The new engine for disruptive technologies

By Dirk-Peter van Leeuwen July 3, 2017

Policymakers in APAC are making a critical and positive impact on bettering the technology innovation ecosystem
Big data algorithms have and will continue to change the landscape in a big way

The new engine for disruptive technologies

IN THIS new age of digitisation, disruptive technologies are constantly transforming our world, accelerating innovation like never before. For instance, a new technological breakthrough in medical science is turning the impossible possible, restoring the freedom of movement for patients with spinal injuries, thus giving them a new lease of life. An amazing miracle aside, there is this heightened sense of collaboration too.

A more open and collaborative ecosystem for innovation

Governments and policymakers in the Asia-Pacific region are making a critical and positive impact on bettering the technology innovation ecosystem. Singapore, as an example, is cultivating a conducive technology start-up ecosystem, and opening up some 9,000 government data sets for the tech community to explore and test new ideas.

Apart from governments, we are also seeing more and more organisations opening themselves to innovate through collaboration, an increasing number of developers, engineers, programmers participating in the open community, the combined force of which is setting Asia up for success in the race to digital innovation and transformation in the coming years.

Self-learning collaborative robot (cobot): Automation on overdrive

At BMW’s US plant in Spartanburg, an unusual team has been working side-by-side at its door assembly line. Four cobots are used to perform challenging “backbreaking” tasks, freeing their human counterparts from fatigue while boosting overall productivity. This is just the beginning too, as self-learning cobots debut in the near future.

In fact, by 2018, more than three million workers globally will be supervised by robo-bosses; and according to a recent study by Citigroup, automated banking could replace 30% of bank jobs over the next decade. Automation is quickly becoming the answer for businesses to manage growth and costs at the same time.

Contrary to the popular belief that automation will steal jobs, it will create more opportunities as reported by the Wall Street Journal – including new roles centered on human interactions like creative leadership, worker relations, and strategic planning.

Big data and mobility adoptions remain dominant

Big data algorithms have and will continue to change the landscape in a big way. IDC revealed that Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan) is now the third largest revenue source for big data and analytics spending. Innovation will continue with developments in big data storage, providing much-needed revolutionary agility in IT.

At the same time, customers are almost completely mobile – Asia Pacific is leading the world in the percentage of mobile transactions. The global workforce is becoming increasingly mobile, working and collaborating remotely, and tech software and communications will begin to reflect that predominantly.

It is clear that Asia-Pacific is in the midst of the disruption, and more importantly, is well poised in the digital transformation race. We have witnessed this exciting development first-hand as Red Hat experienced strong business growth in the region. Every business should participate to drive the change.

The million-dollar question is HOW?

We strongly recommend every business to evaluate open source as the new engine to drive new disruptive technologies and organisational culture.

Based on a research conducted by Forrester Consulting on open source, we discovered that large organisations and their technology partners are showing increasing demand for agile, and customer-obsessed technology. Instead of proprietary solutions, they have been turning to open source to create modern applications, while trimming enterprise software costs. More crucially, business leaders are leveraging open source to foster a collaborative culture, as well as to drive strategic and often mission-critical capabilities.

At the same time, we recognize that the economic landscape will remain challenging in 2017. In order to balance the business needs of managing costs, improve operational efficiency and drive innovation, it is important to see beyond just one department or KPI, but to focus on the organisation as a whole to create a conducive environment. Only so can our technology work harmoniously for the business and customers.

Dirk-Peter van Leeuwen (pic above) is Red Hat Asia Pacific's senior vice president and general manager.