October 30, 2023 • 27 mins
Curious about edge computing? Want to understand why it's the next big thing in the world of IT?
My conversation with Mark Swinson, an enterprise IT Automation Sales Specialist at Red Hat, might just be the discussion you're looking for.
Mark takes us on a deep dive into the world of edge computing, discussing its benefits, applications, and the crucial role of open-source projects.
We navigate the diverse applications of edge computing, exploring its transformative impact in sectors like retail, autonomous driving, and more.
Mark also enlightens us on the significant role of AI and Kubernetes in shaping the edge computing landscape.
Our conversation also touches upon the unique challenges in edge computing and why data security is paramount in this field.
More on Mark
Mark on LinkedIn
Resources Mentioned
Red Hat Connect London 7 November 2023
The Age of AI - Henry Kissinger, Eric Schmidt, Daniel Huttenlocher
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Welcome to the Actionable Futurist podcast, a
show all about the near-termfuture, with practical and
actionable advice from a rangeof global experts to help you
stay ahead of the curve.
Every episode answers thequestion what's the future on,
with voices and opinions thatneed to be heard.
(00:23):
Your host is internationalkeynote speaker and Actionable
Futurist, andrew Grill.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
It's fair to say that data goes to work in
challenging and unlikely placesPlaces like the International
Space Station, connectedvehicles, factory floors, ships
at sea and the neighbourhoodpharmacy.
Data might have traditionallybelonged in a data centre or in
the cloud, but many importantdecisions need to happen out in
the field and at the edge of anetwork.
Today's podcast will cover edgecomputing, a relatively new
(00:50):
branch of cloud computing thathas the promise to deliver
insights and experiences.
At the moment, they're neededright where they're needed To
unpack the opportunity andpromise of edge computing.
I'm delighted to welcome MarkSwinson, enterprise IT
Automation Sales Specialist atRed Hat, to look at the uses of
edge computing and how Red Hatis making edge a reality.
Welcome, mark.
Hi, andrew, fantastic to haveyou on the podcast.
(01:11):
So, for our podcast audience,how do you define edge computing
In simple?
Speaker 3 (01:16):
terms.
I think edge computing can bestbe summed up by saying that
really it's based on the premisethat, instead of sending data
to a centralised location like aserver or the cloud for
processing, all the processingis done on a device that's
closer to the source andsometimes the user, the consumer
of the data.
So this can be a computer or adevice that's located at the
(01:36):
edge of a network.
So one example would be anorganisation we're working with
that has a lot of assets allaround the UK.
They have built-in controlsystems on those sites,
connected over a separatenetwork, and so they want to do
some monitoring to look for anysecurity concerns that might
cause concern and needinvestigation.
So they've implemented amonitoring system that looks for
(01:57):
patterns of unusual behaviourand will generate an alert.
But there's very limitedbandwidth back to headquarters,
so the monitoring solutioneffectively has to run
disconnected for most of thetime.
The other reason that you comeacross edge use cases is for
data residency as well, so wherelegislation says that data may
not leave the country, if itwere to be transferred to the
cloud, then it could beinadvertently or maliciously
(02:20):
transferred into anotherjurisdiction.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Now, I know a lot about Red Hat because I've been
around the industry for a whileand I used to be at IBM.
But it'd also be great if you'dexplain more about Red Hat and
where they play in the opensource community and the broader
computing ecosystem.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Red Hat is a little bit unusual, because all of the
development that Red Hat does isdone in the upstream
communities and that means thatwe are supplying engineers into
those communities, those teamswho are working on open source
projects, and the benefit ofthat, obviously, is that we are
in sync with the community andit's a good way of having an ear
(02:54):
to the ground, you could say,on what it is that is
interesting to you know, usersand the open source and the
market at large.
We basically collect, curate,integrate, test and harden
multiple projects from upstreamcommunities into products that
are suitable for enterprises torely on.
And because our code is open,our customers have the
(03:15):
flexibility and freedom ofchoice and they can see where
we're going.
They can see the enhancementrequests, they can see the bugs
that have been lodged.
Our involvement also means thatwe have some influence so we
can help to shape the directionof open source projects to
reflect the needs of ourcustomers and the broader
community.
So really, you know we try tobe open in everything that we do
(03:35):
.
There's no hidden agenda.
Customers can see what they'regoing to get, they can try it,
they can work with us and weencourage collaboration, you
know, in an ecosystem around ourproducts.
So you know, this has stood uswell over the last 30 years,
with the rise of Linux to becomethe predominant server OS,
through to IT automation withAnsible and, more recently,
(03:56):
developing Kubernetes and theecosystem around it.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
So what are the benefits of open source when it
comes to edge computing?
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Well, I think it's really about this idea of
transparency, because edge is anecosystem game.
It's about having a solutionand that requires putting
several components together.
So this transparency allows thepartners playing in the
ecosystem to have visibilityabout the future directions of
development and contribute theirown enhancements into the
(04:23):
upstream projects which thenbecome part of Red Hat's
products.
So an example would be workingwith chip designers like Arm,
intel, nvidia to support theirlatest chipsets and allow the
higher levels in the softwarestack to exploit these new
features.
For the software ISVs sodevelopers of software that run
on our platforms it's thereassurance that there's a
(04:44):
stable and reliable platformroadmap that they can develop to
.
For solution providers, you knowit's a modular sort of approach
to open source because noproject can provide all of the
parts for a solution.
So it's very much built aroundthis idea of being able to mix
and match components, so itmakes it easy to swap one part
out, bring another part in.
So a good example would be AIML, which is actually becoming a
(05:07):
more popular type of edge usecase, and you know there's so
many components that could beuseful in putting together an
AIML solution and most of thosecome from the open source world.
So it's this kind offlexibility that I think is
really invaluable for Edge.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
So let's talk into the Edge.
Where is Red Hat playing whenit comes to edge computing?
Speaker 3 (05:24):
We've got a few different sort of areas that
we're really involved with whenit comes to the Edge.
So one very important one iswith something called the Red
Hat in-vehicle operating system.
So this is taking a derivationof Linux, making it suitable to
run, obviously, in theautomotive setting Not
surprisingly because there's somuch more software that goes
into cars these days.
You need to have a strongplatform, and I think a lot of
(05:48):
the manufacturers are realisingthat it's just not sort of
feasible to redevelop that kindof core capability over and over
again.
So we've got a partnership withsubsidiary of Bosch in that
respect and others like GeneralMotors.
