10 / 76
Getting Smart
in Canada
Mississauga, Ontario, which is
close to Toronto, is going full-on smart
city, working with Cisco Systems.
“Just about every piece of equip-
ment the city buys has the ability to
connect to a wireless network,” said
Shawn Slack, director IT and CIO
for the city. “Snowplows, buses, fire
trucks, HVAC units and traffic lights
are all capable of transmitting real-time
data. Collecting and using that data to
make better decisions will enable more
responsive and efficient operations.”
For instance, the city is leverag-
ing a real-time traffic system in order
to reduce congestion and prioritize
transit and emergency response.
Traffic can be monitored in real time,
allowing signal and traffic movement
changes in response to accidents,
construction or other issues. Flood-
response decisions can be made,
and public communications and
operations can be put into action im-
mediately. In the future, this will allow
for prioritization of snow operations
vehicles so they can pass through
intersections without stopping, reduc-
ing service time, vehicle wear and
tear and fuel consumption.
Channel
Vision
|
January - February, 2017
10
Virtual Reality Inches Closer to the Mainstream
Samsung may have been pushing its virtual reality headset for Christ-
mas, but the market is still nascent. That said, a market snapshot by Parks
Associates reveals that 50 percent of consumers who try a virtual reality
(VR) headset enjoy it and make plans
to purchase one, while 15 percent who
try one then actually buy a headset.
“VR and AR (augmented reality)
technologies have great potential but
are in the very earliest stages of their
market lifecycle,” said Brett Sap-
pington, senior director of research,
Parks Associates. “Content creators
are still in the process of finding the
best ways to use VR to tell stories
and generate revenues.”
The top use cases for VR range
across business and consumer and
include gaming, healthcare, live events such as concerts or sporting events,
social interaction, marketing and education. Right now, more than 60 percent
of U.S. broadband households claim to know little or nothing about virtual
reality, and only 3.5 percent of U.S. broadband households, or roughly 3.4
million households, own a VR headset.
“Despite a boost in awareness in 2016, AR consumer applications remain
more of an opportunity than commercial reality,” Sappington said.
EMERGENT
“Operators are
committed to SD-WAN,
but there are clearly
some challenges when
it comes to motivating
suppliers to give them
the best prices.”
–
Jim Hodges, a senior analyst
for Heavy Reading,
speaking at a recent
executive summit in Rome
Meta-Cloud Era Commences
The meta-cloud discussion has intensified during the last six or so months, seizing center
stage from hybrid cloud as the next phase of cloud services, says Cliff Grossner, senior
research director at IHS Markit. “Starting now and through 2019, the hybrid cloud archi-
tecture is anticipated to give way to a distributed architecture, creating meta-clouds. In
these meta-clouds, enterprises will consume services from multiple cloud service provid-
ers (CSPs), driving additional cost and performance optimizations. The emergence of a
wholesale market for cloud infrastructure is also anticipated,” said Grossner.
Source: Deloitte
How does your
organization handle
adoption of new
technology trends?
Source: Cloudian
Driven by IT leadership
We have processes in p ace
for exploring emerging technologies
Driven largely by
business leadership direction
Specialized business units
are focused on innovation
Reactionary (driven by customer/
supplier need or demand)*
Other
53.0%
48.6%
39.4%
24.6%
28.2%
24.8%
15.0%
19.4%
29.4%
4.2%
2.4%
5.0%
3.2%
1.4%
1.4%
0.0%
1.4%
1.4%
The Global Off-Premises Cloud Services Market
Source: IHS
$0
$50
$100
$150
$200
$250
2016
2018
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
Cloud as a Service (CaaS)
Software as a Service (SaaS
2016
2015
2014
Global Revenue (US$ Billions)
Source: BI Intelligence
Estimated Global Enterprise Robot Shipm nt
Source: Parks Associates
Familiarity with Virtual and
Augmented Reality
Source: IHS
$0
2016
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
Cloud as a Se
Software as a
Globa
20%
20%
60%
100%
Virtual
Reality
Augmented
Reality
Virtual
Reality
Headsets
Very Familiar
Not Familiar
1,
50
0
2015E 2016E 2017E 2018E 2019E 2020E 2021E