IoT Tech / AI & Big Data / Cyber Security & Cloud / Blockchain Expo World Series 2019

Last Thurday 25th of April I had the oportunity to assits to the IoT Tech / AI & Big Data / Cyber Security & Cloud / Blockchain Expo World Series 2019, it was a great oportunity to know more about the current technologies and how they are shaping the future, it was also a good time to listen how others are approaching to the new chanllenges all of the new technology is creating.

The event this year was hosted in the Olympia London a very easy commute for Londoners, great space and close to different amenities where you can grab a coffee if you’re an early bird like me. Thanks to the organiser for sending me tickets to attend all the areas.

In general, the event was well organised, a bit of mix in relation to the area exhibition-expertise, not a clear delimited area for AI, IoT or Blockchain, which is great so you can see a bit of everything.

The IoT section was full of hardware providers, with companies offering from chips to sensors, WIZNet technologies was presenting the full stack chipset for TCP/IP with integration for Arduino; the guys from Omron were showcasing a small camera integrated with the algorithms to detect body, hands and face; so you can for example integrate it in digital signage or PoS to collect anonymised data like age, gender, expressions and level of interest. For me it was a definitely very interesting technology with high potential, because is easy to integrate and have enormous application in market research.

The show for the AI was also packed with different offers, the guys from Wolfram where there also the people from Squirrel and Dataiku, basically offers from data collection to query and modelling. An interesting proposal was from SAP, they bring to the show an automation platform, so basically, if you are having a bad time with raising purchase orders in SAP, they have a tool to automate the process. Yes, they create the demand to sale another tool.

In Cyber Security and Cloud, the usual participant OneLogin, PixelPIN, Strata Security, Gemalto, Darktrace and others. One company was a great surprise, the guys from Cyber Maniacs , they don’t offer software or hardware, they offer training, not a boring one, they have a particular way to promote Security awareness using moppets, to build the skills and habits related to IT security.

In terms of Blockchain I personally think was it the star, the floor was full of companies related to it, from legal advisors, territories promoting their legal framework (like Malta and Northern Ireland), advisors for development, security, wallets, brokers, you name it! And there is someone with the technology to help you with your project.

Two other exhibitions catch my attention, wolfSSL with is a company offering their open source library for SSL and secure data transfer, and Aitrak which is a company that have an algorithm to predict where your customers are going look inside of a shop, so they can predict how much “catching eye” is a poster design or position in a store.

Now let’s talk about some of the software offers with open source options and freebies so you can try at home or start you next big thing.

Humio

Some times you are wondering if you can just send all the information about your application or system to a central tool to then interact with the data easy to use full-text search way to get all the relevant information. Well Humio dose exactly that, allowing you to not bother about indexing and fields comprehension.

Kuzzle

Kuzzle is an open-source software package that includes a scalable server, a multiprotocol API, an administration console and a set of plugins that provide advanced functionality such as real-time pub/sub, blazing fast search and geofencing. You can use this package to secure your application, in the expo they were showing the PUB/SUB capabilities.

Dataiku

Dataiku DSS is the collaborative data science software platform for teams of data scientists, data analysts, and engineers to explore, prototype, build, and deliver their own data products more efficiently. With this tool data analyst can produce the dataset for the data scientists can produce the models, the beauty of it is that in one tool everybody can inspect how the dataset is produced and what the transformations are, so they can audit the process.

Finally, there are few points I want to leave with you:

• In the new scene Data and AI Strategies are key for success
• Early adoption of new tools, exploiting their full potential, give you advantage but you need to change behaviours
• New tools are not an IT tool, are a Business tool, and Business Areas need to take responsibility in the adoption
• C-Levels are bombarded with messages about what new technology can do for their business, but are they understanding new capabilities?
• In IT look for “everything as a service” as response for Elastic Grow, remembering that elastics (rubber bands) always shrink

Hope you enjoy and share your comments below