We're obviously also partneringa lot with their hardware
providers.
So the likes of NVIDIA, intel,arm, but also some of the
players that you would see inthe sort of typical kind of
(06:10):
industrial setting.
People like Siemens, abb and,of course, red Hat's had a very
strong track record in the telcospace.
So just recently we'veannounced a partnership with
Nokia around their telcoinfrastructure products and of
course in modern telco there's alot of edge in that story as
well.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
So what's required to make edge a reality and what
are the particular challengesthat enterprises might face?
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Edge is an ecosystem play, so part of the challenge
is bringing together parts tocreate solutions, but to do that
in a flexible way that requiressome common standards and
approaches and an openness andan intent to collaborate.
So to some extent, I think it'snecessary to have a willingness
to experiment.
Actually, I think the use casesthat we can explore with Edge
(06:53):
are still evolving andorganisations, businesses
finding new ways to put Edge togood use.
I think it has been, up to thispoint, somewhat treated as
separate and different to thekind of data centre and cloud
and the way that thatenvironment or those
environments are managed, andone of the things that Red Hat
is really pushing on is to tryand make that more consistent so
(07:14):
that you can take a lot of thesame capabilities that have
really made a big differencewhen it comes to cloud computing
in the last five, ten yearsabout standardising things,
automating things apply thosesame principles when it comes to
the Edge.
We also shouldn't forgetsecurity, because obviously, as
you put more devices out thereat the edge of the network, that
(07:34):
increases the attack surface,and so security has got to be
one of those things that youreally think about with Edge.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Now, everyone's talking about AI at the moment,
so we've got to get the AI angle.
Where can AI play a major rolein edge computing?
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Well, I think that since Edge is really most often
about collecting data close tothe source, so in particular
sort of machine learning modelsthat you can use to do inference
on the data is a reallyimportant part of the Edge use
case portfolio.
So the ability to sort ofseamlessly move applications
from cloud to Edge is alsolinked to that.
(08:07):
You typically will do thetraining of the model in a sort
of compute intensive environment, so something like a data
center or the cloud.
So that ability to kind of pulldata out from the edge, train
your model and then push themodel out back to the edge where
it actually executes and youmake decisions and act on the
data locally is a really sort ofkey part.
So that flexibility to movethings back and forth, data and
(08:30):
model.
So some great examples of sortof AIML being used with the edge
.
I mean one would be in retailusing it to sort of spot hot
spots in the store.
You've got a big queue ofcustomers.
You need to deploy some extrastaff.
Autonomous driving.
Another classic one visualinspection, so looking at the
quality of items as they comeoff the manufacturing line.
(08:52):
Spotting things early, gettinginto remediation saves a lot of
money.
You do that before you'veassembled a you know complete
car.
It's a lot cheaper than havingto fix it as it comes off the
end of the production line.
And then also augmented reality.
So AI, you know, supportingdecision making with engineers
in the field, guiding actionsbased on contextual info All of
(09:13):
those are sort of fundamentallyrelying on AIML capabilities.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
So one thing I've wondered is edge computing only
for the big players, or cansmaller companies benefit from
edge computing?
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Everybody actually can probably benefit from edge
computing.
Price points for computingability, capability at the edge
coming down all the time, Priceof sensors the amount of
different data that you cancollect is growing all the time,
so even a small organizationcan yield some big benefits.
Worked with one small craftbeer bottling company who
(09:45):
basically looked at reducing thewastage as they put the beer
into the bottles and that'sdependent on a few factors like
the amount of CO2 in the beer,the temperature, the humidity,
the pressure at which it'spushed in and they found that
just by using some monitoring ofthose different conditions they
could reduce the wastagesignificantly.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
So where does edge fit with traditional cloud
computing?
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Edge, I think, is a widely used term so it's a
little bit hard to be specificbecause different people use it
in different senses.
But I think edge has been quiteseparate from the cloud and
edge has typically been wherenetwork connectivity is sort of
poor or expensive or you'redealing with large volumes of
data, like high frequencyreadings, or your size of
(10:27):
compute resources is limited,limited power, storage, etc.
Versus cloud, where theperception is sort of infinite
resources.
But I think the two should beseen as complementary and
interoperable and, as wementioned with the AI stuff, you
know it's got to be connectedas well.
So really we're now seeing edgeand cloud as more of a
continuum and served by aconsistent set of capabilities
(10:50):
that make integration andmanagement of the multiple parts
as a solution possible and eveneasy.
Just as we think about sort ofcloud deployments, cloud
management, as being easy.
These days we talk aboutplatforms as serving both the
cloud and the edge use cases.
So are there different types ofedge computing?
It comes back to this pointabout edge being a very widely
(11:11):
used term.
We just think about itsimplistically.
There's sort of edge maybe atthe edge of the network, so if
you're talking to a telco,they'll have some use cases
where they would say edges atthe edge of their network.
If you're talking to a carmanufacturer, they would
consider edge to be embedded inthat car, that vehicle.
I mean, you might consider yoursmartphone an edge device.
And then you've got the sort oftypical factory floor stuff
(11:33):
where you've probably got afairly significant server rack
sitting in the factory somewherebut maybe connecting to some
sort of smaller, simplergateways that are then
connecting into sensors.
So yeah, there's a whole rangeof different sort of specific
patterns that you can see whenit comes to edge.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
And one of the reasons I have this podcast is
to really amplify some of theconcepts that are emerging, like
edge computing, to a broaderaudience.
So for my business leaders thatare listening to the podcast
today, what do they need to doto understand the potential
benefits of edge computing andhow do they need to work with
their existing IT teams to bringthis to a reality?
Speaker 3 (12:05):
I think there's a lot of things that we can do with
EDGE that we haven't really gotto grips with yet.
So the first thing I would sayfor the business person is
recognize.
You don't know what you don'tknow.
So there's data out there aboutthe way that things are
operating that will help you tobe more productive, more
efficient, less wasteful, etc.
So in that respect, I think youshould expect that deciding or
(12:26):
evolving an EDGE strategy islikely going to involve multiple
stakeholders in theorganization.
It's not just the technologists, it's also business, it's
finance, it's legal.
Think about if you're goingdown this journey, assembling
that sort of broad team.
The other thing is, you knowthe potential is to have
significant impact in areas thatwe take for granted today.
There's significant wastagestill in our so, for example,
(12:49):
our food supply chain or anagriculture, in the way that we
use chemicals and fertilizers inagriculture.
