Exploration of how cloud computing enables emerging technologies like IoT AI blockchain and big data with case studies of innovative applications such as wildlife conservation
New technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, artificial intelligence, and blockchain are changing how businesses operate and opening up new opportunities. Cloud computing plays a crucial role in supporting these technologies due to its power, scalability, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness. This documents explores the relationship between emerging technologies and cloud computing, highlighting case studies that demonstrate the impact of these technologies on business operations.
New technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, artificial intelligence, and blockchain are changing how businesses operate and opening up new opportunities. Cloud computing plays a crucial role in supporting these technologies due to its power, scalability, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness.
The Internet of Things (IoT) connects various devices and people, impacting daily activities like driving, shopping, health monitoring, and home energy use. Smart devices and sensors collect vast amounts of data, which is managed by the cloud. The cloud helps with device registration, identity, data storage, and access, reducing latency and enabling quick responses. Cloud computing supports IoT by providing platforms, interfaces, and analytics, and cloud providers offer specialized IoT services to speed up solution development.
A case study demonstrates the use of IoT on the cloud to combat the poaching of endangered rhinos at Welgevonden by making poaching predictable. Rhinos have become one of the key species endangered due to poaching throughout Africa, especially in South Africa. Poachers have been increasing in numbers and becoming more militarized with weapons, necessitating a similar response from conservationists. This approach is not sustainable, and technology offers a better solution.
Endangered rhinos are getting help from unexpected friends, the zebra and antelope, which are wearing IoT sensors connected to the IBM cloud. When poachers enter the area, the animals run, alerting rangers who can track their movements and help stop the poachers before any harm is done. This smart approach helps increase the rhino population and turns the poachers into the endangered species.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming industries by enabling machines to learn from data, identify patterns, and make decisions with minimal human intervention. AI applications require vast amounts of data, and cloud computing provides the necessary storage, processing power, and scalability. Cloud-based AI services like IBM Watson, Google Cloud AI, and Amazon AI are making AI accessible to businesses of all sizes.
Artificial intelligence (AI) plays a crucial role in making sense of the endless streams of data. Many AI applications today would not be possible without the scalable, on-demand computing offered by the Cloud. There is a three-way relationship between AI, IoT, and Cloud. AI consumes data produced by IoT devices, and IoT device behavior can be dictated based on responses from AI.
For example, smart assistants, a common type of IoT device, continue to learn about user preferences as usage grows. They learn about songs users like, home temperature settings, preferred mealtimes, and over time, they anticipate actions based on past history. This symbiotic relationship between IoT, AI, and Cloud shows how IoT delivers data, AI powers insights, and both leverage Cloud scalability and processing power to provide value to individuals and businesses alike.
The United States Tennis Association (USTA) uses AI on the Cloud to deliver unique digital experiences to millions of fans around the world. For two weeks at the end of every summer, tennis fans turn their eyes to New York City and the US Open. IBM integrates and analyzes data flowing from the court and delivers unique digital experiences to more than 10 million tennis fans worldwide, all on the IBM Cloud.
The IBM Cloud is the digital foundation of the US Open. It scales rapidly to meet a 5,000% increase in web traffic and delivers a consistent experience to fans globally. With Watson on the IBM Cloud, fans are engaged in unique ways year after year. Slam Tracker analyzes more than 26 million historical data points, giving fans deep insights into featured matches and showing the momentum of a match in real-time.
AI Highlights uses Watson to process thousands of hours of US Open video. It can hear the cheers of the crowd, see a player celebrating, and know what makes a great tennis highlight. This year, the power of AI highlights is being put into the hands of US players and coaches. Watson analyzes match video so coaches can quickly find the footage they need to guide player development.
If fans need to know where to park, find a good burger, or grab the latest US Open gear, they can find answers with the guest information feature in the US Open app and mobile web using Watson. IBM helps USTA stay on the cutting edge of the fan experience by adopting the latest technology like Cloud and AI, bringing data to life in an accessible and engaging way for fans.
