technology TUESDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2015 Predictions of big trends impacting digital economy

By Tony Bishop see major digital pay- that enables direct and secure con- ty, particularly for the data centers sider re-architecting their IT infra- data centers, can’t scale to get closer ment players realize nections between the multiple com- that serve as catalysts of the digital structure over the next 12 months. In to end users and deliver the high-per- rom the Internet of that the true value of ponents that must be in synch to economy. Data center operators know 2016, we’ll see more focus on reduc- formance connections users demand. Things to renew- the digital transaction exploit the real-time insights the IoT that has consequences in a fossil-fuels ing risks and minimizing exposure for Meanwhile, interconnection via the Fable energy princi- is in the customer data offers. That kind of interconnection based economy, with 84% of North corporate networks. Security in the public internet will continue to be ples, we’ll see our digital it provides, such as on ensures employees, partners and cus- American operators recently recogniz- cloud continues to be a growing con- plagued by questions about reliability economy transforming spending habits and tomers can get the information they ing a need to consider renewable cern for enterprises, which are realiz- and security. For all these reasons, before our eyes in 2016. shopping locations. need, in the right context, using the energy for meeting future energy ing that their own on-ramps to cloud 2016 will be a year that enterprises Here are my predictions. They will redesign their devices, channels and services they demands. In 2016, we’ll see more services, not the cloud providers increasingly design interconnection- networks to better prefer. Businesses will realize this, enterprises adopt renewable energy themselves, are their weakest links. oriented infrastructures to enable 1. Digital commerce will be trans- handle and analyze these non-pay- meaning robust interconnection will principles. Companies that rely on They also know that accessing cloud direct and secure links to cloud and formed. ment data elements, so they can bet- become a more prominent solution in electricity to supply power to critical services via the public Internet exac- network providers and various other The confluence of new payment ter position themselves for precise this space in 2016, as an intersection Internet infrastructure and maintain erbates those risks. As enterprises partners. In this interconnected era, platforms, big data and technologies customer targeting, such as personal- point between IoT, clouds and the operational reliability will continue to continue to evaluate their IT infra- companies will increasingly rely on such as real-time fraud detection and ized time and location-based offers enterprise becomes increasingly nec- reevaluate the energy efficiency of structure options, direct connection instantaneous interconnection with location-based services is transform- mixed with loyalty systems. essary. their data centers, adopt proven ener- will continue to prove to be a more each other to create value and suc- ing the digital payments industry. gy-saving techniques and evolve sus- consistent and secure tool for con- ceed. They’ll find the benefits of this Meanwhile, consumer expectations 2. The Internet of Things (IoT) will 3. Content providers will increas- tainability best practices. necting organizations to each other interconnection are real and quantifi- are only rising as digital payment dramatically impact IT networks. ingly bypass the Internet to meet and to the cloud. able. According to the recent options become more available, Record-breaking adoption and surging demand for capacity. 5. The enterprise will turn to multi- “Enterprise of the Future” report by banks transition to secure, chip- expansion of IoT devices and sensors The massive shift toward 3D, Super cloud interconnection strategies for HD, 4K and high dynamic range (HDR) cost savings. streaming technologies will present Multi-cloud strategies will be a huge challenges to networks and digi- huge part of the enterprise push in tal content providers in 2016. For 2016 toward improving production instance, the latest digital video workloads, achieving business agility, report from Sandvine indicates Netflix accelerating application performance streams used a whopping 36.5% of all and controlling costs. According to downstream traffic to North American the recent Forrester study, “The Total broadband households at prime view- Economic Impact of Equinix ing hours. But that kind of capacity Interconnection Solutions,” enterpris- demand is set to spike in 2016 as es realized major cost reductions with more households embrace new multi-cloud interconnection strate- streaming technologies that require gies that enabled them to deploy and up to four times the normal band- scale applications with lower-cost width. In addition, the Cisco Visual cloud service providers, compared to Networking Index points to even running those applications internally. more strains on networks and content Peering locally with cloud providers providers as YouTube, Netflix, Hulu through secure, direct interconnec- and other video streaming services tions that access and integrate multi- grow to make up 76% of consumer ple clouds enables organizations to Internet traffic by 2018. To handle provision cloud services quickly and these looming capacity demands, in provide an improved end-user experi- 2016 we’ll see more media companies ence. We believe enterprise adoption follow Netflix’s lead by shifting work- of multi-cloud interconnectivity will loads to the cloud and using intercon- continue to increase, as organizations embedded credit cards and mer- will continue to accelerate, resulting nection to optimize Internet applica- realize bypassing the public internet chants adopt new EMV terminals that in a flood of data that severely strains tion performance. Netflix has also cre- and directly and securely connecting make it easier to use those cards. To network capacity and security. We ated internal content delivery net- to cloud providers eases corporate adapt, 2016 will see the players in the predict that in 2016, enterprises will works to circumvent Internet band- concerns. 