So optimizing any of thosedecisions can be a small change,
but magnified over a largenumber of occasions will make a
big difference.
Keep in mind that there areobligations that come with
collecting more data security,privacy and things like that but
(13:11):
also think about what potentialbenefits you can get from
collecting that data.
The other thing I would say isthat there's a cost model
consideration here as well.
Typically, when you think aboutcloud, it's a pay-as-you-go
model and it's consumption-basedpricing.
With EDGE it tends to be moreof a sunk cost.
You know, you make a capitalinvestment, deploy devices
around and so the benefitsaccrue while the costs stay flat
(13:33):
.
So that is a different kind ofapproach to what we've become
used to with cloud.
And lastly, I would say we'vecome to expect the benefits or
the speed at which you can getthe benefits with cloud
computing.
So it's easy to stand up a newapplication or a new website,
get hundreds, thousands,millions of users, perhaps in a
very short time.
Edge has a more of a physicaland often geographically
(13:55):
dispersed nature to it, so itcan just take longer to kind of
get that payback.
So just some things to thinkabout really as you look ahead
and think where could I put EDGEto use in my business?
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Now everyone talks about skills shortages as these
new technologies come to marketand I'm sure people are
scrambling to find generative AIprogrammers and those sort of
things.
But what new skills are neededto unlock the potential of EDGE
computing?
Speaker 3 (14:17):
In industrial scenarios we see EDGE really as
where IT, the data center kindof disciplines meet OT or
operational technology, andthese are two worlds that have
traditionally been quiteseparate.
So we're seeing the linesbetween IT and OT blurring.
So I think one of the areasthat we need to develop skills
is in a sort of a mutualunderstanding of the other side,
(14:40):
if you like.
By its nature, edge is remote,so it can involve some
specialized connectivity options.
So you come across things likelow power, wide area networking,
laura, private 5G, and so Ithink an understanding of what
the options are in those areasis important as well.
Essentially, I think the skillsof sort of modern cloud native
computing should apply to EDGEas much as they apply to cloud
(15:03):
today.
As we said earlier, it's reallyshould be seen as part of a
continuum between EDGE and thecloud.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
I'm glad you mentioned Laura and private 5G.
I've had guests on both thosesubjects on the podcast
previously, so it looks like weare covering all the new
emerging technologies.
Pun intended, have you seensome EDGE cases where the limits
of the technology are beingpushed?
Speaker 3 (15:22):
A favorite of mine is that we've got Red Hats
technology running on theInternational Space Station.
We've seen the same kind oftechnology running in CubeSat
environments as well, soallowing people to put
experiments up onto these lowcost satellites.
I've seen projects where we'vebeen working with the MOD and
DOD in the US to put more cloudcomputing capability out there
(15:46):
at the EDGE and some of thatstuff.
When you get out into the fieldis pretty impressive of what
they aim to have as an abilityout there.
But as I think we've seen sortof recently in the last couple
of years with the war in Ukraine, the ability to sort of collect
and coordinate data is soimportant in modern warfare.
Other things I mean smartagriculture again.
I think has a lot sort of therethat we can look at in terms of
(16:07):
improving our crop yields,quality of the produce, reducing
the impact on the environmentin terms of fertilizer, pest
killers.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
I did a podcast with David Keane, CEO of Rego, who
performed a trial of autonomousvehicles in Cambridge a couple
of years ago, and they work withVodafone to deploy edge servers
at their 5G base stations.
So is this a typical use caseand how can this be scaled
across tens of thousands of basestations across the country or
across the globe?
Speaker 3 (16:34):
So I wouldn't say this is typical.
I think it's still a bit tooearly for that but I think it is
indicative of what we're goingto see coming very soon.
I mean, as we live in a highpopulation density and there's
more congestion in our transportnetworks, the ability to have
those real-time insights intoconditions, make decisions to
optimise, will be increasinglyimportant.
We simply can't continue tojust add capacity.
(16:55):
So this type of low latency,high speed connectivity and
decision making will beabsolutely critical.
And as these use cases continueto emerge, we'll need the
ability to easily and scalablydeploy workloads, and this
starts to look like the highlyautomated deployment and scaling
that we've come to expect incloud.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
So your website says that open standards and creative
thinking can help you craft anedge strategy that meets your
current needs and adapts thefuture.
So how does creative thinkingwork alongside designing an edge
solution?
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Well, I think edge is still quite a nascent area, so
any investment in something newhas to share a return, and in my
experience, once anorganisation starts to deploy
edge solutions, they begin torealise that they're adjacent
possibilities, use cases thatthey hadn't thought of.
So I think it's very importantto approach edge with an open
and curious mindset, because theoutcomes you thought you were
(17:47):
going to get are often not theonly ones that can be realised.
So I would say that's where thecreative thinking comes in.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
And how does edge solve the challenges inherent in
a distributed IT deployment?
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Well, I think there are different aspects to
deploying edge workloads, butthe key ingredient is to take
the same approach as cloudnative, and that's really to say
standardisation and automation.
So we've got a solution calledAnsible Automation Platform
which automates the managementand maintenance of pretty much
every type of IT asset.
So it's very flexible.
(18:18):
You can automate almosteverything with Ansible, because
it's modular and extensible,it's human, readable definitions
and it's an idempotent language.
So it's something you can justrun again and again and it will
make the IT resource configuredin the way that you want without
having to worry about rollbackand things like that.
So it's essentially designed toencourage sharing and reuse of
(18:39):
these automation assets.
So with edge, you're going tohave a large number of
distributed systems targets tokeep up to date.
So you need something like thatthat's going to be able to
continuously keep that networkin sync and up to date.
And the other thing we've gotis something that you can be
used to trigger a remediation ifthere's something detected as a
(19:02):
problem.
So that makes that sort ofnetwork of distributed systems a
bit more autonomous selfhealing, if you like and that
sort of takes you into thingslike the security considerations
.
So you're making sure thateverything is correctly
configured, disabling thingsquickly if that's necessary, if
you're detecting attack orvulnerability very important to
maintain that sort of securityposture.
(19:23):
But it's also about being ableto effectively distribute the
work as well.
So figuring out where is theright place and respecting the
network segmentation which ispart of the security
architecture as well, Is theexplosion of the internet of
things, or IoT, like to be oneof the drivers behind the growth
of edge computing.
Yeah, definitely.
I think that essentially comesback to this point about
(19:45):
basically making decisions closeto the source and consumer of
the data.