Blockchain is a secure, distributed open technology that can help speed up processes, lower costs, and build transparency and traceability in transactional applications. It is an immutable network allowing members to view only those transactions that are relevant to them. The more open, diverse, and distributed the network, the stronger the trust and transparency in the data and transactions.
Eighty-five percent of businesses today rely on multiple clouds to meet their IT needs, with more than 70 percent using more than three. These businesses need to be able to move applications and data across multiple clouds easily and securely, leading to the emerging demand to build and manage business applications such as blockchain for the multi-cloud environment.
Blockchain and AI, much like IoT and AI powered by the Cloud, have a three-way relationship. Blockchain technology provides the trusted, decentralized source of truth, AI powers the analytics and decision-making from the data collected, and Cloud provides globally distributed, scalable, and cost-efficient computing resources to support both the unprecedented amounts of data being collected and the processing power required to draw insights from this data. Blockchain makes AI more understandable by recording the data and variables that go into a decision made in an AI algorithm, leading to greater trust and transparency in the conclusions and decisions made by these algorithms.
Blockchain on the Cloud is helping farmers reduce waste during recalls by building traceability and transparency in the food supply chain. For example, in Salinas, where 60 percent of the nation’s lettuce is grown, blockchain technology on the IBM Cloud allows farmers to track their product within seconds. This gives consumers instant access to the product’s origin in case of a recall, reducing the need to remove all food from shelves and minimizing waste. This technology helps ensure that resources used to grow food are not wasted, contributing to a more sustainable future.
Analytics technologies on the Cloud leverage the flexibility, scalability, and computing resources available on the Cloud. These technologies can track trends on social media to predict future events and analyze data to build machine learning models for cognitive applications. The Cloud provides the integrated environment required to leverage data for continuous improvement and accelerated business growth.
KONE has invested in Cloud and IoT technologies to power a data analytics and predictive maintenance solution for city infrastructure used by more than 1 billion people daily. KONE manufactures elevators, escalators, autowalks, and doors, all of which generate streams of data. To process these streams, KONE uses a scalable, event-driven architecture on the Cloud. Cloud Functions process the data and generate further events, which are then utilized and consumed by applications and customers.
In KONE’s analytics platform, data is analyzed to predict equipment failure rates, allowing for predictive maintenance. This concept is part of KONE’s 24/7 connected services, which promise customers that their equipment is connected to the Cloud and monitored continuously. KONE uses various IBM Cloud services, including storage, Cloud Functions, messaging services, and IoT services, and plans to expand their use as their digital footprint in the industry grows.
The adoption of emerging technologies like IoT, AI, and blockchain is transforming how businesses operate and opening up new opportunities. Cloud computing plays a crucial role in supporting these technologies due to its power, scalability, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness. This document explores the relationship between emerging technologies and cloud computing, highlighting case studies that demonstrate the impact of these technologies on business operations.
IoT, Big Data, AI, and blockchain by providing necessary infrastructure, processing power, and scalability to handle large volumes of data and complex algorithms. This support enables businesses to leverage emerging technologies to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and gain a competitive edge in the market.flexibility, and cost-effectiveness.device registration, identity management, data storage, and access, reducing latency and enabling quick responses. Cloud platforms, interfaces, and analytics also support IoT.Businesses can move applications across multiple clouds easily and securely by building and managing business applications such as blockchain for the multi-cloud environment.
encryption and identity management solutions, the company ensures that data and transactions within the blockchain application remain secure, regardless of the cloud provider.Flexibility: The company can choose the best cloud services for each component of their application, optimizing performance and cost.Resilience: By distributing applications across multiple clouds, they reduce the risk of downtime due to a single provider’s failure.Scalability: The application can scale dynamically across different clouds to meet demand without being tied to a single provider’s limitations.Scenario: Consider a global food company that sources ingredients from various farmers and suppliers worldwide. The company faces challenges in tracking the origin of its products, ensuring quality, and managing recalls efficiently.
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By leveraging blockchain technology, the food supply chain becomes more efficient, transparent, and trustworthy. This technology empowers farmers and companies to track products quickly, ensure quality, and respond effectively to recalls, ultimately enhancing food safety and reducing waste.