7. Interconnection will remove sig- Equinix, more than a third of respon- digital payments industry seeking work to more seamlessly combine width limitations and stream even nificant barriers to IT growth. dents who have already deployed fast, continuous availability of coloca- networked intelligence with the data more digital content to customers, 6. Cyber-security will fuel In 2016, the corporate network will interconnection solutions report tion services in a scalable, intercon- being processed by sensors and actu- effectively and efficiently. increased adoption of interconnec- be strained by trends such as the greater than $10 million in value cre- nected environment. These environ- ators. This will enable the enterprise tion. global dispersion of workforces (75% ated, with 58% reporting this value ments must supply real-time access to to gain more control of its information 4. The Internet will get greener. Cyber-security was one of the of enterprise employees reside in came from increased revenue oppor- brokers, as well as to digital wallet and and enhance its ability to use the IoT The Internet will get greener in biggest concerns identified by enter- locations outside of a company’s tunities. , VP Global Enterprise market data providers. They must also to quickly adapt to changing condi- 2016, even as the number of global prise IT leaders in the recent Equinix headquarters) and the proliferation of Strategy and Marketing, Equinix. connect to hundreds of point-of-sale tions, create new value and drive new Internet users reaches 50 percent of “Enterprise of the Future” report. In multiple users who access the net- —Tony Bishop is the vice president providers, digital commerce sites, growth. Enterprises can improve their the world’s population. This continu- fact, 64% of global IT business deci- work via multiple devices in multiple Global Enterprise Strategy and financial institutions and mobile net- agility in rapidly changing IoT environ- ous expansion of our digital lives sion-makers admitted cyber-security locations. Centralized, siloed IT archi- Marketing for Equinix. works. We predict that 2016 will also ments by deploying infrastructure requires massive amounts of electrici- concerns could prompt them to con- tectures, often trapped in on-premise N Korea’s computer operating system mirrors its political one

SINGAPORE/SEOUL: ’s homegrown computer how many computers were running the software. While operating system mirrors its political one, according to two private computer use is on the rise in North Korea, visitors German researchers who have delved into the code: a go- to the country say most computers still use Windows XP, it-alone approach, a high degree of paranoia and invasive now nearly 15 years old. snooping on users. Their research, the deepest yet into the secretive state’s Red Star OS, illustrates the challenges NO TAMPERING Pyongyang faces in trying to embrace the benefits of com- The Red Star operating system makes it very hard for puting and the internet while keeping a tight grip on ideas anyone to tamper with it. If a user makes any changes to and culture. core functions - like trying to disable its antivirus checker The researchers, Florian Grunow and Niklaus Schiess of or firewall - the computer will display an error message, or German IT security company ERNW GmbH, spoke to reboot itself. Reuters before presenting their findings to the Chaos Red Star also addresses a more pressing concern: crack- Communication Congress in Hamburg on Sunday, a gath- ing down on the growing underground exchange of for- ering of hackers and security researchers. eign movies, music and writing. The operating system is not just the pale copy of west- Illegal media is usually passed from person-to-person in ern ones that many have assumed, they concluded after North Korea using USB sticks and microSD cards, making it downloading the software from a website outside North hard for the government to track where they come from. Korea and exploring the code in detail, Red Star tackles this by tagging, or watermarking, every “(Late leader) Kim Jong Il said North Korea should devel- document or media file on a computer or on any USB stick op a system of their own,” said Grunow. “This is what connected to it. That means that any file could be traced they’ve done.” North Korea, whose rudimentary intranet back to anyone who had previously opened or created the system does not connect to the outside internet but allows file. access to state media and some officially approved web- “It’s definitely privacy invading, it’s not transparent to sites, has been developing its own operating system for the user,” said Grunow. “It’s done stealthily, and touches more than a decade. files you haven’t even opened.” Such efforts, says Nat ALLAHABAD: Indian village women make cow dung cakes in Allahabad, India. In India, where Hindus This latest version, written around 2013, is based on a Kretchun, an authority on the spread of foreign media in have long worshipped cows as sacred, cow dung has been used for centuries as fuel for fires - whether version of called Fedora and has eschewed the previ- the isolated country, reflect North Korea’s realization that it for heat, cooking or in Hindu ritual fires, where it’s a necessity. —AP ous version’s Windows XP feel for Apple’s OSX - perhaps a needs “new ways to update their surveillance and security nod to leader Kim Jong Un, who like his father has been procedures to respond to new types of technology and photographed near Macs. new sources of information.” Cow dung patties selling like But under the hood there’s