So IoT has a huge source ofdata in real time from sensors
that are typically pretty simplewith no data persistence is a
really important use case foredge computing.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
So you mentioned a few industries you're working
with.
Are there other industries wehaven't mentioned that can
really benefit from edgecomputing?
Speaker 3 (20:04):
We talked about retail, we've talked about
automotive.
You find that there are thingsin almost every sector.
So healthcare is another greatexample.
Any way you've got sort of highvalue assets that you need to
track to maintain, you can savea lot of money.
And so you know if you've gotequipment that lives in a
hospital that's moved aroundfrom room to room, just being
able to understand where thatparticular piece of equipment is
(20:26):
, get your hands on it quickly,can mean that patients get
treated more rapidly.
At the end of the day, in theutility space, you know, with
the move to more sustainableenergy generation we're seeing a
significant shift in thepattern there.
So it's no longer about thesesort of big centralized
generating capacities and nowyou've got solar panels, you've
(20:46):
got wind turbines.
So the grid needs to sort ofevolve to be able to be managed
at a more sort of modular level,at a regional level.
So we've seen some reallyinteresting work that's been
done with some utilities aroundunderstanding the flow of power
through the grid, that sort oflocal level almost down to the
street level.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
I read a great phrase everything should just work
everywhere.
So how does edge computing makethis a reality?
Speaker 3 (21:12):
It comes back to consistency.
In Red Hat's portfolio, we workreally hard to make sure our
solutions work in a consistentway, regardless of where they're
deployed.
So we've got a Kubernetes basedsolution that runs in the cloud
, runs on premise, it'll run ona sort of modest sized server
and it'll even run on a smallserver.
(21:33):
Of course you're compromisingon things like performance and
disaster recovery, resilience,but essentially it gives you
that same experience of aKubernetes environment and the
nice thing is that you can useone control plane, one
management plane, to give you aunified view across all of those
different deployment options,right from the cloud down to a
(21:54):
very small footprint server.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Now, you've mentioned Kubernetes a number of times
For our business audience thathaven't heard that term.
What does it mean and how doyou explain what they do and
what they are to my mum?
Speaker 3 (22:04):
I think the key thing really with Kubernetes is,
first of all, to understand thatit's all about this idea of
orchestrating containers, and acontainer is a way of packaging
up a piece of application.
It might be an entireapplication, but very often it's
a piece of an application in away that's very standardized, in
(22:26):
the same way that we do withshipping we have done.
It's put inside a standard sizedcontainer and that means you
can load it onto a ship in avery efficient way.
And this is the same ideaapplied to applications.
So put your application in acontainer and then use
Kubernetes as really the sort ofthe director which is saying
(22:46):
this application or thiscontainer needs to run on this
piece of hardware or this serverand it needs to have this
characteristics of performanceand responsiveness.
And so what that means is thatyou can rely on something like
Kubernetes to actually deploymore resources to respond to an
(23:06):
increase in demand and thenscale things back as that demand
drops.
So it's quite a powerful idea,especially in this sort of era
of cloud as I mentioned earlier,when you've got almost infinite
resources in the cloud havingsomething that can quickly and
easily take account of that,take advantage of those
resources, which is whatKubernetes is doing, is really
(23:27):
important and really powerful,and to do it in a standard way
and to do it in an automated waymakes life a lot easier for
everybody.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
So the 64 million dollar pound euro question
what's the future of edgecomputing and where is Red Hat
playing a part?
Speaker 3 (23:40):
One of the really interesting things is with AR
and VR, apple Vision Pro, maybethe product that tips us from
sort of a niche kind of interestin the metaverse into something
that's a bit more widespread,in the same way that the
original iPhone did.
The opportunities to have moreautomation in vehicles and in
(24:04):
transport is going to be reallyimportant.
I mean, it seems to me that ifyou had a self-driving car that
could actually go and chargeitself and then bring itself
back to you, that would be areally nice place to start with
autonomous driving.
It doesn't need to drive downthe motorway, it just needs to
pop around the corner to thenearest charging spot.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
So we're almost out of time and we're up to my
favorite part of the show, thequick fire round, where we learn
more about our guests iPhone orAndroid, iphone, window or
aisle.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
I'm not very good at sitting still, so aisle In the
room or in the metaverse In theroom, but I hope the metaverse
comes along soon your biggesthope for this year and next.
I'd like to see a scalablebreakthrough in battery
technology, because I reallythink that energy is going to be
the biggest factor probably inour economic prosperity and
climate stability over the nextthree or four decades.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
I wish that AI could do all of my shopping for gifts.
The app you use most on yourphone.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
It's a bit sad, but I think it's Gmail for work.
The best advice you've everreceived Be present.
The future is unknown and thepast is only an unreliable
memory.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
What are you reading at the moment?
Speaker 3 (25:04):
I'm reading a book called the Age of AI and Our
Human Future.
It's Henry Kissinger, EricSchmidt and Daniel Huffman
Locker.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
I think I need to read that.
Who should I invite next ontothe podcast?
Speaker 3 (25:15):
I would suggest Dr Graham Spickel.
Graham's a guy I used to workwith in IBM a few years ago.
One of the smartest people I'veever met since IBM moved on to
working in a lot of differentfields.
He was involved in the UKTechnology Strategy Board a few
years ago and is now involvedwith Edinburgh University.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Final quickfire question how do you want to be
remembered as a problem solver?
So, as this is the actionablefuture, as podcast, what three
actionable things should ouraudience do today to prepare for
edge computing?
Speaker 3 (25:46):
Start by looking for areas of inefficiency or waste
in your business, areas wherebetter visibility could yield
some improvements.
The second would be find atrusted partner that you can
work with that can bringtogether multiple elements into
a solution that will addressyour particular needs, your
particular situation.
And the third would be anexperiment and iterate, because
(26:09):
there's still a lot to belearned about how applying more
data based insights can improvebusiness outcomes.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Mark a fascinating discussion, as always.
How can we find out more aboutyou and your work?
Speaker 3 (26:19):
Well, I regularly post on LinkedIn and I also
speak at events, particularlyred hat events.
So, for example, we've got ourSummit Connect event coming up
in London on the 7th of November.
It'd be great to see any of ourlisteners there.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
I'll put links to that in the show notes, mark.
Thank you so much for your time.
A really interesting topic, andI've learned much more about
Edge, and I think I can probablyexplain it to my mum now.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
Thank you, andrew.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Thank you for listening to the Actionable
Futurist podcast.
