– K-Global 2021 held successfully under the theme of digital transformation –
– Chief Technology Officers at IBM, AWS, and Twitter deliver vivid experiences and insights on digital transformation –
From November 8 to 10, local time, KOTRA's Silicon Valley Trade Center successfully held K-Global 2021 under the theme of 'Digital Transformation', a trend that penetrates the post-pandemic era. Digital transformation based on cutting-edge ICT is an opportunity to advance the future as the top priority for Korean companies to conduct business in the future. K-Global 2021 kicked off with the 'K-Global 2021 ICT Innovation Forum', a forum where the chief technology officers of American global companies, IBM, AWS, and Twitter, directly share their vivid experiences and insights on digital transformation. In this news, we review the main contents of the forum once again.
Overview of K-Global 2021 Forum
IBM: Digital Transformation with Data Strategy, Artificial Intelligence and Hybrid Cloud to Accelerate Enterprise Transformation
IBM lecture
Ranjan Sinha, IBM's Chief Technology Officer for Global Data, gave the first lecture, introducing the current state of digital transformation promoted by IBM, in particular, how to create business value for the organization through digital transformation using data strategy, artificial intelligence, and hybrid cloud. explained if it could be done.
IBM's digital transformation has been going on steadily for over a decade. It has changed the way businesses around the world operate and engage their customers. The pandemic has fueled digital transformation, and many companies now recognize that they risk falling behind if they don't go digital.
Data challenges are a key factor that makes digital transformation difficult. Data today is more distributed and dynamic, more diverse and more difficult to manage than ever before. Businesses are constantly forced to adjust to complex multivendor data environments, isolated data sets, and long data preparation periods. While maintaining a secure and compliant data governance strategy, complexity increases as the company grows, which is natural for large enterprises. It also takes much more time to prepare data than to build an AI model, which is very inefficient. There is also an aspect of data growth in businesses, based on experiences with customers, employees and partners, and this data is estimated to grow sixfold each year. Therefore, it is important to be able to respond quickly.
High-quality data is closely related to high-quality AI technology. This is why a data strategy is so important. As IBM went through its digital transformation process, it learned that artificial intelligence systems must continue to earn trust in five aspects: The first is transparency. This means users should be able to see how the service works, evaluate its features, and understand trends and limitations. The second is explanatory potential. This means that any AI system should be able to explain and contextualize how and why a particular conclusion or recommendation was reached. The third is robustness. This means that AI-powered systems must be actively defended against hostile attacks, minimize security risks and provide confidence in system outcomes. The fourth is fairness. Fairness is key to breaking the chains of human and data bias in allocating resources and making fair decisions. Fifth is the importance of personal information. This puts the protection of the consumer's privacy and data rights first and means making clear to users how their personal data will be used and protected.
IBM established its Chief Data Office within IBM five years ago with Dr. Inderpal Bhandari as Chief Data Officer. IBM has decided to make IBM itself an artificial intelligence company, apply artificial intelligence across the enterprise, and bring artificial intelligence into every major way business is done. In the process, IBM learned that digital transformation is not only about data and technology, but also about business processes and people. The process of transforming into an AI company occurs in four main areas: technology, business processes, people, and data. All four of these areas must move together. Through digital transformation, IBM not only assesses the maturity of an organization, but also facilitates risk management across business processes such as supply chain, finance, sales, marketing, contracting, procurement, and operational risk. The customer care sector can innovate, especially through digital transformation, and companies focused on customer experience and management should keep this in mind.
Cloud is an essential consideration when enterprises want to adopt digital transformation. Ranjan Sinha emphasized that enterprises can modernize all their data assets in a multi-cloud environment, which allows organizations to leverage their data and applications across any cloud. In particular, the next-generation hybrid cloud services that are being launched these days are providing a common platform for all cloud, on-premises and edge environments. Cloud service enables data collection, data access, and insight analysis through a central platform, which ultimately makes it easier to introduce digital technologies including artificial intelligence into all business processes, so companies can refer to this.