a lot that’s unique, including There’s no sign in the operating system, the researchers its own version of encrypting files. “This is a full blown say, of the kinds of cyberattack capability North Korea has operation system where they control most of the code,” been accused of. “It really looks like they’ve just tried to hot cakes online in India said Grunow. build an operating system for them, and give the user a This, the researchers say, suggests North Korea wants to basic set of applications,” says Grunow. That includes a NEW DELHI: Like consumers around the globe, sellers on our platform since October and we have avoid any code that might be compromised by intelligence Korean word processor, a calendar and an app for compos- Indians are flocking to the online marketplace in received several customer orders” since then, said agencies. “Maybe this is a bit fear-driven,” said Grunow. ing and transcribing music. droves these days. But there’s one unusual item flying Madhavi Kochar, an Amazon India spokeswoman. “They may want to be independent of other operating sys- North Korea is not the only country to try to develop off the virtual shelves: Online retailers say cow dung The orders come mostly from cities where it would tems because they fear back doors” which might allow oth- its own operating system. Cuba has its National , patties are selling like hot cakes. The patties - cow be difficult to buy dung cakes, she said. In India, where ers to spy on them. while China, Russia and others have tried to build poop mixed with hay and dried in the sun, made main- Hindus have long worshipped cows as sacred, cow Grunow and Schiess said they had no way of knowing theirs. —Reuters ly by women in rural areas and used to fuel fires - have dung cakes have been used for centuries for fires, long been available in India’s villages. But online retail- whether for heating, cooking or Hindu rituals. Across ers including Amazon and eBay are now reaching out rural India, piles of drying cow dung are ubiquitous. to the country’s ever-increasing urban population, Radhika Agarwal of ShopClues, a major online Facebook founder urges free feeding into the desire of older city folks to harken retailer in India, said demand for the cow dung cakes back to their childhood in the village. spiked during the recent Diwali festival season, a time Internet in India amid row Some retailers say they’re offering discounts for when Hindus conduct prayer ceremonies at their large orders. Some customers are asking for gift wrap- homes, factories and offices. On a recent day, NEW DELHI: Facebook founder debate about this in India,” he tor not to ban Free Basics, formerly ping. “Cow dung cakes have been listed by multiple ShopClues’ website showed that the patties had sold Mark Zuckerberg urged India yes- added. “Instead of wanting to give named Internet.org. It launched out. terday to approve a controversial people free access to basic Internet nationwide last month after being “Around Diwali, when people do a lot of pujas in plan that would provide a free services, critics of the program trialled in several states. their homes and workplaces, there is a lot of demand Internet service to the poor, his lat- continue to spread false claims- Several prominent Indian entre- for cow dung cakes,” said Agarwal, referring to rituals est bid amid an escalating row even if that means leaving behind preneurs and members of the tech performed during the popular festival. with authorities. a billion people.” community have spoken out “Increasingly, in the cold weather, people are keep- The head of the social network Zuckerberg’s personal appeal against Free Basics, arguing that ing themselves warm by lighting fires” at outdoor tried to drum up support for the comes amid fierce criticism from even for poor citizens, no Internet events, she said, adding that people who grew up in Free Basics service that offers peo- net neutrality activists who say his is better than a hand-picked and rural areas find the peaty smell of dung fires pleasant. ple without the Internet free access plan violates the principle that the corporate-controlled web offering. “It reminds them of the old days,” she said. Online to a handful of websites through whole Internet should be available But in an attempt to counter retailers said people were also buying the dung cakes mobile phones, in a column in the to all and unrestricted by any one claims “that this will make Internet largest-selling English daily The company. more like a walled garden”, to light fires for ritual ceremonies to mark the begin- Times of India. Earlier this month the Telecom Facebook has taken out billboards ning of the new year and for the winter festival known “If we accept that everyone Regulatory Authority of India and full-page newspaper adverts as Lohri, celebrated in northern India. deserves access to the Internet, ordered Reliance Communications, defending the initiative. The cakes are sold in packages that contain two to then we must surely support free the sole mobile operator for the Free Basics is “at risk of being eight pieces weighing 200 grams (7 ounces) each. basic Internet services,” the chief service, to suspend it temporarily banned” in India, Facebook said in ALLAHABAD: Now, online vendors like Amazon, Prices range from 100 to 400 rupees ($1.50 to $6) per executive wrote, comparing the without giving a reason, docu- the adverts, adding that the service ShopClues and eBay are selling cow dung patties package. Dung cakes are also used as organic manure, Internet to a library, public health ments seen by AFP show. aims to help a billion unconnected to India’s ever-increasing urban population, espe- and some sellers are marketing them for use in kitchen care and education. “Surprisingly, Some 3.2 million people have Indians-mostly living in poor rural cially those who grew up in villages. —AP gardens. —AP over the last year there’s been a big petitioned India’s telecoms regula- areas-to get online. —AFP