You can find all of ourprevious shows at
actionablefuturistcom and if youlike what you've heard on the
show, please considersubscribing via your favourite
podcast app so you never miss anepisode.
You can find out more aboutAndrew and how he helps
(26:59):
corporates navigate a disruptivedigital world with keynote
speeches and C-suite workshopsdelivered in person or virtually
at actionablefuturistcom.
Until next time, this has beenthe Actionable Futurist podcast.
Welcome to the Actionable Futurist podcast, a
show all about the near-termfuture, with practical and
actionable advice from a rangeof global experts to help you
stay ahead of the curve.
Every episode answers thequestion what's the future on,
with voices and opinions thatneed to be heard.
(00:23):
Your host is internationalkeynote speaker and Actionable
Futurist, andrew Grill.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
It's fair to say that data goes to work in
challenging and unlikely placesPlaces like the International
Space Station, connectedvehicles, factory floors, ships
at sea and the neighbourhoodpharmacy.
Data might have traditionallybelonged in a data centre or in
the cloud, but many importantdecisions need to happen out in
the field and at the edge of anetwork.
Today's podcast will cover edgecomputing, a relatively new
(00:50):
branch of cloud computing thathas the promise to deliver
insights and experiences.
At the moment, they're neededright where they're needed To
unpack the opportunity andpromise of edge computing.
I'm delighted to welcome MarkSwinson, enterprise IT
Automation Sales Specialist atRed Hat, to look at the uses of
edge computing and how Red Hatis making edge a reality.
Welcome, mark.
Hi, andrew, fantastic to haveyou on the podcast.
(01:11):
So, for our podcast audience,how do you define edge computing
In simple?
Speaker 3 (01:16):
terms.
I think edge computing can bestbe summed up by saying that
really it's based on the premisethat, instead of sending data
to a centralised location like aserver or the cloud for
processing, all the processingis done on a device that's
closer to the source andsometimes the user, the consumer
of the data.
So this can be a computer or adevice that's located at the
(01:36):
edge of a network.
So one example would be anorganisation we're working with
that has a lot of assets allaround the UK.
They have built-in controlsystems on those sites,
connected over a separatenetwork, and so they want to do
some monitoring to look for anysecurity concerns that might
cause concern and needinvestigation.
So they've implemented amonitoring system that looks for
(01:57):
patterns of unusual behaviourand will generate an alert.
But there's very limitedbandwidth back to headquarters,
so the monitoring solutioneffectively has to run
disconnected for most of thetime.
The other reason that you comeacross edge use cases is for
data residency as well, so wherelegislation says that data may
not leave the country, if itwere to be transferred to the
cloud, then it could beinadvertently or maliciously
(02:20):
transferred into anotherjurisdiction.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Now, I know a lot about Red Hat because I've been
around the industry for a whileand I used to be at IBM.
But it'd also be great if you'dexplain more about Red Hat and
where they play in the opensource community and the broader
computing ecosystem.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Red Hat is a little bit unusual, because all of the
development that Red Hat does isdone in the upstream
communities and that means thatwe are supplying engineers into
those communities, those teamswho are working on open source
projects, and the benefit ofthat, obviously, is that we are
in sync with the community andit's a good way of having an ear
(02:54):
to the ground, you could say,on what it is that is
interesting to you know, usersand the open source and the
market at large.
We basically collect, curate,integrate, test and harden
multiple projects from upstreamcommunities into products that
are suitable for enterprises torely on.
And because our code is open,our customers have the
(03:15):
flexibility and freedom ofchoice and they can see where
we're going.
They can see the enhancementrequests, they can see the bugs
that have been lodged.
Our involvement also means thatwe have some influence so we
can help to shape the directionof open source projects to
reflect the needs of ourcustomers and the broader
community.
So really, you know we try tobe open in everything that we do
(03:35):
.
There's no hidden agenda.
Customers can see what they'regoing to get, they can try it,
they can work with us and weencourage collaboration, you
know, in an ecosystem around ourproducts.
So you know, this has stood uswell over the last 30 years,
with the rise of Linux to becomethe predominant server OS,
through to IT automation withAnsible and, more recently,
(03:56):
developing Kubernetes and theecosystem around it.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
So what are the benefits of open source when it
comes to edge computing?
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Well, I think it's really about this idea of
transparency, because edge is anecosystem game.
It's about having a solutionand that requires putting
several components together.
So this transparency allows thepartners playing in the
ecosystem to have visibilityabout the future directions of
development and contribute theirown enhancements into the
(04:23):
upstream projects which thenbecome part of Red Hat's
products.
So an example would be workingwith chip designers like Arm,
intel, nvidia to support theirlatest chipsets and allow the
higher levels in the softwarestack to exploit these new
features.
For the software ISVs sodevelopers of software that run
on our platforms it's thereassurance that there's a
(04:44):
stable and reliable platformroadmap that they can develop to
.
For solution providers, you knowit's a modular sort of approach
to open source because noproject can provide all of the
parts for a solution.
So it's very much built aroundthis idea of being able to mix
and match components, so itmakes it easy to swap one part
out, bring another part in.
So a good example would be AIML, which is actually becoming a
(05:07):
more popular type of edge usecase, and you know there's so
many components that could beuseful in putting together an
AIML solution and most of thosecome from the open source world.
So it's this kind offlexibility that I think is
really invaluable for Edge.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
So let's talk into the Edge.
Where is Red Hat playing whenit comes to edge computing?
Speaker 3 (05:24):
We've got a few different sort of areas that
we're really involved with whenit comes to the Edge.
So one very important one iswith something called the Red
Hat in-vehicle operating system.
So this is taking a derivationof Linux, making it suitable to
run, obviously, in theautomotive setting Not
surprisingly because there's somuch more software that goes
into cars these days.
You need to have a strongplatform, and I think a lot of
(05:48):
the manufacturers are realisingthat it's just not sort of
feasible to redevelop that kindof core capability over and over
again.
So we've got a partnership withsubsidiary of Bosch in that
respect and others like GeneralMotors.
We're obviously also partneringa lot with their hardware
providers.
So the likes of NVIDIA, intel,arm, but also some of the
players that you would see inthe sort of typical kind of
(06:10):
industrial setting.
People like Siemens, abb and,of course, red Hat's had a very
strong track record in the telcospace.
So just recently we'veannounced a partnership with
Nokia around their telcoinfrastructure products and of
course in modern telco there's alot of edge in that story as
well.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
So what's required to make edge a reality and what
are the particular challengesthat enterprises might face?