AWS: The Future of Digital Transformation Opportunities
AWS lecture
Faraz Shafiq, Global Head of Product Management for Cloud Migration and Modernization for Amazon Web Services (AWS), explains the opportunities companies in a variety of industries can capture through digital transformation, and discusses strategies to get started with digital transformation. explained.
First, Faraz Shafiq opened his lecture by saying that digital transformation will provide tremendous opportunities in this era. The most important thing is to understand how digital transformation will affect the boundaries of each industry. Digital transformation is completely rewriting the rules of the industry. Take Uber as an example, which started as a simple ride-hailing service and is now expanding into a food and grocery delivery business and now urban air mobility. Uber, a company that must provide ride-hailing services, is exploring ways to completely transform the market through digital transformation. McDonald's is also a good example. What started out as a traditional fast food outlet is now increasingly expanding into digital services. In fact, Amazon's voice recognition service 'Alexa' is running inside McDonald's stores. Tesla is another perfect example of how the automobile and automobile manufacturing industries are completely upside down.
There are many factors that drive digital transformation of enterprises. Some companies focus more on digital technology and adapt well to the cloud environment, while others carry out digital transformation to increase employee productivity and agility. Some companies are rushing through digital transformation in order to have a better security system than they are now, or to have a better business cost structure.
There are three broad categories of opportunities in digital transformation. The first is cost reduction. Companies need to focus more on digital transformation to reduce costs, increase margins, and close the overall skills gap. Cloud mobile is a good example of not only reducing infrastructure costs, but also maximizing efficiency and IT infrastructure. The second is customer experience. As with McDonald's, as mentioned earlier, a variety of technologies, including digital voice assistant devices, can be used to provide a better experience for consumers. Digital transformation will completely change the way we think about the consumer experience. Finally, it is an opportunity for new growth. Companies that did not exist just a few years ago will appear in the future. Companies like Snowflake and Databricks are good examples of companies that were born in the cloud but are focusing on digital relevance and continuing to enter new territories and markets.
Digital transformation exists in the following opportunities. The first is 5G technology. Self-driving cars are virtually impossible without 5G technology. A fast communication system between vehicles is required, and it is also important to develop such a protocol. 5G will be a huge and innovative approach. 5G will provide satellite connectivity to make up for the shortcomings of existing network technologies and provide customers with more comprehensive and global connectivity, so companies contemplating digital transformation should pay attention to 5G technology.
The second is IoT. Recently, smart home technology and smart building and smart city technologies are becoming much more economical, accessible, and standardized. The cost of sensors has been reduced significantly, and the cost of connecting devices and adding logic is also getting cheaper. Now you don't have to actually run the infrastructure, nor build the infrastructure to run your code. Because now you can run your application standalone without any code. And the most important part is the fact that these technologies are being used in practically every sector, whether private, public, commercial or corporate. As smart home is as big as smart public infrastructure, IoT is a very important area in terms of digital transformation.
The third is 3D printing. 3D printing will change the way we think about designing, building and testing prototypes. Unlike in the past, where it took months or years to create a demo product, 3D printing technology allows you to prepare and ship a demo product in a matter of days. Also, 3D printing allows us to actually try out different shapes and elements. The best part is that it's readily available on demand. For example, if an off-site machine has a missing part, or if you need an important part, 3D printing can be used to create the part on-site, eliminating waiting for parts, delays in delivery, or out-of-stocks. does not Therefore, 3D printing will play an important role in terms of digital transformation.
The fourth is blockchain. Blockchain will play a huge role in changing the way we think about identity and security. Smart contracts will also become more important. Cryptography and the underlying technology used in blockchains are focused on security. Therefore, the ability to have strong encryption and key encryption methodologies is needed as security becomes more and more important as digital transformation is rapidly taking place in terms of quantum computing, nanoprocessors, payments and trust. In particular, with the advent of the quantum computing era, traditional cryptography has essentially lost its value. Crypto is expected to be a huge driving force in blockchain technology, and AWS is also very optimistic about it, so they are investing heavily and building the right services.
