Operators' unique situation will be the guideline in packaging the relevant and beneficial service modules to meet operators’ present needs.

Network Design, a firm should set parameters for its network architecture, so it fulfills its business plan in terms of capacity, coverage, cost and quality of service. The quality of a network design has a direct impact on the performance of a network, its reliability, predictability, capacity and its potential for future expansion. Designing network correctly will deliver optimal performance and make sure a firm is ready for whatever the future brings.

Network Audit & Benchmarking, "How well are we doing?" and "Can we do better?" are two key questions even Operators frequently ask themselves. The services measure the current performance, provide recommendations and/or benchmark the network against local or global references.

Network Engineering, is a firm able to see what and where the bottlenecks are to better decide where and when to invest in network capacity.  It also supports in analyzing new revenue sources through deep understanding of the traffic trends. 

Network tuning, includes services to initially adjust the network before commercial launch. When a new network is installed or new features activated, the radio network functionality and operation is measured and adjusted. The services can also be applied after launch to improve network performance.

Cloud Computing, the new phase in optimizing enterprise IT operation

Cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources. Sounds confusing but here is it in every man's language. The practice of using a network of remote servers hosted on the Internet to store, manage, and process data, rather than a local server or a personal computer

Cloud computing and storage solutions provide users and enterprises with various capabilities to store and process their data in third-party data centers.It has taken off in recent years as individuals and small businesses have been quick to embrace the new technology, but for the most part, larger corporations have lagged behind.

For large corporations, cloud technology can have its pros and cons. Cost is generally a plus, as companies appreciate the flexibility of picking and choosing which features to implement. "Cost" can be tricky to compute, though, as companies must also consider additional expenses such as upgrading their purchased technology and paying engineers to maintain their cloud services. Renting cloud applications, even for a long period of time, may be cheaper than buying them outright.
Another consideration, especially for big businesses, is security.
"For every application, we look at whether the cloud can be used, and at that moment we look at all aspects, including security," Shell IT architect Johan Krebber said. "When all criteria are met, we will launch on the cloud, and therefore we believe that the cloud is secure enough for a number of scenarios."

While security is an issue for large corporations, executives are taking measures to limit the vulnerability of their networks. For one thing, they can work only with reputable vendors in their industries, and for another, they'll use cloud services only in a single, federated system.
Another problem is the fine print in end user licenses – for those with poorly-worded licenses, minor details could lead to major unforeseen costs, according to Gartner research director Darryl Carlton. But businesses have become more savvy in their deal-making to avoid these pitfalls, and it now appears that the benefits of the cloud outweigh the challenges.

All of the above are reasons for caution, but ultimately the trend continues, and more big businesses get behind the cloud movement each day.
Along with my career i happened to snoop around some firm's cloud facility well organized  as what the cloud computing impresses. Being an intern i could not raise a tough suggestion on the same but just being a curious observer. Ihough all these the firm faced some unnoticeable challenges on the same.
Governance. The focus here was on aligning the cloud offerings with the needs of the departments. A new position, IT Manager, was to be created to ensure that departments received the functionality they needed. Heads of Departments could be given the responsibility for working with departmental units to develop the parameters need  for sourcing the IT services required, whether in-office or through the cloud.
The entire IT strategy was to be guided by an executive, handfull Technology Steering Committee (on which IT could have just two votes, although the CIO does have veto power).
The benefits of the firms large scale integration of cloud computing extend beyond cost-efficiency and IT functionality, including the speed with which it can now upgrade its capabilities and respond to new IT needs. Through the cloud, the company could also do a much better job of predicting its IT expenses, in essence shifting IT costs from capital expenditure to operating expenditure.
Reskilling IT professionals. As more and more IT services are outsourced, the capabilities of in-house IT professionals must shift from a technical emphasis to an emphasis on structuring, brokering, coordinating and integrating services.
Careful management of data, especially clients data. The question is not just one of security. Who owns the data? Does the student registrar own the registration data? Should the finance data be restricted to the finance function? In the words of Allergan Sue-Jean Lin, the data needs to be “democratized” — that is, the enterprise, and not just separate functions, owns the data.

With these three challenges keenly looked at, cloud computing can be of great help in any firm whether small or big corporates.

The next phase in virtual computing

Tracing back to the history of virtual computing in the early 1960’s IBM had a wide range of systems; each generation of which was substantially different from the previous. This made it difficult for customers to keep up with the changes and requirements of each new system. Also, computers could only do one thing at a time. If you had two tasks to accomplish, you had to run the processes in batches. This Batch processing requirement wasn’t too big of a deal to IBM since most of their users were in the Scientific Community and up until this time Batch processing seemed to have met the customers’ needs.

These hit me at my latest times but I think o got it right? Today, students and even office staff can reserve and log in to the Virtual Computing Lab anytime, anywhere from their own PCs or laptops. What's more, this remote-access system lets users choose the software they need, including industrial strength computer-assisted design (CAD) and engineering programs that take more memory than they have on their own systems. 

Virtual computing makes one computer act and perform like many computers. Through virtual computing providers, users can download and use more than one operating system and perform a multitude of functions at the same time through a single mouse click and receive all the benefits of additional programs and hardware without having to purchase or install them on their own computer. Executives can check their company e-mail on the road, students can take classes from home and managers can keep up with documents stored on internal servers from anywhere in the world. These is an amazing technology that if emblazed in the current memory intensive company and even institutional levels, with proper implementations technology will have saves a notch.

While there are many reasons for using virtual computing services, some people have gotten creative in their reasoning. Because all applications run remotely, some users log in to the Internet to do all their surfing through a virtual computer. This enables them to access files without worrying about hidden pages sabotaging their system. The added benefit is that they can surf and electronically communicate without worrying about infected files