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Edge is an ecosystem play, so part of the challenge
is bringing together parts tocreate solutions, but to do that
in a flexible way that requiressome common standards and
approaches and an openness andan intent to collaborate.
So to some extent, I think it'snecessary to have a willingness
to experiment.
Actually, I think the use casesthat we can explore with Edge
(06:53):
are still evolving andorganisations, businesses
finding new ways to put Edge togood use.
I think it has been, up to thispoint, somewhat treated as
separate and different to thekind of data centre and cloud
and the way that thatenvironment or those
environments are managed, andone of the things that Red Hat
is really pushing on is to tryand make that more consistent so
(07:14):
that you can take a lot of thesame capabilities that have
really made a big differencewhen it comes to cloud computing
in the last five, ten yearsabout standardising things,
automating things apply thosesame principles when it comes to
the Edge.
We also shouldn't forgetsecurity, because obviously, as
you put more devices out thereat the edge of the network, that
(07:34):
increases the attack surface,and so security has got to be
one of those things that youreally think about with Edge.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Now, everyone's talking about AI at the moment,
so we've got to get the AI angle.
Where can AI play a major rolein edge computing?
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Well, I think that since Edge is really most often
about collecting data close tothe source, so in particular
sort of machine learning modelsthat you can use to do inference
on the data is a reallyimportant part of the Edge use
case portfolio.
So the ability to sort ofseamlessly move applications
from cloud to Edge is alsolinked to that.
(08:07):
You typically will do thetraining of the model in a sort
of compute intensive environment, so something like a data
center or the cloud.
So that ability to kind of pulldata out from the edge, train
your model and then push themodel out back to the edge where
it actually executes and youmake decisions and act on the
data locally is a really sort ofkey part.
So that flexibility to movethings back and forth, data and
(08:30):
model.
So some great examples of sortof AIML being used with the edge
.
I mean one would be in retailusing it to sort of spot hot
spots in the store.
You've got a big queue ofcustomers.
You need to deploy some extrastaff.
Autonomous driving.
Another classic one visualinspection, so looking at the
quality of items as they comeoff the manufacturing line.
(08:52):
Spotting things early, gettinginto remediation saves a lot of
money.
You do that before you'veassembled a you know complete
car.
It's a lot cheaper than havingto fix it as it comes off the
end of the production line.
And then also augmented reality.
So AI, you know, supportingdecision making with engineers
in the field, guiding actionsbased on contextual info All of
(09:13):
those are sort of fundamentallyrelying on AIML capabilities.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
So one thing I've wondered is edge computing only
for the big players, or cansmaller companies benefit from
edge computing?
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Everybody actually can probably benefit from edge
computing.
Price points for computingability, capability at the edge
coming down all the time, Priceof sensors the amount of
different data that you cancollect is growing all the time,
so even a small organizationcan yield some big benefits.
Worked with one small craftbeer bottling company who
(09:45):
basically looked at reducing thewastage as they put the beer
into the bottles and that'sdependent on a few factors like
the amount of CO2 in the beer,the temperature, the humidity,
the pressure at which it'spushed in and they found that
just by using some monitoring ofthose different conditions they
could reduce the wastagesignificantly.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
So where does edge fit with traditional cloud
computing?
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Edge, I think, is a widely used term so it's a
little bit hard to be specificbecause different people use it
in different senses.
But I think edge has been quiteseparate from the cloud and
edge has typically been wherenetwork connectivity is sort of
poor or expensive or you'redealing with large volumes of
data, like high frequencyreadings, or your size of
(10:27):
compute resources is limited,limited power, storage, etc.
Versus cloud, where theperception is sort of infinite
resources.
But I think the two should beseen as complementary and
interoperable and, as wementioned with the AI stuff, you
know it's got to be connectedas well.
So really we're now seeing edgeand cloud as more of a
continuum and served by aconsistent set of capabilities
(10:50):
that make integration andmanagement of the multiple parts
as a solution possible and eveneasy.
Just as we think about sort ofcloud deployments, cloud
management, as being easy.
These days we talk aboutplatforms as serving both the
cloud and the edge use cases.
So are there different types ofedge computing?
It comes back to this pointabout edge being a very widely
(11:11):
used term.
We just think about itsimplistically.
There's sort of edge maybe atthe edge of the network, so if
you're talking to a telco,they'll have some use cases
where they would say edges atthe edge of their network.
If you're talking to a carmanufacturer, they would
consider edge to be embedded inthat car, that vehicle.
I mean, you might consider yoursmartphone an edge device.
And then you've got the sort oftypical factory floor stuff
(11:33):
where you've probably got afairly significant server rack
sitting in the factory somewherebut maybe connecting to some
sort of smaller, simplergateways that are then
connecting into sensors.
So yeah, there's a whole rangeof different sort of specific
patterns that you can see whenit comes to edge.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
And one of the reasons I have this podcast is
to really amplify some of theconcepts that are emerging, like
edge computing, to a broaderaudience.
So for my business leaders thatare listening to the podcast
today, what do they need to doto understand the potential
benefits of edge computing andhow do they need to work with
their existing IT teams to bringthis to a reality?
Speaker 3 (12:05):
I think there's a lot of things that we can do with
EDGE that we haven't really gotto grips with yet.
So the first thing I would sayfor the business person is
recognize.
You don't know what you don'tknow.
So there's data out there aboutthe way that things are
operating that will help you tobe more productive, more
efficient, less wasteful, etc.
So in that respect, I think youshould expect that deciding or
(12:26):
evolving an EDGE strategy islikely going to involve multiple
stakeholders in theorganization.
It's not just the technologists, it's also business, it's
finance, it's legal.
Think about if you're goingdown this journey, assembling
that sort of broad team.
The other thing is, you knowthe potential is to have
significant impact in areas thatwe take for granted today.
There's significant wastagestill in our so, for example,
(12:49):
our food supply chain or anagriculture, in the way that we
use chemicals and fertilizers inagriculture.
So optimizing any of thosedecisions can be a small change,
but magnified over a largenumber of occasions will make a
big difference.
Keep in mind that there areobligations that come with
collecting more data security,privacy and things like that but
(13:11):
also think about what potentialbenefits you can get from
collecting that data.
The other thing I would say isthat there's a cost model
consideration here as well.
Typically, when you think aboutcloud, it's a pay-as-you-go
model and it's consumption-basedpricing.