The fifth is digital ID. There are various industries that require digital identity and access management, such as the healthcare industry. Physicians must verify the identity of their patients in order to consult them, which in the process makes them more vulnerable to security. For this reason, digital ID and password management will become very important in the future. Digital ID is a very important trend for Korean companies to pay attention to, to the extent that many basic government regulations are adopted across Europe and the US GDPR with digital ID in mind.
Faraz Shafiq also gave tips on the cloud. The cloud is literally a platform that helps you do a lot more. 5G, IoT, blockchain, encryption, etc. mentioned above can actually all be implemented in the cloud. Assuming a company has a new idea, it will have to acquire expensive infrastructure and conduct experiments. A lot of trial and error will occur in this process, but if you use cloud technology, you can run the desired infrastructure with just a few clicks. This is the power of the cloud. 5G networks for the future are actually being designed and built on the cloud. This means that you can use the world's best and latest technologies with the click of a button without having to update them daily. Therefore, the importance of cloud and cloud platform will increase even more.
So, where and how to start digital transformation? For the right success, the most important thing is to understand the successful business cases, their driving force, and then find the right partner. In successful business cases, you need to figure out how they cut costs, build new customer experiences, and open up new business areas, and scrutinize the drivers of business growth. Getting the right partner comes next. Finally, businesses need to experiment with digital transformation and be agile. The cloud provides the ability to experiment and learn quickly. Andy Jesse, who was recently promoted to CEO of Amazon, said, "Invention requires the ability to do a lot of testing for a small amount of money." After all, speed is very important for business, but it is more important how quickly you can get to the right answer by trying it several times because you can't get the right answer right the first time. This is also a core principle that Amazon adheres to.
Twitter: The Future of Cybersecurity
Twitter lecture
Twitter Chief Information Security Officer Rinki Sethi spoke about the digital transformation and the increasingly important future of cybersecurity. According to Rinki Sethi, the three biggest issues with cybersecurity are: 1) building security in a preventative way, 2) how to encourage threat intelligence to become a public good, and 3) how consumers consume security technologies and their consumption models. He emphasized that the need for innovation is particularly relevant to the future of cybersecurity.
As we live in a complex and connected world today, cybersecurity issues are also getting more and more complex. The pandemic has made telecommuting pervasive and businesses are starting a massive digital transformation to the cloud. Businesses are thinking about zero trust and how to enable them to operate across industry boundaries. As the future of cybersecurity evolves, businesses need to think about how they want to run their business as they move into the future.
The future of cybersecurity ultimately depends on the choices companies make. It's like standing at a crossroads. At that crossroads, companies must choose whether to solve their own security problems by taking and using technology complexly from one place or another, or investing in a platform that provides all the data in one place and connects multiple applications to provide what they need for security. do. We must pursue prevention-oriented security, not just risk detection. Thinking about value and threat intelligence depends on action, not consumption, and will be far more effective when it is in the public interest. For the future of their cybersecurity, companies are encouraged to invest in technologies and platforms that can be consumed over time once they have deployed security technologies. That is the future of cybersecurity.
implication
The event, which was able to receive lively experiences and insights on digital transformation through heated lectures by global corporate chief technology officers, provided useful information and networking opportunities for Korean companies interested in the field. The speakers of the forum predicted that digital transformation is the starting point of the future that has already become a reality, and that it will be a new opportunity for companies. It is expected that related industries will be able to find new market opportunities in the future by deeply sympathizing with the need for digital transformation and attempting digital innovation that is necessary for them.
The video of this forum is also posted on the K-Global Silicon Valley related YouTube channel (https://youtu.be/sX0PTb0j-mg), so interested companies can refer to it.
Source: Comprehensive data from K-Global 2021 Forum, KOTRA Silicon Valley Trade Center