With EDGE it tends to be moreof a sunk cost.
You know, you make a capitalinvestment, deploy devices
around and so the benefitsaccrue while the costs stay flat
(13:33):
.
So that is a different kind ofapproach to what we've become
used to with cloud.
And lastly, I would say we'vecome to expect the benefits or
the speed at which you can getthe benefits with cloud
computing.
So it's easy to stand up a newapplication or a new website,
get hundreds, thousands,millions of users, perhaps in a
very short time.
Edge has a more of a physicaland often geographically
(13:55):
dispersed nature to it, so itcan just take longer to kind of
get that payback.
So just some things to thinkabout really as you look ahead
and think where could I put EDGEto use in my business?
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Now everyone talks about skills shortages as these
new technologies come to marketand I'm sure people are
scrambling to find generative AIprogrammers and those sort of
things.
But what new skills are neededto unlock the potential of EDGE
computing?
Speaker 3 (14:17):
In industrial scenarios we see EDGE really as
where IT, the data center kindof disciplines meet OT or
operational technology, andthese are two worlds that have
traditionally been quiteseparate.
So we're seeing the linesbetween IT and OT blurring.
So I think one of the areasthat we need to develop skills
is in a sort of a mutualunderstanding of the other side,
(14:40):
if you like.
By its nature, edge is remote,so it can involve some
specialized connectivity options.
So you come across things likelow power, wide area networking,
laura, private 5G, and so Ithink an understanding of what
the options are in those areasis important as well.
Essentially, I think the skillsof sort of modern cloud native
computing should apply to EDGEas much as they apply to cloud
(15:03):
today.
As we said earlier, it's reallyshould be seen as part of a
continuum between EDGE and thecloud.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
I'm glad you mentioned Laura and private 5G.
I've had guests on both thosesubjects on the podcast
previously, so it looks like weare covering all the new
emerging technologies.
Pun intended, have you seensome EDGE cases where the limits
of the technology are beingpushed?
Speaker 3 (15:22):
A favorite of mine is that we've got Red Hats
technology running on theInternational Space Station.
We've seen the same kind oftechnology running in CubeSat
environments as well, soallowing people to put
experiments up onto these lowcost satellites.
I've seen projects where we'vebeen working with the MOD and
DOD in the US to put more cloudcomputing capability out there
(15:46):
at the EDGE and some of thatstuff.
When you get out into the fieldis pretty impressive of what
they aim to have as an abilityout there.
But as I think we've seen sortof recently in the last couple
of years with the war in Ukraine, the ability to sort of collect
and coordinate data is soimportant in modern warfare.
Other things I mean smartagriculture again.
I think has a lot sort of therethat we can look at in terms of
(16:07):
improving our crop yields,quality of the produce, reducing
the impact on the environmentin terms of fertilizer, pest
killers.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
I did a podcast with David Keane, CEO of Rego, who
performed a trial of autonomousvehicles in Cambridge a couple
of years ago, and they work withVodafone to deploy edge servers
at their 5G base stations.
So is this a typical use caseand how can this be scaled
across tens of thousands of basestations across the country or
across the globe?
Speaker 3 (16:34):
So I wouldn't say this is typical.
I think it's still a bit tooearly for that but I think it is
indicative of what we're goingto see coming very soon.
I mean, as we live in a highpopulation density and there's
more congestion in our transportnetworks, the ability to have
those real-time insights intoconditions, make decisions to
optimise, will be increasinglyimportant.
We simply can't continue tojust add capacity.
(16:55):
So this type of low latency,high speed connectivity and
decision making will beabsolutely critical.
And as these use cases continueto emerge, we'll need the
ability to easily and scalablydeploy workloads, and this
starts to look like the highlyautomated deployment and scaling
that we've come to expect incloud.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
So your website says that open standards and creative
thinking can help you craft anedge strategy that meets your
current needs and adapts thefuture.
So how does creative thinkingwork alongside designing an edge
solution?
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Well, I think edge is still quite a nascent area, so
any investment in something newhas to share a return, and in my
experience, once anorganisation starts to deploy
edge solutions, they begin torealise that they're adjacent
possibilities, use cases thatthey hadn't thought of.
So I think it's very importantto approach edge with an open
and curious mindset, because theoutcomes you thought you were
(17:47):
going to get are often not theonly ones that can be realised.
So I would say that's where thecreative thinking comes in.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
And how does edge solve the challenges inherent in
a distributed IT deployment?
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Well, I think there are different aspects to
deploying edge workloads, butthe key ingredient is to take
the same approach as cloudnative, and that's really to say
standardisation and automation.
So we've got a solution calledAnsible Automation Platform
which automates the managementand maintenance of pretty much
every type of IT asset.
So it's very flexible.
(18:18):
You can automate almosteverything with Ansible, because
it's modular and extensible,it's human, readable definitions
and it's an idempotent language.
So it's something you can justrun again and again and it will
make the IT resource configuredin the way that you want without
having to worry about rollbackand things like that.
So it's essentially designed toencourage sharing and reuse of
(18:39):
these automation assets.
So with edge, you're going tohave a large number of
distributed systems targets tokeep up to date.
So you need something like thatthat's going to be able to
continuously keep that networkin sync and up to date.
And the other thing we've gotis something that you can be
used to trigger a remediation ifthere's something detected as a
(19:02):
problem.
So that makes that sort ofnetwork of distributed systems a
bit more autonomous selfhealing, if you like and that
sort of takes you into thingslike the security considerations
.
So you're making sure thateverything is correctly
configured, disabling thingsquickly if that's necessary, if
you're detecting attack orvulnerability very important to
maintain that sort of securityposture.
(19:23):
But it's also about being ableto effectively distribute the
work as well.
So figuring out where is theright place and respecting the
network segmentation which ispart of the security
architecture as well, Is theexplosion of the internet of
things, or IoT, like to be oneof the drivers behind the growth
of edge computing.
Yeah, definitely.
I think that essentially comesback to this point about
(19:45):
basically making decisions closeto the source and consumer of
the data.
So IoT has a huge source ofdata in real time from sensors
that are typically pretty simplewith no data persistence is a
really important use case foredge computing.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
So you mentioned a few industries you're working
with.
Are there other industries wehaven't mentioned that can
really benefit from edgecomputing?
Speaker 3 (20:04):
We talked about retail, we've talked about
automotive.
You find that there are thingsin almost every sector.
So healthcare is another greatexample.
Any way you've got sort of highvalue assets that you need to
track to maintain, you can savea lot of money.
And so you know if you've gotequipment that lives in a
hospital that's moved aroundfrom room to room, just being
able to understand where thatparticular piece of equipment is
(20:26):
, get your hands on it quickly,can mean that patients get
treated more rapidly.
At the end of the day, in theutility space, you know, with
the move to more sustainableenergy generation we're seeing a
significant shift in thepattern there.
So it's no longer about thesesort of big centralized
generating capacities and nowyou've got solar panels, you've
(20:46):
got wind turbines.
So the grid needs to sort ofevolve to be able to be managed
at a more sort of modular level,at a regional level.
So we've seen some reallyinteresting work that's been
done with some utilities aroundunderstanding the flow of power
through the grid, that sort oflocal level almost down to the
street level.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
I read a great phrase everything should just work
everywhere.
So how does edge computing makethis a reality?
Speaker 3 (21:12):
It comes back to consistency.
In Red Hat's portfolio, we workreally hard to make sure our
solutions work in a consistentway, regardless of where they're
deployed.
So we've got a Kubernetes basedsolution that runs in the cloud
, runs on premise, it'll run ona sort of modest sized server
and it'll even run on a smallserver.
(21:33):
Of course you're compromisingon things like performance and
disaster recovery, resilience,but essentially it gives you
that same experience of aKubernetes environment and the
nice thing is that you can useone control plane, one
management plane, to give you aunified view across all of those
different deployment options,right from the cloud down to a
(21:54):
very small footprint server.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Now, you've mentioned Kubernetes a number of times
For our business audience thathaven't heard that term.
What does it mean and how doyou explain what they do and
what they are to my mum?
Speaker 3 (22:04):
I think the key thing really with Kubernetes is,
first of all, to understand thatit's all about this idea of
orchestrating containers, and acontainer is a way of packaging
up a piece of application.
It might be an entireapplication, but very often it's
a piece of an application in away that's very standardized, in
(22:26):
the same way that we do withshipping we have done.
It's put inside a standard sizedcontainer and that means you
can load it onto a ship in avery efficient way.
And this is the same ideaapplied to applications.
So put your application in acontainer and then use
Kubernetes as really the sort ofthe director which is saying
(22:46):
this application or thiscontainer needs to run on this
piece of hardware or this serverand it needs to have this
characteristics of performanceand responsiveness.
And so what that means is thatyou can rely on something like
Kubernetes to actually deploymore resources to respond to an
(23:06):
increase in demand and thenscale things back as that demand
drops.
So it's quite a powerful idea,especially in this sort of era
of cloud as I mentioned earlier,when you've got almost infinite
resources in the cloud havingsomething that can quickly and
easily take account of that,take advantage of those
resources, which is whatKubernetes is doing, is really
(23:27):
important and really powerful,and to do it in a standard way
and to do it in an automated waymakes life a lot easier for
everybody.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
So the 64 million dollar pound euro question
what's the future of edgecomputing and where is Red Hat
playing a part?
Speaker 3 (23:40):
One of the really interesting things is with AR
and VR, apple Vision Pro, maybethe product that tips us from
sort of a niche kind of interestin the metaverse into something
that's a bit more widespread,in the same way that the
original iPhone did.
The opportunities to have moreautomation in vehicles and in
(24:04):
transport is going to be reallyimportant.
I mean, it seems to me that ifyou had a self-driving car that
could actually go and chargeitself and then bring itself
back to you, that would be areally nice place to start with
autonomous driving.
It doesn't need to drive downthe motorway, it just needs to
pop around the corner to thenearest charging spot.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
So we're almost out of time and we're up to my
favorite part of the show, thequick fire round, where we learn
more about our guests iPhone orAndroid, iphone, window or
aisle.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
I'm not very good at sitting still, so aisle In the
room or in the metaverse In theroom, but I hope the metaverse
comes along soon your biggesthope for this year and next.
I'd like to see a scalablebreakthrough in battery
technology, because I reallythink that energy is going to be
the biggest factor probably inour economic prosperity and
climate stability over the nextthree or four decades.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
I wish that AI could do all of my shopping for gifts.
The app you use most on yourphone.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
It's a bit sad, but I think it's Gmail for work.
The best advice you've everreceived Be present.
The future is unknown and thepast is only an unreliable
memory.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
What are you reading at the moment?
Speaker 3 (25:04):
I'm reading a book called the Age of AI and Our
Human Future.
It's Henry Kissinger, EricSchmidt and Daniel Huffman
Locker.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
I think I need to read that.
Who should I invite next ontothe podcast?
Speaker 3 (25:15):
I would suggest Dr Graham Spickel.
Graham's a guy I used to workwith in IBM a few years ago.
One of the smartest people I'veever met since IBM moved on to
working in a lot of differentfields.
He was involved in the UKTechnology Strategy Board a few
years ago and is now involvedwith Edinburgh University.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Final quickfire question how do you want to be
remembered as a problem solver?
So, as this is the actionablefuture, as podcast, what three
actionable things should ouraudience do today to prepare for
edge computing?
Speaker 3 (25:46):
Start by looking for areas of inefficiency or waste
in your business, areas wherebetter visibility could yield
some improvements.
The second would be find atrusted partner that you can
work with that can bringtogether multiple elements into
a solution that will addressyour particular needs, your
particular situation.
And the third would be anexperiment and iterate, because
(26:09):
there's still a lot to belearned about how applying more
data based insights can improvebusiness outcomes.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Mark a fascinating discussion, as always.
How can we find out more aboutyou and your work?
Speaker 3 (26:19):
Well, I regularly post on LinkedIn and I also
speak at events, particularlyred hat events.
So, for example, we've got ourSummit Connect event coming up
in London on the 7th of November.
It'd be great to see any of ourlisteners there.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
I'll put links to that in the show notes, mark.
Thank you so much for your time.
A really interesting topic, andI've learned much more about
Edge, and I think I can probablyexplain it to my mum now.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
Thank you, andrew.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Thank you for listening to the Actionable
Futurist podcast.
You can find all of ourprevious shows at
actionablefuturistcom and if youlike what you've heard on the
show, please considersubscribing via your favourite
podcast app so you never miss anepisode.
You can find out more aboutAndrew and how he helps
(26:59):
corporates navigate a disruptivedigital world with keynote
speeches and C-suite workshopsdelivered in person or virtually
at actionablefuturistcom.
Until next time, this has beenthe Actionable Futurist podcast.
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